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[shame_and_earth]

1. Claudia Kishi.  She makes my 12 year old self make so much more sense to me.

Side note!  I always thought poorly of Sweet Valley High, 90210, etc, for the way they portrayed teenagers as overconfident, stay-out-late-on-weekdays 20-somethings, and even had my issues with SBTB and the whole dancing-under-the-moonlight-with-hottt-bf (god, Kelly was

Comments

[the_thaw]

OH MY GOD! Rachel McCelebrity!!!!! What did you say to her?

Also, oh my god at your BSC disses!!! They're my heroes!! Plus, representation of alternative family structures!!! But I agree with what you're saying, their take on pre-teendom is completely ridiculous. When the movie came out I was appalled by how young the actors were and then realised it was actually accurate. I hope you were lucky enough to have Claudia Kishi's metabolism...remember how she could eat and eat so much junk food but not gain a pound AND have perfect skin? That was like the main thing about her character hahaha. The old BSC books are now being made into graphic novels, which I think is awesome. I think there seriously are a lot of good things about the series, and not just because it basically taught me how to do my current job haha. Also, did you know that they're taking the old SVH books and RE-WRITING them with the same plot and characters, but updating them?? Mostly by making references to current designers and brands. I think they're doing something weird with Nancy Drew too...it's weird, but I'm kind of all for kids being exposed to the books I loved so much. Although maybe this stuff shouldn't be re-hashed, and new, better stuff should be out there? BUT IS IT??? I could talk about this for hours.

[shame_and_earth]

No, BSC are my heroes too! I've just been reading this Claudia blog (http://www.whatclaudiawore.blogspot.com/) (ps it's ammmmaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzing) that got me re-obsessed with them. And look at this: http://whatclaudiawore.blogspot.com/2007/04/say-hello-to-your-friends-bsc-reading.html So, yeah, they're amazing. Not hating. It was just strange rereading these descriptions of BSC members and realizing how grown-up they were, and how it's so strange sitting in your bedroom at 12 reading about how these girls who should be your peers are extra-amazing and going on trips and are interesting, and not really able to live up to that image. But at the same time - I found them completely incredible, and they ruled my life for years. Claudia was always my fav because of her ridiculous fashion sense, and because I had this idea I wanted to be an artist, and she was the artist. God, I loved her!

And I heard about the remakes! I like the BSC graphic novels, though I don't like that they wimp out on Claud's wardrobe (from what I've seen, maybe they get better. I want to see her underwater-themed outfit with handmade pottery earrings in full colour!!!), but I'll probably read them repeatedly. And I also heard about the SVH rewrites, but I don't have the same love/nostalgia for them - I just never thought to read SVH when I was younger. Blond twins, god.

I know, is there new work that is just as good? I really need to get more into young adult lit. My sister works in a library and is really involved in the young adult section and we had this debate about how, apparently, any novel in which the narrator is young (A Complicated Kindness, Curious Incident...) are being put in the young adult (12-17) section. She gave me this book called How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff) that was a recent addition to the young adult section at her work, but which is extremely violent/sexual (imo, reading from a 12 year old pov). So there's this big debate about what makes young adult lit, and what is too old, what is too young, how much can be portrayed before it becomes adult lit?

Can we just start a young adult book club? Like, really seriously? I want to talk about this forever.

[shame_and_earth]

and I said to Rachel McAdams, I love your huge faux-fur leopard coat which you insist on wearing in +18 weather so that no one confuses you with a non-celebrity. Snap. No, I just helped her find something at my store. Whatever.

[the_thaw]

Oh man. I just know that if I move to Toronto all my celebrity dreams will come true.

Thank you for that amazing blog link. How fantastic. And now I totally get that they're your heroes too. And soo interesting about the young adult lit question. This stuff is endlessly fascinating to me - adults writing for young adults. Adults making shows/movies for young adults. I want to read every young adult book, preferably in a book club setting. And then write zines about which books kids should read and force them into childrens' hands on the street. And get their names and numbers so I can follow up.

[w3nders]

Hey

Where do you work?

also, I'd like to come visit you.

[shame_and_earth]

Wendy! I work at Grassroots, it's an environmental store in the annex. Visit!!

rehashing kids' books

[the_thaw]

They've also re-issued the Beverly Cleary (Ramona and Beezus and Ralph S. Mouse) books with new "cool" cover illustrations and I think they've taken the inner illustrations out (I really need to double-check that, but I'm at home, not work right now), and the Little House on the Prairie books have been redone with new "real" covers - i.e. actual people - and I remember glancing through them and I think they've removed all the original Garth Williams illustrations, too, which for me as a kid, really made the book appealing. Don't quote me on that - I need to double check. I always liked pictures in my chapter books. . . Anyways, the Nancy Drew titles have been in perpetual rewrites since they were first published in the 1930s (?) - they changed her hair colour, the type of car she drove, little social details to make it relevant for the generation, even the language used to depict different ethnic groups. Same with the Trixie Belden and Bobbsey Twins titles . . . updating old "classics" has been done forever. Look at CD reissues.
Anyways, re: teen books - what is appropriate for a 17 year old reader is often not appropriate for a 12 year old reader. It's such a broad sprectrum.
Jennifer