Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword.
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What an amazing year for YA fiction!

I wanted to touch on one phenom: the writer who usually does adult stuff turning a hand to writing for young readers. Far too many think it'll be easy--you write short, talk down, and interlard a story that usually turns out to be reinventing chariot wheels (Michael Chabon, Summerland) with a heavy-handed, ( Read more... )

I know a lot of people aren't interested in YA books, but I've been doing some heavy reading since last night, and gosh, what a mistake it is to assume that a good YA book is 'juvenile'--that is, predictable, dull, mere wish-fulfillment. Trivial in theme and emotional breadth ( Read more... )

Freb: So much chatter all over the Internet lately about dark fantasy. Some can't even agree on the definition of dark. Like that book on your shelf there, praised as being so dark. I found it emotionally adolescent in spite of all the hard R kinky sex and torture ( Read more... )

I really loved this sf novel about game-worlds. Unlike all the rest it's not the least bit an RPG more or less cobbled into prose. I wish it was available in the States--I really think it would be a hit.

Anyway, here's my review at SF-Site--written, unfortunately, right after school let out, so my brain was more than ordinarily fried and there ( Read more... )

A few days ago Mumpsimus asked what ought to be recommended to kids after they finish Potter ( Read more... )

One of the things I'll be thinking about as we inch along in the summer traffic is tha YA books I've been reading. I am not alone in believing that these days YA is flourishing.
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I sat in my reading loft with my tea and L.M.Montgomery's first journal (my daughter finally excavated it from her stuff--I need to get her her own copy, and she's reading mine to pieces) and while reading the doings of teenagers of Cavendish in 1889, am struck yet again how most young people read for fun. Not for useful and earnest life lessons, ( Read more... )

A lot of teens have come by for the recent discussion. I don't know how many will return, but in case there are some still checking back, I have a couple of questions for you--would love to get a discussion going. (I'd prefer adults wait because I want to ask you next ( Read more... )

One thing the various tentacles of the discussion keeps coming back to is adults who still read YA--whether rereading kid favorites, or seeking it out now and finding good reading there, despite being adults. (And it's odd that just about every fan letter I get from an adult seems to contain an embarrassed apology for still liking kidzbooks ( Read more... )