Today I am a teleologist for sure, because guess what? Scholastic is going to include Luv Ya Bunches in its middle school book fairs! And Milla's two moms have been invited, too! They will be there chatting about books and giving kids cupcakes, and it will be a big happy party. As for Milla, she is so proud. She just can't stop smiling. I mean, imagine being a kid with same-sex parents and going to a book fair and not finding one single book that reflects the kind of family you have. It would be lonely-making, yeah? But Milla, she'll see herself now. AND Mom Joyce AND Mom Abigail. And her other buds will see her family, too, and they'll be like, "Oh, yeah, cool. Now pass me a cupcake, sister."
Go, Milla. Go Mom Joyce and Mom Abigail. Go *y'all* for speaking up and caring about making the world a better, more loving place! You can read more about how it went down in School Library Journal's follow-up article, and also at Change.org. Oh, and Mombian pointed out the extremely bizarre twist of how the story even caught the attention of Conan O'Brien--if you want to check it out, click on the link and forward to about four minutes into his opening monologue. And just today I heard that the news about Milla and her moms has even made it across the pond. Big it up, Brits!
So I say: Way to go, Scholastic, for having the strength of character to support tolerance, acceptance, and, of course, books. +gives Scholastic a proud thumb's up+
I also want to give all kinds of hugs to Abrams, my publishing family, for supporting both me and the book from the beginning. I want to share something my amazing and brilliant editor, Susan Van Metre, has to say about the books we've sent out into the world together, because...well...it made me cry. And because it's lovely, and expresses my own feelings about the importance any given book--and who's to say which book?--can have for a kid.
She says:
From the day in May of 1998 when I read Lauren's manuscript for what would
become her first novel, KISSING KATE, I knew I had met a writer who was
completely honest with her audience, who had created a literary world that
was a true reflection of the complicated one kids navigate every day.
Lauren's characters speak as kids speak, know what kids know, wonder what
kids wonder. There's no bubble around them, no pretending that they would
say "gosh" or "darn" when they would really say "God" or "damn." No
pretending that they live in a "Leave It to Beaver" world of picket fences
and lemonade stands (not to say there isn't sweetness in Lauren's
world--there is!). The ten-year-old in me, the one who HATED feeling coddled
by authors, who turned to books from a burning desire to UNDERSTAND the
world she lived in, was thrilled. LUV YA BUNCHES is the eighth book I have
worked on with Lauren. In it is that same precious honesty I see in all her
books. And something else, too, so rarely touched on in the discussions of
whether or not Lauren's books are "age appropriate": a desire to help kids
be good people. Lauren is a good author and a good person. I am so proud
to be her editor.Yes, I am a big melty puddle of mush. +reaches across cyberspace and hugs sweet Susan+Whenever I talk to kids about my books, I point out that just because a character makes a mistake, that doesn't make him or her a bad person. That's true in the real world, too. We all make mistakes, every single one of us. The real litmus test is what we do after. Well, my friends, you have all inspired me to keep plugging away, just as I know y'all will, working toward the happily ever after...and after...and after.
First up, a book I would not have thought to notice were it not for the fact that the cutesy cover has some interesting aspects. Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle has several pros and cons going for it. Pro: It's by Lauren Myracle. You can trust Ms. Myracle. Her book may be pink, may have the word "Luv" in the title, and may even featured big-eyed girl cartoons lacking noses, but you can trust her. Con: The "v" in the word "Luv" is a little heart. Pro: Ms. Myracle was declared to be "one of the most challenged authors in the country." Con: Pinkness. Oh, the pinkness. Pro: Interracial girls in a middle grade novel (and how many headscarves appear on the covers of girly books anyway?). And the last time Ms. Myracle went all middle grade on us the results were Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen. So I'll pick it up. Some tween girls will flock to it like rats to sugar, and who am I to judge? Jacket illustration or not, I trust Lauren Myracle. So we'll see.
My second favorite part, which came from clicking on Thirteen, which took me to a review Betsy wrote like 5000 years ago, but which I'd never seen:
It’s always weird to drop right smack dab into the middle of a series. You never know whether you’re missing out on some subtle details from the previous books, or even whether or not the book in your hand would be better if you knew its characters already. It’s more of a problem with series books, I suppose. Realistic fiction doesn’t contain crazy names and weird interior logics. Tween books starring girl characters supposedly are all the same too. The idea is that if you’ve read the Anastasia Krupnik books by Lois Lowry then you’ve read the Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Alice series then you’ve read the Lauren Myracle books, and so on and so on. Which, let’s face it, isn’t true at all. Tween girl heroines each have their own set of quirks and characteristics and Lauren Myracle is no exception. Now I’ve heard a couple people who are fans of Myracle pooh-poohing her latest book Thirteen. They say it isn’t as strong as the other books or the plot wraps up too neatly. Stuff along those lines. Well I myself haven’t read any other books by Ms. Myracle except for thistitle and what I read I really liked. I’m sure that every series like this one has its supporters, but when it comes to an incredible voice and a likable heroine, color me a new Myracle fan. I can’t wait to start recommending this book left and right to my patrons.
She survived the age of eleven. She breezed (sorta) through the age of twelve. Now Winnie Perry is a great big beautiful thirteen and boy is she feeling it. She has a boyfriend (sorta sorta) by the name of Lars who seems okay and all but is much better at kissing than communicating. She has her two best friends Cinnamon and Dinah by her side, helping her through her roles. And then there are her siblings, moody for their own reasons, and a mom who has a couple secrets of her own. The trek into teenagerhood is fraught with many perils, but through it all Winnie comes this much closer to knowing who she is and what she can accomplish.
Ms. Myracle is one of the few authors I know of to acknowledge and thank her cover artist (in this case the fabulously named “Beegee Tolpa”). For this reason alone I believe that she must have more in common with her charming heroine than one might initially think. It doesn't hurt matters any that Myracle gets the sheer level of tween/teen selfishness down pat. The constant fears that you aren’t looking the way that you should be looking, for example. She has an ear for relaying when people trying to hard, like Winnie laughing uproariously at her friends’ jokes when Lars is near, so as to look wild and free and attractive. I loved too how Myracle accurately got down the fogginess teens feel about what constitutes “old” (example: “I thought it was important to make this promise to myself now, before I turned thirty and got saggy and fat.”). She gets the age.
I suppose I could see how Winnie’s bon mots might tap dance on a person’s nerves, but somehow they never got to me. I liked her insights most times. Like when a popular girl acts like she’s a loser, which was weird but, “better than being snotty”. I loved her cheery sarcasm regarding boring children’s primers. “Oh, the joy of short A’s. Might there be a bat in the cat’s future? A bat wearing a hat? Who knew! That’s what made it so exciting!” Any author that can make a thirteen-year-old character sound like someone who would call herself a stud (“that’s the kind of stud I am”) wins my heart. She also has this unexpectedly dirty mouth that just pops out of nowhere. I can think of at least one section where the words “turd”, “penis”, and “vagina” all pop out at you, and somehow it’s funny rather than overly scatological.
Some things didn’t sit with me perfectly, though. Maybe I just had a really self-involved life, but when I was thirteen nobody had parties where they invited the whole class. I went to public school, though, and Winnie is going to a private one where issues of class and race (set against an Atlanta setting, no less) never even come up. Still, I can’t imagine the kind of privilege a person would have to be raised in to hear about 14-year-olds throwing house parties with hot tubs and liquor cabinets. It happens probably, but at least in my own case it made Winnie’s story seem so much older than its scant thirteen years. Then again, if Myracle continues at the rate she’s been going, Winnie’s gonna be nineteen soon and possibly outgrowing her young fans. On the other other hand, I have this weird desire for that to happen. Remember in the old days when books like Betsy-Tacy and Anne of Green Gables would just keep going and going until their characters grew up, got married, and had kids? How cool would it be if Lauren Myracle continued that trend? I mean, what if? I know that publishers would shy away from that kind of retro writing, but I think that there’s a real allure in following a character through life. Winnie certainly has plenty of material to work from, and instead of the standard marriage ending you could finish the series off with something appropriately grown-up, mature, and feminist. Awesome.
Spoiler alert, if you care for that sort of thing. I’m sure that there will be teen girls cheering Winnie on for getting back together with Lars at the end of the book when he apologizes for being a doofus, but I know that the adults reading the story will wish heartily that Winnie moved on. Wouldn’t she be so much better off with that nice boy she met on the camping trip? Lars is the kind of guy willing to laugh at his sweetheart if it’ll impress the sexy girl with the nose ring hanging about. If I were Winnie I’d dump the fool and move on. But then, maybe that’s where Myracle is going and we’ll get some kind of magnificent dumping scene in the next book. Hey, a gal can hope can’t she?
If you’re too old to get a book’s references (My Super Sweet Sixteen anyone?) are you too old to review it? Not if the characters smack of reality, the story’s fun, and the drama lies at a low ebb (which, for me, is a definite plus). I don’t know how many more Winnie books Ms. Myracle has in her system, but here’s hoping she keeps cranking them out. Ms. Myracle has a brand new fan.
On shelves now. (insert from me: actually, on shelves AS A PAPERBACK now!!!)
So, now that Betsy Bird has officially won the Librarian of the Day award, don't y'all want to see this lovely lady? Course you do! And, as I live to oblige...
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
