Pay it Forward Book Exchange--October

This month I'm giving away a copy of The Noah Confessions, which I reviewed (scroll down) for The Edge of the Forest last month. It's a young adult novel that explores the importance of history and family, and the difference between privacy and secrets.

For those of you who weren't paying attention last month, here are the details on the Pay It Forward Book Exchange, as originally described by Overwhelmed with Joy (whose idea it was):

Most all of us love to read and get “new-to-us” books, right? And if you’re anything like me, you love winning things (what a rush), not to mention getting fun stuff in the mail! So here’s what this book exchange is all about:

1) Once a month I'll pick a book to give away to one lucky reader (you don’t have to have a blog to enter). It may be a book that I’ve purchased new or used, or it may be a book that someone has shared with me that I really like. It’ll probably be a paperback, just to make things easier, but no guarantees.

2) Details on how you can enter to win will be listed below.

3) If you’re the lucky winner of the book giveaway and you have your own blog I ask that you, you in turn, host a drawing to give that book away for free to one of your readers, after you’ve had a chance to read it (let’s say, within a month after you’ve received the book). If you mail the book out using the media/book rate that the post office offers it’s pretty inexpensive. If you're a non-blogger who has won the book, please consider donating the book to your local library or shelter after you're done with it.

4) If you’re really motivated and want to host your own “Pay It Forward” giveaway at any time, feel free to grab the button above to use on your own blog. Just let me [that would be Overwhelmed] know so I can publish a post on my blog plugging your giveaway and directing my readers your way!

Leave me a comment by next Monday, October 15, if you want a copy of The Noah Confessions. And check out all the other great PIF book offers at Overwhelmed by Joy.

At least I'm in good company

Well, that bit about mandating happy endings turns out to have been a hoax. It was a marketing ploy for Lemony Snicket books, apparently, which were (after all) the only books mentioned in the piece. So, fine. Lots of us bit at this one, so I don't feel to bad for being taken in, especially when (as I noted) it's so similar to so many other complaints.

instead

Since I'm not at the first annual kidlitosphere conference this weekend (snif!), I figure I have to get some content up here to make up for it. So, shamelessly stolen from Betsy Bird at Fuse #8, I bring you the latest trend in publishing for kids/adolescents: new covers on old classics! So far the comments on her post are pretty opposed to these covers, which are seen as "tricking" kids into thinking that, for example, Meg Cabot has written a new novel just for them.

I'm not sure I agree. I don't hate these covers. They amuse me a bit, and I'm not sure they'll work, but they are part of a long and --can I say it?-- venerable tradition of repackaging the classics for a contemporary audience. In grad school I knew someone who had a great collection of pulp fiction which included a pulp-y cover of Pride and Prejudice that was, for the purist, far more offensive than this one. (And much more of a bait-and-switch, if you ask me.)*

The thing is, no one's going to read these books just because of the covers. Sure, they may check them out of the library or buy them because of the covers, but once they crack open the book and start the first page, it still says "It is a truth universally acknowledged..." (Or, in the case of Frankenstein, the far-less-arresting, "To Mrs. Saville, England...") In the end, it's Jane Austen and Mary Shelley inside those covers, and that's what will (or, perhaps, won't) hook the reader. If it takes a little extra marketing to get to some of those readers, I'm not sure I'm opposed.

*I've just searched for this and can't find it, but I know I saw it once. Here are a couple of others, though, that don't strike me as much better than the new one above.

Didn't I just talk about this?

OK, it's not enough to write columns about kids having to read too many depressing books, now someone wants to mandate happy endings.

Can I have the job of defining "happy"? Because for me, The Little Mermaid (yes, even the Disney version) would be right out.

seen first at Big A, little a.

again with the complaints

Apparently The Christian Science Monitor hasn't been keeping up. Now it's their turn to publish yet another complaint about how kids are being forced to read depressing books.

Didn't anyone else just revel in depressing books as a kid? I know I did--nothing like a good cry over a book rather than your real life. And for a professor of creative writing to admit to not actually reading the books in question...well, the argument fell apart right there for me. If not before.

Ah, well, at least she's not just making a list of the dirty words. (Why, yes, it is Banned Books week! And no, I'm not linking to parents against bad books in schools, though I do find their website highly amusing...when I don't find it scary.)

More free books

Overwhelmed with Joy is hosting another Pay it Forward book exchange, and this month she's giving away two books, both of which I want: Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, and Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Even though I want to win one of them--and therefore should be trying to keep the number of entries down--I want you to have a chance, too. So go on over and check it out!

Then come back here next week, when I'll be giving away The Noah Confessions, by Barbara Hall.

Here Come the Cybils

Nominations for the Cybils open today. The Cybils are a blogger-run literary award for books published for children and young adults, and this year I am on the judging panel for fantasy and science fiction (scroll down to see the other panelists--it's a great list!).

Cybils are awarded in seven categories: poetry, fiction picture books, non-fiction picture books, middle-grade fiction, young adult fiction, non-fiction (MG/YA), fantasy/sci-fi, and graphic novels, so there's something for everyone. If you have a favorite book published in 2007 in any of those areas, head on over to the nominating page and leave a comment.