Heather signed my guestbook :) Here's her take on it...
I respect your views on homosexuality and God. That was something I struggled with for a long time, before I was able to feel comfortable with myself. I have never been able to see God condemning anyone for loving another person.
Drallak has yet to kick my butt. But I guess I'll deserve it if/when he does...
Anyway, onto less controversial topics. Work was not fun today. Although a man offered to sell me his one month old daughter for ten pounds. She was gorgeous!! :) It was crazy for two and a half hours, and then very, very slow. The good thing about it was, I got to eat loads - I'd missed breakfast.
Mum wants me to post some book reviews onto Joke-a-day. The last book I read (yesterday, in fact) was from the teen section in the library. Actually, since then I've read another book. I couldn't sleep last night so I read 'Holly' by Mary Hooper. It was quite sweet... a bit emotional-for-the-sake-of-it, but pretty good.
Anyway, it got me thinking about books and how people think of them (warning - if you never read, this is going to be boring :) ). When it comes to children's books, children like them, and if they're witty or clever, adults too. When it comes to adult's books, there are trashy romances, there are classics, and there is modern fiction, and it's usually OK to read classics and modern fiction when people are looking.
Yet when it comes to teenage books, they're thought of as just for teens. In fact, by the time you hit GCSE level, unless you get 'To kill a Mockingbird', 'Catcher in the Rye' or 'Lord of the Flies', you're probably looking at books written for and about adults. The teen genre is usually cast as trashy, sub-standard and juvenile.
Fantasy written about teenagers and children is often read by all ages (J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, par exemple). I'm not sure why this is... maybe ordinary teenage life really does only interest teenager people. But I don't believe that books written for teenagers are all sub-standard mush (I mean, I know the increased hormones probably decreases our IQ several points, but I doubt we've forgotten how to read... j/k :) )
True, there is the infamous 'Point Horror' series, and of course, 'Point Romance' series, abhorred by English teachers because they're formulaic etc. etc. Of course, we don't believe that Point Horrors are formulaic, do we? Of course not :)
But just because a book's about teenagers, doesn't mean that it's shallow and substandard. However, unless it's J.D. Salinger, books about teenagers are generally ignored by the general public. There are plenty of good teenage books out there. So just to rectify the unjust treatment of teenage books (because believe it or not, most teenagers do actually have some depth to them), I'm going to recommend some good ones. I shall be checking to make sure you have read these :)
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
This book has won a prize, I think. It should win more. It should win zillions of prizes. What I love about it is the beautiful description, and the clever interweaving storylines... Salamanca Hiddle is on a long car journey with her grandparents to see her mother. The journey is an entertaining one, her grandparents are fun, but wise people, and on the way, Sal tells them the story of a girl she met whilst staying in the city, Phoebe. Phoebe has a crazy imagination and she's insufferable but somehow you like her. Also, Phoebe's story is linked in with Sal's own story about when her mother left - Sal is a character you can't help but sympathise with. Every now and again you get little anecdotes from when her mother still lived in their country home in Kentucky. The whole book is poetic and suspenseful, and funny, all at the same time :)
So much to tell you by John Marsden
The diary of a girl who won't talk out loud - due to a horrible accident, she can't let herself speak anymore. Based on a true story. It's a simply awesome book... I'm pants at describing why it's good, so to quote - She may be someone you know. She may be you. In 'So Much to Tell You' she tells her story. With humour and insight, with sensitivity and strength, with painful honesty. You will never forget her.. I now discover that it's one of Australia's biggest selling novels ever, which just goes to show how much attention I pay to the world. It's won prizes. Completely deserved.
Writing in Martian by Andrew Matthews
Three friends, Wayne, Mikki and Bron, are fed up with the lies in the world. They decide to each keep a completely honest diary and when study leave starts, swap them around and read them. The book is their diaries, their troubles in life and their perceptions of each other. Wayne is an artist, sensitive and caring but no one seems to understand him. Mikki wants the perfect relationship with the boy she likes, but disillusionment seems just around the corner. Bronia thought that eveything in her family was all right... Reading this, I felt for all the character's struggles, but I think I was most touched by how they're there for each other. Inspiring.
If Only I'd Known (Also entitled Sex Education, A Dangerous Education) by Jenny Davis
Livvie joins a new school, and her new Biology teacher has spent the summer at a clinic for pregnant women. Some of whom were just thirteen. Realising something is seriously awry with perceptions of sex and love, she decides to use the first term of Biology purely for sex education - and it's all about caring. Their term 'project' is to care for someone, in a way that doesn't involve sex. Livvie and her new friend David team up in caring for a pregnant woman on their street, whom they know has been having problems with her pregnancy. But they have a strong feeling things aren't right. It's a haunting read, and Livvie and David's relationship is not cliche romance in the slightest - Livvie is very realistic in her feelings. But at the same time, there's a lot of love there :)
Tightrope by Gillian Cross
Ashley's a bit of a stay-at-home girl, looking after her ill mother, and being responsible. But she has a persona, her graffiti alter-ego Cindy. Because of her acrobatic talents, she finds favour with local hard-man Eddie Beale, who'll help anyone who can keep him entertained. Soon her lonely mother has companions and she's popular. But she starts getting stalked, and maybe Eddie can help, but only so long as he finds her interesting. One wrong move... Gripping stuff.
Angel Face by Narinder Dhami
Aidan. Popular. Good at sports. Loved by Girls. Deceased. The arrogant fourteen-year-old American finds himself in Heaven and... well, it's all right (better than Down There) but it's boring. He's thrilled when he gets the chance to become an English girl's Guardian Angel... until he sees her. Scruffy, spotty, generally ignored, Catherine's life is in a mess, and she has to work long hours to keep her and her sick mother (hmmm) going. Aidan's Hollywood-Approved plan to raise her self-esteem by pretending to fall madly in love with her, however, goes wrong. Aidan's experience as a Guardian Angel, a lot harder than planned, are life-changing. Or would be, if he wasn't already dead.
Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
Pratchett can be alarmingly perceptive. Twelve year old Johnny Maxwell is playing a computer game in which he has to kill the evil ScreeWee. Although one day, whilst playing, they surrender and ask Johnny to lead them home. What I love about this book is its sly reflection on life, war, friendship, rich, poor, winners and losers... whilst simply being a story about a boy, a computer game, his strange assortment of friends and a girl who calls herself Sigourney. It wouldn't really matter if you read Johnny and the Dead or Johnny and the Bomb first, either - but I think Johnny and the Bomb is best, so leave that one til last :) This book has a lot of 'issues' in it but it's such a good story you can appreciate their presence without feeling preached at. Pratchett addresses them with his standard gentle humour.
Catherine, called Birdy by Karen Cushman
This book is, quite simply, a work of genius. It succeeded in doing what many history lessons could not do - brought the past alive. Catherine is thirteen and the daughter of a Medieval Lord. This is her diary. Her father arranges many suitors for her, and she perfects ways of getting rid of them. It's hilarious. But Catherine herself is also very realistic, cheeky yet struggling with all the same identity issues as modern teenagers.
The Cuckoo Sister by Vivien Alcock
All right, so for most of this book, the main character is eleven, so maybe this is still a children's book. Kate's older sister Emma was snatched when she was just a baby. Then one day, when Kate is eleven, a girl called Rosie arrives on the doorstep with a letter that says she's Emma. But she doesn't fit in with the sister Kate imagined at all, and Rosie doesn't want to stay either. Kate, the narrator of the story, admits that she 'went bad'. She's sneaky and badly behaved - she confesses it - and somehow her forthright honesty makes her likeable, especially when it comes to the mixed subject of Rosie.
Goggle Eyes by Anne Fine
Helen Johnson, usually very sweet and cheerful, comes into school looking miserable and sullen. When she runs from the classroom in tears, Mrs. Lupey has a inkling of an idea, and sends Kitty Killin to go talk to her. At first Kitty's mystified - being the least sensitive person she knows - but when she finds out Helen's problem, they sit in the P.E. cupboard and Kitty tells her the story... of Goggle Eyes. Her mother's awful boyfriend, real name Gerald Faulkner, who came in an disrupted their happily ordered life with his obnoxiousness.
Changeover by Margaret Mahy
Laura Chant lives with her mother and little brother, Jacko, whom she adores. She's a bit superstitious, believing she's received a warning one day that something bad will happen. Sure enough, it does. Jacko's ill, but only she realises that he's being attacked from within by a sinister being masquerading as a man who stamped the litte boy's hand. So she seeks the help of Sorensen Carlisle, a boy she knows from school and is sure is a witch. It's a story involving witches (the 'born with magical powers' kind) and magic and good and evil and things :) It's intense and deep.
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
All right, not exactly intellectual read of the century, but this is a great book, nicely paced and convincing (!)... in some ways just a typical teenage girl story... who's a princess. New Yorker Mia is horrified to discover that she's a princess of an obscure European country, set to inherit it from her father. Together with her typical best friend/boys/local neighbourhood bitch worries, she has to worry about a bodyguard, the press, and how on earth is she supposed to work from Greenpeace now?
OK, I had a couple more books after that on my list but I'm bored of reviewing. Anyway, go read them, I order you :)
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