Review of Getting the Girl

Juby, Susan. Getting the Girl. HarperTrophyCanada, 2008. 341p., pbk. $14.99 978-0-00-200709-2

Starting high school is never easy, but things are especially bad at Harewood Tech where students become instant pariahs if their picture goes up in school washrooms with a large D (for Defiled) beside their face. With the social system entrenched, who is brave enough to risk everything and fight this injustice? The answer is Sherman Mack, aka Mack Daddy Investigations, an Encyclopedia Brown wannabe who yearns to catch the Defiler and impress the ladies in his life. The only problem is that his investigating skills are a little lacking.

Getting the Girl by Susan Juby (Alice, I Think) is equal parts humour and mystery, but never forgets that the plot is centered around a social ritual that devastates lives. She provides a different spin on the typical theme of the mob mentality in high schools, questioning why all of the students follow a social system that none of them want, effectively condoning the work of the Defiler. Juby adeptly changes the tone of the book when needed, all the while maintaining a consistent voice for Sherman. There are some instances of language that might be objectionable to a minority of readers, but the book has a wide range of appeal and will attract many teens with different reading habits.

Recommended. 4P

Secret Secret, I've Got A Secret

Having being an English major in my undergrad, I am trained at finding commonalities between texts. While having very few real world purposes (other than sounding really smart at parties), it is the perfect fuel for random blog posts. And so, a very examination of the use of secrets in Beth Goobie's Hello, Groin, Barry Lyga's Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and Melvin Burgess' Doing It.

For Burgess and Goobie, the secrets of the main characters act as accelerants for the plot. Dylan's world revolves around hiding the fact that she is a lesbian and in love with her best friend. The boys of Doing It have a myriad of issues (sleeping with a teacher, cheating on girlfriend, parents getting divorced, possible medical problems with you-know-what) that they each deal with. In both books, the characters spend most of their time dealing with their secrets on their own, regardless of friends and significant others. Their secrets are too big to tell anyone else, especially as they view their problems and secrets as being unique to them. This leads to the fantasizing of the devastating effects that will happen if these secrets escape the world of the character.

Secrets work differently in Fanboy, but are no less important. The book begins and ends with the declaration that, "There are three things in this world that I want more than anything. I'll tell you the first two, but I'll never tell you the third." Donnie and Kyra have lots of secrets, ones that are mentioned openly (his Schemata and The List, her suicide attempt) and ones the reader is left to figure out (her cars). While revealing their secrets to each other seems to bind them together, the reader knows that neither character is being completely honest to the other. Friction and chaos ensue.

It is quite easy to theorize why secrets were figured so prominently in these books. Even with friends and support systems in place, each character was unable to fully reveal themselves, fearing being laughed at, exiled or some other punishment. And can't every reader, teen aged or not, identify with that? Isn't that why there is a whole website devoted to people mailing in their secrets and 4' x 6' pieces of paper?

Magazines For Her

What f-word would you never use to describe Seventeen, Teen People and the like? For me, that would be feminist. Their editors and publishers would probably cringe at the thought of being described as such for it has become such a meaning-laden word in society, usually with an intensely negative connotation. Surely there must be an alternative teen magazine to fill in this gap, one more concerned with empowering young women than helping them find out if they’re a summer of fall? There is, and it’s Canadian.

Shameless is an independent magazine with the slogan “For girls who get it.” A relatively young magazine, its first issue was in the summer of 2004 and it has seemingly been plagued by financial difficulties ever since. While Shameless is supposed to be published three times a year, it has often only been able to publish twice, a real *ahem* shame because of the tremendous quality of the magazine, especially when compared to the majority of teen magazines.

The content is incredibly different, in many ways, from the glut of teen magazines available. There are no makeup tips or posters of the Jonas Brothers inside. It won’t tell you how to get the guy. Instead, Shameless tackles issues such as gender norms and sexuality with the frankness and clarity that others would never dare. What surprised me most when reading the latest issue was the fact that the articles, ranging from subjects of native culture to female characters in movies, were not toned down or diluted for a teenage audience. The magazine is smartly written and shows a level of respect for the reader.

I always wonder how many teens actually read Shameless. Their history of financial problems would suggest that not many do. Perhaps too few know about the magazine or it is too radical for most teenagers and the issues simply don’t speak to them. But if we as readers and/or librarians demand teen fiction with strong female characters, ones who battle with the issues mentioned throughout Shameless magazine, then why can’t we demand that teen magazines tackle the same subjects in a similar fashion?

Library Visit (or, How To Name Things Appropriately)

When I visited the teen area of a large and modern public library branch, I was amazed at the vast amount of space it took up on the ground floor of the branch. It occupied a large amount of the floor and was its own defined space, unlike a lot of other branches I have visited where the teen area was simply put where there was available space. What was even more surprising was the fact that it felt like such an open, inviting area, which felt slightly ironic as there were prominent signs pointing out the fact that this was the Teen Annex.

Most of the shelves were waist-high, making it easy to see that much of the space was filled with comfortable looking chairs, often grouped together, inviting teens to either sit down with a book or a bunch of friends. As my visit took place just before 4pm on a weekday, the latter was taking place. There were also four computers right in the middle of the Teen Annex, as well as some tables off to one side that seemed to be for those wishing to do some studying.

Aside from the usual suspects, i.e. fiction and graphic novels, there were also CDs and DVDs, though I found some of the classification choices curious, to say the least. (How many teens listen to Wilco? Apparently enough to warrant two copies of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.) Every shelving unit had a built in display on top so that browsing teens could be lured in by the book covers. There were also stand-alone displays that featured books relating to a theme (“Time Travel” and “Non-Fiction Adventures” were two I noticed). There was an obvious attempt to appeal to teens by not looking like a stereotypical library.

In one corner of the teen area was a reference desk, located at a distance from the groups of chairs. While the desk was staffed during my time in the branch, the staff member paid no attention to the noise the teens made. These two factors suggested that the library was trying to create an environment where teens were welcome, no matter if they were reading a book or simply needing a place to socialize. Overall, I was very impressed.

For Beginners

To me, the best way to introduce my blog is not to tell who I am and why I'm blogging (partially because that is answered, to some extent, in the name of my blog). Instead, let me explain why I chose the title of my blog. The inspiration lies in the work of Michel Rabagliati and the titles of his graphic novels and shorter comics. They are simple titles, like Paul Has A Summer Job or Paul Goes Fishing, and part of their charm and cleverness is that they hide the complexity hidden within. Rabagliati creates rich characters and experiences from seemingly banal life occurrences, crafting affecting and (mostly) true stories. And so the name of my blog is a "tip o' the cap" to one of Canada's finest graphic novelists.

Blogging about all things YA will now commence.