And In This Corner, Feminism vs. Abstinence Porn!

Before our much-anticipated discussion of Twilight next week, I urge you to read "Bite Me! (Or Don't)," a feminist reading of the series done by Bitch Magazine (WARNING: the article covers all four books in the series, as well as Midnight Sun, so there are spoilers). It's an interesting article, but please do not take my agreement with certain criticisms of Twilight as any sort of call to arms to take the book out of our libraries. Instead, I suggest that Twilight can be used to open up a dialogue with teens to find out how they read the series. Young adults are capable of being critical readers, a fact that adults often forget, so it is unfair to assume that they read the books and suddenly their brain becomes semi-comatose while they wait for a vampire or other mythical (possibly less attractive) being to save them (I'm looking at you, Jacob). Whether you or I think the books are good or bad (or very bad) should not be the discussion. The point is that a lot of young adults connect with them and libraries have to use them to connect with teens.

(For the record, when I read Twilight, which was before I read the article, all I could think was, "We get it. She'll literally die if they have sex. Sex=death. That seems like a good alternative to reading this book.")

That's So Meta: Blogging About Blogging

This is going to be a little patchwork, but here are some notes on the YALSA blog. I apologize to anyone who dislikes the scattered format of the entry, but to me it makes the most sense to write it this way.

1) My initial thought is that the site looks cluttered and unappealing. In my limited experience doing blogging/web journalism, I was taught that every entry should have a photograph or image. People pick up books because of their covers and this same principle can be applied to blog entries. It can also break up the web page to make it seem less text-heavy.

2) Another blogging tip: be sure to give the reader enough information before your “(Read More)” cut. Make sure you’ve actually laid out what the article is going to cover so that readers will actually want to read more. I noticed a number of instances on the YALSA blog where they put the cut only a couple of sentences into an article and I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted to read more.

3) As someone who was part of a large writing team on a website, I recommend that you always check out the mission statement, policies and other related information on a blog or website being run by an organization and fueled by many different writers. On the YALSA blog, make sure to read the About section, as well as the Blogger Guidelines. While blogs are often thought of as bastions of free speech, these are not personal blogs and writers can be limited, to varying extents.

4) I like the vague mission of the YALSA blog, leaving it fairly open for contributors to write about a multitude of topics, as long as they relate it back to young adults. As the role of libraries broadens to encompass the broad scope of serving the community, it is important for librarians to know more than the hottest books. Whether it is new technological fads or social trends, librarians must be able to speak the language of young adults. By allowing a wide range of content, the YALSA blog is aiding the ability for this to happen. As a lot of this information can be time-sensitive, a blog seems like the perfect place for it.

5) Finally, I really think there is a strong need for a Canadian equivalent of the YALSA blog. While a lot of information on the YALSA blog is relevant to Canadian librarians, there needs to be a space for Canadian content that deals with news and culture within our borders. Let’s get on that.

Book Review: Gravity by Leanne Lieberman

Gravity
Leanne Lieberman
Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 2008.
245 p., pbk., $12.95.
ISBN 978-1-55469-049-7

Ellie Gold is facing a major problem. She is an Orthodox Jew who believes both in God and her religion. Her mother and father are strict followers of their faith. They have a nice life in Toronto and are active in their community. So what is Ellie’s problem? The fact that she is a lesbian, which is an abomination according to her religion. The fact that she has fallen in love for Lindsay, a goyische (non-Jew), only makes things worse.

Leanne Lieberman’s Gravity, winner of Orca's So You Think You Can Write? contest, tackles some important themes in a very clean and readable prose that skillfully navigates Ellie’s journey as she tries to come to terms with her religion and sexuality. However, there are some factors that might make the book unappealing to teens. There is a lot of Jewish terminology in the book, which might turn away teens that are looking for a character like them, though there is a glossary in the back of the book.

Another strange element is that the book takes place in 1987, and a lot of cultural references seem forced (shoulder pads, Dirty Dancing, New Kids on the Block). Gravity is a fine book, but teens might not connect with it.

Recommended with reservations. 2P

The Post In Which I Talk About A Book

A couple of things you should know about my book talk:

1) The baseball player is Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez. iMovie wouldn't let me add a title over the image.
2) Yes, I stole a gag from Arrested Development. It had to be done.
3) I'm trying to change the default image. Apparently Youtube likes fried chicken. Done!
4) I hate iMovie.

ATDoaPTI

1.

A couple of different things happened to me while I was reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. On one hand, I found myself becoming more physically relaxed as I progressed through the book, probably because I needed something humourous after a number of rather depressing reads, both for this course and in my recreational reading. Even when things get tough for the main character, Junior, it was easy to tell that he would persevere and there would be a happy ending. And there is always some humour in Junior’s narration, even when life is in the shitter.

I also found myself needing that happy ending, which is not something that is common for me. As a reader, I kept thinking that Junior must succeed and the book must end with the idea that he will eventually leave the reservation (and wrestling with the notion of what it meant for me to want that for Junior).

2.

One thing I really liked, caused by both the text and my history as a reader, was the play between comic and written form. Not only is there a really nice interplay between the two elements, but they seem like natural extensions of each other. The idea to have the cartoons be written by Junior is smart, not only because it further expands his character, but it continues his sense of humour. As a reader of graphic novels, the point of view of the comics really stuck out to me and enhanced the reading experience.

3.

To enjoy this book, I think readers have to be willing to believe and accept that Junior can laugh at himself, his family and the culture, both white and Native American, that he is growing up in. I don’t think the book calls for a dark sense of humour, but the reader has to understand how Junior’s drawings and jokes act as a coping mechanism for dealing with what is a very rough upbringing, as well as the loss that he experiences throughout the book. It’s also necessary to forget a lot of the first chapter as you keep reading. Junior’s initial description of himself seems odd once you get to the end, in my opinion.

4.

Thinking back to last weeks presentation on humour, this book is worthwhile because a) it’s really funny and b) endearing at the same time, containing a character with real problems and dreams, with the requisite barriers in his way. Even though Junior’s life is full of hardship (surrounded by alcoholics and death, for one thing), he does not approach it with angst, but gets through life my laughing at his situation and surroundings. ATDoaPTI is not merely funny, it also has substance and depth. Humour is used effectively and with a purpose.

5.

I think the best way of interesting a young adult to this book would be to give it to them and just tell them to flip through it and pay attention to the comics. Especially for reluctant readers, this would be a great way of saying, “This book isn’t like other books.” Most of the illustrations are humourous in nature and it would be easy for teen readers to get a quick idea whether or not the book would appeal to them. The paragraphs are often only one or two lines, so that would be another element that would appeal to reluctant readers if they were to peruse the book.

6.

One thing that would attract any reader to the book (and something I didn’t know until working on this question), was that ATDoaPTI is closely based on the author’s life (I obviously thought the title was lying to me). It’s hard to tell where the autobiography starts and the fiction ends, in retrospect, but the book acts as a wonderful way of encouraging teens that they can rise above their surroundings. There is not a rag to riches story, but a true story of human courage, especially when it’s told in such a manner, will no doubt lure in readers.

7.

My assumption reading ATDoaPTI was that there was very little young adult literature written about the indigenous peoples of North America. While most of Alexie’s artistic works, which also includes poetry and films, are about this approach, this is his only work that is for young adults (of course, that does not mean teens should be discouraged from reading more of his work).

Some other titles I found that are about Native Americans are: Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell, Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac, Offsides by Erik Esckilsen and a collection of short stories called Moccasin Thunder that includes a story by Alexie. These are all works that have been published this decade, so hopefully they are still in print and/or on library shelves.

Our Bodies Spent Among the Dust and the Microfiche

I don't know if anyone else has heard of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, but I finally got around to listening to their debut album, only to discover they have a song called "Young Adult Friction," which is obviously quite awesome. Here's a Youtube video which is just the song over the album cover. You may also need the lyrics, unless your ears are really good at sifting through distortion.

[Insert Witty Title Here]

I am fairly certain that everyone has probably encountered NoveList in some form or another through their MLIS so far, but I thought an evaluation of the sites young adult content was still warranted. As a recap for those who might need it, NoveList is a readers advisory website that features many useful functions for librarians. I was fairly familiar with the options it had for adult readers, but was unsure how much content was YA specific.

I was initially disappointed that their didn't seem to be a "Author Read-alikes" section, as there is for adults. On further investigation, I found a "If You Like..." list in the "Recommend Reads" area, which give read-alikes for popular books. There are only 31 read-alike lists so far, though the list has only existed for slightly over one year, so that must be taken into consideration. And yes, there is a read-alike list for Twilight.

For those running book clubs, there are currently 220 book discussion guides for teens in NoveList, providing an expansive database for those looking for a little help generating their questions. I glanced through the guide for Whale Talk, having just discussed it on Tuesday, and it was fairly expansive, containing a plot summary, author biography, discussion questions and read-alikes. After looking at the NoveList entry for Whale Talk, I noticed a "Related Features" part of its entry that showed all related NoveList content dealing with the book. Learn from my mistake: when you know the title, look up the main entry instead of wasting your time searching through the lists.

For a fun activity, click on the "YA Fiction Checklist" tab on the right side of the homepage. On the next page, you can download a checklist of YA authors and titles, compiled by that Adult Reading Round Table, which will let you test your knowledge of authors in YA genres. The checklist allows you to find out if there are certain genres where you need to increase your knowledge (or you can simply use it as a cheat sheet if a patron comes up to you and asks for a sports novel). The list from 2002, so it's not the most current, but still features a number of well known authors and books.

They do have some articles, but they're really just glorified reading lists, nor are they frequently added to the site (only one article in each of 2007 and 2008). Other than this, I was impressed by the scope and quality of YA content on NoveList.

The ALAN Parsons Project

While not a library journal, the ALAN Review (only available online through UWO) is devoted entirely to young adult literature, albeit primarily meant for the teaching profession. ALAN, or the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, is part of the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) in the United States. A lot of the content is relevant to our discussions on YA materials, so I thought it would be worthwhile to examine the journal a little further.

Looking through the two most recent issues, I was initially pleased by the number of articles aimed at pointing readers towards materials meant for marginalized teen groups. Out of two issues, three articles were about LGBT content and one was concerned with finding quality texts that dealt fairly and honestly with the issues faced by teen mothers. It should be the duty of professional journals to raise awareness of these issues and texts, which is exactly what the ALAN Review is doing. Even with some of the articles being slanted towards the use of these books in the classroom, there is still information that YA librarians can take away, even if it is just a list of titles that may appeal to a certain demographic.

The article "Creating a Space for YAL with LGBT Content in Our Personal Reading: Creating a Place for LGBT Students in Our Classrooms" (vol. 35, iss. 3) may not sound relevant, but it addresses many of the same questions that librarians have. How do we deal with parental pressure or other forces? What responsibilities do we have to various groups of people? By seeing how educators deal with some of the same problems that librarians do, perhaps their solutions will become ours as well.

Another article that stuck out to me was "Where the Girls Are" (vol. 35, iss. 3), a comment on the author Naomi Wolf's attack against the Gossip Girls and A-List series. My personal hatred of Gossip Girl aside (I hate it for no other fact than that they are rich and live in New York. I prefer the more romantic starving artist view of New York as seen in Flight of the Conchords. But I digress), I thought the article made a valid point that we should not automatically assume these books, which emphasize such nasty things as rampant consumerism and sexual voraciousness (or so I've heard), are forever warping the minds of young women. Assuming what a reader gets out of a book is a dangerous approach to dealing with materials. Instead of trying to sway readers away from those series, we must think about how society has manufactured the tastes of teenagers and make sure they have the resources to be able to make informed decisions.

One negative aspect to the ALAN review is that the book reviews are pretty much filler. They sometimes only contain plot synopsis, often make no comments as to whom the book would appeal to and end with the standard amount of glowing praise. A disappointing side to an otherwise wonderful journal.

Strange Fruit (Or, A Book Display For Whale Talk

Chris Crutcher's Whale Talk is a challenging book. As we debated between creating a display or writing a booktalk, part of our process was knowing what to talk about in a book that contained two plots that addressed very different issues. On one hand, the story was about T.J. Jones' quest to form a swim team to get athletic jackets for a bunch of his high school misfits. The other plot dealt with T.J.'s life as a person of mixed-race in a very white town with some very racist citizens.

Trying to deal with both plots in a booktalk would have been too confusing. We ultimately eliminated the booktalk route because we thought no one would want to read the book after being hearing what would no doubt be a thoroughly depressing booktalk (Whale Talk involves many instances of child abuse, the death of a young child and a brain damaged teenager who gets picked on by students and teachers. And that's just a taste.) We decided to do a display of other materials that deal with issues of race over the theme of outsiders because racially motivated storyline had a greater impact for all of us when we were reading the book.

Taking a cue from Hello, Groin, our display would consist of a human face divided to racial sections (do not ask how exactly this would be done, as we did not discuss the practicalities). Materials would then be displayed that dealt with issues of race and would point to the appropriate section of the face. These would not necessarily be items specifically for teens, partially because we couldn't brainstorm a lot of YA books that dealt with race. Some possible materials could be: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Hurricane directed by Norman Jewison, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King. We also would want the display to have strong Canadian component that could either support or question the idea of Canada as a multicultural country.

There was also talk of pulling quotes from Whale Talk, with this one from the first page fitting in quite well: "The facts. I'm black. And Japanese. And white. Politically correct would be African-American, Japanese-American and what? Northern European-American?" This quote not only summarizes T.J.'s struggles of figuring out who he is, but also works with the visual design of our display.

-Kayleigh, Lauren, Meghan and Mike

Teen Graphic Novels

To go along with my presentation, here is an annotated list of recommend graphic novels for teens. The list has been split into two, the first half being graphic novels I think should be classified as teen materials, the second half consisting of adult graphic novels that might appeal to some teens.

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. It is reflective of my graphic novel reading habits, so I invite everyone to put their teen graphic novel picks in the comments.

* = available at the London Public Library

Teen Graphic Novels

*Abadzis, Nick - Laika

Abadzis tells the story of the first dog to go into space as part of the USSR's Sputnik program.

Abouet, Marguerite - Aya and Aya of Yop City

Both books look into the lives of Aya and her friends, Adjoua and Bintou, as they grow up in the Ivory Coast during the 1970s.

*Arnoldi, Katherine - The Amazing "True" Story of a Teenage Single Mom

Arnoldi recounts her personal struggles of being a teenage mother while not giving up on her dream of going to university.

*Brown, Chester - I Never Liked You

Originally published in 1994, I Never Liked You finds Brown looking back through his adolescence, telling of the girl he liked and the one who liked him.

*Clowes, Daniel - Ghost World

The odd friendship of Enid and Rebecca becomes fraught as they deal with the pressures of life after high school.

*Kim, Derek Kirk - Good as Lily

For her 18th birthday, Grace gets visited by her past and future selves as she struggles to grow up and find her place in life.

*Lat - Kampung Boy and Town Boy

Lat's wonderful tales of growing up and causing mischief in 1950s and 60s Malaysia manage to be both humourous and endearing. While the location is foreign, the stories have a universal quality, aided by Lat's wonderful artwork.

O'Malley, Bryan Lee - Scott Pilgrim (series)

Scott Pilgrim must defeat the seven evil ex-boyfriends of Ramona Flowers, while also playing bass in Sex Bob-omb. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Michael Cera.

O'Malley, Bryan Lee - Lost at Sea

Raleigh just left the love of her life in California and is travelling back home with three people from her high school that she barely knows. To make things worse, she thinks her soul is in a cat.

*Rabagliati, Michel - Paul Has a Summer Job

Fresh from quitting high school, Paul becomes a summer camp councillor, falls in love and learns important life lessons. Anything by Rabagliati deserves reading, but not all would appeal to teens.

*Smith, Jeff - Bone (series)

A comic classic, the Bone series tells of the travels of Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone as they try to get back to Boneville. Can appeal to all ages, from children to adults.

*Tamaki, Mariko - Skim

Kimberly, aka "Skim," is an angsty teen who falls in love with her English teacher, Ms. Archer. Struggling to find her place in the world, she gets fascinated by everything Wicca, as well as Katie, who is also dealing with her own issues.

*Yang, Gene Luen - American Born Chinese

Winner of the 2007 Michael L. Printz award for excellence in young adult literature, American Born Chinese blends three seemingly disparate stories that deal with the themes of race and self-identification.

Adult Graphic Novels For Teens


*Bechdel, Alison - Fun Home

Fun Home weaves around the life of Bechdel as she deals with the death (or should I say suicide?) of her closeted father, at the same time that she is coming into terms with her own homosexuality. Seeking answers and closure, she evaluates her relationship with her father through this new framework.


*Burns, Charles - Black Hole

Told in stark black-and-white, Black Hole takes places in the 1970s and is about an STD that ravages a high school, mutating the bodies of those infected.

Delisle, Guy - Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

A 2006 YALSA pick, this graphic novel is an account of Delisle's time in North Korea while overseeing a French animation project that has been outsourced. Caught off from the outside world, Delisle tries to understand the mind frame of his North Korean guides. His other works, Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China and The Burma Chronicles, are also excellent reads.

*Lemire, Jeff - Essex County, vol. 1: Tales From the Farm

10 year-old Lester is living with his uncle after the death of his mother. He escapes to a fantasy world with the help of an ex-hockey player who was never the same after one big hit.

*Miller, Frank - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Miller's Dark Knight reinvigorated the Batman franchise (and, arguably, comics themselves), creating a dark, menacing caped crusader.

*Moore, Alan - Watchmen

Who watches the Watchmen? When most superheroes have retired, who will save the world from nuclear war? Moore's tale of morality and justice still is revered as one of the greatest graphic novels ever and its political warnings still ring true.

*Spiegelman, Art - Maus (2 vol.)

Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize, Maus is a stunning retelling of the Holocaust as experienced by Spiegelman's father, where the Jews are mice and the Germans are cats. As he writes Maus, Spiegelman includes his present-day relationship with his father, looking at how the time in concentration camps has affected his father and, in turn, their relationship.

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.