Book Review: Cinder

Meyer, Marissa. Cinder. Feiwel and Friends, New York. [387 p]. [$17.99]. 7890312641894

4Q 4P JS

My thoughts on Sci-Fi books are the same as my thoughts on fantasy books. The book I just cannot get into. A show or movie? I'm there. Firefly/Serenity? Love. Dollhouse? Love. Ok, so basicaly Joss Whedon = love. And Marissa Meyer declares her love for Firefly in her bio in the back of this book. So there was already a little love before I started this book.

I've seen this title, and the rest of the Lunar Chronicles at work. They circulate frequently. But the previous librarian put a sci-fi sticker on the spines so I read a summary and never thought to even attempt to read them. They are insanely popular in my library - I had to put a hold on it just to get it for class.

It's sci-fi. I don't read sci-fi. I don't like sci-fi books. And yet I am totally in love with Cnder. Cinderella is not even close to being one of my favorite fairytales and I think this is a great update on it.

Cinder is a cyborg tasked with fixing the prince's android which may or may not hold some secrets. She would like to attend the ball, but as a cyborg who would want to be seen with her? So she plays it cool and pretends she has no interest in balls and would rather be covered in grease fixing various things to pay for her step mother's lifestyle. Her step mother would never let her go anyway. But Cinder doesn't really know who she is or what purpose she could really have in this world. Is she even from this world? Cinder is enthralling and makes it hard for a reader to put it down.

I have a little over 100 pages to go, if I'm late for class tonight it's because I had to finish and coudn't put it down.

The Adequacy of Reviews of Teen Materials

 

In order to fully get a range of reviews both professional and nonprofessional I used one fiction title (Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda) and one nonfiction title (Most Dangerous). I wanted to know if reviews of nonfiction were taken more seriously than those for fiction. Professional reviews were found in Kirkus, School Library Journal, the New York Times, and the Guardian. Nonprofessional reviews were found on various blogs. 

• Reviews for Most Dangerous were slightly more serious in tone than those for Simon. All five reviews for Most Dangerous mentioned the author's past work. They all also stated that though the intended age range for this book is 12 and up, it may be a difficult read for a 12 year old, and that it may be a hard sell to teens in general unless they have a specific interest in the Vietnam War. Though they may be interested in Daniel Ellsberg if they have an interest in Edward Snowden, as all reviews connected the two. 
• The nonprofessional reviews found did not contain any fan-girling as was expected. All of the reviews from the blogs had a casual tone but were well written. 
• No single review contained all of the criteria the assignment asked us to look for. Several contained a few of the criteria, but most did not have these specific elements. The covers were not discussed. For the most part the audience that would enjoy the book was not mentioned. only two gave similar titles that one may enjoy. Being that they reviews were relatively short it was difficult to find a comprehensive review. 
• Multiple sources should be used if these elements are necessary in making a decision. While all of the reviews for each book all shared the same positive opinion, this will not always be the case and therefore having multiple opinions would be beneficial. 
• Nonprofessional reviews can be trustworthy. Just because they are not in a well known source such as Kirkus, does not mean they would be poorly written. Even if they have a casual tone, or some fan-girling that could be useful. If someone gets super excited about something it speaks volumes about how other may perceive it. 

Are YA Dystopias over?

There are many things that make a good YA dystopia. There are many aspects of such books that attract teens whether the story is good or not. But has the YA dystopia reached its conclusion?

My YA collection at work houses various dystopias, including of course The Hunger Games trilogy and Divergent trilogy. These books move frequently, particularly as of late with Allegiant hitting theaters and Mockingjay coming to DVD/BluRay. We have the Matched series. That has circulated recently but since being returned a couple of months ago the entire series has remained in its place on the shelf. Uglies is one I have yet to see circulate in my time there. The 5th Wave has not been in the library since talk of the movie began, everyone needing to reread or begin reading before they see the movie.

The teens frequenting the department enjoy The Hunger Games and Divergent, but they don't seem to want more books like them. They are moving on. They want to see the movies, but they don't seem to want new dystopian books. We have plenty that have yet to read, we have some older ones they don't even want to look at. They are not asking for titles similar to these. Even when given the option as a recommendation they are not taking it.

This could be a local thing. Teens in this town may just be over the dystopia trend. But they could also be representative of the larger teen population as a whole. With new trends emerging their interests are being peaked elsewhere. As of late teens in this town are checking out all of the fairy tale retellings - Peter Pan is a popular one lately.

Only time will tell if YA dystopias are coming to a close or if teens simply need a break from this type of story.

References:

http://www.hbook.com/2012/04/choosing-books/recommended-books/what-makes-a-good-ya-dystopian-novel/

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff Review

Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. Wendy Lab Books - an imprint of Random House Children's Books, New York. [194 p]. [$16.95]. 9780385746779

3Q 3P MJS

When Daisy is sent to live with family in England, she doesn't expect to be caught up in a war. And she certainly doesn't expect to have such a bond with her cousin Edmond. How I Live Now could be so much more than it is. The premise of a war complete with an occupation in the English countryside could have been used much better than it was. When action was expected, there was little. The premise of this novel leads one to expect more action, more fun, more chaos, just more. Despite having won the Printz Award this book does not meet the expectations put upon it. A slow moving story that may have worked better with a faster pace and a more fleshed out story.

Merchants of Cool and Generation Like

While watching the first documentary, Merchants of Cool, initially, I may have missed the point. Most of it was pure nostalgia for me, as I was a teenager at the time they discussed. My mind simply kept shouting, "Britney Spears! TRL! Dawson's Creek!" I would take the bus home from school and hope I would make it in time to see TRL every day. But thinking about it some time later I could see it as more than just a quick and non comprehensive recap of my teen years.

Merchants of Cool and Generation Like are the same documentary, simply covering two different times. The biggest change between the two is the swift addition of technology. And having been a teen during the early 2000s, I can say that the technology kicked in for myself and my friends around 2003 with the use of LiveJournal, and a few years later with FaceBook, once we obtained the coveted .edu email address we then needed in order to even create and account. 

There will always be a way to reach teens, and determine their likes or dislikes. Marketers use that to their advantage and direct things to teens in order to make a profit without the teens always realizing how they are being used. One of the biggest things in Merchants of Cool was the notion that celebrities could be used to market towards teens indirectly through a concert on MTV that was set up by Sprite and doused in Sprite related gear. This happens now on social media. Celebrities endorse products by holding them in an Instgram picture, or liking a brand's status on Facebook. Or even by just posting a picture of a brand's products. (See: Kerry Washington, Instagram, Neutrogena) Note that Ms. Washington did not state that this post was an ad, but the caption reads like one, and can make an impression on a teens. While on the other hand celebrities such as Kelly Ripa (who may not be marketing to teens, but to parents works in this instance as an example for social media marketing) uses #ad in her Tweet to denote that it is in fact something is being paid to post about rather than it just being her own personal preference. (See: Kelly Ripa, Twitter, Jif). 

Though no longer a teen, I know and use the social media apps mentioned in Generation Like.I know all about teens and 20 somethings that put themselves out there on YouTube, and am aware that nearly every third post on my Instagram feed is labeled "sponsored."I've seen both eras of marketing and advertising. And I can say that I prefer the efforts of the late 90s and early 2000s to the constant barrage of ads that are on social media today - whether they are clearly an ad or a subtly mention of a product by a self-made "social media star." 

Not working directly in marketing, does not mean that librarians don't have to make an effort to market things to teens. What do we think we're doing when suggesting books or movies or anything when teens come into out libraries? We're marketing materials to teens without actually noticing! When we interviewed teens about various things, we were doing our own "market research." 

So yes, both of these documentaries can inform an interview with a teen, give a context to the path the interview takes. But as librarians we've already done this! We are aware that teens now are glued to social media - that's how we reach many of them and bring them in. We are advertising the library, it's program, an our materials. Can we go as far as television ads or MTV did in the 90s or as far as various companies and "social media stars" do now? Not at all. Many of their tactics are not appropriate to the library, but we can create our own. Knowing that social media is the way to reach teens is the first step. 

Further Reading:

Jezebel - Here's How Much Celebrities Make in the Instagram Product Placement Machine

Jezebel - The Big Bad World of Products Celebrities Promote on Instagram

The Big Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano Review

Montano, Mark. The Big-Ass Book of Crafts 2. Gallery Books, New York. [383 p]. [$19.99].
9 781451 0627800

A nice collection of crafts that may peak a teen's interest compiled in one place. However, with the advent of the internet and in particular, Pinterest, teens may not even be aware of the existence of craft books. This book contains step by step instructions on how to compete various crafts ranging from the fashion oriented (headbands, belts, updating an old pair of shoes) to those that serve a functional purpose (vases, paperweights), and is bound to please a range of personalities. Because of teens frequent use of the internet this book may better serve librarians looking to run a craft program on their own, without the help of an outside performer.

3Q 4P M,J,S

They eyes have it - and other visual forms By Michael Cart

I began my job as a teen librarian in December. I work in a very small library within a small community. The YA section (fiction, non fiction, and the space we have) leaves much to be desired. Recently I began weeding the nonfiction section, something I was told my predecessor had never done in her five years there. I was also told by our adult librarian (who was this library's original YA librarian when they created the department about 15 years ago) that to create the YA non fiction section she and the director at the time simply pulled books from both the children and adult departments and re-catologed them as YA.

Armed with this knowledge I began my project. And I have found some pretty crazy things.

I have found some materials that have only become out of date within the last 15 years - such as titles that still said Osama Bin Laden was alive or that Pluto was still a planet.These were not crazy, but still disappointing to find.

Then I found titles that just blew my mind. Such as one about making balloon animals, copyright 1987.

 

Yes, this book was in the YA non fiction section up until a few days ago. 

An encyclopedia about math, which had it not been written in 1983 and devoted an entire chapter to how to use math as a tool to relax, may have peeked the interest of at least one teen. Maybe. 

 

The World Book of Math

 

And this lovely book that discussed differing opinions on the merits of child abuse. 

 

According to this book there is a benefit to child abuse! 

Among all this craziness I did find some wonderful titles that are more recent and up to date in their topic and reasoning. After getting through all the random adult and children's books that should never have been in the YA collection to begin with, and all the random titles with out of date information that had been ordered throughout the years, there is a relatively good, albeit small non fiction collection for the teenage reader. And now I know which areas need to be filled in with more current titles and which areas can wait a another year or two to add to. 

"There is no fictionalizing to be found in any of these fine writers' books-no imagined conversations, no messing with history or chronology to make a better story-all demonstrate the importance of creating a narrative and, to that end, of borrowing techniques from novelists without violating the accuracy or the integrity of their books' content." (Cart, 2010)

Having now personally looked at about half of the non fiction section in my library thus far, I can honestly say that this is a true statement. The books that were not written years and years ago for an adult or a child are wonderful. Despite not having ever weeded the collection, the librarian before me ordered a wonderful assortment of new and topical nonfiction for teens. The remaining books range in topic from LGBTQ rights to wonderfully illustrated adaptations of Beowulf. Now I'm looking forward to discovering new titles to replace the many outdated ones I weeded.

Most Dangerous Review

I originally read this book in early January to take part in a Mock Printz discussion and vote for the Nassau and Suffolk Counties Youth Services joint meeting. It was the last of 8 books I needed to read, and I finally started it the night before the meeting. I assumed I wouldn't finish in time but wanted to get a general idea of the book. Instead I ended up staying up until almost 3 am enthralled in the story.

Sheinkin, Steve. Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsburg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War.
Roaring Book Press, New York. [370 p].[$19.99]. 978-1-59643-952-8

5Q 3P J, S

Uncovering more than is ever taught in high school, Most Dangerous spills secrets of the Vietnam War and key player Daniel Ellsberg. Students today may see Ellsberg as the original Edward Snowden, and the similarities are there. Sheinkin does a wonderful job at playing out history, describing everything from conversations in the Oval Office to the inner thoughts of Ellsburg as he makes a decision that changed the course of history. Though not an easy or quick read by any means, anyone with an interest in the Vietnam War will find what they are looking for in this book. Those not interested in the history may need some prodding to get into the topic, but once they get into the real story, they'll be hooked.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Prior to this class I had refrained from reading anything written by Cassandra Clare. It was a matter of pride due to her fan fiction/potential plagiarism scandals. Plus I simply assumed the writing was garbage, as harsh as that may sound.

I honestly chose to read (actually, I should say attempt to read) this book for class because I wanted to rip it to shreds. I wanted to be right in my assumption that it was not worth my time. Considering I've been reading this book for the past few days and I am unable to make it past the second chapter I believe my original assumption to be 100% accurate.

Not only is the beginning of the story not engaging enough to make me keep reading, the writing is just plain bad. Scholastic places this book in the interest level for grades 9-12. Part of me feels like I would be offending a teenager if I gave them this book. A badly written, horrible book.

Working at a small public library as the YA Librarian, I know the teens that are regulars in my department. A good portion of them know I am in school an taking a class that involves me reading YA books. I asked several of them if they had read City of Bones. Though upon checking, this book has a high circulation rate in its time in the collection, it is not highly popular with teen in this community now. Sure, it has gone out a few times recently, as a TV show has just begun. However, the teens that I asked had negative reactions. Some based upon their reading of it, and others based upon what they had heard regarding the series and author. One teen went so far as to make a gagging sound when I asked if she had read it. I asked a page at my library that has only recently aged out of the YA department. He said he had made it through the first book and gave up only pages into the second, only having started the series because he enjoys this type of story.

I so badly wanted to be able to rant about all the scandals surrounding this author after having reading this book, but I was unable to even get halfway into the book, it was just that bad.

Maybe I'll give it another shot before class, but I doubt that will make much difference.


Source:
Scholastic Page for City of Bones

Scandal Info, in case anyone is unaware of what I referred to:
CS Monitor Controversial Authors

Refinery 29 - This writer has not let past controversies change her love for the series

bustle.com

There are many more resources that a quick Google search will pull up.