Recommended Reading: Devilish and Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

A little while ago, I read two books from Maureen Johnson (Suite Scarlett and Devilish) because I'd heard they were good but also because one is urban fantasy and one is straight up contemporary, and since I have similar aspirations I wanted to see what that looked like in a published Young Adult author.

I was super impressed with both books, and if you've read Suite Scarlett it's pretty easy to see how Johnson could write in either genre. She makes perfectly earthbound events and places seem somehow otherworldly, but still highly relatable.

I'm also impressed by how different the voice is from Scarlett of Suite Scarlett to Jane of Devilish. A lot of the writers I've read--for better or for worse--seem to find a main character voice and largely stick with it throughout their body of work. To my mind, these are completely different characters and I think that's awesome.

In short, whether you're primarily a contemporary or a fantasy fan, I think you'd like both of these books.

From Maureen Johnson's website:

Suite Scarlett

Scarlett Martin is the third of the four Martins. Scarlett is fifteen, blonde, and broke. Her friends are gone for the summer. And she’s got this one curl that exists just to stab her in the eye and blind her. Welcome to her life.

Before the summer is over, Scarlett will have to survive a whirlwind of thievery, Broadway glamour, romantic missteps, serious mishandling of unicycles, and theatrical deception. And every element and person in Scarlett’s life will converge in one night that will make or break them all . . .
The show, as they say, must always go on.

Devilish

It’s Jane versus the demons, and nothing is what it seems. There will be perfume bottles, dogs, explosions, dancing, death, badly misused textbooks, ex-boyfriends, very long falls, unusual weaponry, and lots of sugary snacks before it’s all over.
Hey, you do what you have to do. Everyone knows high school is hell.

I read these a few weeks ago, but I remember specifically thinking that there wasn't anything triggering so if there is it can't be too out there. Scarlett is slightly self-conscious about being generally larger than her older sister, but that isn't played up in an unrealistic way, nor are we led to believe that that actually makes Scarlett deficient in some way.

Recommended Reading is a recurring feature on this blog. I'm doing this in an effort to build a list of YA books that I believe are both great stories and treat people's bodies in a sensitive and respectful manner. I will do my best to point out things about books I suggest that might be triggering even if I feel the book as a whole is worthwhile. If you have suggestions for future recommended books or comments/criticisms of books I write about please feel free to leave them in comments.

Unofficial Recommended Reading: Twenty Boy Summer

If you haven't already heard, Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer has been banned from libraries in the Republic, MO school district on the grounds that the content is not age appropriate for high school students. The committee went so far as to say that it "sensationalized sexual promiscuity."

SUBPLOT SPOILERS AHEAD

I think that there's a real problem in the world when a girl who is an upperclassman in high school making a considered decision to have sex once with someone she likes is considered "sensationalizing promiscuity" just because the girl does not regret her decision. I mean, there are even other characters who make a different choice. Plus, as I've hinted at, it isn't even the damn main plot arc of the book.

I'm against censorship in general, but anyone promoting the notion that teens are just oblivious to sex, drinking, or (gasp!) lying to their parents until they read some dirty dirty book about a teen who has sex once and sneaks out occasionally and is sometimes in the vicinity of alcohol is either being deliberately disingenuous or just mind-bogglingly stupid.

Ockler has an awesome response here, but this is my favorite part.

Not every teen who has sex or experiments with drinking feels remorseful about it. Not every teen who has sex gets pregnant, gets someone pregnant, or contracts an STD. Not every teen who has sex does so while in a serious relationship. Not every teen who has sex outside of a relationship feels guilty, shameful, or regretful later on. And you can ban my books from every damn district in the country — I’m still not going to write to send messages or make teens feel guilty because they’ve made choices that some people want to pretend don’t exist.

I can't put Twenty Boy Summer on the official list due to the fact that it does have a couple of occasions of talking about fat as a bad thing that to my mind are completely gratuitous. It's not that the conversations in which this occurs are atypical of teenagers (or most people in our society), it just doesn't do anything to develop a character or move the plot forward. It's not especially vicious or anything, but it's there. It's enough if you're having a fragile day.

Otherwise though, it's a fun and emotional read with well developed characters. I would especially recommend it if you wanted a book that talked about the concept of virginity in a sensible way. And, it's a good example of a girl character being proactive about her sex life while still representing the complex emotions that guide that decision making process for a lot of teens. But again, read the cover blurb because that's not even what it's about.

Recommended Reading: Accidents of Nature

Another book I got from the same list as Saffy's Angel, is Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson. It's told from the point of view of a girl with cerebral palsy who is attending a camp for kids with special needs for the first time.

It's the summer of 1970. Seventeen-year-old Jean has cerebral palsy, but she's always believed she's just the same as everyone else. She's never really known another disabled person before she arrives at Camp Courage. As Jean joins a community unlike any she has ever imagined, she comes to question her old beliefs and look at the world in a new light. The camp session is only ten days long, but that may be all it takes to change a life forever.

It's a little slow to start, but once you get past the basic character introductions it becomes a fascinating and quick read. I was especially touched by how the author explored societal views on "overcoming" various disabilities and the demeaning nature of a lot of supposedly helpful fund raising events. And I liked how Sarah and Jean navigate what it means to accept yourself as you are, without considering it some sort of failure not to live up to a prescribed arbitrary norm.

As a warning, Jean does express an initial distaste for some of the bodies around her at Camp Courage. She also struggles with her own body image, vividly comparing it to that of a female counselor who she perceives as representing the ideal. This could make some people uncomfortable, but I felt that it was a realistic portrayal of someone who had spent their entire lives being praised for their ability to "fit in" and who is therefore hesitant to identify with anyone other than the "Norms."

Recommended Reading is a recurring feature on this blog. I'm doing this in an effort to build a list of YA books that I believe are both great stories and treat people's bodies in a sensitive manner. I will do my best to point out things about books I suggest that might be triggering even if I feel the book as a whole is worthwhile. If you have suggestions for future recommended books or comments/criticisms of books I write about please feel free to leave them in comments.

Recommended Reading: Saffy's Angel

I came across this list of characters with disabilities on a guest post at YA Highway, and decided to give some of the books a read. I've finished two of them so far, and I wasn't disappointed.

The first book I read was Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay.

The four Casson children, whose mother, Eve, is a fine-arts painter, have all been given the names of paint colors. Cadmium (Caddy), is the eldest; then Saffron (Saffy); Indigo, the only boy; and Rose, the youngest. When Saffy discovers quite by accident that she has been adopted, she is deeply upset, though the others assure her that it makes no difference at all. Saffy is the daughter of Eve's twin sister, who lived in Siena, Italy, and died in a car crash. Grandad brought Saffy, as a very small child, back from Siena.

At Grandad's death he leaves something to each of the children. To Saffy, it is "her angel," although no one knows its identity. How Saffy discovers what her angel is, with the help of an energetic new friend, lies at the heart of this enchanting story. Unforgettable characters come alive in often deeply humorous and always absorbing events to be treasured for a long, long time.

Sarah is the "energetic new friend". She has a lot of trouble walking due to a childhood illness and therefore uses a wheelchair. I feel like McKay does a great job of bringing Sarah to life without making it seem like she has anything to "overcome". You don't ignore Sarah's disability, but you don't ever find any spots in the narrative where you'd pat yourself on the back over your pity and understanding. She's just a fun kid who has a distinctive trait like just about everyone does.

It's a nice, quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed at the age of twenty-nine. I'm not sure if it would have resonated with me as an older teen, but I know I would have been all over it anytime before I turned fifteen. This seems appropriate since Saffy and Sarah are about thirteen during most of the story. McKay has several other Casson family books that apparently involve Sarah and I can't wait to read them.

P.S. Also, it's set in England so you get to have a fun accent in your head while you read it. Unless you already have an English accent in which case you'll just have to settle for liking the story.

Unofficial Recommended Reading with Extreme Caution

Okay I've gone over this and over this and I just can't think of any better solution.

I love Courtney Summers' work so much it makes me want cry. If I could, I'd sleep with her books under my pillow on the minute chance I might absorb some of her brilliance while unconscious and hallucinating. In fact, it was a really bad idea for me to read Some Girls Are the day after I surrendered my manuscript to test readers. What was, "Hey, needs a little work but I think it might really be something." became in less than 24 hours, "Oh God! What have I done? Why couldn't I use some those words? Why did I have to use my stupid words? I suck!"

Alas, I just can't rationalize including her on the official Recommended Reading list because that's for people who don't want to feel like they're being punched in the face every few chapters and both  Some Girls Are and Cracked Up to Be are rife with the fat bashin' and body snarking. I haven't read any of Summers' other novels, but I plan to fix that.

Now, the thing about both of these books is that the main characters are fundamentally unlikeable. Not in an evil but charming way either. They suck. A lot. But it's so well written that you still care very much what happens to them and pretty much you're chained to the book until it's over and you're left sitting there mourning the fact that there's not more to read.

I think that's a pretty daring route to take and not one that you see very often, but the downside is that characters like that and the people they hang around, particularly in a high school setting, are gonna have crap things to say about other people, especially those peoples' bodies because that's where most of our insecurities lie.

So, the writing is amazing, the stories are incredibly engaging, and the body snarking that is in there to me feels faithful to the characters and not like the author trying to incorporate her own prejudices into the story. (And believe me, there's a difference. I told a friend of mine the other day that for this one book I was reading I could just see the author flipping through the manuscript and musing, "You know, there's just not enough fat jokes in here.") But ultimately, both books just use up way too many Sanity Watchers points to make the official list. If you've got the points to burn though, it's totally worth it.

Also, POSSIBLE but not really SPOILER trigger warning:


Both have very graphic (necessary, not gratuitous) descriptions of sexual assault that are stuck in my head forever and I used to work in domestic violence and am not usually fazed by such things.

Recommended Reading: Something, Maybe

Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott is one of my favorite YA books. The main character is extremely likable. Anyone who has ever felt out of place (i.e. everyone) can relate to her. The voice in this novel is spectacularly authentic. You really feel like a sixteen-year-old is sitting in front of you telling you what happened.

It's a familiar story framed in an unlikely way. Taken from Elizabeth Scott's website:

Everyone thinks their parents are embarrassing, but Hannah knows she's got them all beat. Her dad made a fortune showing pretty girls--and his "party" lifestyle--all over the Internet, and her mom, who was once one of her dad's girlfriends, is now the star of her own website. After getting the wrong kind of attention for far too long, Hannah has learned how to stay out of sight...and that's how she likes it.

Of course, being unknown isn't helping her get noticed by gorgeous, confident Josh, who Hannah knows is her soul mate. Between trying to figure out a way to get him to notice her, dealing with her parents, and wondering why she can't stop thinking about another guy, Finn, Hannah feels like she's going crazy. She's determined to make things work out the way she wants....only what she wants may not be what she needs.

Obviously, with the Playboyesque theme running through it there is some talk about the value of certain types of bodies that some could find triggering. But I didn't feel that the reader was supposed to infer that these attitudes were absolutes, rather that these are the prevailing attitudes in pop culture. There is a lot of diet talk, but it is framed as not worth pursuing.

One of the things I especially like is that throughout the book it is clear that various people find Hannah attractive even though she doesn't wear make up or dress up. And there are no yucky makeovers.

Recommended Reading will be a recurring feature on this blog. I'm doing this in an effort to build a list of YA books that I believe are both great stories and treat people's bodies in a sensitive manner. I will do my best to point out things about books I suggest that might be triggering even if I feel the book as a whole is worthwhile. If you have suggestions for future recommended books or comments/criticisms of books I write about please feel free to leave them in comments.