If you are like me and a great many of my friends, you are currently obsessing over Downton Abbey. (That’s the PBS link, because that’s where Americans can watch streaming episodes, but of course it’s a BBC show.) It’s a soap opera that makes you feel smart! It’s a BBC show that doesn’t look like it was filmed in your grandma’s living room with a handicam! And oh sweet holy goodness the dresses.
Seriously, though, I think the show does a brilliant job of exploring — or at least addressing in passing — the myriad of things going on in England immediately pre-WWI and during the war. The show seems to have the same sort of conflicted attitude about the economic and social inequality that I imagine (based on things I’ve read, not any personal experience) many modern English people have. Lord Grantham is a benevolent dictator of a beautiful home, and it’s easy to see Downton as a sort of wish-fulfillment paradise, but we never forget that Grantham is a dictator, and that any decent lives his servants or children have is entirely due to his indulgence. In other words, we know this social structure is horribly imbalanced and wrong, but oh my goodness the dresses.
I could go on and on about this show, and probably will at some point. But this is supposed to be about books. Staircase Wit posted this intriguing list of Downton read-alikes, divided into fiction and non-, adult and YA. Can’t wait to try some of them!
I’d like to add The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, by Laurie R. King: Older Sherlock Holmes and his young sidekick Mary Russell team up to solve mysteries in WWI England. Utterly delightful.
This is the most beautiful piece of art I’ve seen in a long time: Tyree Callahan’s chromatic typewriter. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a video, so I can’t see how it works. The sense I get is that it didn’t type the watercolor in the picture. But even so, the whole thing reminds me of Chroma conducting the sunset in The Phantom Tollbooth.
Which in turn reminds me that I never posted this fantastic 50th anniversary interview with Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer in School Library Journal last October. They were roommates my age when they wrote and illustrated the thing (which turned out to be one of my favorite things of all time) as a way to distract Norton from the book he was supposed to be writing, and are still friends 50 years later. The interview is delightfully crotchety about the publishing industry and book critics:
Feiffer: Even the good reviews, many of them, indicated that, well, this was a book for gifted children, for very bright children… [B]ut in many cases, the most important responses I got were from kids who had some learning disability they had to get past, and they did perfectly well with the story. So that whole idea that this was a book only for gifted kids was insane.
Juster: …. And to top it all off, of course, this was 1961; critics said that fantasy was bad for children because it disoriented them…. You had to be very careful about what you put in a children’s book, [because they believed] no child should ever run into anything that he didn’t already know about in a book.
And later:
Feiffer: There was another element in all of this back then, and even more so now. That is, most of what people know is based on their own tight little world, and what they think is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable. And then a book breaks through, as it did with Maurice [Sendak’s] Where the Wild Things Are or with Norton and The Phantom Tollbooth, and rather than learn from that, they think these books are just exceptions. If anything, it reinforces their prejudices.
But one of the wonderful things about children’s books is that a kid can read something and find in the book a friendship, an ally, something he doesn’t have at home…. And then he can look back on this book and others, as one of the big changing moments in his life. If you turned all editorial judgment over to the people in charge, those moments would never ever happen.
The whole thing is very much worth reading.
(I should also mention that Post-a-Day technically ended on Monday. I missed 11 out of 35 days. Oops. Still, it got me out of my posting stagnation, so I’ll call it a win.)
Remember how John Green was starting his tour at my school? They changed the venue to the public middle school nearby, which was a good call, because it was way bigger than our auditorium. But I still got to volunteer, and my students and colleagues still got to attend, with fancy reserved seats in the second row. We are so special.
So here’s the thing about this “book tour”: whatever you’re picturing — signing, reading, Q&A — was only maybe 50% of the event. John’s brother Hank was also there, playing his nerd rock songs about Harry Potter and deep-sea anglerfish. Together they lead a huge online community of people who call themselves Nerdfighters; hence the 750-person immediate-sell-out packed auditorium for a “book signing.”
An example of what this looked like might be in order. At one point, John announced that his wife was about to come on stage (a big deal for fans, since she avoids John’s videos and all the internet hoopla — wise woman), but we got Rickrolled by Hank in a dress:
Almost five years ago, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. My friends and I attended a massive concert in Harvard Yard featuring Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys. The line we still quote is, “Are you ready to save the world from Voldemort… BY READING?!?” Followed, of course, by an entire university green’s worth of geeky kids and adults screaming and waving books in the air.
The Wizard Rock and Nerdfighting communities, as you might expect, have a lot of overlap. (We met the founder of the Harry Potter Alliance, who was sitting in the row in front of us.) At one point John explained, completely without irony, “My brother and I are part of an internet community that fights to make the world a better place.” And an auditorium full of smart, funny, thoughtful, self-possessed, caring, amazing high school and college students cheered their heads off… and then stood up to shake their booties to a song about quarks. My friends, I cannot tell you how beautiful that was. People my age (which is also the Greens’ age) like to talk about how we wish the internet had been around when we were in school, and for me, this is why. A whole community of kids who celebrate their nerdiness and want to save the world by reading? Who might I be if I’d had that then?
After the show, I said to Arianna, “I feel like I just got hit by a truck of awesome.” The whole experience gave me warm, fuzzy hope — something I (and all of us) really need these days. Cheesy to say, but I walked in as just a fan of John’s books; I walked out a Nerdfighter.
My beloved grandmother died of cancer on Nov. 16. We buried her yesterday. (Arlington National Cemetery — they keep their own schedule.) She was a mother of five, a Navy wife, a world traveler, an antiques dealer, an expert stock trader (paper only, thankyouverymuch), and an overall damn smart lady. Whenever I called, we’d talk politics and current events. In our last conversation, she couldn’t get over all the fascinating things she was learning about her tests and treatments.
She was also a writer. When I was born, she wrote me a poem — her first granddaughter. My uncle, in high school at the time, illustrated it. It has hung in every room I’ve lived in. I wanted to read it at her funeral, but that is not the way military funerals roll, in my experience. So I will share it here.
There is a place where each of us stays
Separate.
It is most holy ground.
When one draws near, we tremble, because it is
Inviolate.
And yet love spreads her banquet here,
Timidly,
For just one guest
And waits, sometimes forever,
Quietly.
Her patience is, like nature,
Elemental.
She does not feed on hope.
But waits in loneliness, withdrawn
And gentle.
For the Nerds Heart YA contest last summer, I was paired with Allegra of My Library Card Wore Out, a young review blogger. As she says on her blog, “Teen books normally get reviewed by adults. Isn’t it time that a teen reviewed some for children?” Indeed.
We thought it would be fun to interview each other on each others’ blogs. My responses to Allegra’s questions are here. Here are Allegra’s responses to mine (with my comments in italics):
What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck Ed.: I’d never heard of this one! It’s added to my reading list.
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Alex Rider Series (because I just cannot pick one)
The Princess Bride by William Goldman Ed.: Nice; a definite classic.
Which book character would you choose to come live with you in our world and why?
Alex Rider from Anthony Horowtiz’s Alex Rider series because I think that his character is so much fun and he can do so many things. I also think that it would be fun to be friends with someone who works with the MI6, don’t you? Ed.: If he wouldn’t have to kill me for knowing too much!
You have $10,000 to give to a person or organization. Who gets the money and why?
I would give the money to The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust as I feel they are doing an honorable thing. They rescue orphaned elephants mostly but they also rescue rhinos and help get them better. I currently am the foster parent of two baby elephants named SHUKURU and MAKARETI and I would want to give the money to that trust as I feel that they organization is amazing.
You can go spend the summer anywhere you want. Where are you headed?
I would want to head out to Greece and Italy because I want to visit the historical places and try and translate the Latin text as Latin is currently my favorite and best subject.
What piece of advice would you give yourself of two years ago?
I would tell myself to get my act together with organizing. It took a lot of effort for me to get organized
Who’s your biggest book crush?
Well, this is a hard one. I have read so many books with great characters who I would love to be my love :). It is hard to choose between Ren and Kishan from Tigers Curse but I may even throw in Alex Rider. :)
If you could do 5 really expensive things or own 5 really expensive items what would they be? (I had so much fun thinking about that, I figured you should get the chance, too!)
1. I would want to buy a really large house
2. I would want to fill the entire house with books
3. I would want to get myself some cats to keep my company
4. I would want to travel around the world (or maybe to space – don’t know which one to choose)
5. I would want to travel out to Africa and have a tour of there and visit the exotic animals.
What TV show do you have to watch every week?
I currently have to watch Terra Nova which is on FOX every Monday night at 8. But if I got CW I would want to watch The Vampire Diaries. I would also watch Hawaii Five-0 (2010) if I could stay up that late.
Then there are the old TV shows which I still watch such as Stargate: Atlantis, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel. So yeah. A little dose of all of those and I am good to go. Ed.: Yay people still watch Buffy!
It’s your birthday! How are you going to celebrate?
I would want to spend time with my entire family and go out to dinner to The Moss Nook in Cheshire, England.
What’s your favorite holiday and why?
My favorite holiday is Christmas because I get to fly on over to England and visit my entire family and I get to catch up with everyone.
What 5 websites do you spend the most time on?
Well, this is hard to figure out as I spend WAY too much time online (my mother keeps reinforcing that point.)
Well I love FOG.com which is a great gaming website but do not go on there as frequently as I used to. I spend a lot of time on Facebook but I have started managing my time. I spend a lot of time on YouTube listening to music. I go onto places like CBS, NBC, CWTV, NICK (I know I still like some Nick shows :) ) and watch re-runs of some TV shows.
I also spend an insane amount of time on my blog writing and deleting and re-writing posts.
Thanks, Allegra! Sorry I was such a slacker about posting it, but I really had fun with this interview exchange.
This is the Librarian episode of Your Life Work, a series of vocational films for young people. This one was filmed in 1946:
Aside from some mildly embarrassing sexism, I’m amazed at how little hilarity I could find in this. The media are different, but the job hasn’t changed much in 65 years. The funniest bit is the part at the end about job security. *sigh*
I found this part particularly interesting, after a few examples of people calling to ask the librarian to “compile a bibliography for a project on radar” and the like:
The reference librarians locate various materials through their familiarity with the contents of the library, a very important money- and time-saving service to the public.
Replace “contents of the library” with “resources available” to take into account databases, websites, Google Scholar, etc., and it sure as hell still is. “Information overload” is a major modern concern. But people don’t turn to librarians to deal with it; they turn to the writers of probably obnoxious books like this one. I think people tend to have the attitude that information filtering isn’t our job, that we will snarkily respond “Let me Google that for you.” We have done some poor marketing, y’all.
This article from The Atlantic has been making the rounds lately: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success. Basically, Finland’s children are “accidentally” scoring at the top of the world’s standardized test charts, despite (because of) a system that focuses on “equality more than excellence.”
For me, the crux is in this passage:
[I]n Finland all teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility. A master’s degree is required to enter the profession, and teacher training programs are among the most selective professional schools in the country. If a teacher is bad, it is the principal’s responsibility to notice and deal with it.
And this one (emphasis mine):
Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality.
In the Finnish view, as [Pasi] Sahlberg [director of the Finnish Ministry of Education's Center for International Mobility] describes it, this means that schools should be healthy, safe environments for children. This starts with the basics. Finland offers all pupils free school meals, easy access to health care, psychological counseling, and individualized student guidance.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Treat teachers and principals like professionals. Give them training and autonomy. And then do the best you can to give students a level playing field in the school, despite the mess they may come from at home. It’s not enough, but it’s a start.
As a private school teacher, I feel I need to address the “Finland has no private schools” issue, which the article really emphasizes. Private schools are a symptom of the fact that the American public school system is appalling. Eventually I think we need to do away with them, yes — if everyone’s part of the same system, there’s far more political will to keep that system functioning well. (…See that disclaimer up there about how my opinions are not necessarily my employer’s?)
But I do not think that outlawing private schools tomorrow would make a damn bit of difference. Everyone is not part of the same system, even in the public school world. It’s no longer an option to send your kid to an expensive private school? Fine, buy an expensive house in a good school district instead! There are districts that might as well be private schools, for the educational resources they have and what it costs to attend, and there are districts that might as well be in the developing world. Until educational expenditure is no longer tied to local taxes, we are screwed.
(I have a million questions about the rest of the Finnish system. Is there a national curriculum, or are teachers entirely autonomous? Are there teachers’ unions? How do urban schools differ from rural schools? The article briefly addresses heterogeneity in Finland vs. the U.S. as measured by immigrant populations, but what about poverty? What about absentee fathers, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, and all the rest of the crap that puts “at-risk” kids here at an almost insurmountable disadvantage before they get anywhere near a classroom? How does Finland handle special education? Kids are doing well by educational measurements; how about jobs? Has educational equality improved economic equality? I really want to read Sahlberg’s book now.)
Happy New Year! Of course, my favorite part of today is checking out the Cybils finalists. Please go peruse.
My YA fantasy & science fiction list is more of a surprise this year than usual. For one thing, Daughter of Smoke and Bone isn’t a finalist! Really thought I had a slam-dunk there. In fact, I’ve only read one, and hadn’t even heard of most of them. Not only that, but one — Angelfall — is an e-book-only publication, a first in my Cybils career, anyway. And it looks like only 2 out of 7 are part of series. Maybe we’re swinging back to a stand-alone trend? I can only hope.
I’m excited to dig into some books I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Cybils YA F&SF: Blood Red Fire edition, you may commence! (Note: I’m not allowed to review these between now and when the winner is announced on Feb. 14, lest enterprising souls try to triangulate a winner from the judges’ reviews. I’ll have to keep with my Post-a-Day mission in other ways, which may or may not be relevant/interesting/sane. You have been warned.)
Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1), by Susan Ee
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I do New Year’s wishes.
When I was a kid — 10? 11? — I had a book of magic instructions for kids. It was cute: making yourself fairy wings and doing spells. One of the “spells” suggested that you write three wishes on a piece of paper and then hide it to open a few months later. Would your wishes come true?
I loved the idea. I’m a ritual fiend, and New Year’s Eve is my birthday in addition to being that of the Western world, so somehow the wishes became my New Year’s ritual. I’ve opened last year’s wishes and written next year’s every New Year’s Eve for more than 20 years.
In junior high, I usually wanted a better relationship with my parents and “to lose weight,” which was a sad proxy for “to become pretty and less awkward so boys will like me.” As I got older, the wishes got more specific: this boy, this college, this fight with a friend. In 1999 I wished for the power to stay on so the world wouldn’t end.
There are rules. Personal wishes only, because otherwise I’d feel so guilty I’d wish for variations on world peace every year, and that’s not the point of this exercise. (1999 was an exception.) Only wishes that might realistically come true that year — nothing crazy like winning a million dollars or finding alien life. As often as not, they’re aspirations or goals more than wishes: create better work-life balance, say, or find a volunteer project.
I’ve always been a person who takes the long view. (Though I’m not sure now whether the wishes tradition appealed to me because it took a long view, or whether years of wishes influenced me to think that way. Probably some of both.) But I am also a person with a lot of fears. The wishes are a way to take those fears and cast them into the long view — to get perspective on them. A year from now, will I still care about this? Will it be resolved, one way or another?
Typically, one wish comes true, one wish doesn’t, and one is a complete wild card that I don’t even remember making and couldn’t have guessed until I opened it. Often the wish that doesn’t come true turns out to be one I don’t care about anymore anyway; I’ve grown past it. That’s the beauty of the long view. Sometimes I’m not so lucky, and one wish fails to come true and causes a lot of pain in the process. This is one of those years.
But now I get to wish again. And as this ritual has taught me, all kinds of things can change in a year. Happy New Year, everyone.
The opinions here are mine, and do not necessarily reflect those of my school. Also, even when I review books for younger kids, these posts are written for older teens and adults. In other words, I swear sometimes. Don't get upset.
