Parenthetical.net

Why do we often find it so hard to criticize the stories we love? Why do we feel we have to deny their flaws in order to love them? (*cough*Twilight*cough*)

I just read an excellent article by Mitali Perkins in the April School Library Journal, “Straight Talk on Race”. She designates five questions to consider when reading a text:

• Are the nonwhite characters too good to be true?
• How and why does the author define race?
• Is the cover art true to the story?
• Who are the change agents?
• How is beauty defined?

There are no “right” answers to these questions, and Perkins doesn’t try to give us any. She uses her own books and others she loves to show how a good book can make flawed, or just complicated, choices about race. I can’t recommend the article highly enough — it’s a great example of the kind of critical wrestling I want my kids to do more of.

And then, as I was getting ready to post this, I read these (because the internet is always thematically relevant):

Justine Larbalestier’s post yesterday, The Problem with Gone with the Wind

Deborah Kaplan’s response to Justine’s post, Loving Things That Are Broken

All these women love children’s and YA lit — which is why we want to discuss it and fight with it and unpack it and make it better. After all, the best books are the ones worth criticizing, right?

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