Why YA?

Eliot Schrefer wrote a great online column for the Times about writing YA fiction. It comes the closest to describing my personal reasons for reading/writing YA of any of the other articles of this sort that I have read. Here's the gist:

"...what Y.A. novels value above all else is storytelling. It took me even longer to realize that that needn't lessen a book's complexity -- it just prioritizes the reader's experience. Ultimately, if there's a refrain I hear from the many adults turning to Y.A., it's not that the books are any simpler. They're just more pleasurable."

BAMF Girls Club

What happens when all your favorite awesome kick-ass lady characters (and Bella) move into a house together, Bad Girl's Club style? Hermione is generally upbeat and dorky, Lisbeth freaks everyone out with her hacking and lack of social skills, Katniss moves into a tree,  Buffy talks a lot about "Mr. Pointy," Michonne brandishes her sword and worries about walkers, and Bella moons around over Edward.




Check out episodes 2 and 3 at http://www.comediva.com/.

In Web News: Comics Edition

I have been reading a LOT of comics lately (both in comic book and graphic novel form) so I wanted to share a few links of some cool stuff around the web.

-Forever Young Adult did this cool post about YA graphic novels. This article suggests only three books, so if you read those and get hooked (or if you are already hooked), GraphicNovelReporter has collected the Young Adult Library ServicesAssociation’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens lists from 2007 through 2012.

-I have been loving Kelly Thompson’s pieces for Comic Book Resources. Her column, which is called She Has No Head!, deals thoughtfully with comics from a feminist perspective, but it is also just a really fun column from a woman who loves her some comic books. She also has a podcast called Three Chicks Review Comics.

-My awesome co-worker introduced me to the most wonderful web comic that I am completely in love with. Little League by Yale Stewart follows the exploits of the young DC heroes as they attend elementary school, facing down bullies in the schoolyard, avoiding cooties, and saving old ladies from muggers. It’s insanely charming, the art is wonderful, and tiny angry Batman is so adorable I can’t stand it.

Anyone have any comics-related links to share? Any web comics that can’t be missed?


(Image from http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Doc_Strange)

My New Favorite Podcast: The JV Club

Janet Varney, SF Sketchfest co-founder and voice of Korra on The Legend of Korra has a podcast, and I couldn’t be more excited. I first heard Janet Varney on The Nerdist podcast, where she captured my heart with her unabashed love of Doctor Who, and my love grew on Twitter where she provided me with daily doses of charming hilarity. (Recent sample tweet: “Hello, Austin Texas! Or “Tejas,” as I like to say, when looking to be slapped.” – Janet Varney) On Varney’s podcast, The JV Club, she talks to various comedian and actress friends (all ladies so far, which feels like a warm shelter in the vast male podcast wilderness) about their high school years.

Links

What does the internet have to offer this week?

• For starters, I just found a Will Grayson, WillGrayson tumblr (http://willgraysonwillgrayson.tumblr.com/).  What could be better than a daily serving of the Wills and Tiny Cooper?  Highlights include a wonderful erasure poem using a page from the novel as the source material.
• This great essay on YARN points out that most YA novels take place in high school.  The author hungers for a YA perspective on college (besides all the adult novels that take place in college, which, she rightfully notes, have a different tone and point of view from YA).
• What could be better than a Pride and Prejudice retelling?  A P&P retelling that involves Prom!  Considering all the balls that happen in Austen novels, prom is a perfect fit.  And this YA Crush review is making me want to add Prom and Prejudice to my Can't Wait to Read file.
• Girls swept the Google Science awards last week!  And the winner of the 17-18 category got her start in science making blue spinach.

Linkies!

Awesome stuff culled from the dubya dubya dubya.

• Libba Bray procrastinates by answering questions in a hilarious manner, warning at the beginning of the blog post "It's only going to get weirder from here."
• Joan Rivers and Coco met each other on the High Line yesterday, and then they had a mutual lovefest on Twitter.
• Sean Maher, aka Simon Tam from Firefly, came out, and the Entertainment Weekly article is quite wonderful.
• KateLinnea perfectly sums up The Vampire Diaries season 3, episode 2 by saying "OH MY GOSH I LOVED THIS EPISODE SO MUCH."
• Tom Wilson, who played Biff in the Back to the Future movies, has a postcard he gives out to fans with a list of FAQs on the back, and the Nerdist has a scan.  Among the info listed: "Crispin Glover is unusual, but not as unusual as he sometimes presents himself."

In Other Web News...

Here's some links to great things going on around the YA web.

• YA Crush reviews the wonderful Melina Marcheta's The Piper's Son, which made me cry many times.  As all of her books do.
• The Enchanted Inkpot has a wonderful gallery of fall YA Fantasy covers.  Looking at it makes me feel like when you go into one of those all-accessory stores and everything is so shiny and you want to take it all home with you and recreate the display in your bedroom.
• Look at the amazing cover of the new Buffy Season 9 comic! (posted on LoveYALit.)  So beautiful.  Season 9 can't be any crazier than Season 8, right?  Right?
• Aisha Tyler has a podcast!  OK, this one isn't strictly YA-related, but I loved her when I was a YA (and still do) and she was hosting talk soup and The Fifth Wheel, so it counts.
• Rookie has this amazing guide to buying your first guitar.  I got my first guitar from Sam Ash, and even though my dad was there I was so terrified that I would be seen as a dumb girl who didn't know anything that I just agreed with anything that he and the sales guy said.  In actuality, I was only 14 and I'm sure the sales guy thought it was great that I was getting a guitar and never would have judged me about my lack of knowledge.  But I would have felt much better if I had a guide like this to prepare me.

Rookie Is Up and Running

When I heard that Tavi Gevinson, teen blogger extraordinaire, was creating a web site, I was thrilled.  The first piece I read of Tavi's was an essay about Terry Richardson, in which she clearly and persuasively articulated points that people twice her age were having trouble expressing.  And she did it all in a wonderful voice, which was casual and fun while still managing to be thoughtful and poignant.  In the year or so since Tavi's new web site, Rookie, was announced, I have been anxiously checking her blog for news of the launch.  In that time, I fell in love with her writing, her sensibility, and her aesthetic.