Eddis, Attolia, Sounis

The publishers always seem to say 10 and up if a book doesn't have a lot of language/sex in it. Crazy. But I know many 12-and-ups who have read it and loved the swordfighting and intrigue.

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Kids are so different, though -- they're all over the map, at practically any age. My niece read "Blitzcat" at 10 (she was interested in WWII -- go figure) and really liked it, though I think you could argue that that book is almost more for adults, despite having a cat protagonist. (I love "Blitzcat," Robert Westall being one of my writing gods.) Maybe the odd 10-year-old would love and understand KoA, but in general I'd aim it towards 12 and up.

But the whole business of age categories for books drives me (and everyone else) nuts. Libraries and bookstores want to know where to shelve them and who will be interested, but maturity, tastes, and interests vary so much that target ages sometimes seem absurd.

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jen94kp.livejournal.com

Yeah I agree 12 and up for KoA would seem more appropriate. I guess you have to read like crazy or find a good librarian to find age apropriate books. Which is great for me since I love to read.

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rowana.livejournal.com

This is the list of all the winners:

http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/2007MediaAwardWinners.htm

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jen94kp.livejournal.com

I was hoping for something too. KOA is such a good book.

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This (http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3377586&postID=116948478242312334) is a pretty clever link.

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I messed up - after you click on the link, click on "show original post".

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There's a great bit in one of the "Tales from the House of Bunnicula" series by James Howe, where Howie the dog is trying to write a Newbony award-winning book, and he gets some advice from his friends about what usually wins the award. I wish I remember which book it was -- maybe someone else knows. Whole series is a hoot, though.

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Screaming Mummies of the Pharoh's Tomb II, or so says Amazon.

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Ah, yes, how could I forget? That's the book Howie decides to write after abandoning the Newbony plan, when he decides to pander to popular culture instead. I love James Howe.

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Ahh, good link.

Maybe if Megan writes a prequel about the death of Gen's mother, she'll get an award?

(couldn't resist. Feeling snarky.)

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emerald-happy.livejournal.com

I am also in a snarky mood. I appreciate your comment. It made me laugh. KoA should've won. Damn awards.

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I'm hesitating to say for sure that KOA should've won since I haven't read the books that DID win...BUT....It should've at least gotten some sort of honor award. ;_;

Plus, it is sort of odd how all of the winners focus on...death.

While I'm on a roll, a list of other characters MWT could kill off:
-Irene (if she wanted us to throw a fit, of course)
When Sounis declares war on Attolia, they kidnap the Queen to use her as leverage in negotiations! Gen tries to save her, but only manages to reach her in time to watch them strike her down. As she lays dying in his arms, Eugenides swears vengence for his Queen!
And becomes Darth Vader.

-Sophos
...no. No. I'm not even thinking about this one. Moving along.

-The palace dog
Gen picks up a lovable mutt on the streets of Attolia, and the two form an inseperable bond. But the dog dies in a tragic hunting accident!
(Oh, wait, Gen's probably getting too old for this sort of plotline. This is a coming-of-age type story.
I know! Sophos gets a dog! Yeah!)

-Costis
"My leige...it was a great honor to serve you...and....my country...*DAED*"

-Gen's Dad (what'shisname)
Gen looses his father to a sudden illness (or war, that seems to be a common theme...), and suddenly realizes how much his father actually meant to him.
(...This is actually one I can vaguely see actually working in this book.)

OR, we can already go another route and give Gen a physical disability to overcome. You know, another one, since just one hand hasn't worked.

Maybe an eye or two. Or the other hand. What about his legs? He don't need those.

Okay, I better stop, this is just getting worse and worse.

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Oh, funny. Costis' honorable death wouldn't offer nearly enough tragedy, I think (except to Jade) so the additional disability or Minister of War story might be necessary.

Or, Gen could have an eating disorder and cut himself.

How about this: Gen finds out his absent parents were dysfunctionaldrugaddictedhomelessabusivementallyillvampires who killed his dog.

There. That's at least an honor book.

You have to see this (http://www.davidlubar.com/yakit.html).

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peggy-2.livejournal.com

And THEN gets his hand cut off and comes back to be the King of the Entire World.

Yes. That would totally win an award. Especially if it was very melancholy.

I think Megan writes too many parts that make you laugh out loud to win the Newbery.

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Or, he could have another nightmare and accidentally cut off his other hand with his hook.

...well, he doesn't wear it to bed, BUT IT'S FOR THE NEWBERRY.

I need to start getting more sleep or something, I'm acting crazy.

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emerald-happy.livejournal.com

That's totally crazy Checkers. That kind of plot twist would never win the Newbery. What you really need is for Gen's parents to be dysfunctionaldrugaddictedhomelessabusivementallyillzombies. Imagine the angst involved because the dog loses its brain and Galen is forced to put it down against his oath!

And Gen's eating disorder? That's the reason he has that oh-so-sharp hook, isn't it? And why Irene feels so guilty and why his attendants give him food he can't eat. Now why didn't I see that before? This is why the Newbery goes to books which improve as you re-read.

I guess they're looking for just the right note of death in the books. Forget the plot twists, characterisation and dialogue. These are just incidentals. Y'know, we could always feed their brains to the zombies and see how they like it. Then Jade can discuss grey and gray with them. Willow was right when she marvelled at the significance of every single word. Then we'll see if they can look at a bar of chocolate without crying. All that lovely appreciation for the books would just come out straightaway, dontcha think?

***

Sarcasm? Me? Don't be absurd ;)

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emerald-happy.livejournal.com

Hey, Gen gets a dancing bear from the Magus in the doomfic. And Sophos likes bears too....

You can try suggest killing Costis off, just suggest far far away from Jade. Unless you want a Romeo-and-Juliet-esque-scene with them both dying.

If MoW dies, his last words can be "Gen, Attolia is right for you." and he gives them his blessings. Awww

*refuses to consider anything more done to Gen*

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I once won a writing contest judged by librarians because I thought "What do librarians like? Shakespeare, right? What about some sort of tragic star-crossed lovers thing?", so maybe the Costis thing is STILL a good idea?

(Please don't kill me, Jade. I'm teasing! I'm teasing!)

Awww. I like MoW's last words.

Hmmm....Gen gets a dancing bear. At first, he's disturbed by the bear's large appitite and feroticious behavior, but the bear and Eugenides grow to accept their differences and learn a valuble lesson about friendship. But when the bear is killed after eating litter in the royal forest, will Gen ever get over the death of his bear?

See, there we go. A lesson about differences, tragic death, cute animals, and a warning about keeping the enviroment safe. Forget Newberry, I smell Oscar!

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Oops. I was going to spell check that before I submitted it. Blargh.

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aged-crone.livejournal.com

I was on a committee to choose stories, poems, essays, etc., written by students in my district to be considered for inclusion in our region's literary anthology.

My absolute, A-1 favorite, one which I insisted be sent along to the next level even though everybody else on the committee looked at me really strangely was written by a first grader. He wasn't from my school, so to this day I don't know if he had a brilliant, understated, subtle sense of humor, or was just totally clueless.

His story, in its entirety, read:

"My name is Abraham Lincoln.
I went to the theater today.
The play was good."

Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

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Or he was incredibly precocious and had just read "John Brown's Body."
As in "The play was a good play, he liked the play, /Laughed at the jokes, laughed at the funny man/With the long, weeping whiskers. The time passed./The shot rang out."
Sorry, I can't believe I store this stuff in my brain. No wonder there's no room in there for remembering to buy toilet paper.

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jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com

...YES. FOR THE WIN. OMG YES.

I completely and totally agree with/condone this decision. Forget the weird looks other people give you! This is a piece of brilliance!

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XD Oh my gosh! That's....wow. I prefer to think of him as having a brilliant sense of humor. I want to MEET that kid.

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Ooh, burn! Nice.

The committee should be granched! :)

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Granched. That's a word I don't know. Neither does the Merriam-Webster website. What's granched?

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Pg. 254 of KoA. :)

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*chortles at everyone's comments in spite of my disappointment that KoA didn't win*

What is Eugenides's father's name, by the way?

~Feir Dearig

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peggy-2.livejournal.com

"Minister of War"; affectionately known as MoW.

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Sigh. I need to get the book. ^^; (Yes, I know, I don't have a copy yet.)

And Gen's Dad actually doesn't have a name? Or well, doesn't have one mentioned? I thought I was just forgetting it!

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To be boring, y'all do know why it really didn't win, right? I have a feeling they didn't seriously consider it because they thought it was more for older readers, and besides, there's that pesky thing about sequels.

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aged-crone.livejournal.com

Having it be for older readers never seems to have bothered them in the past. I've complained for years that they need to give the Newbery to *children's* books, rather than the YA ones that so often seem to get the gold and silver medals recently. So this once I was thinking, "Well, heck, if they're going to give it to a YA book anyway, let it be KoA which is spectacularly superbly splendid." If I find that this year's winners actually are children's books (which I doubt, from what I've read about them), I am going to be even crankier than I was before because of the committee's lousy timing in doing what I wanted!

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Prepare to be cranky. The winning book is recommended for ages 9-11, I think. The committee should have listened to you!

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Fuse #8 commented that she was surprised KoA didn't get a Printz honor -- and she was on the Newbery committee. She can't say so in so many words, but I'm guessing this means that the Newbery folks eliminated it from consideration, thinking it would get a Printz. And quite possibly, the Printz folks did the same thing, thinking the Newbery folks would recognize it.

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Read Roger (http://www.hbook.com/blog/2007/01/i-just-want-to-say-this-one-thing.html) has posted this.

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It's worth reading the original post(s) at ozandends, too. Yes, I'm plugging my friend's blog here (he mentioned me, obliquely, yesterday -- I feel anonymously almost-famous!), but he connected the Serious factor to other awards, like the Oscars, and pointed out that a great comic performance usually loses out to the actor-in-a-wheelchair. And funny movies, or sci-fi, or fantasy, may win Best Picture occasionally, but it's the exception.

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And even when they DO win Best Picture, the actors often will get passed over. Think about the performances in LOTR--many were very, very good, but there was only one nomination--Ian McKellen--and he didn't win. (Part of this could be the large cast, too--maybe TOO MANY good performances in the movie?)
I tend to think about Johnny Depp not winning for his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow (although I'm not a huge movie buff, so I didn't see *all* of the nominees--so I can't really say "none of them were as good as Depp!")

Actually, the more I think about it, it's pretty impressive that The Thief won a Newbery Honor. I mean, it's a book with a male protagonist, who's discribed as 'tan', that doesn't (at this point) have any huge tragedy in his life (besides his mother's death, which is only mentioned briefly), and it's fantasy. I think it shows how GOOD Megan is at writing that she managed to get a book that didn't really have the possible bias going towards it at all.

(well, besides the fact that Megan's a white female.)

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empmai.livejournal.com

I did have tragedy - Pol Dies. I loved Pol.

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