QoW: A Match Made in Misfit Heaven

Question of the Week: Which two characters from children's or YA literature would make the perfect couple?

My vote for best YA couple goes to the two kids lurking in the way back of the gymnasium on prom night. Neither one is dressed appropriately for the occasion—heavy army coat and long white cloak respectively. Together they snark at the teary-eyed girls clutching each other for a soon-to-be-posted-on-MySpace photo.

That’s right. I’m nominating Victoria “Egg” Jurgen from BOY PROOF and Tom “Chi-Mo” Henderson from KING DORK for Prom King and Queen.

Egg and Chi-Mo are both identifiable outcasts at their respective schools. Each adopts an overt persona to alienate themselves from their peers. And they are both super smarty pants.

I think these two might get along famously. Perhaps Egg could take the band photos for Tom and Sam's ever-changing line-up. Or she could rig up some GWAR-like special effects for the follow-up performance to the Chi-Mo's Festival of Lights debacle. Perhaps Tom could write an awesome ballad for Egg entitled Draw Your Eye(Brows) on My Heart.

Can't you just feel the love?

QoW: Cathy + Sirius-- they're totally M.F.E.O.

Question of the Week: Which two characters from children's or YA literature would make the perfect couple?



Even though Flowers in the Attic is technically an adult book, most women (and younger brothers) who've read this book were about twelve years old when they read it. It's sort of a rite of a pre-teen passage. I was ten, and I was deliciously horrified by this story. But I thought Catherine was fantastic! Hot-headed, feisty, vengeful and smart-mouthed, and a ballerina too! Also, she was stunningly beautiful, like her mother, and men were awed by her porcelain beauty. She might look like a doll on the outside, but on the inside, she was tough as nails. She had to be, if she was gonna survive living on mice in an attic for three years! And honestly, aside from the fact that Christopher is her brother, he just wasn't the man for her. He's kind of a boring blonde do-gooder type. No, she needs someone who will match her in temper and passion. And someone who isn't related to her, too.


People, I give you... Sirius Black! A young Sirius Black. Let's face it, Sirius was hot. He was hot-headed, hot-blooded, just hot. If Gary Oldman is playing him in the movie, you know he's hot. He's just this dark guy, with a lot of pain and inner torment, and yet, he has a cocky, playful side. He just needs someone to bring it out of him. Cathy could totally do that. She is his equal. And plus she loves revenge like he does. Just think of the adventures the two of them could have! Ballerina and wizard, the world is their playground. And, since he's a wizard, he could break her out of the attic BEFORE any of the mice/brother stuff, but AFTER she's grown as a person and has achieved the tough interior and ballsy spirit.

Sirius + Cathy = LUV.

QoW: Can you say 'Pippi Potter'?

Question of the Week: Which two characters from children's or YA literature would make the perfect couple?


I'm going to go out on a shock-value limb here and vote for our own dear mascot, Pippilotta Delicatessa Longstocking, to get together with none other than HARRY POTTER.

That's right. You heard me. I've given this a lot of thought, and here's why they'd make the perfect couple:

*They are both orphans (well, almost, Pippi's father is a cannibal king but she lives alone and people think she's an orphan). That is major bonding material.
*Pippi is bursting with love, self-confidence, and charisma. She's filled to the gills with it. Harry LACKS love, is somewhat reserved and quiet, and doesn't know how wonderful he is. Pippi has enough love to pull Harry out of his shell and make him the man he must become.
*Harry is a wizard. That might be an issue for some gals, but Pippi is no ordinary muggle. She's got a little bit of magic in her, too.
*Harry is going to need every weapon imaginable to fight Voldemort. And who better to have at his side than PIPPI, who possesses unbelievable strength, and never gets hurt? (except for tummy aches from eating pounds of candy)

Upon review of this overwhelming evidence, one must conclude that a Longstocking-Potter merger is in the best interest of the galactic universe. I'm thinking they could call the kids Persimmon, Pepe, and Petunia Potter.

Shall we write to J.K. Rowling before she finishes book 7?

QoW: A match made in heaven

Question of the Week: Which two characters from children's or YA literature would make the perfect couple?

For this question I decided to go with the first potential couple that popped into my head. And that would be Moose Flannagan from Al Capone Does My Shirts and Sasha Abramowitz from Introducing . . . Sasha Abramowitz.

To me, these two have absolute perfect match written all over them. First of all, they're the same age. They're both living in somewhat alternative living situations: Moose at Alcatraz and Sasha in a college dorm. They're both spunky and introspective, and each of them has a sibling that's suffering through life with a difficult and hard-to-understand illness.

Both Moose and Sasha are always thinking about the concept of "normal" and striving to find a sense of normalcy in their lives. Well ya know what? I don't think there really is such a thing as "normal." But, if these two linked up, they'd have tons to talk about. Sure, sometimes it's good for couples to complement each other and be different from one another. (Cue Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract.) In this case though, I think similar is good, especially when you're going through some tough stuff. So how about it Moose and Sasha? Date for a few years, break up during college, and then a summer wedding? I think that's a great plan.

umm, Lord of the Rings much?

Since when was Terebithia a land of monsters and flying creatures? We are talking about a quiet, poignant little book, not some Eragon epic. This makes me sad. Although Jesse is a hottie in the making. I remember him homely and poor. For the movie trailer, click here.

Way to Go, Jen!

I'm so happy to report that SHUG, written by our very own Longstocking Jenny Han, has been nominated for the first ever Cybils Award, the literary awards of Children's and YA bloggers! This is very exciting!

If you haven't read SHUG yet, what's wrong with you??? No, seriously, if you haven't read SHUG yet, it is the story of 12-year-old AnneMarie as she teeters on that thin line between childhood and adolescence. She begins seventh grade, experiences her first "real" crush with her best guy friend (who she has just noticed is really, really cute!), and realizes that friendships in Junior High School are a lot more complicated than they used to be! It's an excellent novel whose characters will live with you long after you close the book.

Thanks fusenumber8 for the Cybils Award information!

And good luck to SHUG!!!

QoW: Married and Headed for the White House

Question of the Week: Which two characters from children's or YA literature would make the perfect couple?
This is a tough question for me. Most of my favorite characters have gotten well matched in their stories or are the type of person you can’t really imagine with anyone. For a while I’ve been playing around with trying to find someone for Holden Caulfield but what girl would be a fit? I couldn’t think of anyone. (though I’d love to hear someone else’s brainstorms on this one.)


So what I finally came up with was pairing two characters from the same set of stories who I think could grow up to be a great couple: Ramona Quimby and Otis Spofford. Otis is one of the most creative and mischievous characters out there, matched only in spunk by Ramona herself. Like the pair Lisa picked, I can only
imagine the havoc these two could create if united. With Otis’s genius for wacky ideas and Ramona’s guts, they could well take over the world. Or at least create a whole lot more wonderful stories.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m convinced that Ramona would be a superb president of the US and Otis a sensational First Man. Henry Huggins could be the Vice President, with Ribsy running around the office greeting foreign dignitaries. And Beezus could be Ramona’s Chief of Staff. That would be a platform I could really support!

QoW: Dynamic Duo

Question of the Week: Which two characters from children's or YA literature would make the perfect couple?

Upon serious reflection, I have decided that no two characters were ever better suited for each other than Artemis Fowl and Harriet M. Welch.

Both characters are unscrupulous, imaginative, and much too intelligent for their own good. Artemis is a criminal mastermind, an evil genius with wit and flair (give him a black leather jacket and he's practically the Bad Boy of Children's Lit). Harriet is calculating and astute, conniving and articulate. And they both have serious parent issues. They're totally perfect for each other.
Also, with all of those millions Artemis stole from the fairies, he'll be able to keep Harriet happy in the luxurious Upper East Side style she's grown accustomed to. And since Harriet's so good at sneaking about, managing to wedge herself into wealthy people's dumb waiters and such, she'll be the perfect accomplice to help Artemis with all of his world-domination plots. I tell you, if these two ever linked up, they'd be unstoppable.

QoW: Which draft am I on?

Question of the Week: What is your revision process?
This is a pretty difficult question, because my process changes depending on which draft I'm on in the writing process.

If I'm revising a first draft into a second, I'll usually just read through my notes from my writing group, have a good think about what the book is REALLY about, and then sketch out a plan on a piece of paper. I try very hard to keep this plan to ONE piece of paper, since I'm just writing down the big ideas, such as Change to Present Tense or Slow Pacing.

Then, going from my second to third draft, I'll usually be mostly confident in my story, and focusing on the emotional layer of the book and its characters instead. So again I'll read through my writing group notes, sketch out a plan on ONE sheet of paper, and focus on things like More Tension between X and Y, or Show Z's Need for Emotion X.

Hopefully when transitioning from third to fourth draft, I'll have an actual editorial letter from my editor as I did with my first book. For me, that draft is about tightening up each storyline and making sure that every moment in the book is believable. And that's something I simply can't worry about until my fourth draft or so, because until then I'm so busy juggling the plot, the tension, and about a billion other things, I can hardly see straight.

So go on, Longstockings, hit me with your highlighters! Stick me with your post-its! (Confession - I used my post-it pen while I was reviewing my typeset proofs and it was fantastic. I am very partial to those pens now.)

QoW: The 3 Rs of Revision

Question of the Week: What is your revision process?

First of all, I love revising. I think that's in part because my first drafts are pretty much a narrative list of what happens to my characters. I plunk anything and everything down in my first draft, and then I rip it all apart and start over again.

After I finish a draft, my first step is to rest. No, I don't mean put the draft away in horror, and cozy up under my covers, although sometimes that is quite appealing. But what I mean by rest is that I let the manuscript rest. I put it away for a while. I try not to think about it. I try to brainstorm a new project, read a lot, etc. Anything but revising immediately. Usually at this time, some of the Longstockings are reading my manuscript or a part of it, so it's easy to let it rest.

Then, after a period of resting, I read it over, and over, and over again. I read the Longstockings' comments over and over and over again. And if I've gotten editor feedback, I read that over, and over, and over again. By the end of my reading period, I practically have everything memorized.

Finally, it's time for reflection. I think about all of the comments from every possible angle. I think about what they're saying and why they're saying it. When I read the comments for the first time, I usually panic, freak out, scream, cry. I get so tense and nervous and feel like I'll never be able to accomplish what I'd like to accomplish. Then, on the second or third or fourth reading, I feel more confident. I realize that I can and will do it.

After that, I dig in. I rip the manuscript apart, take out specific scenes, analyze specific plotlines and relationships. I copy and paste the entire thing into a new Word document. I delete, add, reconfigure like a madwoman.

I know my process may not seem that scientific. And you're right, it isn't. I don't engage in fancy highlighting, I don't outline. I use a Post-it here and there. I think my revision process is more of a mental journey from panic to satisfaction, with lots and lots of pondering in between.

QoW: Outlines and Insecurity

Question of the Week: What is your revision process?
Let me be honest and say that I hate revision. I find it tedious and difficult and I never know if I’ve done a halfway decent job of changing things. So with that out of the way, here’s my process:


I am an outline addict so the backbone of my revision is my trusty outline. First I print out a copy of my book outline, leaving plenty of space to write stuff in. I gather my notes from writing group or my editorial letter and read through their lists of suggestions a bunch of times. Then I write it out for myself. Even when the crit is very clear and well organized, like it is in the letter I got from my editor, I still need to write it down in my own words. Next I take my outline and I write in all the changes that I’m making. That way I get an overview of the whole story and how each change will impact each story line and the story as a whole. Then I dive in and start making the changes.

I make my changes chronologically because my next step in involves going through the text and tagging each storyline with a different color post-it tag. Once this is done, I pull out each story and read it on its own, making sure the parts fit, that there’s some kind of arc for each subplot, etc. Here I just make notes on the manuscript, then go back and make the changes, of course being sure to add any major changes to my outline because I know when I have to revise again, I’m going to need it up to date. I do a quick read through of the outline to get a sense of whether the big story is working. Then I do a final read through of the manuscript to polish. This is the hardest part because at this point I’m totally sick of the story. But I’m queen of typos so it’s essential.

I just finished this process with my first book and sent off to my editor. I’d like to say the process went well but I’m incredibly anxious that I in fact went in and made everything worse instead of better. That’s the thing about revision, you can love the idea of making changes but never know if you’ve actually managed to successfully make the changes. Like one thing my editor said was to make a certain character’s motives more clear. I dove in, made a bunch of changes. Then reread it and was like ‘I see the motive but will anyone else? Or is it too obvious and a reader will feel hit over the head with it? And is the motive even decent? Should the motive be something completely different?’ And so on. The bottom line here? I really hate revision.

QoW: Stumbling Towards Bethlehem

Question of the Week: What is your revision process?

If only I knew. I used to know, back when I wrote short stories. I'd write a rough draft, and then I'd revise it many many times until I couldn't anymore, and then it was done. Each draft took a couple of hours, maybe a day if I had it.

I have tried and tried to apply that approach to writing a novel, but the truth is, I'm way too impatient to write an entire long work in one go. I'm technically on the second draft of Uncle Jesus, but really, parts of it have been rewritten sixteen or seventeen times, and the whole thing is unrecognizable from what I started with. I had to be very far along--and have a very firm deadline--before I could feel comfortable making a break for it, writing straight through to the end.

I am trying to take a systematic approach to draft two. I've used Justine Larbalestier's outline model (http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/?p=398) to map out the first draft. The outlining process was completely depressing in that it showed up all the weaknesses in the structure but completely helpful in that it showed up all the weaknesses in the structure. My writing group had already told me about them, but it was sobering to see them for myself! Plus, having the outline made it easy to see where their suggestions would (and should) fit.

I've also discovered that, when figuring out my plot, I tend to think in five acts (despite all my efforts to think in three). I've written out five-act arcs for each plotline and relationship, and then added a column on the outline saying which act each chapter is in. So now I know that Act I is almost 100 pages long. Oops. No wonder the first draft was so much longer than I expected.

I have had far too little time to work on the revisions since I got those notes (hence the end of the day job), so the systematic approach to revising keeps breaking down in the face of my desire to make actual progress that I can see. I go back and forth between working on the outline and working on the text, with neither effort being very satisfying. Starting next month, revising will be my full-time job. I'll finally have a chance to figure out how I do it.

QoW: Keeping the highlighter people in business

Question of the week: What is your revision process?

I tend to revise in a BIG WAY. That is because I am a REVISOR. Or, um, a REVISIONIST. Whatever. The point is that I write about a million and one drafts, and things often change drastically from the first draft to the last. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to write the first million drafts, because obviously it would be much easier if I could just write the last one first. But my brain doesn't work like that.

So here's how I do it (usually). First, I read through the entire novel. I'm not allowed to write on the manuscript at this stage, but I can take notes. Then, when I'm done reading, I go through all of my notes and my editor's notes and my workshop ladies' notes and what have you, and I make a plan. In The Plan I try to outline very clearly what I'm going to change and why. If I can't think of a reason to change something -- a good reason -- then I'm not allowed to do it.

Then I begin Phase Two: Highlighting. This phase pretty much only exists because I like to use highlighters. I assign colors to things I have to work on (blue might be for scenes that need a complete overhaul, and orange for scenes with a minor tweak, or I might do pink for scenes where I want to change the sibling dynamic, and yellow for scenes where my character is being annoying). That gives me a good sense of how much work I'm going to have to do in any given area, which helps me focus. Focus is good.

I also like to use my handy-dandy highlighters to track a character's dialogue. That way I can flip through the entire story very quickly, focusing on just that one character, and I can see how he evolves, and make sure he has a clear character arc. (It makes the manuscript really pretty and colorful, too. Ooooh, pretty colors...)

Then I Get To Work. That's the hard part. But I try to stick with The Plan, and not stray off course and change everything in the universe. It's a loooong process, but usually by the end of a revision, I can remember why I began writing this particular story in the first place, and I'm ready to go back to Phase One and take the next revision-tastic baby step. Highlighter in hand, of course.

Big Happy Moments

Between the time that an editor says, "Yesirree, I want that book!" and the day it arrives in the store, you're on an emotional roller coaster ride. You spend months ripping into your book with your editor, chewing on its guts and wondering what on earth you liked about it in the first place. Then, when it's done, you stress about the title, the cover, what author name to use (especially for us recently married women), the flap copy, blah blah blah...

In a nutshell, you get pretty sick of your own book.

But then, in the months before the book comes out, you have a string of really good days. This week I had not one, but two of them. First, I got my galley. When I opened it up and inhaled the pages, I realized with a jolt that I was looking at my own words. I saw my chapter headings and my page numbers and I skimmed through some passages and enjoyed reading them. Like they were in a real book. Cause they were.

And then today I got a copy of my publisher's spring catalog. And my page looked so cool, and the author on the adjacent page is one I really admire (Siobhan Parkinson), which made it doubly fun.

Tomorrow I will go back to hacking my way through the second draft of my new book, but today I'm going to look at my first catalog and feel good about being a writer.

Giving Notice

I have just finished eating a truly appalling cup of chicken noodle soup: salty yet somehow bland broth; weirdly overabundant chicken; no discernable noodles. And I enjoyed every bite.

Why is this lunch different from all other lunches? Because it came from the employee cafeteria here at my Big Faceless Corporation, and I have only five such lunches left until my last day on December 1. It's amazing how much sweeter everything about your job becomes, once you tell them that in two weeks you won't be doing it anymore.

I'm leaving with neither a book contract nor another job to go to right away, which is a little disconcerting. I have gotten over my daydreams about the moment I sell my book; I know from my fellow Longstockings that it's a much longer, more ambiguous process than "send out manuscript, gnaw fingernails, get phone call". But I had very definite ideas about what it would take to stop temping: "a big advance", "a great teaching job".

I have temped or worked as an executive assistant since college, for very solid reasons: I'm really good at it, and it pays really well. The fact that, oh yeah, I HATE DOING IT has never seemed to stack up against those other considerations. In fact, that soul-deep loathing seemed like a really good motivation to keep plugging away at my manuscript, because after all, "the sooner I get it out, the sooner I get out of here."

It is just plain scary to listen to the loathing and head for the hills with nothing more secure than "a lead on some substitute teaching work" and "a husband with a good job". But eventually I had to face up to something: all the motivation my job was giving me was souring into frustration at how little time I had to do anything about it. I stopped being grateful for the hour's worth of writing time the bus gave me every morning and started wishing for the 4 1/2 hours I gave myself on days I didn't go to the office. The fact that my bosses were supportive (and they have been, unflaggingly, for which I am eternally grateful) couldn't make up for the fact that they were allowed to interrupt my writing and teaching-job-searching time to ask me to do several hours' worth of data entry.

I finally realized that the book wasn't going to get me out of the job; I had to quit the job in order to finish the book. If I keep prioritizing security over art, I'll keep pushing my writing out to the margins, and I'll probably die an unpublished secretary. What a waste of student loans that would be.

QoW: Pasta Binge Made Easy

Question of the Week: What is your favorite use of food in a children's (or YA) book?

One of my most favorite picture books was STREGA NONA by Tomie dePaola. Man, did I love when Big Anthony said the magical pasta pot spell and the spaghetti went everywhere. It was totally silly, and I loved the way Tomie drew the spaghetti. The NY Times Book Review put it this way: “simple line drawings clearly reveal the agony and ecstasy of pasta power.”

When Strega Nona returned from the mountain and found the village completely engulfed in carbs, she blew three kisses to her pot and handed Big Anthony a fork. His punishment was to eat all the pasta the pot had made. Wah waaaaah.

But this could have been an easy task for Big Anthony, had he turned on Strega Nona’s magical PASTA SAUCE POT and got himself a big tub of ricotta!

So in the spirit of poor Big, Enormous, Bloated Anthony, here’s one of my favorite recipes for homemade pasta sauce from the oh-so-handsome Jaime Oliver:

• Olive oil
• 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 14-oz. cans of good-quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• red wine vinegar
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped

Place a large pan on the heat, add a good glug of olive oil, your onion and garlic, and fry slowly for 10 or so minutes, until soft. Add your oregano, the tomatoes, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, then blend until smooth. * Taste, it might need a tiny swig of red wine vinegar or some extra seasoning.

* I don’t blend. I like it super chunky.

QoW: Scrumdiddlyumptious!

Question of the Week: What is your favorite use of food in a children's (or YA) book?

When it comes to food in kid's books, I don't think anyone does it better than Roald Dahl. Whether it's everlasting gobstoppers from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, worm spaghetti from The Twits, or even human beans from The BFG, no one can make food as wacky and marvelous, delightful or grotesque, as Mr. Dahl. He even has his own cookbook. But my all-time favorite use of food in a Dahl book has to be the giant chocolate cake in Matilda. Cake as a form of punishment? Only the Trunchbull could think of such a thing. Find a recipe for Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate cake on the hilarious Roald Dahl website.

QoW: Gimme recipes

Question of the Week: What is your favorite use of food in a children's (or YA) book?

"My name is Primrose Squarp. I am eleven years old. I have hair the color of carrots in apricot glaze (recipe to follow), skin fair and clear where it isn't freckled, and eyes like summer storms."

When you're talking about food and children's books, you cannot leave out Polly Horvath's EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE. Not only is it one of my absolute favorite books, each chapter includes a recipe. And these recipes aren't just tacked on, they are contextually relevant to the story. (And they're tasty.) It's amazing.

Furthering the food theme, Primrose makes friends with the chef of a local restaurant where they serve EVERYTHING on waffle -- even fish and chips. Primrose, who lost her parents to a storm at sea but persists in believing they are alive, uses cooking and food as a way to remember and connect to her missing parents.

If you haven't read this book, DO. I had tears in my eyes at the end. And not from chopping onions.

And the winner is . . .

The National Book Awards were last night, and here are the winners:

Fiction: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (FSG)

Nonfiction: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin)

Poetry: Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey (New Directions)

Young People's Literature: The Pox Party: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)

I'm sad Sold didn't win, because I'm so in love with that book, but Octavian Nothing definitely sounds interesting.

The Publishers Weekly Daily Alert had this to say about it:

And M.T. Anderson won the children's award for The Pox Party: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, a dense 900-page historical novel written in an 18th-century vernacular. Anderson joked in his acceptance speech that he was especially grateful for his publisher, Candlewick, since his isn't the kind of book that screams bestseller in a pitch meeting.

Has anyone read this? I'm dying to know how it is.

QoW: Snacktime!

Question of the Week: What is your favorite use of food in a children's (or YA) book?

Again I find myself finding a very simple answer to the Question of the Week. Maybe I'm really a simple person when it comes down to it? Who knows!

In any case, I have to say that when I think of food usage in books, I think of A Wrinkle In Time. I think of Meg and Charles Wallace sitting at the kitchen table eating apples and milk after school. I think of them having warm cocoa, bread and jam sandwiches. Sometimes even liverwurst!

The book begins during a midnight snack, and I love that! This book is far from simple, yet the food usage is good, stick-to-the-ribs, comforting.

QoW: Show me Something

Question of the Week: What is your favorite use of food in a children's (or YA) book?


My all-time favorite food scene is a chapter from ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY by Sydney Taylor. This was one of my favorite books when I was little- it’s about a family with five girls each born two years apart. They live in New York City at the turn of the century and are struggling financially. The chapter is called ‘Who Cares if it’s Bedtime?’ and it’s about what the girls do as they fall asleep. The two eldest and the two youngest girls share beds so they have elaborate rituals of storytelling and imagination games before they fall asleep. And in this particular chapter the two younger girls, Charlotte and Gertie, have been given two pennies by their uncle. They decide to spend this money on treats to eat as they are going to sleep.

The first awesome food scene is as they are deciding what to get. They start off at the candy store, staring at everything, unable to choose. Intense debate occurs:

“Charlotte, half a penny of jelly beans and half of chicken-corn! That would be a whole lot of candy!”

“But we like the black jelly beans best and we can’t ask Mrs. Blumberg to pick out only black ones for us. You know we hate the white ones and we always seem to get mostly white ones whenever we buy them. No, let’s not take jelly beans.”

This kind of reasoning is so true. That’s just how it is when you’re a kid making these choices (yes, okay, I go through the same thought process choosing dessert at a restautant too.) As a reader you get all sucked in and invested so that when they do finally choose:

“Gertie,” Charlotte cried happily, “why didn’t we notice before? Chocolate babies!”

“Goody!”

You are so happy a good resolution was reached and ready to go out and buy some chocolate babies for yourself (I’m not positive what they are but I always wanted to them after reading this chapter.)


Next they buy a penny’s worth of “broken crackers” from the barrel at the local grocery which contains chunks from ginger snaps, lemon snaps and chocolate snaps. I was heartsick as a child to discover that my local grocery store had only slickly packages, unbroken crackers.

Awesome scene number two takes place in their bed that night. Charlotte dictates how they eat each treat:

“We have to nibble along the side of this cracker as if we were mice and we have to do it until I say stop.”

This goes on until they have finished their stash. It’s the kind of scene that makes you wish you had a sister to eat treast with in bed every night. (I am lucky enough to have an amazing sister though we've tended to restrict our eating of treats to regualr eating areas.) And that is the magic of this book, captured perfectly in a food scene: their relationships and appreciation of the little things that make them happy, make their lives rich despite having so little.

I think that that is my favorite kind of food scene: one that shows you something about the character's emotional life and lets you experience something along with them.

My recipe is for ginger snaps and since my post has gone on so long, I’ll just include a link:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/spicecookies/r/bl1214g.htm

QoW: Tell don't show

Question of the Week: What is your favorite use of food in a children's (or YA) book?

I'm with Jenny, there is almost nothing better than reading about a really good feast. It's almost as good as eating one.

Sometimes really good writing convinces me in advance to love a food I've never tasted. In sixth grade I read a Gwendolyn Brooks story about making fruitcake with her mother. I haven't read the story in maybe 20 years and have no idea of the title, but I still remember how they devoted a whole day to making fruitcakes, how it was part of their Christmas tradition in her family. She describes each step so that it sounds like you couldn't possibly have a Christmas without such a day.

After reading that, I had no choice but to love the fruitcakes my preacher father got for Christmas every year, even the store-bought ones that were nowhere near as good as Ms. Brooks'.

I've been meaning to try making one of my own forever, but every year it seems a bigger project than my tiny kitchen will accommodate. The togetherness is such an important part of Ms. Brooks' story, and my kitchen only holds one person! But hey, my husband and I are spending this Thanksgiving at my parents' (where the kitchen is as big as my whole apartment), so maybe this is the year I draft my mother and we start a new tradition.

This recipe for "Free Range Fruitcake" is from the food network's Alton Brown, who is my go-to guy for recipes when I want to try something classic:

1 cup golden raisins
1 cup currants
1/2 cup sun dried cranberries
1/2 cup sun dried blueberries
1/2 cup sun dried cherries
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
Zest of one lemon, chopped coarsely
Zest of one orange, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup candied ginger, chopped
1 cup gold rum
1 cup sugar
5 ounces unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks)
1 cup unfiltered apple juice
4 whole cloves, ground
6 allspice berries, ground
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 to 1/2 cup toasted pecans, broken
Brandy for basting and/or spritzing
Combine dried fruits, candied ginger and both zests. Add rum and macerate overnight, or microwave for 5 minutes to re-hydrate fruit.
Place fruit and liquid in a non-reactive pot with the sugar, butter, apple juice and spices. Bring mixture to a boil stirring often, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for at least 15 minutes. (Batter can be completed up to this point, then covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before completing cake.)
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients and sift into fruit mixture. Quickly bring batter together with a large wooden spoon, then stir in eggs one at a time until completely integrated, then fold in nuts. Spoon into a 10-inch non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, bake another 10 minutes, and check again.
Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack or trivet. Baste or spritz top with brandy and allow to cool completely before turning out from pan.
When cake is completely cooled, seal in a tight sealing, food safe container. Every 2 to 3 days, feel the cake and if dry, spritz with brandy. The cake's flavor will enhance considerably over the next two weeks. If you decide to give the cake as a gift, be sure to tell the recipient that they are very lucky indeed.

"Oh, it was rich, my friends, rich!" --Templeton

Question of the Week: What is your favorite use of food in a children's (or YA) book?

I suggested this as our QoW because food in literature is one of my favorite, favorite things. I love to read about food. Because I love food. Food in books=the good parts to me. Some people like to read the sexy bits of a book-- me, the FOOD is the sexy bit! When the Marches sit down to their Christmas breakfast in Little Women, I want to sit down with them and pounce on all that good sausage and cake. I want to say, No! Don't give that sausage away! But they always do. When Templeton the rat is gorging himself at the fair, I wish I was a rat nibbling on cotton candy and french fries too. In Truman Capote's Christmas Memory, I wish I was baking fruit cake with Buddy and his friend-- and I don't even like fruit cake! But the way he describes it... In my own book Shug, I mention food numerous, numerous times: hot dogs and baked beans, red velvet cake, fried chicken, country-fried steak, stuffing, pie, macaroni and cheese, omelet, spaghetti. Yum. And now, I will present you with a couple of my favorite uses of food in a children's book. Without further ado!


Fromage au Casserole, from The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler... "It's nothing but macaroni and cheese!"

Patti La Belle's Over the Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound elbow macaroni
8 tablespoons (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Muenster cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mild Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup (8 ounces) Velveeta, cut into small cubes
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a deep 2 1/2-quart casserole.
Bring the large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the oil, then the elbow macaroni, and cook until the macaroni is just tender, about 7 minutes. Do not overcook. Drain well. Return to the cooking pot.
In a small saucepan, melt eight tablespoons of the butter. Stir into the macaroni. In a large bowl, mix the Muenster, mild and sharp Cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheeses. To the macaroni, add the half-and-half, 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheese, the cubed Velveeta, and the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the buttered casserole. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and dot with the remaining one tablespoon of butter.
Bake until it's bubbling around the edges, about 35 minutes. Serve hot.


Maple Candy, from Little House in the Big Woods

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Maple Candy

2 cups pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
saucepan (non-stick works best)
candy thermometer recommended

Cook syrup over very low heat until it begins to boil, stirring frequently.
Continue boil until it reaches 233°F on the candy thermometer.
Remove from heat and cool for aproximately 60-70 minutes, or until the temperature on the candy thermometer reads about 110°F. Add the vanilla extract and heat until smooth and fluffy. Shape this mixture into small patties, or while still warm you can pour onto pans of clean snow as Laura did. If you have no snow, you can blend ice cubes until they are crushed, then place crushed cubes into a pan before pouring the maple candy. You can also use candy molds. Maple candy must be stored in airtight containers to prevent the candy from drying out.


Orange Sauce, from the Babysitter's Club Sea City books

ketchup, to taste
mustard, to taste

Mix it up and you have orange sauce. Use on hot dogs, hamburgers, or whatever else.

QoW: Don't Just Use Getty, Use Creativity

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?

Having been raised by a book packager, I am well aware that a cover is suuuuper duper important to a book’s success. For most of the covers we created in-house, we would use Getty Images. For those not in the know, Getty Images is a library of stock photos and images available for licensing. It’s a great resource with lots of variety and choice.

But the inherent problem with Getty is that anyone can buy those images. I remember when one of our Alloy book covers also became a marketing campaign for Aerosoles shoes. Yikes.

So, while Getty is a great starting place, you can’t get lazy and slap a photo on a book and then call it a day. No sir.

The key to a book cover is taking something that could be generic and ordinary, and then transforming it into something extrodinary! You need to start with an image and then end with a concept. You need to turn something stock into a cover that's original and unique to a property.

Here are a few examples of what I mean:


SPLINTERING by Eireann Corrigan

Now this is what I mean by concept. The designer’s taken a stock family photo (I assume) and made it so evocative and beautiful and graphically intriguing. This cover feels totally original and tailor made for the narrative. Nicely done!



TYRELL by Coe Booth

I don't mean to play favorites, but come on. How awesome is this cover? Here we have two seperate Getty images, blended together to make one very isolated, lonely and stark cover. This cover tells me everything about Tyrell and his life. Fabulous.


SPECIALS by Scott Westerfeld

Again, we've got a pretty generic face on this cover, one that could have come from any stock images library. But someone's gone the extra creepy mile to make this, well, special. There's something dark and sinister at play here, and this cover is the perfect teaser.

QoW: Tell Me What I'm Gettin'

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?

I always judge a book by its cover. ALWAYS. I like a jacket that clearly tells me what the book is about, and not just the content, but the overall mood. I want to know the emotional quality of the story, not just the plot line. I want the jacket to honestly tell me what I'm going to get when I open the book.



Here are some I really love:





To me, this cover tells me that SPEAK will be a quiet, emotional, deep book. It's not going to be a flashy, fast-paced thriller. It's going to be a character-driven story where a young girl slowly uncovers the truth about her own inner strength.








It's hard to explain the appeal of this book cover, but it looks kind of off-beat and full of life. It lets the readers know HARD LOVE is not going to be another run-of-the-mill teen novel. It's going to be different, with quirky, cool characters.








FRIDA is one of my favorite picture books! I love this book jacket. It has such whimsy, and the little baby version of Frida Kahlo is absolutely adorable!!! (Check out that little monobrow!) This cover totally draws the reader in. You have to open this book!









Another great picture book with a cool cover is DIZZY. It puts the reader right into the jazz feel, especially with the marquee-type lettering. Love it!











And last but not least is NO, DAVID. C'mon, when you see this book jacket, you definitely know what you're getting. I love this cover. It's funny and it tells you everything you need to know about the mischievous David!


Book jackets are extremely important. Covers should be so enticing, the potential reader can't help but open the book and see what it's all about. When I go to the bookstore, I'm surprised when I see so many bland covers. I don't understand what that's all about. It doesn't make any sense for an author to spend so much time writing a good book if the cover is so boring nobody even bothers checking it out. C'mon publishers! Step it up!!!

QoW: I like illustrated covers. I really, really do.

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?

I don't think I have terribly good design sense (I am a writer after all), but I do know what I like. However, for this post, I decided to do a little research on what other people think makes a good book cover. I found this article about cover design that I thought was pretty interesting. It says:

"The best covers are those that are the most beautiful. Billions of dollars are spent every year in advertising, fashion and manufacturing to infuse more and more beauty. Why? Because beauty attracts the eye."

Hmm. I don't disagree, but I think sheer aesthetics is more relevant in teen and adult book covers. For middle grade and younger, I think FUN, WHIMSY, and SPIRIT are the three things that draw young readers. I particularly like illustrated book covers for middle grade, because they have a slight feeling of magic to them, unlike photography which is so realistic. And this particular cover for TADPOLE just rocks my world.


P.S. Here's another interesting article I found about spine design. And a listing of other good articles about book covers. I'm all about the internet research today.

QoW: I totally judge a book by its cover

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?


I'll start off by saying, when done right, I'm a sucker for sepia. I know, I know. But if it's not, say, a picture of a toddler splashing around in a watering can, and it's actually a cool picture, I like it. Basically, if it looks old-timey, I like it. Take for example, this:

I like this. I haven't read it, but the cover makes me want to pick it up. I see the cover, and I think, ooh, quiet little novel about the Southland, perhaps a precocious country chile or two. I'd better investigate!









I also like the one image against sherbety background kind of cover, plus lovely font. (Font is crucial to me.) I hope to have one myself one day. And this particular book is a double whammy, because it's got really good paper for the jacket. It's like a freaking wedding invitation! I love it when books are a true tactile experience, like Lisa GW's pick Prep. Who doesn't stop and stroke that belt on the cover?






And, I love a strong photographic cover. I do not like a photographic cover that looks like a spread out of a Delia's catalogue, but I do like one that looks like art-- a picture that resonates, that can stand alone. (P.S. I love this book, and in particular, I love the short story Notes to Sixth Grade Self. Read it and break your heart.) Another example of a photographic cover done right is Patty McCormick's SOLD--arresting, provocative.




So really, a cover is so important. I don't want to walk around with a book I'm embarrassed to be seen with. Case in point, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, the red silk paperback version-- it looks like a trashy romance novel, and it's so not!

QoW: The simpler the better

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?

I have to say that when it comes to book jackets, I like simple. Usually the covers that draw me in are the ones with one image. One, simple, specific image that makes me wonder why the designers at that publishing house would pick that for the cover. Even though I pretty much have negative artistic talent, I really enjoy thinking about book jackets. Sometimes I'll read a draft of a friend's book, when it's still in the manuscript stage, and I'll start wondering about what the jacket'll be like. I'll even tell you a secret: sometimes I'll be daydreaming about my potential book jacket, and I'll even go on to Getty Images or another stock photograph site, and I'll search different topics and see what images come up. Okay, I may just have confessed something supremely dorky, but oh well.

Here are a few of my favorites:


Prep: I love this one. So simple, yet it says so much. That is a specific belt, not everyone would wear it. It drew me in, and even though (and I'm ashamed to admit this,) I haven't read PREP yet, I want to, and partially because it has such an intriguing cover.


Stargirl: I'm amazed at how simple this jacket is. It's just a little stick figure drawing, yet I love it. It's 100% perfect. And I adore the book, too.


Mendocino and Other Stories: This one may not be as simple, it's more than a single image. Yet, I love it. Okay maybe it's because I love diners, and these two people are clearly at a diner. But it's more than that. There's so much to think about here: their body language, their feet, what's on the table, their hands. I feel like I'm there! Like I'm eating eggs and toast and drinking coffee, and observing these people. Also, I love Ann Packer, and love these stories, so that helps too.

Fun times at KidLit Drinks Night

Good times were had by all at the second KidLit Drinks night organized by Fuse#8. Five Longstockings were in attendance: me, Lisa Graff, Jenny, Siobhan, and Kathryne. The Soho location was roomy and very conducive to mingling. I chatted with librarians Rebecca and Karen (from Brooklyn and NJ, respectively), Cheryl Klein of Brooklyn Arden fame, the charming Alvina from Blue Rose Girls, and others, including my own dear agent.

I mostly know other children's book writers, so last night's event was particularly fun because I got to talk to editors, marketing folk, and librarians. I can't wait for the next event!

QoW: A Cow at the Beach

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?
People sometimes ask me what I’d like my book’s cover to look like, and even after thinking about it for a while, I really can’t come up with anything. I know what I like but I don’t know that there is any common thread to the things that end up appealing to me in a cover. That said, I do have strong reactions to book covers and here are a few examples:


DAIRY QUEEN. There’s a cow with a crown on this cover- how could you not be intrigued? I know I was when I saw it! I knew it wasn’t going to be about the cow but the image of a cow with crown made me want to know what it was about. So I picked it up, read it and loved it.


TWILIGHT This cover is all evocative. It conveys a mood that I wanted to know more about. This book I’d heard of and wanted to read anyway, but the cover was definitely an added draw- it set a tone that was dark and mysterious and that drew me in.


ALICE IN THE KNOW This cover says beach and I love the beach. That alone was going to make me pick it up. I ended up buying and loving this one too, especially the trip the beach trip part.

The other thing about covers is that I do get attached to them. I was recently horrified to see a newer cover of Judy Blume’s TIGER EYES with some blue eyed girl pretending she was Davey. Davey has the long tawny hair and hazel eyes of the eighties cover- everyone knows that.

From this I could conclude that a moody beach scene featuring a farm animal with an unusual hat would be my ideal cover. So it’s probably a good thing that I will have no say in designing it!

QoW: No judging by covers here

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?

I am the worst person ever to tackle this question. I have no visual sense whatsoever---it's one of the reasons I had to leave the theatre. I can tell when colors clash, but I'm appallingly bad at telling when shapes and things don't go together. I have no depth perception and no sense of space. My apartment only manages to be beautiful because my husband designed it.

So, I guess what makes a good book jacket for me is, a good title. Or the name of my favorite author (preferably as the book's author--I stopped trusting blurbs when Dave Eggers blurbed "Please Don't Kill the Freshman"). Or the name, as author, of one of my friends, which happens rather often these days.

Of course, titles can lead you to some pretty cool places. I discovered Chris Crutcher by title, and while Lisa may have read An Abundance of Katherines for the math on the cover, I bought it for my name (sort of) in the title.

QoW: Man, I want a puppy

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think makes a good book jacket?

I am not a designer. I am not an artist. I don't really have an eye for "colors" or "fonts" or any of your big-city art words. So when I look at books in a book store, trying to decide which ones to buy, if I haven't heard of the book or it's author, I basically just pick books up 'cause I think they're pretty. Then, of course, I read the flaps and flip through them and if they sound stinky I put them down again, but yeah, my criteria for picking books up in the first place boils down to "cool-looking."

Okay, maybe it's a little more scientific than that, but not much. If I thought about it at all, I guess I pick up books because I find the image striking, or charming, or particularly clever when paired with the title.

The three images to the left are jackets that I think pretty much rock. I guess I like fairly simple images that give you a good sense of the tone of the book. From these jackets alone I'd assume that The Invisible is spooky/solemn, The Taker is kinda funny, and Esperanza Rising is sweet and probably has a lot to say. I would pick all of them if I came across them in a bookstore, just based on jackets alone (I've only actually read one of them).

I guess my method of book-buying is a lot like how I would select a puppy in a pet store (if I didn't live in a teeny tiny shoebox of a New York apartment, that is, and could buy a puppy): Which one's the cutest? Of course, then I'd get home and the stupid dog would yap at me all the time or not be housebroken or have terribly unrealistic dialogue or . . . Wait, I totally screwed up that metaphor. But you get the idea.

So, to sum up: What makes a good jacket for me? Something that's simple, pretty, and gives a good sense of what the book's going to be about. Housebreaking optional.

QoW: Someone Mel Gibson never played

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think is the best (or worst) movie adaptation of a children's book?

I realize that I'm going out on a limb calling Jane Austen's Emma a children's book, so I might as well go even further out on a limb and call Amy Heckerling's Clueless one of the best book-to-film adaptations ever (though, admittedly, I haven't seen The Outsiders). I'm pretty sure it'd be one of my favorite movies even without the literary pedigree. I've seen it a lot more often than I've read the book.

Most of the previous posts have talked about how what makes a really great adaptation is keeping the spirit of the book, even if you have to change certain events. This is why my candidate for worst movie ever made of a book would be Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which hewed strictly to the events and missed the point of all of them.

Clueless, on the other hand, changes the title of the book and the names of the characters and moves the whole thing across an ocean, a continent, and a couple of centuries, and still manages to capture the soul of the book. Jane Austen said of her protagonist that she worried no one but herself would much like Emma, but Alicia Silverstone brings Cher to life as someone you'd like to know: lazy but smart, selfish but loving. Best of all, she learns as she goes along: the events of the movie don't just happen to her. She earns her happy ending.

And how can you not love a movie chock-full of exchanges like the following:

Josh: You look like Pippi Longstocking.
Cher: Well, you look like Forrest Gump. Who's Pippi Longstocking?
Josh: Someone Mel Gibson never played.

QOW: Too Cool

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think is the best (or worst) movie adaptation of a children's book?

Two words: THE OUTSIDERS.

What more can I say? For those of you who haven't seen this movie (and who hasn't, really?), all of the cutest Hollywood stars of the time (1983) were in a movie TOGETHER!!! Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Leif Garrett, Tom Cruise. C'mon. Need I say more?

In my preadolescent haze, this was the best movie ever!!! Now, truth be told, I haven't seen the movie since then, but it definitely made an impression on me at the time. I had already read the book, but the movie really brought it to life for me.

And did I mention, the guys were hot!!!

One day I have to watch this movie again and see if it holds up!!!
;-)

QoW: The Good, The Bad, The Grinch

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think is the best (or worst) movie adaptation of a children's book?

There is one beloved children's book that, for me, represents both the best and the worst of the book-to-movie adaptation process. When dealing with such excellent source matertial, a blend of respect and creativity can make so much go right. But when the only motivation behind a production is money (both spent and made), sooooo much can go wrong. I'm talking, of course, about the classic HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTAMS.

(Seriously, I could wail about this for hours. But in the interest of brevity and blogging, I will keep my ranting to a grinchy minimum.)

GOOD: Chuck Jones' beautiful 1966 adaptation. This is the stuff I grew up on. The animation was tight, the jokes were funny, and Boris Karloff's voice absolutely brought the Grinch to life. Important to note that The Whos are totally adorable. I mean, I'm getting teary right now thinking about the scene where everyone sings Fahoo Forays. *sniff sniff*


BAD: Ron Howard, I call blasphomy! I mean, could you please leave just just a little something good in your massacre? Something that reminds us of our moms reading to us in our beds on Christmas Eve? Something beautiful to remind us of how nice our neighborhood street can look when it's snowing and all the houses have twinkling lights? No. You had to go and make a bad acid trip of a family film, something that left me scared, repulsed and sad for the kids who will forever equate Dr. Seuss with garrish prostetics.

But I leave it down to Cindy Loo Who herself. I mean, who would you rather snuggle up to this holiday season?

QoD:Who I Write for

Why write for Kids?
Our QoD comes from Gregory K. Whose cool blog is very worth checking out:
http://gottabook.blogspot.com/2006/10/why-write-for-kids.html
(I hope that comes up as a link- I am the least technically able Longstocking.) I know that for many writers of kid lit this is a common question, but I have to admit I almost never get asked. When I tell my friends and family what I’m doing now, they smile and nod like, “yeah, of course that’s what Daphne’s doing.” The obvious reason for this is that even at 30 I was still reading kid lit for my own pleasure. The less obvious reason is that I think that point in my life, from about 10-16 is still somehow alive for me. I love being a grown up and all that comes with it, but there’s the place in my psyche that is still these ages and I can get there very quickly and easily. Which means that I remember the pain of rebuked crushes, the complexity that is girl teen friendship, the pressures of the high school social scene, all with the intensity of the time when I lived through it. And I remember how much books meant to me at that time.

I love to read now, as a way to expand my world, to escape, to relax. As a teen I read to find myself, to see my world reflected back to me in ways that could help me make sense of it. Now a good book is a deep form of pleasure, back then it was life changing. My favorite books fed my soul and nourished me when nothing else made sense. To this day the books I can best describe, scene to scene, are books I read as a teen. The book I read two weeks ago- not as clear.

So I write teen books to try to be part of that. I want to write books for the kid that I was, to help other teens make more sense of themselves and the world and their place in it. Whether my writing is anywhere near being good enough to do that is another story- this is the goal I set for myself, the challenge that feeds me as I write for the only group I’ve ever wanted to write for.

QoW: This is an easy one

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think is the best (or worst) movie adaptation of a children's book?

Come on, people. We all know the answer to this question. In fact, it may be the answer to, What do you think is the best movie adaptation of any book ever. No, not Gone With the Wind (close, but no cigar) or Lord of the Rings or Rebecca or um, Ten Commandments. The answer is, To Kill a Mockingbird. This is one of those rare cases where the movie actually stands up to the book, even stands alongside the book. Gregory Peck IS Atticus Finch. This movie is the gold standard: it is what other movie adaptations should strive to achieve. In short, it's wonderful. Enough said.

Since Caroline was so gracious to give Princess Bride trivia, I'll do the same for my beloved TKAM.

-The watch used in the film was a prop, but Harper Lee gave Gregory Peck her father's watch after the film was completed because he reminded her so much of him.
-Mary Badham messed up nearly every take in which the family was eating at the table. Phillip Alford didn't like eating the same meal dozens of times, so in one of the takes of the scene in which he rolls Badham in the tire, he aimed it at an equipment truck in an attempt to hurt her.
-Brock Peters started to cry while shooting the testifying scene, without rehearsing it this way, and Gregory Peck said that he had to look past him, instead of looking him in the eye, without choking up himself.
-The first scene that Gregory Peck shot showed him returning home from his character's law office while his children ran to greet him. Harper Lee was a guest on the set that day, and Peck noticed her crying after the scene was filmed. "Why are you crying?" Peck asked. Peck had looked just like her late father, the model for Atticus, Lee explained; Peck even had a little round pot belly like her father's. "That's not a pot belly, Harper," Peck told her, "That's great acting."

This movie has the three C's (that I just made up, but still) -- classy, clever, CLASSIC!

MFA Toolkit

I just saw that Poets&Writers has created an MFA Toolkit: A Guide for Researching Graduate Creative Writing Programs. It has information about different schools, the new wave of low-residency programs, and how to pull your application together.

If you want more information on what we Longstockings thought of the MFA in creative writing, and the program at the New School, check out our recent discussion.

QoW: As You Wish

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think is the best (or worst) movie adaptation of a children's book?

I might take some heat on this one, because it's not technically a children's book, but THE PRINCESS BRIDE is one of my all-time favorite books and one of my all-time favorite movies. I saw the movie first, when I was about eleven, and fell majorly in love with Wesley. I'm still rather smitten with him. A few years later, I discovered the book and have since read it, oh, twenty times. It's marvelous. If you have not read the book, buy it now. The movie does an excellent job of portraying the characters and the spirit of the book, but it leaves out some giant chunks of backstory. In the book you get the in-depth scoop on everyone, including Inigo and Fezzik. And, in the book, Buttercup is incredibly dense, which does not come across in the movie, but is terribly funny.

The movie also has an amazing score and was nominated for a Best Music, Original Song Oscar.

Fun bits of trivia: Director Rob Reiner had to leave the set during Billy Crystal's scenes because he would laugh so hard that he would feel nauseated. Also, during the filming of some scenes (on location in England), the weather became so unbearably cold for Robin Wright Penn that André the Giant would help her by placing one of his hands over her head; his hands were so large that one would entirely cover the top of her head, keeping her warm. Trivia from IMDb

"That's enough now, I mean it!"
"Anybody want a peanut?"

Tooting Our Own Longstocking

In this week's issue of the School Library Journal, our very own Coe Booth received a starred review and is listed on "Hot Picks" in the newsletter, and as Book of the Week on the homepage!

Check out Coe!

NaNoWriMo: Any takers?

Has anyone ever participated in National Novel Writing Month? You know, where you write a 50,000+ word novel in a month? Coe, I know you're participating in John Green's Finish-a-draft month. Anyone else doing anything? I'm a little tempted to dip my toes in and give it a shot, because speediness and "no looking back" and deadlines are not my strong suit. Maybe it would be good for me. I surely could use some help pressing forward and actually finishing something.

QoW: I don't have 'everlasting' love for this film

Note: Blogger was being mean to me while I was trying to post, and wouldn't allow me to add a picture. I'll try later, though.

Longstockings Question of the Week: What do you think is the best (or worst) movie adaptation of a children's book?

First off, I have to tell you that I don't have a great deal of evidence to support my point in this blog post, because I disliked the movie so much that I could barely pay attention while watching it and spent most of the time saying, "This is horrible. The book is so much better. Why am I even watching this?"

I strongly, strongly disliked the 2002 movie of Tuck Everlasting. First of all, Winnie Foster was ten years old in the book, an innocent little girl discovering herself, her role in the world, and her immortality. In the movie, Alexis Bledel seemed to be about fifteen, in my opinion. And the whole plot line was centered around the romance between Winnie and Jesse. We learn about that component in the book too, but in the movie it was like, "okay, enough already."

To make a long story (blog post) short, I didn't like this film. But to be honest, I probably wouldn't have liked any film adaptation of this book. Tuck Everlasting is perfect in my opinion, so any movie version would pale in comparison.

Little bit of trivia: The working title for the movie was going to be "The Everlasting Tucks" but the director thought the original name would fit the movie better.

Good call, Jay Russell.