Serendipity or maybe just coincidence

Lyndon’s blog last week spoke about the many dysfunctional parents in YA literature. While he was writing I was at Reading Matters listening to similar discussions. There are many bloggers who have written full and informative reports so I won’t try to reproduce those blogs. Instead, some random comments (in random order) sparked by the many wonderful and some not so wonderful discussions over the two days.  

 

First the not so wonderful:

• hearing more than one delegate complain that they haven’t had time to read “real books” – YA are real books  - often much better reading and better written than adult books

• hearing a Grade 12 creative writing student say she was no longer reading YA as she couldn’t cite it in her school work

• hearing about Keith Gray and Dianne Touchell being disinvited to speak at prearranged events as their books might offend parents

Among the wonderful:

• A reminder about Maureen Johnson’s blog on book covers that became larger than life: Maureen Johnson's Blog

• Listening to Gabrielle Williams describe her journey into the Melbourne drains (reminiscent of Cassandra Clare’s urban exploration and just as humourous)

• The 18 instructions on how to use a ladder

• Discovering new authors (new to me) Tim Sinclair and Keith Gray

• Seeing the YA team beat the emerging writers in the debate on Friday night – thanks to an excellent reading by Libba Bray 

• Realising I’d read half of the Inky’s longlist: Inky's Longlist

And now to read some the rest.

Nella Pickup