Megan Frazer

Last week I gave birth to the most beautiful baby, so I’m taking a little break from posting. In the meantime, be sure to visit www.feastofawesome.com to find out what other 2009 debut authors are up to.

The finalists for the National Book Awards were announced today. Here are the finalists for Young People’s Literature:

Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Alfred A. Knopf)

I’ve only read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks so far, but I am so excited it was nominated. It’s at the top of my list of books I’ve read in 2008, and has become a standard by which I measure my own writing.

Good luck to all the nominees!

It seems weird to celebrate Banned Books Week, because it sounds like you’re saying “Hooray! Let’s go ban some books!” But really, of course, what you should be celebrating is your freedom to read.

Each year, the ALA releases a list of the most challenged books of the previous year — that is, the books that individuals most frequently tried to get removed from library shelves. A great number of these are books for children and young adults, mostly under the guise of protecting children from sexuality, witchcraft, strong language, and other things that tend to scare adults more than kids. What bugs me about this is not that people find the books objectionable, but that they think their objections should be the rule for everyone else.

A number of authors have written about BBW. Maureen Johnson is, as usual funny, eloquent, and, in my opinion, spot on. One of my favorite posts comes from Saundra Mitchell (and not just because she references a discussion we had). Saundra and I both believe strongly in the freedom to read, but come at the issue of challenges quite differently. She sees them as a chance to further discussion and to defend the rights of all of our citizens. To my mind, it’s just another example of small-mindedness that I’d like to see disappear entirely.

Whatever your take on book banning attempts — sad or an opportunity for growth — take some time this week to appreciate your freedom to read.

P.S. I am celebrating by wearing my super-awesome banned books bracelet given to me by the lovely Amanda Hubbard, author of Prada and Prejudice.

My agent, Sara Crowe, just started up a new blog for all of her clients to talk about writing for children and young adults, Crowe’s Nest. The very awesome Heidi Kling and Saundra Mitchell are just two of the many talented writers you will find there. I just posted about revisions.

Why are Heidi and Saundra so awesome? Well, they just are. But also, they are part of 2009 Debutantes with me. Heidi is actually going to be published in 2010 now, and is spearheading the 2010 Debutantes group. You should go to livejournal right now and sign up to watch the 2009 Debs because we are planning fabulous sekrit things that may or may not involve presents.

Recently Sarah MacLean, author of the upcoming The Season, posted somewhat guiltily of her envy of Aaron Sorkin. I assured her it was nothing to be guilty about. I love TV (although, funnily enough, I am currently without cable and watch all my TV online or through Netflix). I think some of the best storytelling goes on there — especially serialized stories. We tune into Lost the way people used to wait for the next Dickens installment, and I, for one, am grateful that my serialization is more this:

than Tale of Two Cities.

In all seriousness, I once saw Tom Fontana speak at the Museum of Television and Radio, and he said, roughly, “The best thing about television is also the worst thing about television: there’s something for everyone.” (I think the same could be said of YA lit, but that’s another whole blog post.) It’s easy to deride all the junk on television, and, because of that, easy to miss the really great stuff.

So, here’s my list of TV shows that I love for their writing — be it the dialogue, the characters, or the way the stories are developed. I would have loved to have written for any of these shows.

• Homicide: Life on the Street This is my all-time favorite. The characters are amazing — they always surprise you, but then you realize they are acting exactly true to themselves.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer Really, anything by Joss Whedon. He’s the master of introducing ideas or characters that seem like throw aways and then, six episodes later, you realize they hold the key to everything. Angel had one of the best last episodes ever. Second only to the finale of Homicide which ended with the same dialogue that began the first episode.
• Sports Night See Sarah’s blog for why this show rocked.
• Freaks and Geeks This is a new obsession, but I’m pretty sure it will stand the test of time for me. It makes me feel like I’m in high school again.

Those are the ones that come to mind immediately. Now here’s what’s kind of sad: with the exception of Buffy, the networks didn’t know how to handle, and ultimately doomed, all of them. From Joss Whedon, you can add Firefly to that list. Boo, networks!