Girl Detective

Julian Thompson’s The Grounding of Group 6 was from Chapter 3, Danger Girls of Lizzie Skurnicks Shelf Discovery, part of the Summer of Shelf Discovery reading adventure.

In Group 6, five kids and an adult counselor find themselves on the wrong end of some plans by mean parents and nasty, caricatured by amusing, school teachers. They hide in the woods, live off the land, and amazingly, the 3 girls and 3 guys end up pairing up and getting all hot and bothered. There are several mentions of birth control here, which I appreciated, acknowledging teen hormones but not romanticizing them.

I would have found this book cathartic as a teen, with its persecuted-by-adults theme, but as an actual adult, I found it at times pretty silly. Enjoyable enough, but as a relic, not as an enduring classic.

Sorry that this post is late but welcome to week four of the Summer of Shelf Discovery reading project (project sounds so stiff. Adventure? Diversion? Vacation? Book Bender?) in which we a chapter of Lizzie Skurnick’s book memoir Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, and talking about the books she includes in each chapter.

Chapter 4 is “Read ‘Em and Weep: Tearing Up the Pages,” on the books that made us cry. Like the Kids-in-Danger trope of chapter 3, the Sad Book trope got me thinking: what is it that drew us to these books? What buttons did they push that were so alluring that we returned to these books again and again, knowing they made us sad? Is it like scratching a mosquito bite, or poking at a sore spot? Why did we watch The Champ and Terms of Endearment over and over? How did Lurlene McDaniel build a franchise on Dying Girl books?

For this week, I re-read Katherine Paterson’s Jacob Have I Loved. I marveled, though, that I couldn’t remember why it had made me cry. After reading, though, it makes sense. The book made me cry because it was complicated, and it didn’t have easy lessons, and because the narrator, Sara Louise, unkindly nicknamed Wheeze by her prettier more talented twin Caroline, struggled with ugly and awkward emotions and no lessons were spelled out. There wasn’t AN EVENT, as there was in books like Bridge to Terabithia, A Taste of Blackberries, A Summer to Die, et al.

As the older, good-grade getting sister of a younger, cuter, more attention-earning sister, I had a fierce love and identification with Louise. I knew what those ugly emotions felt like. I’d enacted some of those nasty behaviors, like telling my sister she was adopted (absurd if you see our family together) and that on family trips she should stay awake, as Mom and Dad didn’t love her as much, and the rest of us just might leave her in the middle of the night. (Some of this might be apocryphal, but it’s entered into family lore as Truth, so I’ve stopped trying to defend myself.)

So, what weepies did you read as a girl/teen, and why do you think we were drawn to them, often over and over? What are the modern weepies? John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars? Wonder by Palacio?

Hey, if you’re reading along, remember to comment, as Lizzie Skurnick has a signed copy and maybe a prize pack for one of you co-readers. And I HIGHLY recommend friending Lizzie on FB, to see many more covers and join the old-book lovers club.

I seem to have fallen RATHER behind on my movie entries, so this will be a crazy mash up. Buckle in; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

The Cabin in the Woods (2012) Written by Joss Whedon. Both an homage and a send up of horror movies. A lot of fun, if you can stomach scary movies. Like a 90-minute, really good episode of Buffy with lots of Whedon alums.

Working Girl (1988) Oh, the hair and the fashions. Young Alec Baldwin, with chest hair so thick you could lose small items in it. Melanie Griffith, whose breathy girly voice works, and she even carries the movie, though with plenty of help from Joan Cusack, Harrison Ford and Sigourney. I’m including quotes for those of you who will smile at them. If you haven’t seen the movie, or don’t remember it, rent now!

Cusack, in one of her earliest “less good looking but funnier friend” roles:

Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn’t make me Madonna. Never will.

Six thousand dollars? It’s not even leather!

Handsome, rakish Harrison Ford (oh, the shirt-changing scene):

[the morning after Tess passed out from drinking]
Tess McGill: What did happen, exactly?
Jack Trainer: The earth moved. The angels wept. The Polaroids are, are, uh… [gropes about in his coat pockets]
Jack Trainer: are in my other coat. [Grins]
Jack Trainer: Nothing happened. Nothing happened!

Harpyish Sigourney:

Why that little… slut! Bitch! Secretary!

A really good romantic comedy, which is a scarce commodity these days.

Iron Giant (1999) I love this film. We watched it with the boys. They really liked it.

Coraline (2009) Watched with the kids. Liked, but didn’t love it.

Slings and Arrows Season 3. The last season of this Canadian series about the wacky adventures of a Canadian theater. Not as good as Seasons 1 and 2, as it’s repetitive. Might have been better at just 4 episodes, not 6. Canadians pronounce the word “sorry” in a way that’s strange to my ears, and they say it A LOT in this series.

The Incredible Hulk (2008) aka the Edward Norton, not the Ang Lee one. Decent. Like the other Marvel superhero movies we watched, a solid B movie.

Take Shelter (2011) A moody, weird movie, slow but engaging with great performances. A man is having really bad dreams; is he crazy, or a visionary?

Tiny Furniture (2010) Odd little indie. Has that weird, uncomfortable, self-conscious vibe of Woody Allen movies. But funny, and oddly sweet at times.

And finally,

Cowboy Bebop (the television series)

The series became a cult classic and later came to be regarded as a masterpiece. Cowboy Bebop is now considered to be one of the greatest and most influential anime of all time. It garnered major science fiction awards and has received universal praise for its characters, story, strong voice acting, animation and soundtrack.

We watched all 26 “sessions” as well as Session 0. Entertaining and involving, though uneven as most series are (I liked the mythology episodes and ones with Ed and Ein best, and disliked the Jet backstories) but visually and musically striking. A CLEAR influence on Joss Whedon’s Firefly. No space hookers, though, for which I was grateful. In fact, no hookers at all. Woo hoo!

Hey, there was no dud in this bunch. Again, woo hoo!

I’m not sure when I first read Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game (before it won the Newbery Medal?), but I do know it was in the regular re-reading rotation for years. I’ve never learned to play chess, one of the central metaphors of the book. (My husband has tried to teach me several times, and my 6yo once, but it never sticks.) But it still was not necessary for me to enjoy this book, which I did yet again, as a selection from Chapter 3: “Danger Girls,” of Lizzie Skurnick’s reading memoir, Shelf Discovery, which a bunch of us are reading this summer (or reading along with) here at Girl Detective.

I smiled when I re-encountered Turtle Wexler, she of the flying braid and shin kicks. I was a shin kicker myself, back in 3rd and 4th grade, so I empathized with Turtle’s method of anger management, or lack thereof. I wonder if I was as horrified, as a child, by the flagrant disregard her mother had for her, as I was on this read. All of the adults in the book are interestingly flawed and damaged, but Grace’s active neglect of Turtle and overt favoritism to her elder knocked the air out of me. This did make it all the easier to cheer for her as she and the other fifteen heirs are challenged to discover who killed Sam Westing. The characters are given clues and partners, but the author gives the reader clues as well. We know when the characters are lying or telling the truth, and we also know, because we’re told up front, that one of them is a bookie, one a bomber, one a thief and one a mistake. I remembered who the bomber was, but not the thief or the mistake. Those were joys to re-discover on this reading.

It’s a marvelous puzzle, and I didn’t figure out the ending the first time I read it. Even though I remember “the solution” it’s such a joy to travel the path to get to it that I never mind.

A few things stuck out to me on this read, though, in addition to the astonishing neglect and favoritism of Turtle’s mom:

1. Mr. Hoo is a real jerk.

2. Many, perhaps most, of the characters are hastily sketched, as it’s a short book in which plot takes precedence.

3. Raskin chose to draw out the endings for all our characters, which reminds me of how the Harry Potter series ends. What happened to the characters wasn’t left to the readers’ imaginations. I like the fates she gave them, but I think leaving endings more oblique gives more credit to the reader.

Still, a thumping good read, and one I will encourage my boys to dive into.

Lizzie Skurnick, author of Shelf Discovery, has offered to donate a signed copy of her book, to one of the readers during the Summer of Shelf Discovery. So be sure to comment, as I’ll be compiling names and do a drawing at the end!

The whole enchilada

and if you want to read along with a book a week

Chapter 3 of Lizzie Skurnick’s reading memoir Shelf Discovery is “Danger Girls: I Know What You Did Last Summer (Reading).” Interestingly, she writes about the following books, which include two Lois Duncan titles, though not the one in the chapter’s title.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan
The Grounding of Group 6 by Julian Thompson
Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L’Engle
Dragons in the Waters by Madeleine L’Engle
Secret Lives by Berthe Amoss

Skurnick compares these mysteries favorably to those with Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, beloved as they are:

not only are these serious business, but the complexity of the plots is matched only by the complexity of the challenges the characters face. In each case, there’s a mystery to be solved, to be sure. But each protagonist is also a mystery to herself–and one we are just as eager to see her solve.

I think this is true, but I think Skurnick gets closer to the reason I was reading with this, when she writes about one of my former favorites, Summer of Fear. She lists all the scary things that happen in the book, and notes that certain aspects of the villain ON TOP OF THOSE might be seen as overkill to adults, yet were like catnip to twelve year olds who WANTED to be scared.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that the adults in these are mean, clueless, or both. One of my annoyances with many modern children’s book, like the Harry Potter series, is that THEY NEVER TALK TO DUMBLEDORE OR PROFESSOR MCGONAGLE. Which is maddening to me, as the reasonable grownups would help. I like that there ARE reasonable grownups in the book, but I think it’s interesting how making them mean/clueless is an effective way to remove them from the equation.

For this chapter, I re-read, and thoroughly enjoyed, The Westing Game. (Like Turtle, I was a shin kicker. I kind of miss that easy way to express one’s displeasure.) And I read The Grounding of Group 6 for the first time. I enjoyed it, and am sure I would have done so as a kid, but would rather have re-read either Summer of Fear or I Am the Cheese instead.

Another of the teen-in-danger books I loved when I was that age was The Solid Gold Kid by Harry and Norma Fox Mazer, about a millionaire’s son who gets kidnapped. I found a copy on my used-book binge for this, and look forward to reading it again.

What do you think is the attraction of the teen-in-danger trope?

What books did you re/read this week from the above, what are other teen-in-danger books you have fond memories of, or what are some modern teen-in-danger books? Would this be the best chapter for Katniss, Bella and Lisbeth Salander?

How to read along this summer.

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Revisiting Judy Blume’s Blubber, about friendship and bullying, was more than a little strange. I recalled a few things about the book: one, that it wasn’t written from the Point of View (POV) of the bullied fat girl of the title, and two, to flense is to strip the blubber off a whale carcass, and three, there was a scene in which the main characters family had to scrimp to buy her a pair of huarache sandals that then the bullied girl got too, which the original girl noticed when the bullied girl walks to the front of the class and the new huaraches squeak.

So, imagine my surprise to find no huarache scene at all. Someone on the Shelf Discovery page at Facebook suggests is was in a book called Kitty in the Middle by Judy Delton that I don’t remember reading at all.

The other two memories were correct, though. The book is written from the POV of Jill, who goes along, mostly unquestioningly, with Queen Bee Wendy and her henchgirl Caroline, with the bullying of poor Linda Fischer, who has a potato-shaped head, a grey tooth, and is overweight. Jill is best friends with Tracy Wu, who was previously bullied for being Chinese, but stood up to her tormentors. Linda, however, caves immediately.

The book is complicated, in that it has no easy answers, and Jill doesn’t get a lot of insight by the end. In other words, it’s probably very close to real life. It was painful to read, and to be reminded of those vicious middle school days, when getting kicked out of a group was painful, yet didn’t prevent me from participating in kicking someone else out. I was guilty of the sins of Jill. The friends shift except for Jill and Tracy, and this, too, I found true to life.

The lack of overt lesson about bullying is troubling to me, as a parent, yet as a writer, I admire how Blume has made a complicated book. I agree with Jennifer Weiner’s essay in Shelf Discovery about it, though, that I don’t think Blume had a lot of sympathy for Linda. She is portrayed as no more sympathetic than the Queen Bee Wendy, in my opinion.

As part of the Summer of Shelf Discovery, we’re revisiting classic children’s and YA books, yet what about now? What are the modern equivalents of Margaret Simon, and Beth Ellen from The Long Secret?

For Chapter 2 of the Summer of Shelf Discovery, I found Beverly Cleary’s Sister of the Bride sweet, but not cloying. Barbara, sixteen, is envious of her sister Rosemary, eighteen, who announces she is going to marry her boyfriend. As the little sister, she feels like she always gets the leftovers. Every time I thought it would devolve into something terrible, it didn’t. Cleary lightly juggles many sides of many issues: early marriage, education, siblings, the lure of weddings vs. the reality of marriage (a pet topic of mine). It’s written pre-Vietnam, and it shows but it’s also interesting to think what might become of these characters in a few years, because all the boys/men (Greg, Bill Cunningham, Tootie Bodger, even little brother Gordy) are likely to be drafted.

Doesn’t Rosemary look like Drew Barrymore on the painted cover? Another pet peeve: look how skinny Barbara’s arms are!

What book from Chapter 2 did you read, or what book comes to mind about kids on the verge of puberty? If you blogged about it, include a link and I’ll compile a weekly list in a post.

The reading project Summer of Shelf Discovery is based on Lizzie Skurnick’s reading memoir about re-reading children’s and young adult books from one’s youth. In Chapter 2, Girls on the Verge, guest author Meg Cabot wrote about Margaret. But Shelf Discovery came out of Fine Lines, a series of columns that Skurnick wrote for the website Jezebel, and it’s there that Skurnick wrote about Margaret:

For the entire span of this column, there has never been a time when I could not return back to both the moment in time when I read the book as well as re-experience exactly what it was like to do so. But in re-reading AYTGIMM, I was deeply disturbed to find I couldn’t do either….

But on this return – the events of Margaret’s life seemed thin to me, and her concerns so very distant. Rather than feeling like I could reexperience everything with her, I felt nothing so much as if I were spying.

I felt similarly when I re-read AYTGIMM. I felt like I was watching Margaret’s story unfold, rather than feeling it. I appreciated it, at times I enjoyed it, but along with a denouement it lacks a certain something that I find hard to put into words. Something that makes me feel or think on a different level? I agree with Skurnick when she writes:

there is nothing thin about the events of Margaret’s life, and nothing small about her concerns. There is nothing more charged than the year we girls start to think about sex. (Margaret doesn’t talk to God because she’s religious – she talks to him because she can’t figure out who else could safely hold all this powerful information.)

She wonders if the reason she can’t experience the book along with Margaret this time is that she’s no longer a girl on the verge:

Because, like any club, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” might be an institution made for a certain kind of member during a certain kind of time, and this old lady has no more business being there than Moose Freed does listening at the door. (After all, now I’m closer to grandma Sylvia Simon’s age – ACK! – than Margaret’s.)

And Amy at New Century Reading ends her entry on Margaret in a similar way:

I’m glad I had the chance to revisit this book, although I confess I’m pretty sure I’ll never read it again. It’s a fine book and I would still recommend it to girls at this age, but it doesn’t hold up as well for adults,

For those of you who re-read Margaret, or remember reading Margaret–do you think it’s a book that was important as a girl, but not when you’re older? To paraphrase Blume: was that then, and this is now?

Welcome to week 2 of my summer reading project, the Summer of Shelf Discovery–reading a chapter of Lizzie Skurnick’s reading memoir a week, along with a book she writes about in that chapter. (or a book that fits the theme from that time period, from this time period, from a genre, whatever.)

This week we’re talking about Chapter 2 ,”She’s at That Age: Girls on the Verge,” about the whiplash of puberty.

The books from the chapter are:

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume,
Blubber by Judy Blume,
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume,
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume,
Sister of the Bride by Beverly Cleary,
The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danziger,
The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh,
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle,
And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine by Stella Pevsner,
Caroline by Willo Davis Roberts,
To Take a Dare by Paul Zindel and Crescent Dragonwagon

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is the most famous of this bunch. I always thought of Then Again Maybe I Won’t as the boy version of Margaret. Hers was about periods and breasts, his about erections and wet dreams. Of all the above books, these are the two that seem the most concerned with the actual nuts and bolts (so to speak, sorry, hard–oh, rats–difficult to avoid puns in this chapter, no?) of puberty. This is probably why they remain some of the most banned and most widely read books from this chapter.

(Or is this just me? Are other books from above more widely known, except maybe for the other Blume books, Blubber and Tiger Eyes?)

I re-read Are You There, God? (entry here) and read Beverly Cleary’s Sister of the Bride for the first time (entry to come later this week). I think it’s interesting that Margaret is most remembered for the period and bust stuff, but not for the religion, which is about half the book. Meg Cabot (author of The Princess Diaries, and guest writer on this book in Chapter 2) likes how it ends:

Judy Blume’s books aren’t “issue” driven, never offering readers a “message” or “lesson”; and they don’t have pat, sugarcoated Hollywood endings to leave readers feeling satisfied.

I don’t agree on either count. Blume’s books _are_ largely issue driven, though she does a good job of making the book and characters about more than the issue–Are You There, God? is about girl puberty and religion; Then Again is about boy puberty and social class; Deenie is about scoliosis and parental pressure; Blubber is about bullying.

Also, the ending of Margaret didn’t leave me satisfied. I felt like Margaret got her period, turned in her letter and bam, the book was over. Cabot commends the Blume characters because they “simply go on living. Just like the rest of us.” Yet I felt that somewhere between the period and paper and the rest of her life would have been a nicer place to end, rather than living just to her first period and that paper.

I liked revisiting Are You There God?, and really liked reading Sister of the Bride, though it often had the feel of a 60’s television screenplay; I could hear the actors chirping their lines in my head.

In addition to Cabot’s take on the universality of Margaret, Jennifer Weiner (author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and a lot of famous books) writes about Blubber, and Skurnick writes about all the others. Some of them I’d read, others I hadn’t, but after reading the chapter itself, I find myself needing to re-read Blubber because of Weiner’s fascinating take on it, and Deenie for Chapter 5 because I DO NOT remember Deenie having a “special spot” (though of course I remember her full name was Wilmadeen and she was named after Natalie Woods’ character in Splendor in the Grass and both of them cut their hair off.)

What did you read of these books, or other books about girls (or boys) on the verge? What did you think of Skurnick’s, Cabot’s and Weiner’s take on these books?

Other entries:

Summer of Shelf Discovery reading project

Shelf Discovery Week 1

I’ve told everyone I know and their cousin (and all MY cousins) about my summer reading project, which started last week. It’s to read one chapter of Lizzie SKurnick’s reading memoir Shelf Discovery per week, plus one of the books she writes about in that chapter.

But this isn’t one of those online book challenges with tons of rules or restrictions. This is supposed to be fun and easy. You don’t need to read Shelf Discovery to appreciate re-reading these books. The easiest way to participate would be to scan through this list, see which books look good, re-read them, and visit the blog on the date of “discussion” in the comments.

On Monday June 18 we’ll be commenting on

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Blume, Judy
Blubber by Blume, Judy
Tiger Eyes by Blume, Judy
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Blume, Judy
Sister of the Bride by Cleary, Beverly
Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Danziger, Paula
The Long Secret by Fitzhugh, Louise
A Ring of Endless Light by L’Engle, Madeleine
And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine by Pevsner, Stella
Caroline by Roberts, Willo Davis
To Take a Dare by Zindel, Paul and Dragonwagon, Crescent

For Monday June 25
Chapter 3 “Danger Girls: I Know What You Did Last Summer (Reading)”, and pick one:

Secret Lives by Amoss, Berthe
I Am the Cheese by Cormier, Robert
Daughters of Eve by Duncan, Lois
Summer of Fear by Duncan, Lois
The Arm of the Starfish by L’Engle, Madeleine
Dragons in the Waters by L’Engle, Madeleine
The Westing Game by Raskin, Ellen
The Grounding of Group 6 by Thompson, Julian F.

For Monday July 2
Chapter 4 “Read ‘Em and Weep: Tearing Up the Pages”, and pick one:

The Gift of the Pirate Queen by Giff, Patricia Reilly
Summer of My German Soldier by Green, Bette
Beat the Turtle Drum by Greene, Constance C.
Jacob Have I Loved by Paterson, Katherine
Bridge to Terabithia by Paterson, Katherine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Peck, Robert Newton
Tell Me if the Lovers are Losers by Voigt, Cynthia
The Pigman by Zindel, Paul

For Monday July 9
Chapter 5 “You Heard It Here First: Very Afterschool Specials”, and pick one:

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Deenie by Blume, Judy
It’s Not the End of the World by Blume, Judy
Are You in the House Alone? by Peck, Richard
Don’t Hurt Laurie! by Roberts, Willo Davis

For Monday July 16
Chapter 6 “Girls Gone Wild: Runaways, Left Behinds and Ladies Living Off the Fat of the Land”, and pick one:

Understood Betsy by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
Julie of the Wolves by George, Jean Craighead
The Endless Steppe: A Girl in Exile by Hautzig, Esther
Island of the Blue Dolphins by O’Dell, Scott
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Speare, Elizabeth George
Homecoming by Voigt, Cynthia
Little House on the Prairie by Wilder, Laura Ingalls

For Monday July 23
Chapter 7 “She Comes by It Supernaturally: Girls Who Are Gifted and Talented”, and pick one:

Jane-Emily by Clapp, Patricia
A Gift of Magic by Duncan, Lois
Stranger with my Face by Duncan, Lois
Down a Dark Hall by Duncan, Lois
Hangin’ Out with Cici by Pascal, Francine
Ghosts I Have Been by Peck, Richard
Girl with the Silver Eyes by Roberts, Willo Davis

For Monday July 30
Chapter 8 “Him She Loves: Romanced, Rejected, Affianced, Dejected”, and pick one:

Forever by Blume, Judy
Fifteen by Cleary, Beverly
To All My Fans, With Love, From Sylvie by Conford, Ellen
The Moon by Night by L’Engle, Madeleine
In Summer Light by Oneal, Zibby
Happy Endings are All Alike by Scoppetone, Sandra
My Darling, My Hamburger by Zindel, Paul

For Monday August 6
Chapter 9 “Old Fashioned Girls: They Wear Bonnets, Don’t They?” Pick one:

Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken, Joan
An Old Fashioned Girl by Alcott, Louisa May
The Secret Garden by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
A Little Princess by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Belles on the Their Toes by Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth
Cheaper by the Dozen by Gilbreth, Jr, Frank B.
All of a Kind Family by Taylor, Sydney

For Monday August 13
Chapter 10 “Panty Lines: I Can’t Believe They Let Us Read This”, and pick one:

My Sweet Audrina by Andrews, V.C.
Flowers in the Attic by Andrews, V.C.
Clan of the Cave Bear by Auel, Jean
Wifey by Blume, Judy
Domestic Arrangements by Klein, Norma

Monday August 20: Discuss the book as a whole, and the re-reading/reminiscing experience.

I got Gilgamesh the Hero by Geraldine McCaughrean and illustrated by David Parkins, from the library for my 8yo son Drake’s school project on Mesopotamia. He read it when we did the project*, and I just got around to reading it.

McCaghrean’s version is good, accessible, and I enjoyed Parkins’ art. It reminds me of the D’Aulaire mythology books. I think I would have really enjoyed this as a kid. We used The Gilgamesh Trilogy picture books by Ludmila Zeman for the project, and liked those a lot. This one is for slightly older kids. I’m working my way up to a grown up version. Heh.

*I could have sworn I posted this on the blog, but apparently not. We made a Lego video of some of the Gilgamesh stories. I doubt you will see a cuter version of the Gilgamesh epic.

It’s really one of the best titles, isn’t it? You never want to say the whole Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret aloud (or type it more than twice), but the phrase is iconic, as is the book, which has been read and beloved by bajillions of pre-teen girls. Why? Because it talked about periods, and buying bras, and envying girls who are more developed than others. It contained things that were felt very real and important when I was whatever age I was when I read it (9? 10? 11 at the latest).

Before re-reading it, I recalled a few details: the obsession over getting periods, the “we must” chant, and her school project about choosing a religion. After reading it, and filling in the chinks with the rest of the story, I’m left with an experience much like I probably had growing up. I like this book, and like Margaret, and like Judy Blume for writing Margaret. It’s a sweet book. Like From the Mixed-Up Files… (another great, unwieldy title), nothing truly awful happens to kids. Unlike that book, though, this one ended quickly. As I did with A Wrinkle in Time, I wished for more of a denouement. And while it was a pleasure to revisit Margaret, she doesn’t have the hold on me that Meg or Claudia do.

Chad Harbach’s Art of Fielding was last year’s acclaimed first novel. It’s this month’s selection for one of my book groups (not to be confused with my summer reading project) and it just came out in trade paperback, so it moved to the top of the pile.

I was suspicious. I don’t care much for baseball; I think it’s boring and had an ex-boyfriend who was WAY into it. Also, it was big, and I wanted to bury myself in skinny YA novels from my youth. So I never would have thought I’d tear through the 500+ pages in four days. But that’s exactly what I did, and exactly how engaging and easy to read I found this book.

It’s set at a small midwestern college, and has five main characters, four of whom trade narration. While it’s largely concerned with baseball (three of the five are on the team, and the other two get involved with them in various ways) I found it compelling for its characterizations, its academic setting, and the stories. I cared about these five, even if I sometimes didn’t like them and wanted to shake them. I was interested to see what happened, and blazed through the book so I could find out.

While there’s a lot of Melville and Moby Dick references, a friend on another site noted that she found the book similar in feel to one by John Irving, and I agree. This was a great summer read. It had moments both sad and funny, it was set on a campus, and was a quick read, while being more substantive than breezy. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

Your weekend “homework,” for the Summer of Shelf Discovery, if you choose to accept it, is to read Chapter 2 of Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery and one or more books from or related to Chapter 2 “She’s at That Age: Girls on the Verge”. Or just visit on Monday June 18, 2012 to comment on any of these, or other books about pre-adolescents.

Bonus, Skurnick writes about A Ring of Endless Light at Jezebel today.

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Blume, Judy
Blubber by Blume, Judy
Tiger Eyes by Blume, Judy
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Blume, Judy
Sister of the Bride by Cleary, Beverly
Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Danziger, Paula
The Long Secret by Fitzhugh, Louise
A Ring of Endless Light by L’Engle, Madeleine
And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine by Pevsner, Stella
Caroline by Roberts, Willo Davis
To Take a Dare by Zindel, Paul and Dragonwagon, Crescent

Since we’ve been revisiting the books of our youth this week as part of the Summer of Shelf Discovery readalong, I was amused to see Linda Holmes at NPR write about the 70’s game show Match Game and how Richard Dawson often stole the show.

I vividly recall watching this show over the years: Match Game 76, 77, and 78 (I think he popped a balloon that year to mark the change) and then it became PM, and I think we stopped watching it when we moved to Worthington Ohio. It’s paired in my mind with the Adam West Batman, and these are what I think of when I wonder if I’m letting my kids watch too much television.

Speaking of the Adam West Batman, here’s a bit at HuffPo with a 1972 Public Service Announcement featuring one of my favorite heroines of youth, Batgirl.

Welcome to the Summer of Shelf Discovery Readalong! The “assignment” is to read a chapter a week of Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery: The Teenage Classics We Never Stopped Reading, plus a book a week from each chapter. (Overview here.)

But really, do what you want. Read Shelf Discovery, or don’t (though I do recommend it.) Read a book a week. Or don’t. Read a related book to that week’s theme. Or don’t. Heck, if you just want to re-read Are You There God It’s Me Margaret, join us next Monday on June 18. Basically, read what you want to, but I hope you’ll join in the discussion of these books about coming of age that were read when we were coming of age.

This week, we’ll “talk” in the comments section about Chapter 1, “Still Checked Out: YA Heroines We’ll Never Return”, and any of these, which are from the chapter:

Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume
Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
The Great Brain by John D.Fitzgerald
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Ludell by Brenda Wilkinson

Or comment on a book you enjoyed as a teen that has a memorable heroine, or a modern book that you think belongs in this “canon.” (Katniss? Lisbeth Salander?)

For week 1. I read the Foreward by Laura Lippman, the Introduction by the author, and Chapter 1, “Still Checked Out: YA Heroines We’ll Never Return.”

Skurnick and her guest writers, like Lippman and Anna Holmes (who wrote on Harriet the Spy), all pull something out of the books and reading process that makes we want to nod my head vigorously in agreement.

From Laura Lippman’s Foreward:

By the time we realize the profound influences of our youthful reading lists, it’s too late to undo them. Yes, if I knew then what I know now, I would have read more seriously and critically during those crucial years that my brain was a big, porous sponge.

From Skurnick’s Introduction:

Some of the lives I read about were very similar to mine…But it wasn’t about finding myself–or not finding myself–in the circumstances of a girl’s life, as much as I might be fascinated by it. It was about seeing myself–and my friends and enemies–in the actual girl.

It might have begun with the covers. Most were either snapshots or looked like soft paintings of snapshots (whither, whither the painted cover?), with girls who were neither good-looking nor not-good-looking

(Aside: as I’ve been combing the clearance shelves of used bookstores in my areas, I’ve been eschewing newer, nicer copies for older ones with painted covers. And imagine my surprise when my mom sent me a copy of Meet the Austins, though it’s not on Skurnick’s list, and I recognized myself on the painted cover. Those who knew me in grade and middle school can agree or not, but I swear, that’s me under the tree on the left, reading a book.)

I loved this, from the book report on Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume (which I didn’t know was autobiographical) on not knowing stuff from a book, and using it incorrectly in the world:

I wonder if another reason we swoon for Sally J. is that, as readers, we were very much at the same level of detail comprehension–not only in our real-world lives, but in our reading of the book itself.

And from Jezebel creator Anna Holmes’ essay, which ensures that I’ll not only re-read Harriet the Spy, but must own a copy with the old tomboyish image of Harriet on the cover (who knew Harriet might be based on Scout? Not me!):

In the end, of course, Harriet is both able to hold onto her sense of self (”I LOVE MYSELF’ she writes in her notebook) while adding a new skill to her already formidable repertoire: empathy. And in doing so, she becomes not only one of the most well-rounded female characters in the book, but one of the most well-rounded females characters in children’s literature–less interested in dance classes, attracting boys or playing bridge or mahjong than sating her own appetite for curiosity about the world around her. (36)

So, what did you think about Chapter 1 of Skurnick’s book?

Are there any old-school heroines you think belong (Anne Shirley, Pippi Longstocking, Trixie Belden, someone else?)

Any new-school heroines you think would fit right in?

If you read one of the books, which one, what did you think?

Let me know in the comments (they take a bit to approve). If you wrote about it on your site, link back to that. Thanks for joining us here!

If I had to pick just one book to read from chapter 1 of Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery, it was going to be A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I remember checking this book out of the Evening Street Elementary School library, and the librarian telling me she didn’t think I was old enough to read it. And from there it stands in my memory as the first of my favorite books.

I bonded with Meg Murry, the self-conscious, awkward heroine:

She looked at herself in the wardrobe mirror and made a horrible face, baring a mouthful of teeth covered with braces. Automatically she pushed her glasses into position, ran her fingers through her mouse-brown hair so that it stood wildly on end, and let out a sight almost as noisy as the wind. (8)

The rhythms and plot points of the book had blurred over time, but re-reading felt like getting on a bicycle, or catching up with an old friend–the balance never left.

A few things that struck me reading this as an adult: Charles Wallace would have been evaluated for autism/Asperger’s by the time he was five in this day and age. It’s hard to read IT just as ‘it’ now, and not as EYE TEE (information technology). And, wow, the climax of the novel is on page 253, and it ends three pages later. A denouement would have been really nice. Still, I loved this book then, and now love it again. It is physically hard to restrain myself from going off to read A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

In the ponderously but perfectly titled From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Claudia Kincaid, twelve, of Greenwich, CT is going to run away. She’s planning carefully, spurred consciously by injustice, but perhaps unconsciously by boredom:

The fact that her allowance was so small that it took her more than three weeks of skipping hot fudge sundaes to save enough for train fare was another example of injustice…Since she intended to return home after everyone had learned a lesson in Claudia appreciation, she had to save money for her return trip, too. (6-7)

Claudia, with her high standards, grammatical correctness, and desire to spend on the good things in life is a girl after my own heart. Good thing she takes along her penny-pinching little brother Jamie, as both bankroller and accountant. They run away to some place famous, have adventures, and get ensnared in a mystery in this funny, sweet, engaging book.

I’m not sure _I_ appreciated Claudia enough when I was a girl. I remember reading this book, and liking it. But this is a book worthy of love. I think Lizzie Skurnick gets to the nut of it in Shelf Discovery when she writes this:

in our post-irony age, Claudia’s experience is also a wonderful reminder of how children, though they may be precocious, certainly aren’t born knowing everything; and that when they do learn about life, it’s not always something awful they discover. (25)

There’s a wonderful lack of awful-ness in this book that made it a joy to read.