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Jan. 3rd, 2006 07:22 pmThis has definitely been a bit of an up and down day for me. Fortunately, it seems to be ending on an "up" note.
Yesterday I stayed up late reading Luna by Julie Anne Peters. This is a phenomenal book about a fifteen year old girl and her transgender sibling. It's intended for teen audiences, but as evidenced by one of the reviews on the amazon page, it can be appreciated by all ages.
The story concerns Regan, the narrator and her sibling Liam/Luna, who longs to transition into a girl. The story is an exploration of gender identity and family dynamics. The reader gains perspective on how hard life can be for a transperson, and how that can also affect family members.
After reading this book, I checked out Julie Anne Peters website. She's written several award winning books, many of which have LGBT themes. This makes me rather happy.
Reading her reader mail makes me think about why I enjoy selling books for younger people. Kids' books seem much more wondrous than adult books. Finding books for children encourages them to develop their minds and learn new things. As a kids' bookseller, I have long been fascinated by how quickly interests and personalities seem to form. I sometimes think that a book that I sell could change a small person's life, or mind, or mean something to them that will remain with them their whole lives.
I also love the wonder that people have about childrens' books. When you show an adult a cool picture book, explain the plot of a great piece of kid lit or show them a Robert Sabuda pop up, you get a sense of that wonder that we all have deep inside us. I think adults bury that too much, and some people even lose it entirely.
There's also the nostalgia factor with children's books. Even people who are not readers might have good memories about some of the books they read or that were read to them as children. For instance, I remember the first time I heard "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service. It was told to me by the storyteller at the Saskatoon Public Library, Judith Benson. Judith is seriously one of the best storytellers that I've ever heard. She told the story using shadow puppets, and I was terrified for days! That story still creeps me out, but in a completely delicious way.
I've been working on a new short piece of fiction for the past few days. It's based on my time in Mongolia and I'm enjoying the writing. I haven't written fiction for a long time, and I am currently just jotting down ideas, and trying to build stories around them. The more I think about myself and my writing, the more I realize that I just might be a y.a. writer.
Yesterday I stayed up late reading Luna by Julie Anne Peters. This is a phenomenal book about a fifteen year old girl and her transgender sibling. It's intended for teen audiences, but as evidenced by one of the reviews on the amazon page, it can be appreciated by all ages.
The story concerns Regan, the narrator and her sibling Liam/Luna, who longs to transition into a girl. The story is an exploration of gender identity and family dynamics. The reader gains perspective on how hard life can be for a transperson, and how that can also affect family members.
After reading this book, I checked out Julie Anne Peters website. She's written several award winning books, many of which have LGBT themes. This makes me rather happy.
Reading her reader mail makes me think about why I enjoy selling books for younger people. Kids' books seem much more wondrous than adult books. Finding books for children encourages them to develop their minds and learn new things. As a kids' bookseller, I have long been fascinated by how quickly interests and personalities seem to form. I sometimes think that a book that I sell could change a small person's life, or mind, or mean something to them that will remain with them their whole lives.
I also love the wonder that people have about childrens' books. When you show an adult a cool picture book, explain the plot of a great piece of kid lit or show them a Robert Sabuda pop up, you get a sense of that wonder that we all have deep inside us. I think adults bury that too much, and some people even lose it entirely.
There's also the nostalgia factor with children's books. Even people who are not readers might have good memories about some of the books they read or that were read to them as children. For instance, I remember the first time I heard "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service. It was told to me by the storyteller at the Saskatoon Public Library, Judith Benson. Judith is seriously one of the best storytellers that I've ever heard. She told the story using shadow puppets, and I was terrified for days! That story still creeps me out, but in a completely delicious way.
I've been working on a new short piece of fiction for the past few days. It's based on my time in Mongolia and I'm enjoying the writing. I haven't written fiction for a long time, and I am currently just jotting down ideas, and trying to build stories around them. The more I think about myself and my writing, the more I realize that I just might be a y.a. writer.
