Month: June 2011

“Maybe you can help my cellmate, Mineola Potts. She’s such a nice lady.”
“What’s she in for?”
“Jaywalking.”  …
“Was she really arrested for jaywalking?” Tony asked.
“Indeed she was, poor woman,” Mrs. Carillon replied. “She was very hungry and had nothing to eat, so she borrowed two cans of lobster meat and a tin of caviar from the supermarket. She was jaywalking when the police stopped her.”

Ellen Raskin, The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel)

Funny is hard. I read this. I blinked and I started to giggle. then laugh. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t explain it. And, I doubt if I can replicate it. It’s not as funny now as it was when I first read it. It was very awesome feeling. A giggle just bubbling out of you. A giggle you just can’t stop. A giggle that builds into a full-blown laugh.

I think this is dynamite and tough. This laugh-out-loud line came at page sixty-something. Well into the story and I was surprised to find it there. A delightful tidbit for me, the reader. Continue reading

A recent book review in the Wall Street Journal has caused a major upheaval in the YA children’s lit world. Meghan Cox Gurdon wrote about the ‘dark’ topics in YA lit. I can’t help but wonder why there is so much defense in play over this article? One well-published, well-respected author suggested on FB that the WSJ’s editorial section should be shut down. Another author calling the article crap.

Well. So much for free speech, I guess.  For respecting the opinion of others. Of thinking that there may be another side to an issue. Or, does that count only if you are on the same side?

I guess what I just don’t get is why do these writers feel the NEED for defense, almost to the point of bullying this one author, this one paper.

Why did so many jump into the fray? Continue reading