And if I come to ledges...

Been dealing with a very sick dog for the last week or so. (But she's coming around, slowly.) And so I will--also slowly--get back on the blogging track. Starting with this:

In case you've missed it, a Kentucky school administrator has found a disturbing new way to keep YA books that he fears out of the classroom while sidestepping claims of censorship and banning. Books include Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, Deadline by Chris Crutcher and Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles, among others.

What's important to know about this story is that the initial objections concerned perceptions of "racy" content in the novels. When attempts to remove the books for those reasons failed, the administrator hit on this fabulous new idea of claiming the books were just fluffy trash of no educational value.

Another disturbing take on the situation here.

Scroll down to read the comment by a remarkable young woman named Jodie. I'll post a bit of what she says here:

"It's vital that kids learn to enjoy reading independent of supervision, otherwise they may make it to college only to flunk out. No one is going to be holding their hand in college, encouraging them to read their set texts, they'll be left to their own devices to study independently and if they can't get through a book and write an essay on it, they'll fail."

Funny How Things Change is a Kirkus Best YA of 2009!

Honored to see it among so many wonderful books. Congratulations to Mary Pearson, Kerry Madden, Tanita Davis and David MacInnis Gill, who all have books on the list!

Okay, I was going to blog something else today, but I can't help it. Yes, I have an ARC of A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner, the fourth in her "Thief" books. (I threatened to cry if the HC rep didn't give me one.)

I hate to be a tease, but I just wanted to say for those who are avidly waiting this one, it will be well worth the wait! It's fan-freaking-tastic. I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I heard the book was about Sophos and not Gen, same as I was initially put out that King was largely from the POV of a soldier we hadn't met. But trust MWT! You will love Sophos!

I still have fifty pages to go, and will give a fuller review later, but I'm already completely wowed. I was reading on the train on the way home from Philly and had to stop myself from exclaiming out loud over certain lines and passages. And page 205 is worth all the groveling and pleading I went through to get the ARC!

I remain amazed at how deftly MWT can turn the "camera" of her writing onto brief, seemingly insignificant moments that carry so much meaning to the careful reader. A friend mentioned that these are demanding books, in that they demand that you pay attention, and that remains true and part of what makes them so deeply satisfying.

I've got my remarks prepared (will practice on the train--love the train!) and have packed two outfits for one appearance because I can't decide what to wear. Get to meet up with my beautiful niece who is a freshman at UArts. And finally finally finally meet friends I've only known on-line for years. Can't wait!

Just so I don't fall asleep on the train and wake up in Manhattan. I got precisely ten minutes of sleep last night because dog was up all flipping night yakking up all the tissues she had eaten out of the bathroom garbage can.

Remind me when I get back that I want to blog about something that's been bugging me. It's related to what I plan to speak about tomorrow and a couple of blog entries here and there and how we sometimes have a tendency to focus on one ideal in YA lit.

So here's my NCTE schedule. I'll only be there Friday afternoon and part of Saturday, but you can catch me here:

Saturday, November 21, 8:00 am, Convention Center Room 102A
- Panel: Facing the Future with YA authors Carol Lynch Williams and Melissa Wyatt

Saturday, November 21, 9:30 am, signing at MacMillan booth

If you're around, please stop by and see me!

A little late for literacy week but....

If it wasn't for books, I wouldn't know how to make this:

The What a Girl Wants girls are talking again! This time about mean girls. Do the mean girls of YA lit reflect a disturbing reality?

I know! Can you believe it?

1. Watching an awards ceremony from the audience is like live theater. Even if you don't know the people being honored or quite understand what the awards are for, it's easy and charming to allow yourself to be carried away on the wave of emotion. Add chocolate cake, and I smell a success!

2. Homecoming has changed from when I was a girl. It was very casual then. Now, it seems to be an odd mix of Oscar-wear-formal and...er...whatever. But I was particularly struck by this line in the sheet of instructions sent home to parents of students attending the dance:

"Shoes are required at all times. If you are concerned that your shoes are going to hurt, bring along a pair of flip-flops to change into before dancing."

Flip-flops! Flip-flops! You spent three-hundred dollars on your dress, sixty on your hair, forty on finger and toe nails and you're going to change into a three-dollar pair of flip-flops because the eighty-dollar spangled high heels hurt your wittle toes??? I say man up, girls! Keep your heels on!

5. Flip-flops indeed. Harrumph.

4. Plus, have you ever tried dancing in flip-flops?

5. Young ladies assaying the role of Dorothy in film-inspired stage adaptations of The Wizard of Oz should be discouraged by any means available from attempting a Judy Garlandesque accent. It never works out, ladies. Trust me. No matter how good you think you are at it, for the love of Glinda, don't do it!

6. I love my DVD recorder, but I am now faced with a serious problem: how to allot remaining time slots on the individual DVDs. Example: Tonight I want to record Barefoot in the Park. (So sue me! I have a thing for Mildred Natwick.) But where do I put it??? I have four hours of recording time left of the disc containing Citizen Kane, but I don't think Mildred and Orson are going to get along very well. There's room on the DVD containing Topper, but I was kind of saving that in case Bringing Up Baby comes on. (A theme, you understand.) It certainly can't go on the Rogers & Hammerstein Disc, nor do I think it would be very comfortable next to Rear Window, in spite of the similarity in locations. And you think you have problems.

7. This afternoon, I'm participating in a middle school "Write In" for literacy week. There's been a tremendous response to this event, so I'm excited to see how it goes!

My website e-mail server apparently packed up on me six weeks ago and has only just NOW dumped a backlog of e-mails on me. I'm not sure if I got everything, so if you've e-mailed me at melissa AT melissawyatt DOT com and haven't heard from me, shoot me another e-mail.

I was going to post a long entry about this Washington Times piece about SCBWI conferences, but the many thoughtful comments say it as well as I could.

I just want to give a shout out to the hard-working, dedicated, helpful volunteers who man the MD/DE/WV SCBWI conference. If Julia Duin couldn't find inspiration there, she won't find it anywhere.

1. I think I pushed an old man out of my way at market yesterday. I plead temporary concord grape insanity.

2. I am rereading all the old gothic novels I loved as a teen. (You know, Isabelle Holland, Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, etc.) And let me tell you, Edward Cullen has nothing on the so-called heroes of these books for creepiness. Oh sure, they don't sparkle and drink blood. But they are arrogant, bossy, controlling, callous and always know better than the slower-on-the-uptake heroine. The appeal is the same, though. Besides being impossibly handsome and rich, they appreciate the Plain Jane ordinary heroine whose charms seem to go unnoticed by the general population. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

3. Yesterday, I purchased ten new teaspoons. Shall we establish a pool? The person who correctly guesses how long it takes for the first of these teaspoons to disappear wins!

4. Oh, no. Nobody has a clue what happens to the teaspoons. There must be a black hole in this house that is specific to teaspoons alone, sucking them in at a regular rate. There is no other reasonable explanation.

5. I must be getting immune to whacko baby names because nothing has stood out to me recently. But I did meet a mom with a very cool name last week: Emperatriz. How awesome is that? It's a name that comes with built in bearing. I think if that was your name, you would be constitutionally unable to walk with a slouch.

6. Last week, I found three pairs of pants that fit me perfectly. All in the same store. Under twenty dollars each pair. I now live in a constant state of fear. Such outrageous good fortune must be balanced out in some terrible manner. The Universe will have its way.

Apparently, you can't shut us up! What a Girl Wants discussion series continues over here at Chasing Ray. This week, we're talking about one of the odd taboos of YA lit and American society in general: socioeconomic class.

Standing in line at the grocery store check out, noticed a headline on a tabloid that predicts the world will end on October 11, 2009. The tabloid also offered a list of seven superfoods that can help you ward off disease.

For twenty-six days? What's it matter? In case the first headline is true, I plan to spend the next twenty-six days gorging on steak and ice cream.

What do you do with old hardcover books you no longer need? The libraries around here don't want them. Neither does Salvation Army. The used bookstores only want paperbacks(?!?).

Very very bad day yesterday ended with some happy news: Funny How Things Change has been nominated for the 2010 Best Books for Young Adults list!

The BBYA committee is posed a tremendous task every year, a huge workload of books to read on top of their jobs and lives and they do it because they love YA lit. I'm honored they're taking a look at my book.

So in my other life, I'm a newborn photographer. And it occurs to me I have never shared any of that work here. So here's a brand new little girl I photographed a few weeks ago. Click on the sixth thumbnail for one of my favorite baby pictures ever.

The multi-talented Little Willow interviews me here. We talk about writing from the opposite gender and other cool stuff. Come on over and take a look!

Love 'em, hate 'em, vampires are still hot in YA. Come on over to Chasing Ray for a fascinating discussion from all angles.

1. I have bought a shawl. People crank their air-conditioning too high for my liking around here. Also dislike sweaters in summer, therefore I needed a shawl.

2. However, said shawl makes me want to behave as though character in Jane Austen novel. Must control urge to hold hand out in very ladylike fashion upon meeting acquaintances. Makes people stare.

3. Babies all very pretty this weekend. No, all babies not pretty. Some babies bear shocking resemblance to Mao Zedong and Dwight Eisenhower. Sorry, but it is true.

4. Have no clue why writing in peculiarly abbreviated fashion.

5. Am going to NCTE. Very happy. Love Philadelphia. Must learn to behave like proper author. Had better not take shawl.