I’d Tell You I Love You,
But Then I’d Have To Kill You
Ally Carter
Format: Hardcover
Price: $15.99
ISBN: 1423100034

Enter the hush-hush lives of Cammie Morgan and her brilliant yet deadly comrades, otherwise known as the Gallagher Girls. These schoolgals attend The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, an undercover program posing as a posh boarding school. The curriculum’s ultimate goal: to produce the creme-de-la-creme among young spies for the CIA, FBI, NSA, ect. Sure, breaking and entering and hacking secruity systems may come easily to this crew, but when it comes to deciphering the language of lurve they’re clueless. Although the humor will keep readers pinned to the pages, teens won’t miss the moral struggles for respect and honesty. Yessirree, Ally Carter’s sassy romp is a sure thing for readers desiring light romance with spunk.

(I recommend taking a peek at the inside jacket summary. It would make an excellent booktalk itself. Kudos Hyperion.)

Genre: Fluffy_Romance/Spunky_Wacky_Humor(Think Evanovich)/Covert_Opts
Read-alikes: Meg Cabot; E. Lockhart; Jaclyn Moriarty; Louise Rennison
Web Goodies: LOL while reading Ally’s blog on her website found here. And beef up your library’s Myspace friends by including Ally’s Myspace account here.

Commentary:

“Get good, ladies. Or get dead.” - Joe Solomon, CoveOpts instructor at
The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women

Sound familiar? How about “You’re never too young to die.”? These cocky and in-your-face taglines certainly perk the ears of our techy-seeking adventure readers. With the upcoming October release of the motion picture Stormbreaker, it’s appropriate to disclose this Anthony Horowitz read-alikes booklist complied a year ago by Valerie Ott and the YALSA-BK list serve:

Get Frazy for your library’s myspace account.

Butcher, A.J. - Spy High Series
Clancy, Tom - Net Force Series
Cooney, Caroline B. - Emergency Room/Flight 116 Is Down/The Terrorist
Stephen Cole - Theives Like Us (newly added 09/26)
Higson, Charlie - The Young James Bond Series
Howe, Norma - The Adventures of the Blue Avenger Series
McNamee, Graham - Acceleration
Mikaelson, Ben - Sparrow Hawk Red
Mowll, Joshua - Red Jericho
Muchamore - Cherub Series
Zindel, Paul - The Gadget

Here is a new post from guest writer Kati about the shift of the “teen trash novel.” We hope Kati continues to write such insightful pieces! - Stephanie

As I’ve been picking up lots of inexpensive teen paperbacks in outdoor book sales this summer, ranging from the Beverly Gray mysteries of the 1930s-1950s to the Sweet Dreams romances of the 1980s, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about young adult novels for girls and how (and if) they’ve really changed that much over the years. There has definitely been a shift from the idealization of the wholesome Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames types who, while insufferable at times, were mostly identified by their intelligence, competence and dedication to their chosen lines of work, love for families and friends and, ok, glowing cheeks, trim figures, and titian hair. The YA novels today that are enjoying the most attention belong to the Sweet Valley High school of teen trash but there are some important differences. While the Sweet Valley series was far from socially conscious, realistic, or progressive, it was really just a throwaway trifle, and at the end of the day, the cruel and materialistic characters were ridiculed and the good, caring, and self-sacrificing characters prevailed.

There have been many essays and articles about the controversial so-called problem novels for girls, featuring sex, drugs, self-destruction, and suburban anomie. It seems, however, that there are really at least two types of novels that are really being discussed here. There is the escape novel (The Gossip Girls; Rainbow Party) and the refuge novel (Cut; Luna). The refuge novels provide mirrors for those teens who are usually marginalized in mass culture. There is huge variety in such novels and much to be said about them, but that’s for another day. As far as the trashy escape novels go, anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that girls (and women?) read The Gossip Girls and other books of its ilk because they want to exit their own dull lives absent of excitement, whippet-thin beauty, scandal, glamour, and of course, scads of money. They want to become the white, heterosexual, rich, conventionally beautiful, sophisticated characters therein. The “characters” however, are mostly just collections of physical descriptions (“Cammie had bee-stung lips and deep-set honey colored eyes. Naturally slender, her legs went on forever. True, she’d purchased the 34C breasts and had her ordinary brown hair chemically transformed into that riot of fiery curls, but so what? The total package screamed goddess”The A-List, 69) addictions/bad habits (bulimia, alcohol, smoking, drugs, cosmetic surgery) and brand names (Starbucks, Chanel, Eres, Gucci, Lexus, Jimmy Choo, Cristal, Barney’s). The take-away here is that a certain prescribed beauty and the purchase of many choice items determine the high value of these girls, yet they necessitate and thereby validate falsity, cruelty, and self-destruction.

One of the real problems I see here and in most mainstream media content and resources for young people, is the intersection between hyper-sexualization and corporate colonization of the teen’s unique and different bodies and desires. I wish there existed mainstream teen literature that could both allow girls and women to be sexual without punishing them and also provide a space that wasn’t so slavish to the joys of capitalism. Librarians and libraries are in a bind. The librarian who doesn’t want to push literature that celebrates socioeconomic ills may turn off a reluctant reader. I do not agree with people who say, “As long as they’re reading…” I think message matters more than the medium and that only reading trash is not any better than watching trash. It is important to make less harmful literature appealing to teens without denigrating their choices. Librarians and teachers must present alternative choices to teens (and children and adults) who are awash in media that provides the pleasure of oppression.

I recently received a Myspace friend request from a band that I had formerly never heard of called The Remus Lupins. I of course gave them a listen and discovered that I really like their music. This was the second Harry Potter related band I had heard of, the first being Harry and the Potters and I decided it was time to investigate this coincidence. Here is a little about what I found.

Both of these bands and many others are bands that fall under the fairly new genre of Wizard Rock. According to Wikipedia “Wizard Rock is a musical movement dating from 2002 that consists of a number of bands formed by young musicians playing songs about J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter literary phenomenon. The lyrics are usually humorous and simple, and many bands write songs from the point of view of a particular character in the books, usually the character who features in the band’s name.” To my surprise this is becoming a very popular genre. A quick Myspace search turns up dozens of Wizard Rock bands and you can even find the Wizard Rock groups page, which is a discussion board and forum for fans of the genre. This page includes links to many Wizard Rock band pages with streaming music. Many of these bands tend to go for a rock or indie sound but I have found some that lean toward electronica, folk, or just the simple sound of a singer-songwriter.

One of the aspects of Wizard Rock that I find most fascinating is how interested most of these bands are in promoting literacy. Almost every one of these bands on their Myspace or website mention that one of their goals is to promote literacy. Some even have links to sites or pdfs you can download explaining how to help promote literacy in your own area.

Also of note is the Wizard Rockumentary, a group who is filming a documentary about Wizard Rock. According to the website “ The Wizard Rockumentary is a feature length documentary exploring Harry Potter fandom, the Wizard Rock community, and the goals of these musicians to promote literacy. “ Production is currently underway for this documentary but there is already a fair amount of interesting material to view on both their website and their Myspace page.

These bands have some great possibilities for young adult librarians. Many of them will play in a library making for a great program. Given the proclivity of most of these bands to promote literacy why not find one nearby and work with them on some sort of literacy program or project. A viewing of the Wizard Rockumentary, once it is released, would also make for a fun program for the teens in your library. There are countless ways to tap into this as a young adult librarian, but simply as fans of young adult literature and in the case of most of us, fans of Harry Potter it seems important just to be aware that these bands are out there and some are becoming quite popular. Below is a list of a few of these bands with links to either their Websites and/or their Myspace pages.

Harry and the Potters – Website / Myspace

The Remus Lupins – Website / Myspace

Draco and the Malfoys – Website / Myspace

The Whomping Willows – Myspace

Dobby and the house Elves – Myspace

The Hermione Crookshanks Experience – Myspace

What’s Next In the Life of Teen Series Books?
We’ve witnessed the controversy, the movies, or just plain word of mouth, which have fueled the popularity of the contemporary teen series. The Reader speaks: They want more. Shortly thereafter, this cycle hits full swing with multiple “knock-offs” published, before slowly petering out of existence. Yesterday, the droves adored Sweet Valley High, Buffy, and Fear Street. And every once in awhile there’s still a whisper requesting one of these, confessing the cycle has not yet ended.

Today authors like Shan and Von Ziegesar have created their own homogenous similes of their previous works, namely Demonata and The It Girl, to fire demand. There’s no question that teen patrons are eagerly seeking these bestselling titles. And the approaching fall season promises big payoffs for dedicated readers who are anticipating the release of several new series titles, particularly, Snicket’s final installment to his Baudelaire tall-tale.

At approximately $10 a pop, it’s encouraging that these titles continue to sell strong, indicating that teen readers are serious consumers of literature, willing to eschew easier, similarly priced entertainment alternatives. Another impressive attribute of current teen series, is the duration and length to which they have survived. As it stands, Gossip Girl boasts its #9 serial and Cirque du Freak is selling its #12 installment, an impressive feat for series fiction given that CduF is first released in hardcover. With each new installment that continues to be a sucess, we wonder how much longer the series can survive.

Snicket has mentioned from the beginning that #13 is THE END to his long-winded Unfortunate Events. Besides wondering whether the answers to the Baudelaire riddles will be satisfactorily supplied this fall, we question what’s next for Snicket, and more importantly for the teen series formula in general. Though I belly-lauged my way through Artemis #5, I believe/hope this fall will be the last push before these series become overshadowed by newer titles and ideas. 

Add Frazy to your myspace
New fall releases pictured above are listed from left to right: Artemis Fowl #5: The Lost Colony; The Clique #6: L Is for Loser; Princess Diaries #7: Party Princess; Gossip Girl #9: Only In Your Dreams; Cirque du Freak #12: Sons of Destiny; Unfortunate Events #13: The End.