JENN FRANK'S FAVORITE BOOKS FOR KIDS

My name is Jenn Frank. I used to review video games. I like kids' books. I am not a mother. I don't know any kids, and I don't know you. I have no business telling you about kids' books at all. But I am fiercely protective of my own girlhood; here are some of my favorite books.

Apr 25

Amy Fusselman tackles kids’ books

Amy Fusselman is one of my favorite writers. Her zine, bunnyrabbit, was one of the first zines I ever read. Fifteen years ago! We’re talkin’ 15 years, here!

Anyway, she’s got a piece about children’s literature over at McSweeneys:

If you have children, you probably know The Fur Family, because it was written back in the Stone Age by Margaret Wise Brown, she of the positively creepy, Norman-Bates-ian maternal force that makes damn sure that the Runaway Bunny goes nowhere, thank you very much.

But this is not about that children’s classic, the sales of which could probably put my own children through college ten times over. This is about The Little Fur Family, which I myself owned. I remember having a tiny copy that was covered in grey fur, and who doesn’t like fur-covered books?

It isn’t reeeeaaaally entirely about kids’ books, as is Fusselman’s way, but you know.

Jan 12

“For a certain type of girl wending her way through adolescence in the mid 1990s, the bible was a paperback novel with a hot pink spine. It was Blake Nelson’s debut and it was called, aptly, Girl. The cover bore a blurry black-and-white portrait of a girl in motion: in peasant blouse and pendant, she was flipping her dark hair over her shoulder in something between a head-bang and a shrug.”

The Gospel According to Girl: A Profile of Blake Nelson at The Millions

(via fuckyeahsassymagazine)

Jun 2

An interview with Eureka’s Castle’s “Jovial” Bob Stine! (Best Week Ever)

May 14

Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones
snopes.com - The Mexican Pet

Apr 3

The Hairpin - Catching Up With Jessica and Elizabeth: Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later

Edith Zimmerman explains the appeal:

I started reading the new Sweet Valley High book last night, and oh my god I love it I hate it I love it I hate it. It’s unexpectedly stirring — you can feel it in your heart, this fluttering memory of caring about Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, and aren’t we all Elizabeths? Did anyone identify with Jessica

and

OK so in case you haven’t heard, Sweet Valley High is back and it’s 10 years later, meaning the twins are 27 and so is everyone they grew up with (Lila Fowler/Enid Rollins OMG, etc.), which means the book’s being marketed to us and not pre-teens. Us being women who read SVH as kids and feel fond (or deeply, surprisingly hateful) of the characters, and who might get a thrill out of hearing Jessica and Elizabeth describe their wines and their orgasms, both of which they enjoy with ease. It’s kind of like running into someone super-pretty you went to high school with and discovering that they’ve become even more beautiful than they used to be (nooo!), but that they’ve got a shitty job/life, so phew.

Feb 17

Sparknotes: Goodnight Moon

The book opens as a young bunny prepares for sleep in his bedroom. The first half of Brown’s magnum opus is entirely devoted to the contents of “the great green room.” As symbolic items such as a “balloon” and a “telephone” are described, our protagonist bunny, oppressively tucked into bed, resists the confines of sleep.

Feb 11

“People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children’s book. I say, ‘If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children’s book’, but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you’re directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.” Martin Amis, in a conversation on the BBC programme Faulks on Fiction.

(via nprfreshair)

Feb 4

“Man darf von jeder Tür aus in den literarischen Salon treten, aus der Gefängnistür, aus der Irrenhaustür oder aus der Bordelltür. Nur aus einer Tür darf man nicht kommen, aus der Kinderzimmertür. Das vergibt einem die Kritik nicht. Das bekam schon der große Rudyard Kipling zu spüren. Ich frage mich immer, womit das eigentlich zu tun hat, woher diese eigentümliche Verachtung alles dessen herrührt, was mit dem Kind zu tun hat.”

“One may enter the literary parlor via just about any door, be it the prison door, the madhouse door, or the brothel door. There is but one door one may not enter it through, which is the children’s room door. The critics will never forgive you such. The great Rudyard Kipling felt similar critiques. I always ask myself from where this peculiar contempt towards anything related to a child comes.” Michael Ende about his children’s books really being books for all ages. From his Wikipedia article. (via aeazel)

Jan 15

McSweeney's Internet Tendency - An Open Letter to Madeleine L'engle.

“And oh, Ms. L’Engle, if you could see what teenage girls are reading these days. YA novels just don’t sell anymore unless the conflict is outward, the enemy tangible, the sexual awakening exhibited via fangs and transparent metaphors. Love interests have “teams” now. I’m sorry to tell you this, but YA publishers no longer approve of nuclear families.”

Dec 8

Yes! Nutshell Library!

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