Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Nov 26, 2007 0:01:26 GMT -5
Is it normal for a young adult author to have written a funny book, a dramatic book, a compilation of short stories and...what was the fourth one? I'll believe dramatic and comedic, but I don't think I've seen many short-story compilations for young adults... Um, the first thing I can think of is Nine Stories, by JD Salinger, but I read that in High School (not required reading)... maybe 8th grade. . Oh, there was the Sideways Stories from Wayside School... That woudl technically be short stories, right? But that's not young adults. There have to be a few. I swear I read some sort of short story book by a well known author was was angry that the stories didn't connect.
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Nov 26, 2007 1:39:05 GMT -5
(probably way more than anyone cares about short story publishing below)
If a YA author's other books were very good (or rather, if they sold very well), they might be able to sell a short story collection, but not before. I'm pretty sure Avi has published a short story collection, and you could say at least that he also writes serious drama and comedy. He's like the Joyce Carol Oates of kidlit. Fantasy and sci-fi, both at the YA level and the adult level, are much kinder to short story publication--Patricia Wrede, Robin McKinley, and Peter Dickinson all have short story collections, and I'm reasonably sure Philip Pullman does, too, although generalizing anything about, well, anything, from Philip Pullman is kind of a dead end! Also, it's more common for a publisher to put together a theme and ask a bunch of YA authors to contribute a story for a compilation, which will then be targeted to the fans of those stories.
It's one of the ironies of how they teach creative writing; most (or at least many) writers hone their craft on short stories, but they're much harder to sell to a book publisher. (And in general, because there are fewer mainstream magazines that publish fiction). There are a lot fewer short story collections than novels published, in general, and especially compared to thirty or fifty years ago.
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fluffycakes
Junior Sitter
A silken-haired beauty with a laugh like pealing bells
Posts: 868
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Post by fluffycakes on Nov 4, 2008 18:54:57 GMT -5
I hate those immature babies Don't hold back, laylaandmixup! Tell us how you really feel. But seriously, ugh, the Kormans. I don't like them either, they really annoy me. The toilet monster subplot is a perfect example of why. Other than the kooky Kormans, I like this one. I think most of us can relate to MA and the school project thing - how frustrating it is to work on a group project when someone isn't pulling their weight. Also, I would've hated to present my project in the auditorium like she did. Kudos to her to going through with it at all - I don't know if I would've been able to do so. Loved the interactions between MA and Pete Black. They were more interesting read about than Logan and MA, in my opinion. This book totally makes me ship them! Word about the cover. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I desperately wanted to go rollerskating with my friends and wear a fedora when I was a kid. Weird that it never happened in the book, but oh well. It's stil a good cover.
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Post by sparklymouse on Nov 5, 2008 19:44:41 GMT -5
SMS had the hugest English assignments. Crazy. I sympathized a bit with Mary Anne and Pete because I always hated group projects. I didn't even like working with my friends. I didn't want someone messing up my grade and didn't want to be responsible for someone else's grade either.
Logan still sucks in this one. He flat out admitted that he was leading Cokie on. Seriously girls, he was NOT that great.
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bsclover18
Junior Sitter
God loves you!
Posts: 813
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Post by bsclover18 on Nov 5, 2008 20:55:24 GMT -5
I hate working in groups too because then people get to sit around and end up with a great grade for all the work that I do.
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Post by booboobrewer on Nov 5, 2008 21:30:47 GMT -5
I disliked group projects too. I would either be shy around the people I didn't know well, or frustrated that I ended up doing the good work and they could take credit for it too. Ugh.
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Nov 6, 2008 16:27:57 GMT -5
I absolutely despise group projects. Like BooBoo, I was always shy around the people in the group that I didn't know well and sometimes would end up doing the whole project while they did nothing . I also just prefer to work alone because I can get a lot done faster that way, rather than wait for someone else to do their share (or find out that they did a crappy job on their share). Unfortunately my history professor in college doesn't feel this way. We're doing this project where we have to view a movie made before 1970 and write a paragraph on it (yes, just a freaking paragraph ) and he's forcing our whole class to get into groups and work on it and nobody wants to because we still don't know each other that well. He says he wants us to group up all because then he'll have less to grade, which is so dumb because all we have to write is a paragraph, something we can each do in a day. How hard is it to grade 20-27 paragraphs? Ugh .
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Post by booboobrewer on Nov 6, 2008 20:59:11 GMT -5
Is it a really big class? In my experience that was usually why a professor required group participation for an assignment. Also, he might be teaching several classes and that's why he wants less work to grade. Still, that does stink!
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Nov 7, 2008 12:39:35 GMT -5
I was never fond of group projects, either. If everyone in the group clicks, things can go really well, but I don't think it always happens that way. Teachers love making kids who aren't really friends, or who don't like each other work in groups to try and overcome that. There are usually reasons why some people aren't friends, and forcing them together in a group probably isn't going to change that. I DID have one case where I really enjoyed a group project; it was for Spanish class, and it was just me and one other girl. We made a beautiful poster about Puerto Rico and got 100%. I think the teacher actually kept it to use as an example for future students.
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Post by candykane on Nov 7, 2008 17:01:32 GMT -5
I don't like group projects very much. Only a few times have I been in a group where everyone was willing to pull their weight. It was a nice but rare occurence.
Group projects in middle school were always something to dread. I could relate to Mary Anne when she worried about getting stuck in a group with kids she didn't know or didn't like. I wasn't as painfully shy as she was, though (thankfully!). I could also relate to her horror upon learning that she would have to talk about the author in front of the author herself. Talk about nerve-racking! Getting up there would be bad enough, but in front of the actual person? Awful. Remember how she had that nightmare about being on stage and her dress falling off in front of everyone? I thought that was so funny.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2008 0:03:44 GMT -5
Ugh why was mary anne scared of being in a group with kids she didnt know? she could have found a new bo Dude, if it was her stuck in a group with Pete and two people that acted like Logan and Cokie but weren't Logan and Cokie, Pete and her totally would have gotten together. Stupid Logan.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2008 11:59:46 GMT -5
from the back of the book-
" When she and Logan are both assigned to study their favorite author, Mary Anne thinks this is the perfect, most romantic way for them to get back together again."
Ah, the old candlelit study date.
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Post by sugarandspicexx on Aug 5, 2009 3:45:16 GMT -5
I could identify with Mary Anne in this book. I was also mortified every time I had to work in a group at school with people I wouldn't choose to work with. Cokie simply makes me ill in this book, she comes off so desperate and pathetic!
I'm also not a fan of the 'toilet monster' subplot. I'm actually not a huge fan of any book where every sitting chapter is based around the one family. Kristy thinking so smugly she's such a genious who knows more about kids than anyone else with how she "cured" the Korman's from the toilet monster annoys me a bit. She didn't solve a d**n thing!
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Post by helsieboo on Aug 5, 2009 5:42:09 GMT -5
I really dislike this book. Mostly because I REALLY loathe and detest and hate the Kormans.
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Post by candykane on Aug 5, 2009 14:53:10 GMT -5
Oh, I know! I remember the entry she wrote for the club notebook that started off like "Ho-hum. I think I've solved the toilet monster problem!" No...she didn't, and also, who the hell writes/says things like "ho-hum" when they're 13?
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