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Mo Willems on Raising a Reader

I love Mo Willems. His books are unique, even when they are part of a series. When I went to my library and asked for books like the Elephant and Piggie easy readers, which are massive favorites in this house, the librarian couldn’t find any. Write faster, Mr. Willems, please!

I was fortunate enough to get to hear him speak this past spring. Not only is he a fantastic writer, but he’s a great speaker and a funny guy, who managed to teach an entire auditorium of people how to animate a pigeon using a strip of paper and a pencil.

And so, as school starts and reading becomes a requirement, try to keep in mind that raising a reader means creating joy about reading, and playing with words, and check out his tips for raising a reader.

Some Interesting News From R.L. Stine

This year marks the 20th anniversary for the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine.  In the world of children’s books, he is the author most adults think of when they think of “children’s horror”, if they think of “children’s horror” at all. I was in college when Stine started writing, so I missed the beginning of the craze over Stine’s books, but by 1997 I was working in my first “real job” as a children’s librarian. The demand for his books in 1997 was tremendous– I can’t remember how many times I walked kids over to the paperback spinners or sorted through beat up copies with a kid who was looking for one he hadn’t read. It must have been absolutely overwhelming when the books first came out. It’s hard to imagine that you could have missed out on it, if you were s a kid or worked with kids and books at all in the past 20 years.

Stine didn’t start out trying to be scary. He ran a humor magazine called Bananas for ten years (here’s an interview where he talks about that and a lot of other cool stuff) and joke books for kids. But then, according to this interview in the Boston Phoenix, he realized that “what kids really want is to be scared shitless”. And he’s been writing scary stories for kids ever since. Frequently. At one time he produced a book every month!

This fall, though, Stine’s second horror novel for adults, Red Rain, will be released, and in an interview with Publishers Weekly he said that it’s been a challenge for him, after writing middle-grade fiction for kids for so many years,

The kids’ stuff comes naturally to me now. When I write horror for kids, I have to make sure that they know it’s not real—that it’s pure fantasy and could never happen. Writing for adults, I have to do exactly the opposite. It has to be real or they won’t buy it. It was fun to turn it around in Red Rain and have the chance to be really horrifying. Some really ghastly things happen in this book!”

Stine also has a television show based on his books on The Hub right now, which has been renewed for the fall season. It’s the third television series to be based on his books– pretty neat stuff!

So… exciting news, if you didn’t already know it (you might have, since most of these interviews took place at least a couple of months ago, he’s active on Twitter, and he was recently at BEA). If you grew up with R.L. Stine, you might be buying his books for your kids, and now he’s produced a “grown-up” one for the kids who grew up reading his books. If you remember Goosebumps fondly, or even if you’re just curious, now is a great time to see what he has cooking!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer– #1 Now and Forever

Nope, not biased at all here. I unashamedly admit that I am a huge fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer— and especially of Rupert Giles, who is one of my favorite fictional librarians ever. I hooked my husband, watching it on my grainy television with him well before we ever got married; I converted my best friend after the DVD’s came out, one episode at a time.

So I can’t say I’m surprised that Entertainment Weekly chose it as the #1 cult TV show of the past 25 years. The thing about Buffy The Vampire Slayer is that it taps into things that are truly scary– I have never been able to go back and watch The Body.

And also, Rupert Giles is an inspiration, at least for this mild-mannered librarian. Ruthless, determined, witty, patient(sometimes), able to find obscure answers and motivate teens to learn and use vital research skills, doing his best to save the world. Monster Movie Month is over, but that doesn’t mean you should stop searching for ways to connect horror readers to the best of what’s out there… and Buffy has translated into many mediums, including some fantastic graphic novels. I love No Future For You, from Season 8. It’s written by Brian K. Vaughan, who also wrote Y: The Last Man and Runaways, both great graphic novel series in their own right. There are books based on specific episodes, original works that take place in the Buffyverse, and so much more. Hey, if Twilight can inspire huge numbers of people to read Fifty Shades of Grey, just imagine the directions intelligent and witty writing  inspire!

In the meantime, my kids are asleep, and I think I’m going to sneak in Halloween, from the second season, where Giles’ true colors start to emerge from beneath the tweed.