This gives me chills:

In a good way.

via RGZ blog:



Learn more about The Girl Effect here.

My Rgz Top Ten read in 2008

Every year Readergirlz asks their postergirlz to come up with our individual top ten. Not specifically just the best books published of the year, but the best girl-power books that we read this year, regardless of copyright date. Each of the postergirlz (Little Willow, Miss Erin, Alexia, Hip Writer Mama, Shelf Elf) comes up with their own list, which we then send in to the powers that be, who then work through the lists and think about whether the titles would work within their vision for featured titles. If it does, and they wish to devote a month to a title, they then see if they can get the author's participation. I spend months agonizing over it - this one was started in October.

And so, after much gnashing of teeth, here are mine!

My Top Ten for Readergirlz 2008 (in alpha order, no less!)

1. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
2. Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught
3. Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, The by E. Lockheart
4. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Allison Goodman
5. Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
6. The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson
7. Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
8. Graceling by Kristen Cashore
9. Northlander (Tales of the Borderlands) by Meg Burden
10. Ten Cents a DanceTen Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher

Mighta made its if we hadn't picked them/the author already:

1. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
2. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White

Almost made it, but were cut at the last second:

1. A la Carte by Tanita S. Davis
2. Impossible by Nancy Werlin
2. Meridian by Amber Kizer
3. The Plain Janes (Minx) & Janes in Love (Minx) by Cecil Castelucci

What would you have included in your girl-power Top Ten read in 2008? What am I missing (Hunger Games, I'm guessing you'll say...)?

Yes. Rebel.

Every year there are books I can't wait to get other people to read. Usually those are the ones I blog right away. Imagine my shock when I realized the book I've recommended to more teens than any other this year (a wider, more easily pegged audience than Little Brother and Jenna Fox?) has not appeared here. Now, it's not like you've not heard of it from every other blog you read, (or from my very mouth, b/c I talk a lot) but all the same, just in case I've missed a couple of you, or you've been hiding somewhere. Plus, it's waaay overdue at the library and there are holds. I'm irritating the very girls I tell to read it by keeping it (I don't like to write about books unless I've got a copy near. Hence, I am a terrible library patron. Luckily, my library doesn't charge fines. Seriously. No one gets fines. Course, if you keep the book a month overdue, you get charged for it. Until you return the book. I'm hoping to, um, clear my account tomorrow...so I can check out more books...).

Anyway, some are turned off by the subtle (or not so) feminist undertones in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. I am not. Why? Because I think it's new information to Frankie, and let's be honest, the intended audience, and because the info was given in annoying lectures by Frankie's older sister. Was her older sister simply a tool for that purpose and not fleshed out enough beyond that? There, you may have an argument, but in the context, I'm ok with it. What with sis off at college, and Frankie at the swank school alone for the first time - she makes her own interpretation of the feminist ideal. A funny, clever, action-prone, make-you-want-to-cheer interpretation.

Frankie's dad was a member of the Secret Order of the Basset Hounds. She's known OF them, but they've never been anything more than a name to her, what with them being a secret society and all. But the summer between freshman and sophomore year Frankie grew up. She goes back to her swanky and competitive boarding school a total knockout. And now people notice her. Now the most popular boy at school notices her. When the call goes out recruiting new Basset Hounds (all boys) and she begins to suspect that her boyfriend is the leader of the pack (vroom-vroom), Frankie decides she will show them that Girls are just as good as boys. Even if it means she has to go behind all of the boys' backs.

Favorite quote:

"...Frankie remembered how Matthew had called her a 'pretty package,' how he'd called her mind little, how he'd told her not to change -- as if he had some power over her. A tiny part of her wanted to go over to him and shout, 'I can feel like a hag some days if I want! And I can tell everybody how insecure I am if I want! Or I can be pretty and pretend to think I'm a hag out of fake modesty -- I can do that if I want, too. Because you, Livingston, are not the boss of me and what kind of girl I become.' But most of her simply felt happy that he had put his arm around her and told her he thought she was pretty" p 79-80.

Notice something a little different with that bit? It's 3rd person omniscient. It's unusual to find it in teen novels, and it lend an equally unusual, almost voyeuristic, tone to the title. There's a touch of distance between the reader and, well. Remember those nature movies Disney used to make? The narration in Frankie sometimes reminded me of those. It absolutely works, in fact, it makes it stand out. I also adore the duality of desire there - she wants to be recognized as an independent woman while still getting to be told she's pretty. All girls, no matter what, want to hear they are pretty once in a while (hear that Kyle?). All girls should demand both.

It shoots out to the front when we speak of my favorite of E. Lockhart's (displacing Dramarama - though I've not read Fly on the Wall, and that's frequently other people's favs. According to my sources.).


Will there be a sequel? I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. There's definitely an open window. I'll read it. I think it will appeal to the general girl audience, but especially to those who like Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls books.