anEditor’s Blog

M.T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party, which won the 2006 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (presented by the National Book Foundation) last November, is one of the latest books helping to revive the young adult literature genre. After seeming to peak in the 1970s and early ’80s, then stumbling through much of the 1990s with unchallenging and formulaic easy-reading novels that featured teen characters in stereotypical situations, YA literature has been rebounding for the past two or three years. The rebound is being seen both in popularity and in quality.

The adventures of teen wizard Harry Potter are widely credited with increasing the genre’s popularity by focusing attention on YA books and authors over the past decade. But J.K. Rowling’s works did not satisfy the needs or tastes of every reader—the volumes were long and complicated, they had unrealistic settings and plotlines, and the basic subject matter was specifically targeted. Many critics add that the series actually outgrew its original audience of YA readers over the years, anyway. Still, Rowling’s series did usher in a renewed interest in writing quality material and developing intricate and intriquing story lines, scenes, and characters—all attributes that drew the attention of YA readers—and that fact is seldom argued.

As evidence, note that many books on both the adult and children’s New York Times Best Sellers lists are written for, about, or involving young adults and that the American Library Association’s Michael L. Printz Award now takes notice of books for young adults just as the Caldecott and Newbery awards have for other younger readers over the years.

Reporter Cecelia Goodnow, with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer posted this recent article that spotlights additional evidence. She also uncovered and compiled some interesting trends in “teen literature” and this list of best reads for 2007.

Yes, here we go—yet, again. Instead of exposing America’s students to the differences of our society and helping them understand the history of those differences (in essence, teaching them what makes America America), another attempt is under way to just remove a topic from the table and ignore it. Who knew, of course, that Mark Twain used the “n-word” (as this St. Paul Pioneer Press author so safely puts it) two-hundred times in the classic adventure novel? Then, again, who really needed to know? That wasn’t the point of the book then, I don’t think, and, while the point has admittedly changed through the years, it shouldn’t be the point now!

During discussion of the book, [one student] said she was uncomfortable with views she said students expressed—that blacks should go to hell and interracial marriage was immoral, for instance. (see “District may drop ‘Huck Finn’ from required reading list” by Bao Ong; posted online Friday, February 2, 2007)

It’s good that she was uncomfortable, isn’t it? Isn’t that part of the point of educating our youth? To let them know that people are different, that controversies exist and can be debated in a healthy fashion, that times have changed, that we shouldn’t “let history repeat itself?”

No, I should know by now that’s an outdated concept of public education, that such lessons are not on any of the tests today’s students have to pass, so there’s not enough time in the schedule; but, that’s another disturbing story! I guess it could be worse . . . at least they’re not specifically trying to ban The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—this time . . .

An article in the February-March 2007 issue of Copy Editor newsletter discusses some of the rapidly evolving computer words, terms we use to discuss technology that are either not in dictionaries, yet, or for which spellings and usage rules continue to be debated. As examples, he mentions

title bar, menu bar, status bar, address bar
   (no capitalization or special attributes)
close button, maximize button
   (no boldface or special attributes)
scroll box, scroll bar, scroll arrow
screen window
dialog box
pop-up (as a noun or adjective)
online (one word, in all uses)
on-screen (still hyphenated, in all uses)
printout (as a noun); but, print out (as a verb)
log-in (as a noun); log in as a verb
sign in (as a verb; no noun form is
   currently recognized)
sign out (as a verb); sign-out (as a noun or adjective)

Of course, you probably care more about those two more hotly debated terms, e-mail versus email and Web site versus website. Well, in the article, author Charles M. Levine reveals why certain audiences prefer one over the other while introducing a few of the considerations in the debate between the spellings. Rest assured, though, e-mail and Web site are still the official spellings!

In a semi-relevant tangent, Levine discusses how style variances can be used to distinguish computer- and technology-related terms so that words and directions stand out from the surrounding running text. For example,

To cut text, highlight the text you wish to remove with the cursor.
Next, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting the X key (Ctrl+X) . . .

To cut text, highlight the text you wish to remove with the cursor.
Then, from the Edit menu, select Cut and . . .

Levine recommends the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications for justifying such decisions.

As an author, editor, educator, and personal historian, I couldn’t not mention the passing of Art Buchwald over the past weekend. I encourage you to venture to this page of NPR’s Web site and read about his life and how he faced his death. You can even listen to interviews from the past. A whole slew of information is listed on this index of the site, as well.