Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

A Monster Calls: A novel by Patrick Ness, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd (Candlewick, 2011) is a heartrendingly beautiful book, one of the year's best. It's being considered for all sorts of awards, including the Cybils, where it's a finalist in the Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction category.

But is that where it belongs? If the monster is real, existing as a physical entity (that's the definition in Webster's Dictionary), then yes: the book is fantasy. But if the monster is only metaphorical, then no, because otherwise it's set firmly in the real world, the one where mothers die of cancer, and there are bullies at school, and you're only thirteen. That one. Ours.

I happen to think that the monster is both real and metaphorical: that's the source of its power. But if I had to categorize the book itself, I think it would be fantasy, on the strength of passages like this one:

It had been a dream. What else could it have been?
    When he'd opened his eyes this morning, the first thing he'd looked at was his window. It had still been there, of course, no damage at all, no gaping hole into the yard. Of course it had. Only a baby would have thought it really happened. Only a baby would believe that a tree--seriously, a tree--had walked down the hill and attacked the house.
    He'd laughed a little at the thought, at how stupid it all was, and he'd stepped out of bed.
    To the sound of a crunch beneath his feet.
    Every inch of his bedroom floor was covered in short, spiky yew tree leaves. (11)

This monster leaves more than a trace--he leaves a floor covered in needles, or in red yew tree berries (37).  Those aren't metaphors (Conor has to bag them up and throw them in trash, after all). Or if they are metaphorical, they are also, definitively, real.

The multiple meanings of the words real and fantasy complicate these arguments.  Emotions are also real, even though they don't exist as physical entities. And it seems paradoxical that the more real something might be, the more firmly a book that is all about raw, real emotion becomes (just?) a fantasy book.

Now, whether this is a middle grade or a young adult book is also up for debate (Monica Edinger of educating alice originally nominated it as YA Fantasy). I don't think this is necessarily a coincidence: extraordinary books are often difficult to categorize. A Monster Calls isn't even the only book on our list that begs these questions. Many thanks to Zoe of Playing by the book for bringing them up (in the comments on another post). Now it's your turn.

Dragon Castle

After all was said and done, I was honored to write the text to accompany Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac (Dial) on this year's list of Cybils finalists in Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction. Writing these little paeans to literary achievement and kid appeal is tricky; they have to be concise (mine is 111 words, not counting the exclamation) yet convincing, and above all, they have to make you want to read the book. Which I hope you do.

By the head of the dragon! It’s a good thing Prince Rashko, the sensible second son, is around to defend the royal family’s ancestral castle when Baron Temny and his army of invaders move in, because he’s not going to get much help from his parents (called away to the Silver Lands) or his brother (bewitched by the beautiful Princess Poteshenie). Drawing on Slovakian proverbs and folklore, Bruchac alternates—and eventually intertwines—Rashko’s story with that of the hero Pavol, also depicted in a mysterious tapestry that hangs on the castle walls. The result is high fantasy laced with history and humor, action and adventure, as Rashko and the reader alike uncover the secrets of Dragon Castle.

I like to think I'm getting better at writing these (this is the third year I've been a first-round Cybils panelist; I wrote the blurbs for Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve (Scholastic) in 2010 and Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins) in 2009), but there's always more to say. I'm still sorry I wasn't able to work the giant, telepathic wolves into the final copy.

I would love to know, though: Would you read Dragon Castle? Why or why not? Because, ahem, you should.

Caldecott Hopefuls: The Money We'll Save

I usually like to note that by Caldecott Hopefuls, I mean picture books I like a lot, not necessarily ones I think will win the award. Happily, in the case of The Money We'll Save by Brock Cole (FSG), these coincide, and the result is a picture book that already feels like a classic. This is partly because the plot is somewhat familiar: Pa brings home a turkey poult to fatten for Christmas dinner, but when the time comes the family can't bring themselves to take it to the butcher (although they don't exactly want to keep it, either). It's not exactly Margot Zemach's It Could Always Be Worse, but it has a lot in common with that book, which won a 1978 Caldecott Honor. Starting with the title, of course, and the storytelling (Heavy Medal is considering it for their Mock Newbery); but especially the expressive, energetic illustrations.

Cole sets his story in a nineteenth-century New York tenement, crowded by definition and made more so by the turkey, whom the family names Alfred. His (Cole's, not Alfred's) watercolor illustrations range from what the Horn Book refers to as "cheerfully disheveled" to completely chaotic. Even in the final image, seen below, the table is littered with crockery and silverware. Not to mention the laundry. But no matter how many people are in the picture (and there are often five or six of them, not counting Alfred), you can always tell who is looking at whom in a Cole illustration, and exactly what everyone is saying, or even thinking. Especially Pa.

[After satisfyingly disposing of Alfred and scrubbing the flat clean, the family celebrates Christmas: "...each child had a present, if only a little one, and the oatmeal was delicious." I love the way this illustration shows us not only what each child got (that's Bridget with the book), but just how much they liked it.]

Best Horn Book Cover Ever?

My long-awaited copy of the January/February 2012 issue of The Horn Book arrived today and it is gorgeous.  The cover illustration is by Salley Mavor, who illustrated the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book picture book award winner, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; link is to my review). You can see and read more about the process of making the cover illustration (I love the way she renders the Horn Book logo in particular. Also the little girl dressed as a lamb) and enter a poster giveaway on Salley's blog, or just order your poster directly from The Horn Book.

I've been a Horn Book subscriber for two years now (the inside of the magazine is just as good). Other favorite covers are Marla Frazee's hollow tree (May/June 2011), which also appears in her illustrations for the picture book Stars by Mary Lyn Ray (Beach Lane Books, 2011); and Anita Lobel's guardian angel (November/December 2010).

Which are your favorites? [There are lots more to choose from in the Horn Book Magazine's gallery of covers, too.]