For those of you who have never read The Westing Game, I feel great pity and regret for your deprived and squandered lives. While you were out staying fit and basking in the sun, I was hunkered down on the living room couch, reading and rereading The Westing Game, a YA novel with a plot so intricate that I still have trouble fully comprehending it to this day.
This reading was preceded by The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, and followed by From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, both of which involve probably my favorite YA theme-- young people run away from home and wind up involved with crazies.
All this YA reading has gotten me revved up to write my own YA book, an idea I've been toying with ever since my mentor Joe Mackall kindly informed me that what I thought of as my Very Important Novel With Deep, Deep Meaning would really be a hit with the tween crowd. (I really do think he meant this as a compliment, but as I was expecting to win the National Book
Award with it, and not the Newberry, I was a bit bummed.)I'm not quite sure what my book will be about yet, but I think it will involve the following:
- Doing It
- Unexpected teen pregnancy (not on the part of the narrator, because that is SO DONE)
- Men fistfighting (because fistfighting is hot hot hot)
- Probably some sort of complex series of clues leading to the identity of a killer/the father of the baby/a vast Papal conspiracy
It will probably also be set around the turn of the century, like another of my favorites, The Callender Papers. This, I realize, might hamper my Doing It/unexpected teen pregnancy angle, but could really benefit the Men Fistfighting angle, as men seemed to do that a lot back then.
5 pipers piping:
have you read The Giver or The Messanger, or the last one in that trilogy that I never remember the name? Those are AMAZING!
One reason I became a teacher is the books I get to read with my kids about teen angst. Why I still feel teen angst when I am 30, I have no idea!
One of these days, people are going to think "turn of the century" refers to now, what with the recent century-turning, and all. Don't even get me started on "The Gay '90s."
The Westing Game for the win!
What a freaking awesome book. I must go read it again. Right now.
That's awesome about Lolita. I've been on an Ada or Ardor and Pnin kick (if you want to feel really twisted, try Ada). And by "kick" what I really mean is I'm obsessed. I love Nabokov probably more than life itself, even when, as commonly happens, I don't understand what the hell he's talking about.
I just purchased the three His Dark Materials books, because I hear they're good and, as you know, anyone with even a granule of awesomeness in their head should continue to read young adult and children's books (although I refuse to endorse Rowling).
I love Turtle!
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