{"id":5995,"date":"2018-09-21T13:51:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T17:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=5995"},"modified":"2018-09-21T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T17:51:42","slug":"musings-writing-from-the-heart-strange-star-by-emma-carroll-and-out-of-the-wild-blue-by-blue-balliett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/musings-writing-from-the-heart-strange-star-by-emma-carroll-and-out-of-the-wild-blue-by-blue-balliett\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings: Writing From The Heart: Strange Star by Emma Carroll and Out of the Wild Blue by Blue Balliett"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Strange Star\u00a0<\/em>by Emma Carroll<\/p>\n

Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2018<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 978-0399556050<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a recent\u00a0interview, <\/a>R.L. Stine expressed his frustration with the writing advice \u201cwrite from your heart.\u201d To paraphrase, he said \u201cI don\u2019t write from the heart. I write to entertain.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may argue that Stine writes formula fiction, which can be predictable, and that it\u2019s shallow to write only to entertain. Only you can make that decision, but know that just because you are writing out of love, that doesn\u2019t mean your writing will be loved, or even understood, by the audience you are trying to reach. I\u2019m writing about children\u2019s books here because that\u2019s what I love and where I\u2019ve recently seen examples of this, but if you\u2019re writing for any audience, this still applies. In general, people who read to escape are looking for a good story, one that flows. They don\u2019t want to have to work for their chills and thrills. I think that\u2019s particularly true for children and teens.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come across two books this month that illustrate this perfectly. The first one, which I recently reviewed here, Out of the Wild Blue<\/em>, by the outstanding children\u2019s author Blue Balliett, was a tribute to Nantucket and its ghosts. It is clever and literary, and the worst book she\u2019s ever written. I read it because I was asked to by another school media specialist who couldn\u2019t get through the first 20 pages. Both of us are baffled at the amazing reviews this book has gotten from other librarians and reviewers. Heavy on atmosphere, this book shorted us on character development and plot. It was WORK for me to get through it, and what kid wants to have to work for the creepiness and chills you expect in a ghost story? I mean, the story is practically a love letter, but it\u2019s not successful as an accessible ghost story for children. Or, for that matter, for at least two other adults with expertise in children\u2019s literature.<\/p>\n

The second, Strange Star,<\/em> by Emma Carroll, has a lot of originality, although it\u2019s not necessarily successful at getting the reader to fully suspend disbelief, and some of the pieces don\u2019t connect as smoothly as they could. Strange Star<\/em> centers on the events of the \u201chaunted summer\u201d during which Mary Shelley first conceived of Frankenstein. The first point of view character, is Felix, a free black servant boy working for Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati, whose goal is to convince Byron to take him back to England as a footman. His story is told in third person. We get Felix\u2019s impressions of Byron, the Shelleys, and their friends, and some pretty detailed information on them is communicated through him. Felix isn\u2019t only used as a way to communicate information, though. He is a character with agency and his own motivations. The second point of view character, Lizzie, an English village girl who was struck by lightning, blinded, and kidnapped by a scientist obsessed with using electricity to resurrect the dead, speaks in her own voice. Her experience of the same group of people that Felix admires is a terrifying one.<\/p>\n

The author named many of the fictional characters in the book after characters in Frankenstein<\/em> as well, even naming the scientist Francesca Stine. She managed to include historical figures like William Godwin, Mary\u2019s father (a relatively minor part of her life after she ran away with Shelley) as a character, whose motivations and actions help move the story toward its conclusion. The messages of and ideas behind the creation of Frankenstein come through clearly in the book\u2014clearly Carroll did her research and used it creatively.<\/p>\n

As someone who\u2019s read Frankenstein<\/em> and also read a lot about Mary Shelley, I found this to be really well done and clever. It is vivid, not just in its descriptions and setting (the title is Strange Star<\/em> for a reason), but in its portrayal of terrible emotions, particularly grief. Carroll also did a nice job of seamlessly integrating diversity into her characters. But I am not the audience. This is a book written for middle-schoolers, most of whom will not yet have read Frankenstein or heard of Mary Shelley. They won\u2019t even yet have encountered the work of Percy Shelley or Lord Byron. They will miss most of the references and won\u2019t be able to connect the dots when things are implied rather than stated outright (okay, maybe you don’t want them to figure out that Claire Clairmont has a thing going on with Byron). You would have to love Frankenstein<\/em> and be fascinated with the life of Mary Shelley to write this book, but so much of it will be above the heads of the readers it is targeted for!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there are more readers for this than for Balliett\u2019s book, because Carroll handles plot and character development much more effectively\u2014parts of the book are disturbing and even terrifying\u2014but while Strange Star<\/em> is definitely one to remember, and certainly one I\u2019d recommend to fans of Mary Shelley, it\u2019s more the book that Carroll wanted to write than the one her target audience will appreciate.<\/p>\n

As an adult choosing or reviewing a children\u2019s book for a child or teen, it can be easy to forget that we can\u2019t read these books as if they\u2019re written for us when making recommendations. And as an adult choosing to write a book for a child or teen, or really anyone looking to read for pleasure, it\u2019s important to recognize that, if you want to reach readers, writing from your heart is not enough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strange Star\u00a0by Emma Carroll Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2018 ISBN-13: 978-0399556050 Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition   In a recent\u00a0interview, R.L. Stine expressed his frustration with the writing advice \u201cwrite from your heart.\u201d To paraphrase, he said \u201cI don\u2019t write from the heart. I write to entertain.\u201d You may argue that Stine writes formula fiction,<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3508,129,3534,600,700,3536,1970,328,2998,3535,124,3533,1787],"class_list":["post-5995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blue-balliett","tag-book-reviews","tag-emma-carroll","tag-frankenstein","tag-ghost-stories","tag-haunted-summer","tag-historical-horror","tag-mary-shelley","tag-musings","tag-out-of-the-wild-blue","tag-r-l-stine","tag-strange-star","tag-villa-diodiati"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5995"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5998,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5995\/revisions\/5998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}