Five Young Adult Novels That Deserve Movie Adaptations

                Since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out in 2001, big screen adaptations of Young Adult novels have been some of the box offices biggest hits. With the recent premiere of The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay and The Giver on the way, this summer seems to be the season of the adaptation. I've compiled a list of the books I would most like to see in the theaters.*

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

                America loves its World War II movies, but I favor a British studio for this film. To pull this off, one would need a director familiar with the twists and turns of spy thrillers and two badass young actresses to lead the cast. Some people have suggested Kira Knightly and Renée Zellweger, but I think they are too old for Maddie and Verity (who are in their early twenties). Whatever actresses are chosen, they will have to prove chemistry does not exists only for love interests.

2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

                A few months ago, Rainbow Rowell proudly announced on twitter that the movie rights to her Pritz Award Honoree had been sold to DreamWorks. If done right, the Eleanor and Park movie could be a quirky, romantic drama of TFIOS proportions. Popular fancasts are hard to find since Hollywood has a sadly unsurprising lack of Asian-American actors and heavy-set actresses. Rowell says that her biggest fear is Eleanor played by a skinny girl and Park played by Keanu Reaves. Same here, Rowell.

3. Going Bovine by Libba Bray

                This one could go either completely amazing or very, very wrong. Whoever directs Bray's award winning novel needs to embrace the stories surrealism and not fear ridiculousness. Logan Lerman, who is no stranger to Young Adult adaption, could play Cameron and Adèle Exarchopoulos could play Dulcie. Throw a CGI gnome in there and you got a movie.

4. Every Day by David Levithan

                I have to admit, I just want to see if it could pull this off. Since A is constantly switching bodies, multiple actors and actresses would need to be hired to play the same main character. With a talented young cast, this movie would be a fresh take on teenage romantic dramas. That being said, it's unlikely that a studio would take on the challenge. But a reader can dream.

5. Great by Sara Benincasa

                The most recent adaptation of The Great Gatsby might have made booklovers everywhere cringe, but She's the Man and Clueless prove that people love teenage movies based on classic novels. I pick Wes Anderson to recreate Jacinta's modern candy-colored world and Elle Fanning to play Naomi Rye. Jacinta is tough, but the If I Stay trailer does prove that Chloë Grace Moretz could pull off the white bob.

*I excluded movies that are already in production, but not books that the movie rights have already been sold, since studios can sit on movie rights for years.

Summer Reading, Had Me a Blast: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

                I had a lovely Fourth of July Weekend at my grandparent's lake house in Nisswa, Minnesota. I spent most of my days sitting on the dock, enjoying the breeze off the water. During this relaxation, I read Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein in its entirety.

                American transport pilot and novice poet, Rose Justice, faces her worst nightmare when she is capture by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, an all-women concentration camp. She still manages to find hope, however, after meeting a group of women who are soldiers in their own right. These survivors include a French novelist turned barrack mother, a Polish girl scout used for Nazi medical experiments, and a Soviet female fighter pilot. Together, they stand up to their oppressors and fight to survive long enough to tell the world what has been done to them.

                I had such high hopes for this book after reading Wein's Code Name Verity, but Rose Under Fire started out so slow that I was worried I would be disappointed. Rose isn't half the narrator Verity is, and the story doesn't launch right into the action. The real stars of the novel are Ravensbrück's supporting cast, and Wein takes over a hundred pages to get there. Still, the beginning of the novel is worthwhile for finding out the fate of some of Verity's characters (Hint: M + J = <3).

                Once the novel gets on its feet, it's off and running. Wein wraps the reader up in the characters and the love they share for each other. The extreme situations of the camp lead to extreme acts of bravery by extraordinary women. Once again, Wein proves that she can write interest, complex women in parts of World War II's lesser known history.

                The ending is slow once again, but Wein leaves the reader on a note of hope. Overall, the book holds true to Wein's principal, to explore the bravery of humanity at war as well as the evil and, like the women at Ravensbrück, TELL THE WORLD.

If you liked Code Name Verity, you will like Rose Under Fire. If you haven't read Verity, read that first because Rose contains spoilers.

Next Up: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Summer Reading, Had Me a Blast: Great by Sara Benincasa

                I love modern adaptations of classics. I am not ashamed to admit that watching She's the Man during the Twelfth Night unit in tenth grade English was the single most engaging activity of my high school career. This is why I loved Mental Floss's 11 Modern Retellings of Classic Novels. I just finished the first book on the list, Great by Sara Benincasa.

 

                Based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Nathan Caraway is now Naomi Rye, the down-to-earth Chicagoan who is launched into the extravagant world of the East Hamptons when she spends the summer at her mom's beach house. There she is  quickly befriended by her next door neighbor, Jacinta Trimalchio, the mysteriously wealth fashion blogger obsessed with Naomi's model friend, Delilah Fairweather. Before Naomi realizes it, she is caught up in a scheme that could shatter everyone's glittery life as they know it.

                Unlike She's the Man, Great follows the events of its inspiration almost exactly. Jacinta's convertible is white, not yellow, but whatchayagonnado. Benincasa  takes the frivolities of Fitzgerald's world online as Jacinta Facebook stalks Delilah and the Hampton it-crowd raves just as much about J's blog as they do her parties. And the green light on the dock? That's the glow from Jacinta's laptop charger.

                All in all, Great is a fresh and entertaining take on the 1920's classic. Benincasa uses the novel's 263 pages to dive further into the story than Fitzgerald, developing Naomi as a narrator and showing how little American society has changed in 90 years. I was also fascinated about the way she develops Jeff (i.e. Jordan) in a way that shows how Naomi could be attracted to him, while slowly revealing the flaws in his character.

                While the novel gets just as dark as The Great Gatsby, Benincasa's humor and satire keep Great an engaging summer read.

Up next: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

In Defence of Shailene Woodley

I saw The Fault in Our Stars on Thursday. It was so amazing and funny I was almost worried I was not going to cry even though all my friends had started. Then the movie reached the scene, which while I was reading the book I had to pause and sob for 15 minutes, and I proceeded to openly weep for the rest of the movie.

Needless to say I loved the movie. I loved the support group scenes. I loved Hazel's parents. I loved all the little details like Catching Fire sitting on Hazel's bookshelf. I want to love everything about this movie.

Recent interviews with Shailene Woodley, however, have made that difficult. In an interview with Time.com, Woodley stated that she is not a feminist because she loves men and believes there needs to be a balance between the genders. She later claimed she was misquoted but stood by the opinion. This caused a huge backlash in social media, especially as other female celebrities keep denying feminism for the same reasons. I was as initially defensive as every other feminist on the internet, but I have begun to look at this in a more macro sense.

Woodley clearly has the wrong definition of feminism. Feminism is not about bringing men down. Feminism is about building women up, whether it be through strong female characters in books and movies, a societal shift towards the prevention of violence against women, or laws that ensure equally pay for women. Woodley has given no evidence to suggest that she would be against this definition of feminism. Her misconception is merrily a small part of a larger problem.

The idea that feminists are "man-haters" has been a scare tactic of those against women's rights since before women could vote. Along with that are the stereotypes that feminists are careless abortionists, fifty year old virgins, and, WORST OF ALL, lesbians. This idea has been perpetuated, whether subtly or blatantly, by politicians, parents, and movie producers for centuries.

Movements such as #YesAllWomen have attempted to rebrand feminism as the not-so-radical idea that women should be treated equal to men. But these ideas, while not at all new, are facing an entire history of demonization. Celebrities, despite being the center of mainstream culture, are actually relatively isolated from changes in society. Many celebrities will say that they avoid social media, particularly any content about themselves. So is it any wonder that Woodley and others would have the wrong idea about feminism after being spoon-fed sexist messages for so long? Even I, after spending a half-hour in the social justice tags on Tumblr, am amazed by how discriminatory our society still is.

Yes, Shailene Woodley is wrong, but her comments are a symptom of a sociItal illness rather than the cause. It is up to us feminists to keep spreading the word on what feminism truely calls for. With persistance, people might begin to see that the F word is not as scary as it has been made out to be. Hopefully then we will start seeing a lot more feminist celebrities.

Review, Rant, & Bonus Writing Workout

I've never been a big fan of writing prompts, which is odd considering that the segment "Writing Workouts" on this blog is basically a writing prompt plus a greater purpose. But I bought Bryan Cohen's "1,000 Creative Writing Prompts" anyway because it was one dollar and I figured I might get a little practice out of it. Instead, I was reminded why traditional writing prompts bother me so much.

The problem with this book of writing prompts, and writing prompts in general, is that they are too often too specific. With the situation so detailed already, there's little room for the writer's own creativity. This is probably preferable to those who are trying creative writing for the first time, but most writer wouldn't want to be drawn to predetermined outcomes.

So what kind of writing prompts do I actually like? One of my favorites from my time in my school's Creative Writing Club was based on the web series, the Flipside, by the youtube channel, Soul Pancake. In the videos, the world looks like our own and the characters look like people we know, but one thing is off. A high school's debate team is more celebrated than its football team. Kids are the ones who have to raise their parents. The president of my school's club showed us a couple of these videos then gave us the prompt: "Write a story set in world that's exactly like our own but change one specific thing."* Vague. Simple. Open-ended. This is the philosophy I use when blogging my own Writing Workouts. Ready. Set. Go.

P.S. I really like the prompts on writeworld. You should check them out.

*I wrote about a world where eating was considered a taboo subject just like going to the bathroom was considered a taboo subject in Victorian England. 

Why Don't Your Characters Have Siblings?

     John Green once answered this question on his youtube channel by saying that "It's just my little way of telling Hank [his brother] that he doesn't exist in my narrative imagination." But when one thinks about it, the amount of only children in Young Adult fiction is disproportional to real life. Are YA readers and writers narcissists who prefer to escape into a world where they don't have to share everything with their brothers and sisters? Probably. But there's another reason that's a bit more literary.

      The truth is that siblings in books are just as much a hassle as they are in real life. Writing and rewriting is the practice of cutting out all unnecessary plot lines, dialogue, and characters. Siblings, unless the novel deals specifically with family issues, are often irrelevant baggage for a main character. 

     This is especially true for Young Adult characters since most of them at least begin their stories living in the family unit. Siblings can't realistically be the adult sister that lives out in Oregon and keeps bugging the main character to come see her son's soccer games. Siblings in Young Adult novels will be present when the main character comes home from flirting with vampires, or preventing the apocalypse, or whatever it is kids do these days. They can't be mentioned passingly on one or two pages if the main character sees them every day.

     To add to this narcism, siblings are only included in YA novels when they drive along the main character's plot line. If not for Prim, who would Katniss have volunteered for? If Liesel's little brother hadn't died, how would Death have first met her? Selfish? Yes. Practical? Absolutely. The moral is cut excess material from your story at all costs, even if it means killing off the kid brother.

Best Movie Adaptation Soundtracks

                *Digs self out of snow bank* Helloooo Internet! It's my spring break and it's 37 degrees out, because Minnesota that's why. So I'm staying inside and watching movies and getting some writing done, until I leave for NYC on Monday.

                I've had a crazy week full of all the deadlines and responsibilities one's senior year is not supposed to have. While caring for my life as a suburban hack, I've been listening to a lot of music, specifically, the Catching Fire Movie Soundtrack. It has brought together all my favorite artists to make badass post-apocalyptic music. My favorites are "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Lorde and "Silhouettes" by Of Monsters and Men. This got me thinking about all the great soundtracks of movie adaptation of books. Here are my top picks:

1. The First Hunger Games Movie

                While the Catching Fire soundtrack focused mostly on the sinister capital and the cruelty of the arena, the first movie's soundtrack explored Katniss's rural roots of District 12, making for an awesome folk rock album, the best of which are the haunting "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars and "Run Daddy Run" by Miranda Lambert ft. The Pistol Annies.

2. The Twilight Saga: New Moon

                The Twilight movies got a lot of things wrong, but the soundtracks are not one of them. New Moon's soundtrack is filled with dreamy, alternative rock love songs that can almost make me forgive Lautner's acting (almost). My favorites are "Meet Me by the Equinox" by Death Cab for Cutie and "Satellite Heart" by Anya Marina.

 

3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

                No original songs on this one, but like the book, the movie is centered around beloved late 80s and early 90s tracks. The soundtrack includes memorable pieces such as "Come on Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners, "Heroes" by David Bowie, and, who can forget, "Asleep" by the Smiths.

4. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

                When remaking a childhood classic starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, it's important to know one's audience. So the producers chose the punk pop artists they knew their slightly alternative teenage audience (myself included) would love. I've had "Painting Flowers" by All Time Low and "Always Running Out of Time" by Motion City Soundtrack on my iPod for years.

                Why are movie-adaptation soundtracks so awesome? Language and music are intertwined. Readers find songs that fit the books that they are reading. Many writers write listening to music that fits their scenes. Music lets us relive and enhance the feelings we had while reading or writing our favorite stories. Plus, listening to one song is also a lot quicker than rewatching an entire movie or rereading an entire book.