Book Bloggers: Blessing or Bane?

When I started my blog, CanLit for LittleCanadians, in the fall of 2011, my intent was to promote books for children and young adults written and illustrated by Canadians.  Obviously I thought it was a noble endeavour, one I had supported as a selection committee member for book awards such as the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award and the multitude of readers’ choice awards of the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading.  I knew there was a wealth of exceptional literature for Canadian children and young adult readers but I didn’t think enough people shared this knowledge.  As a teacher and teacher-librarian and awards committee member, as well as a volunteer at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, I could shout the praises of youngCanLit but my audience was a limited one of students and parents, other teachers and school and public librarians and anyone whose ear I could bend with my recommendations.  It didn’t seem to be enough.

Sure, there are publications such as Quill & Quire, Canada’s foremost literary magazine, and limited exposés and reviews in other print publications and intermittently on radio and TV  but, with the onset of the internet, it became possible to reach the masses with a few well-placed clicks and tags.  And so, blogging, the frequent sharing of everything and anything, became a tool for the common person and even a non-human or two.  If a message could reach out both spatially, to the far reaches of the world, and temporally, whenever convenient for the recipient rather than just the messenger, how could blogging be anything but positive and constructive?

Most book bloggers organize their blogs as platforms for reviews of books, for announcing book events such as book launches and cover reveals, and for participating in book tours which include interviews, contests, Q & As, and other measures that link readers with the authors and/or illustrators of selected genres or books of interest.   Of course, there are many book blogs that are associated with publishers including 49th Shelf, the outstanding blog of the Association of Canadian Publishers in collaboration with the Canadian Publishers’ Council.  Many authors and illustrators, practical about the need to have an online presence, also have blogs to showcase their works.  But the lowly book blogger is an entity of her own, good and bad.

To examine what book bloggers bring to the story, it’s best to start with the question of why most book bloggers blog.  I know why I blog (see my first paragraph) but I suspect there are many reasons people start book blogs.  Consequently, depending on their mandate and the quality of their reviews, a book blog will either be a blessing to an author or illustrator–hopefully this is the case– or a bane to them.

Here are some reasons I believe book bloggers blog, based on those I’ve read or those with whom I’ve connected:
1. To share their reading and love of great books
2. To connect with authors and illustrators they admire
3. To get free books
4. To get famous
5. To opine on everything and anything
6. To do harm
7. To make money

Reasons 1 and 2 are both valid reasons, supporting authors and illustrators by promoting their books and perhaps stroking their egos occasionally (let’s face it, working along in an office or studio with little feedback does little to boost one’s self-esteem).

Reasons 3 through 7 are concerns for me.  I see reviewers who post photos of themselves with piles and piles of books, calling them their "book hauls."  It’s great to show your appreciation for publishers and writers who share advance readers copies and review copies of their books but calling them a “haul” suggests quantity, not indebtedness.  Think about things that are normally hauled: junk to the dump, heavy boats behind vehicles, criminals before magistrates.  Not an auspicious list.  Calling a collection of books “a haul” does a disservice to the authors, the illustrators, the publishers, and ultimately the readers who really don’t want to hear how you’re amassing books.

Sure, some fashion bloggers and such segue their blogs into celebrity but blogging about books to get famous is akin to writing a book to become a best-selling author.  Nice if it happens but don’t hold your breath.  And definitely not a good enough reason to spend all that time and effort on something on the off-chance you’ll become famous.  Don’t believe me? Name me three celebrity book bloggers. Told you.

Author Paulo Coelho once wrote that “The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”  He’s right. Maybe every review I write is my opinion but I like to think that I opine with my heart and pen, not spleen and knife.  I know authors who’ve had to bear scathing reviews that begin with a series of expletives.  Or had to read how their recently-nominated book is garbage.  When did these reviewers feel the need to go beyond sharing their thoughts on books and deem themselves to be the voices of authority in declaring a book to be something less than worthy of publication?

Book bloggers who believe that reviewing a book means “letting ‘er rip” are mistaken.  Some magazines and papers and websites may want reviewers of books, music, food, and stage to stir up controversy with nastiness and innuendo but that isn’t really reviewing.  It’s more like slash-and-burn with someone’s efforts.  Not cool.  Of course, those who are seeking fame are the ones apt to partake in this version of reviewing.  Don’t be fooled.

As for compensation, don’t believe all the hype about making money on your blog. Sure you can agree to a few ads here and there but it’s not going to earn you a regular salary.  If you’re book blogging for a living, I suspect you’ve set yourself up as a charity or are independently wealthy because it is not a money-making venture.  It’s a labour of love.

If a blog is effective, it will create traffic for the blog and for the authors, illustrators and publishers, and sales of the books.  Let’s face it: sales is the bottom line for books.  And if reviews or posts about award nominations and book events bring in more sales of great books, in my case youngCanLit, then I’ve accomplished something good.  Every reader who gets tipped off to a new title or hitherto-unknown author or illustrator benefits from an ever-increasing collection of reading material and source of enlightenment.  Can you say, “Blessing!”?

Though some believe reviews are to help readers with purchases, I've always believed that most people are smart enough to not take all reviews at face value.  Whether it be restaurant reviews or rating sites for teachers, doctors or local services, most people use reviews as guides, not as irrevocable truths.  For me reviewing has always been about sharing.  For that reason, I will continue to review youngCanLit on CanLit for LittleCanadians and I will continue to shout the praises of authors and illustrators whom I believe produce exceptional works.  Some readers will agree with my assessments (I’ve even had my ideas plagiarized) and others will not.  They can leave a comment here (although I do moderate comments to cull out spam and hateful remarks) or write their own blog reviews.  They can even write a review about this article.  Let’s just hope their intentions are good and produce discussion, as I hope most book blogs do.

Cut Off

by Jamie Bastedo

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-511-0

340 pp.

Ages 12+

June 2015

From Guatemala to Calgary and to the Yukon, Cut Off takes the reader on a nerve-racking journey from exploitation to addiction and reclamation and finally to self-acceptance.  It's a uncertain ride, with lots of disquieting edges that may look like safe shores and tortuous currents that need to be navigated.   But the destination, self-acceptance, is always evident, though not necessarily easily tenable.

Cut Off starts in Guatemala where teen Indio McCracken lives a privileged life courtesy of his Canadian father's position as a mining executive.  Though the boy also lives with his Guatemalan mother, younger sister Sofi, Great Uncle Faustus and best friend and dog Loba, it is his father that controls everything for Indio.  Edgar McCracken's zealousness–that Indio become a world-famous classical guitarist–is relentless and has him dictating Indio's tutoring, booking his performances, restricting his computer access, and constructing a fully-loaded practise room in which Indio is locked for hours daily. But everything changes when Indio turns 14 and begins to attend the Xela British School twice a week where he finds refuge on the computer and in a blog he starts at www.CagedGuitarist.blogspot.com.  The freedom to share his music and his thoughts, however, is tempered with learning how his father's company has been exploiting and persecuting the local people.  A particularly terrifying event leads the family to pack up and head to Calgary.

With the nasty media attention regarding the mine, and with difficulties he experiences at his new high-school, Indio–now 16– finds the need to reinvent himself so he asks to be called Ian and starts a second blog, BEIN'canadIAN.blogspot.ca.  But a series of episodes at school and at home, and an unforeseen tragedy and horrific car accident indicates Indio cannot free himself from his tech devices.

They just didn't get it.  How could something that felt so good be so bad?  The Internet was buena medicina for me, right?  It took my mind off the pain, off the loneliness.  It fought my depression.
Made me somebody.
They'd see.
There was no stopping me now. (pg. 193)

His family's response is to send him away to a wilderness-based rehab camp called Camp Lifeboat in the Yukon where the "campers" all suffer from some addiction or another.

Simply different poisons, same dead end. (pg. 210)

Through journaling, camping, and a 50-day canoe trip, Indio and the others are compelled to face the beast which they fear most.

Cut Off is a very full young adult novel.  There are the issues of exploitation and addiction and rehab and self-acceptance. There's tragedy across two countries and experiences in the big city, village and wilderness.  The characters include the indigenous peoples of both Canada and Guatemala, and the poor and very rich.  There's also a lot of self-examination, though not always enlightened, and complete oblivion to everything and everyone.  Jamie Bastedo packs a lot into Cut Off.

But, for me, the rampant exploitation, from the mine's impact on the Guatemalan people, to Indio's father's violent fervour regarding his son's musicianship, to Indio's dangerous overuse of his technology and Morris' bullying of Indio, is dismaying.  Compassion does not show up much in Cut Off–though the heart of a few individuals like Indio's Great Uncle Faustus offers some hope–but I guess that's the way Jamie Bastedo wrote it.  His sub-plots are persuasive, though perhaps somewhat incohesive.  And the duplicity and selfishness of a number of characters and the number of tragedies, including the death of several dogs, were hard for me to welcome.  But, Jamie Bastedo's writing is generally strong, allowing the reader to infer much, so perhaps I can attribute my perspective to recent health issues that have me seeking out more positive and inspiring stories.

That said, Cut Off is a worthwhile read as a cautionary tale of how focusing on one's own desires, irrespective of possible consequences on others, is jeopardous. And, given the landscape of the story, Cut Off takes the reader on an experience not soon forgotten.

How to Survive Absolutely Anything

by Helaine Becker

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-188-0

200 pp.

Ages 8-12

2012

Bonnie and Jen, two 14-year-olds in Grade 9, have the right idea.  Having "lived through" the middle grades (a.k.a. junior high or intermediate grades), they are willing to share what they've learned with any young person who writes to them at their blog, "How to Survive Absolutely Anything, with Bonnie and Jen".

The girls have a wealth of experiences, as their profiles acknowledge.  With a father who left and remarried and now is raising a second young family, and with a mother who remarried a man with older children of his own, Bonnie knows all about blended families.  In fact, she's having a hard time dealing with her step-brother, Carter, who seems to always be in her business.  Jen, on the other hand, only has her baby sister, Julia, who was born just after the accidental death of their father.  Mom Colette (who wants to be known as Tina) works as a nurse and has had (does have?) a drinking problem and recklessly puts Jen in a position of responsibility far too often.

Through their blog postings, profiles, Bonnie's journal and chapter heading survival skills, the reader learns how very different the girls' takes are on situations, and the fusion of their opinions and advice generally leads to some wise and heartfelt responses to their readers' queries.

If you're not going to like waking up with yourself after you've done something, you better not do it.  Because whatever good feeling you get out of doing the bad thing (staying longer at the fun party, getting to be with that girl, bringing home the A on the test you cheated on) doesn't last as long as the rotten feeling that comes along with it.  (pg. 80)

But, when Bonnie goes online alone (something the girls had promised not to do), she responses to Crushed's concern about having strong feelings for his step-sister, negating his feelings when she believes that he is her own step-brother Carter.  Eventually Bonnie realizes how many "gynormous errors" she has made in so many aspects of her life, from the blog to boys, to her family and her friends, and that she can still use a little (a lot?) of advice about the choices she makes.

Helaine Becker thanks fellow youngCanLit author Marsha Skrypuch for encouraging her to write this book, just as I would like to thank Helaine Becker.  Writing an appropriate yet meaningful middle-grade fiction is not always easy, but How to Survive Absolutely Anything fills that need beautifully.  Without treating the readers as young children or as young adults, Helaine Becker gives them a voice that explores their concerns and foibles, without pushing them into the realm of true young adult fiction.  There are many young people in the middle grades who just aren't ready to embrace the edgier fiction of YA, with its more mature subjects such as sexuality.  They may be in their early teens but they're only starting to notice the opposite sex.  While some of their peers may be living the lives of mature teens, comfortable in their own skins, making decisions and choices akin to adults (though not always well, just like us), there are middle grade readers who want to read about how others begin navigating into their teen years before they take their own first steps.  How to Survive Absolutely Anything provides a light but credible account of young girls who think they have experienced and survived all the predicaments of the middle-graders only to find that a whole new set of annoyances and dilemmas lurk on the horizon.

"You can trust me on this one --or find out the hard way.  It's your call" (pg. 80)

The Woefield Poultry Collective

Written by Susan Juby
HarperCollins Canada
978-1554687442
336 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

Reviewed from audiobook
Audible Audio edition
ASIN: B006ODFCK0
Narrated by Carter Hayden, Kate Griffin, Jennifer Walls, Michael Fletcher
7 hours, 51 minutes
2011

Whether reading the hardcopy or ebook or listening to the audiobook of The Woefield Poultry Collective, ensure that you are in a secure location where your outbursts (n.b. plural) will not disturb others, because they will be frequent and they will be hearty. Luckily they won't be prolonged because there isn't time to laugh endlessly - the next chortle is imminent.  So you will end up laughing, looking around to make sure you haven't caught anyone's attention, continue reading and then laugh again.  Ah, it's a vicious cycle.  But, if you need to explain, just tell your audience to read Susan Juby's The Woefield Poultry Collective to fully comprehend the nature of your lack of self-control and note that it had been shortlisted for the 2012 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. 

Though an apartment-dwelling New Yorker, Prudence Burns lives by the principles and practices of environmental responsibility.  She has vermi-composting with red wigglers; she installed solar panels; she passionately sorts her waste for recycling; she buys organic, free-trade and local; and her only foray into writing, a YA novel titled, "The Sun Doesn't Always Forgive," focuses on the consequences of global warming.  Luckily for her, just as her relationship with the pompous Leo goes down the tubes and she considers her options for a career, she inherits Woefield Farm from her great uncle, Harold, her only relative and one she'd never met.

Convinced her dream has come true, Prudence embraces the opportunity to become a farmer and packs herself up to move to Woefield Farm, a scrubby piece of land off the coast of B.C.  With her passion for challenges and all things earthly, Prudence sees the limitless potential in the overgrown, rocky land with its old house, burned down barn, Bertie, the half-sheared sheep, and the elderly curmudgeon, Earl, who lives at the cabin on the property.

With her energetic charm, Prudence has no problems drawing people to her vision and to helping out, usually without them even realizing they've been snagged by her.  First, there's Hugh the cabbie who drops her off at Woefield.  Then it's Earl, the cantankerous banjo playing, TV documentary fan, who was her uncle's right-hand man, who first sticks around to protect and advise Prudence but ultimately grows to care, in his own way, for her passionate ways. Then, Seth, an alcoholic, heavy metal and celebrity gossip blogger, who has secluded himself for a few years (there was an unfortunate incident at the high school) until his mother kicks him out, joins the farm.  Finally, eleven-year-old Junior Poultry Fancier, Sara Spratt, becomes a regular fixture at Woefield after Mrs. Spratt pays to have a coop built there to house her daughter's chickens.

Prudence learns from the bank that Woefield is essentially a negative asset and she is responsible for paying the mortgage, a home equity loan and long-overdue taxes and bills.  But, far from discouraged, Prudence finds the means to make Woefield the farm of her dreams, armed only with her limitless energy, menagerie of sidekicks, and positive attitude.

The Woefield Poultry Collective has been acclaimed as adult humour but I believe that teens in high school would delight in Prudence's story, especially as Susan Juby's skills are founded in YA literature.  Prudence may be a twenty-something character, but her voice and those of Susan Juby's other characters are so distinctive and familiar that teens will revel in their humour and odd perspectives.  Seth, from whom expletives pour like beer, may be twenty-one but he's still living in his high school years since having never graduated or achieved closure after the "incident" at the school play.  Sara may be smart enough to manage in a dysfunctional family and share her knowledge of poultry practices, but she is still a child, naive enough to misunderstand Seth's drunkedness, her dad's "misappropriateness" at the bank (which cost him his job) and Earl's swearing and lack of initiative.  With Susan Juby's evocative text, the narrators on the audiobook of The Woefield Poultry Collective do not just read the words, they become their characters.  Listen to a preview of it at Audible.com to share in the flavour that is Earl.

While Prudence may seem far too upbeat and environmentally-conscious for some readers, I know a few persons just like her, and the virtue that is Prudence's is that she doesn't preach or tell others how to live their lives.  Even when Seth is falling down drunk, Prudence tries to find a way to help rather than just berate him.  She's just the embodiment of the old adage, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  Prudence makes lemonade with sparkly ice-cubes made of well water.

Promote Canadian!

My first presentation of the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award in 2009 ended with this very purple slide.  Its purpose was to acknowledge the contributions of so many to the wealth of exceptional literature for Canadian children and young adult readers.  They are so fortunate!  But who knows this?  The authors and illustrators who create their works?  The publishers?  The librarians, both public and school, who purchase them? Yes, yes and yes.  But it's not enough.

As a voracious reader of children's literature, for my own pleasure as well as for award selection committees, I know that it's not always the best books to which young people are drawn - it's the ones with the most media coverage, or the movie tie-in, or the controversy, or the gimmick.  We know that writing and publishing are no longer the singular tasks of putting thoughts to words and words to paper.  Usually the more money put behind a text and author, the more likely it is to succeed.