Chapter 16 - Part 18

Putting the Fan in Fantasy

Graphic novelist Scott Christian Sava has ten million readers to keep happy every day

By Susannah Felts | June 25, 2010

June 25, 2010 After Franklin, Tennessee, graphic novelist Scott Christian Sava accomplished his childhood dream of illustrating an issue of the Spider-Man comic, he set his sights on creating an epic fantasy narrative of his own. The result, The Dreamland Chronicles, is now one of the most popular web comics in existence, read daily by more than ten million readers worldwide. And that’s not even counting the audience for his books.

Catcher in the National Spotlight

Siori Koerner’s letter to J.D. Salinger wins the Murfreesboro eighth-grader top honors in the Letters About Literature contest

By Susannah Felts | May 31, 2010

May 31, 2010 It began as just another school essay, with a due date for a grade. The assignment: to choose a book that speaks to you—any book you wish—and write a letter to its author, explaining how the story sheds new light on your own life experiences. Siori Koerner’s letter to J.D. Salinger ultimately won its author, an eighth grader from Murfreesboro, top honors in this year’s Letters About Literature contest, a national program sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Sons and Lovers—and MFA Degrees

In Leah Stewart’s new novel, an infidelity jars a former poet into reconsidering her marriage and its costs

By Susannah Felts | May 28, 2010

May 28, 2010 So hoary is the tradition of novels about writers that it’s impossible to attend a graduate writing program without being warned against the shopworn trope of writing about being a writer. Nonetheless, with said programs popping up on seemingly every campus, a new breed of books about writers—specifically, MFA candidates and graduates—has emerged. Husband and Wife, the new novel from Leah Stewart (a Vanderbilt graduate and former visiting professor at both Vanderbilt and Sewanee), takes up the task with keen insight and subtle wit. But it also has, significantly, a broader sweep in its intelligent portrayal of modern motherhood and the challenge of creative productivity in a two-breadwinner world.

The Good Books

What if all you ever wanted was a kid who loves books, and your daughter turns out to have bad taste in literature?

By Susannah Felts | May 24, 2010

May 24, 2010 My daughter was born, grew, sat up, ate mush, and all the while I was happy with the books I’d carefully selected for her. Thalia, however, seemed not so terribly interested. I began to wonder if, horror of horrors, my squirmy kid was not going to like reading. But she grew some more, and I watched her reading enthusiasm grow, too. Only it was growing for books I didn’t choose—books I considered problematic.

Underage in Margaritaville

Jennifer Holm’s new middle-grade reader captures the Key West of an earlier age

By Susannah Felts | May 19, 2010

May 19, 2010 From the looks of the dust jacket, you might assume Turtle in Paradise tells a sand ‘n’ surf tale of a lucky young girl luxuriating in a beachside resort, perhaps in pursuit of a boy’s attention. Instead, Jennifer Holm’s wonderful new novel for middle-grade readers takes readers to Depression-era Key West, a place that looks to our heroine, eleven-year-old Turtle, like “a broken chair that’s been left out in the sun to rot.” Two-time Newbery winner Jennifer Holm appears at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on May 20 at 4 p.m.

Survivor’s Guilt

What if the worst natural disaster of your lifetime strikes, and you don’t even get a good story out of it?

By Susannah Felts | May 7, 2010

May 7, 2010 Fortunate. Lucky. How many times have I said these words in the last week? How many times have I felt them as I clicked through photos of the devastation, feeling like a rubbernecker on the highway?

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker