There's an interesting conversation that developed yesterday over at Bookshelves of Doom after Leila reviewed The Looking Glass Wars. What started as a review became more of a discussion about "girly" books and if they can be successful with boy readers. Frank Beddor brought up the girl issue when he told interviewers that he had to read Alice in Wonderland when he was young and thought it was a girly book. This raised the hackles of all kinds of critics and readers who hold the classic near and dear to their hearts. Over at Leila's though it got really interesting. First, some readers challenged whether or not Alice was indeed girly and second, doubted whether this grittier and more violent revinvention of the classic would still appeal to boys because of its female heroine.

I read Alice as a child and never thought about it as a girl vs boy book. But I know that my brother, who reads pretty much everything, never read it. And when I went to comment I asked my husband and no, he never wanted to read it either. I don't know a single guy who did and while I'm sure many have, I don't think it's a common book for boys to reach for. And I noticed that it was all women who were commenting that the book wasn't girly. So here's the question - does a girl know if a book is girly to boys? (Other than the obvious like Are You There God? It's Me Margaret) I don't think so, not really, and I kept thinking of books that would crossover the sex line. (His Dark Materials with Lyra was the most recent and obvious.) And why can't we work harder at combining girl/boy books - marketing books to both so that boys would have more to read. (As a YA reviewer for the last couple of years I can't tell you how incredibly hard it is to find books for boys. Angst ridden girl books are everywhere, but boy books - not so easy to find. Very frustrating!) Operation Red Jericho came out last year from Candlewick and it's a great example of a book with dual appeal - in this case there are two main characters (brother and sister) which helps a lot, but still - it's an adventure/mystery that any YA would adore. The sequel is due out this winter.

I just don't know that an adult can tell for sure that an adventure or mystery will appeal only to a boy or girl based on the sex of the main character. I say this even though the YA urban fantasy I'm writing has a female protagonist - but I think the action and mystery will be strong enough to appeal to boys as well. I could be wrong of course but I think the main difference is not the sex of the protagonist but the amount of action vs introspection in the book. In the case of Alice, there are a lot of times where she comments on what is happening but she does not do anything - she does not use her larger size to just swat somebody. Alice is not a proactive character (I think) but more of a reactive one. That does not for a minute mean that I don't love that book or respect Lewis Carroll immensely for writing it, but boys like action - they react more positively to it in a story. That's why I think they will love The Looking Glass Wars.

The Looking Glass War is about Alyss Heart (we know her better as Alice Liddel). She's from the real Wonderland which is suffering from all kinds of political turmoil that culminates in the takeover of the Heart government by her crazy Aunt Redd. Things rapidly go to hell in a handbasket after that. The book is very dark and violent and bloodthirsty - in a YA acceptable way. When I was reading it I was happy by how intense and angry Alyss was - it felt good to read an adventure where the protagonist (and her friends who also tell some of the story) is hell bent on changing things, on making things happen. Alyss doesn't have it together every step of the way but she does get her shit together and she shows some fearsome courage. And after reading about coal mining and Iraq and Afghanistan I was so glad to read something where the good guys stand up and fight.

Maybe that's why I liked it so much - I wasn't looking for Alice in Wonderland when I picked up The Looking Glass Wars; I was looking for a book where they fight. And they do that in a grand way in this book, they really do it well.

The other issue, apart from who would read the book, is the whole challenge to a classic. A lot of adult readers are not happy about Beddor's radical departure from the book they grew up with and that interests me as well. I have mentioned in the past the comic series Dorothy, which is completely turning Wizard of Oz on its head and two books that caught my eye for this fall are Ophelia and Romeo's Ex, loosely based on Shakespeare. (Jasper Fforde also has another Nursery Crime due out this summer The Fourth Bear. I don't think this is going to be the Goldie we all remember although I doubt she will be gun wielding assassin that impressed the hell out of me in the DC comic series, Fables.) I'm looking forward to writing about all of these new books later on this year for Bookslut. While adults might not be comfortable with changes to their childhood favorites, reading Looking Glass Wars might persuade some boys to actually give the original Alice a shot. And even if they don't, at least they (boy or girl) would be reading.

I'm sure I'll return to both of these issues again and again in the future and I'll be watching how Looking Glass does when it is released this fall.