It seems in the past couple of months we have not been short of issues in the corner of the blogosphere populated by folks who read and review books for kids and teens. To briefly recap, consider the following:

1. Frank Boyce refers to YA publishing as a ghetto in his review of a book and everyone goes mad crazy. (I could have linked to any one of a dozen responses to that one and please be clear - Mr. Boyce tried to clarify his remarks but this engine was pretty much out of his control.)

2. Roger said adults who read only kid or teen books need to grow up. LOTS of chaos ensued.

3. Laura Amy Schlitz gave nonfiction for kids more than a passing blow in her otherwise masterful Newbery speech which made Marc Aronson (and many others) wonder why on earth she would even suggest that fiction is preferable to nonfic, or even worse, how it is somehow more significant. Many comments there. UPDATED BELOW WHERE I STATE HOW MUCH I LOVE LAURA AMY SCHLITZ.

4. Cory Doctorow, an adult SF author with a brand new YA SF novel out this summer, has a piece in the current YA issue of Locus wherein he discovers that there are YA titles in the SFF field. Okay, I'm being snarky there as I do like Cory's writing a lot and he is making a serious point in his article about how while YA SFF sells a lot, it doesn't seem to get much attention from the award committees in that genre. Because this came out in a genre magazine (the whole piece is online) I think it may have gotten missed - do read it because he is dead on about this and about how important YA readers are to the genre's future success.

5. Picture books have become so easy to write that the otherwise unemployed Megan McCain is planning to pound out a book on her father over the summer (for fall publication of course) and First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna pounded out a less than exciting title earlier this year (also fast tracked for publication).

I always wonder, who buys these celebrity books?

More importantly, it seems we all collectively scream when a celebrity picture book is published but we don't actually write about why that is a bad thing - or about how hard it is to craft a well written, significant picture book. And that brings me to my point - the blogosphere reacts to a lot of stuff, but actually starting the conversation....not so much.

So.

I'm proposing that the week of July 20th we all take some time and talk about the controversies that have found there way to our corner of the lit blogosphere. I'm not going to coordinate anything or ask anyone to join or not join. Mostly, I'm planning to interview an adult author who just came out with a very intelligent and well written teen novel (the divine Jenny Davidson in case you're curious) and I plan to post a bit on what makes a good teen book, why I think adults don't always do a good job of reviewing them, and how hard it is for a bunch of adults to effectively run a site for teen boys (that would be Guys Lit Wire).

What I'd love to see is many other blogs pick up on this thread and write about the aspects of children's and teen publishing that frustrate them. We write about this stuff way more than pretty much any other print reviewers anywhere (not all but most) and we have our ear to the ground in ways that most publishers do not. In other words, we hear about stuff lightening quick and we form immediate opinions. Well, now is a great time for everyone to share those opinions and actually create a few ripples in the literary pond ourselves, rather than just riding someone else's waves.

If enough folks have something to say then I'll run a master list of links to make it easy for everyone to follow. You let me know if you have to something to say, and I'll be sure to link.

UPDATED: Okay anyone who thinks I am possibly saying something in the slightest bit mean about Laura Amy Schlitz, no I am not. I think she is lovely - really really lovely. I was one of the first people to sing loud praise about A Drowned Maiden's Hair and I continue to be impressed by her and her work. THE ONLY REASON I linked to Marc's post was because it was at SLJ which is read by everyone and their third cousin (so clearly it is already well known) and because even though the comment about nonfic might have been in jest, from the comments to Marc's post you can see that several folks felt like he did - that nonfiction has problems getting the same amount of respect and notice among award committees and reviewers that fiction does. So that's what I wanted to talk about. Read Marc's post, read the comments, think about Nonfiction Monday and I.N.K. and see what you think and then write about it .

That is all.

I love Laura Amy Schlitz.

And as to why I chose the week of July 20th to discuss all this, well, officially my only reason is because it is my favorite week of the year. I just decided that today.

I swear.