Girls Writing Boys - Top 4

So I love boy POV books. Like, really love them. Heck, I've even had a go at writing one (although that was m/f dual POV, so I took the easy option!).
It's pretty cool getting a look into boys minds, whether they're troubled or in love or in hate - it totally changes the story, the POV. Books by authors like John Green and the author I'm reading at the moment, Albert Borris, are brilliant, but they knew what it was like to be a boy anyway. It's even better, IMO, when a boy POV book is written by a woman. And if the boy isn't just like a girl with different *ahem* bits.
So here are my top four - read them, and love them, people! They were really hard to choose between but I did my best

4) K.M. PEYTON
She was going to be on there somewhere. The woman that wrote Jonathan Meredith. Oh, and Patrick Pennington and Peter McNair, and a ton of others. She's got a talent in writing characters that are polar opposites. Jon and Pat, if they met, would probably despise each other. But each rings true, and she manages to make them current even though the majority of her books were written 40-50 years ago.
Book you have to try: Prove Yourself a Hero, for Jonathan and Peter.

3) HANNAH MOSKOWITZ
Nearly my no.2, for good reason. Jonah McNab is a heartbreaking character, and I love the fact that she writes in boys POV almost all the time. And I can't wait for Gone, Gone, Gone....
Book you have to try: Break, for Jonah and Jesse.

2) GAIL GILES
Aside from the boys POV, Shattering Glass haunted me for weeks. Especially since I did that thing I always do, and 'assigned' the characters faces (if a description sounds like, say, Justin Bieber, then the character is JB in my head). If anyone knows about Brit boyband One Direction, then you'll know Harry Styles, the annoying lead singer (who can't sing) - I assigned his face to evil Rob, and now I can't disassociate the two :/... But anyway, Young's voice is so real, and although he's an anti-hero, I still really feel for him and his plight.
Book you have to try: She's written other great books, but for me it's Shattering Glass all the way.

and....dun dun duuuuuuh.....

1) GILLIAN PHILIP
I may not be in love with him like K.M. Peyton's Jonathan, but Nick Geddes is one of my favourite characters ever. Smart, funny, tough and vulnerable at the same time, he's a great character. As are her other characters, male and female.
Book you have to try: Crossing The Line - ooh, and I love the little romance too!


So that's it, people! What do you think? Has anyone read any really well-written boy POV books by women (or men) recently? And do you think it's harder to write boys as a woman, or girls as a man?

Fit Lit Boy Friday: Jonathan Meredith (ask your mothers)

Just to qualify, "fit" is Brit slang for hot, sexy, babeliscious, handsome, etc. Just in case anyone thought I was complimenting these characters on their health ;)

As Jonathan Meredith isn't probably that well known to the American audience, or anyone under forty (except for me because I used to buy a lot of my books from car boot sales and church fetes), let me sum him up.

Vital Stats:
Age: Seventeen
Looks: Black curly hair, dark eyes, tall and slim.
Height: Around 6ft
Likes: Horse racing, show jumping, rock climbing, sailing and writing bad poetry
Dislikes: Cramped spaces (he has severe claustrophobia)
Personality: Polite, quiet with people he doesn't know and his overbearing mother, but has a dry sense of humour and a quick wit with people he likes.
Where can you find him: The Essex countryside, in The Team, Prove Yourself A Hero, A Midsummer Night's Death, The Last Ditch/Free Rein, by K.M. Peyton.
Your type if you like: Sam Roth, Mr Darcy, Mr Tilney, Dan in the first Gossip Girl book.

Jonathan was my first YA lit boy crush. Never mind that the only images of him I can find are the illustrations from The Team (see above for my favourite). He's troubled, good looking, funny, and he's dashing on a horse. Basically, Mr Darcy, 1970s style.

Has anyone read any of K.M. Peyton's books? What do you all think of Jonathan? And who was your first book boy crush?

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in Young Adult Fiction

After that long and rambling title, you've probably guessed the theme of this week's Sunday Seven. YA fiction is my absolute favourite, but there are a few things that I wish I could change. So let's make it simple.

THE GOOD (a.k.a. what I'd like to see more of):

1) Strong Female Characters

By strong, I don't mean kick-ass ninjas (although they're cool too) but girls who don't need saving. Girls who don't lie back and let their boyfriend disable their brakes/talk to them condescendingly/save them so they can be eternally greatful. So many kick-ass ninja heroines will fight their way through a whole book, only to be saved by Mr Right at the end. Let your FMC fight to save herself alongside Mr Right (and then they can kiss and make babies and do whatever the heck else they want). Girls that give as good as they get - and this does not mean sarky-just-because - and inspire readers to do the same, they are strong female characters.
Examples:
Isabel Culpeper from the Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater
Parker Fadley from Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
Lauren Adams from the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore

2) Awesome, powerful voice
Laurie Halse Anderson and Hannah Moskowitz, I'm looking at you. The absolute best sort of writing, the sort that makes you feel like you are looking right into the narrator's brain. You can feel the raw, agonizing hurt they're going through, or the desperate love they feel for someone, or the way they are breaking inside but trying not to admit it to themselves, so that as they convince themselves they're fine, the reader knows they're not. And this goes for the comedy too - when the voice makes you laugh out loud, you know you've got a winner.
Examples:
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Break by Hannah Moskowitz
Babe In Boyland by Jody Gehrman
Target by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson
Ordinary People by Judith Guest

3) Realistic Teen Relationships
I'm not just talking about wit-woo sexy romance here, people. That's included too, but I mean the broad spectrum. How they react with their families, friends, enemies, crushes, lovers, teachers, everyone. Not all teens are angsting at their parents for making them - sometimes families actually get on. Not all relationships are desperate, wild passion or screaming arguments - sometimes the sweetest romances of all are the realistic, slow-build ones, where sort-of-liking becomes like-liking becomes sort-of-love becomes love. Not all best friends are annoying (okay, I'm guilty, I'm guilty, but nobody's perfect), or totally-sister-from-another-mister types.
Examples:
Jonah and Jesse in Break by Hannah Moskowitz
The Hollis family in Fly By Night, The Team, and The Pennington Trilogy by K.M. Peyton
Nick and Shuggie/Allie in Crossing The Line by Gillian Phillip
Ruth and Pat in The Pennington Trilogy by K.M. Peyton

THE BAD (a.k.a. what I'd like to see less of):

4) Cliched Baddies
The blonde cheerleader. The jealous sister/brother. The love rival. Need I go on? Sometimes the best 'baddies' are the people who have shades of grey - they're not bad just-because, they've got reasons and they hurt too.
Notable Exceptions (because I'm not harsh):
The Wolves of Mercy Falls series
Eve Edwards' The Other Countess
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

5) Absent Parents
Someone once said that it was very dangerous being a mum in YA fiction (or words to that effect) and they were right. Everywhere, there are dead parents and missing parents and parents having a breakdown and parents running away to become coctail waitresses or to marry some random glamour girl and I seem to have forgotten commas - maybe the absent parents have stolen them? Anyway, I know there are a lot of absent parents in real life. It's a terrible thing when a parent dies, or leaves the family home. But in YA fiction, it seems to be the norm. Whether it's an excuse for the MC to wangst, or so they can sneak out and make out in the garden with their boyfriend while alkie daddy sits inside in a drunken stupor, it's a bit of a plot device.
When it's done well:
Babe In Boyland by Jody Gehrman
Jumper by Steven Gould
The Wrong Boy by Anna-Louise Weatherley


THE UGLY (What I wish would just disappear):

6) Girls Who Complain About Being Perfect/have flaws that aren't really flaws
She's not a Mary Sue, the author insists. She has a figure like a boy, her hair's too messy, her lips are too wide, and she has too many freckles! Get real. Most girls would kill to look like that. I know I would. The author dares not write a - God forbid - plain character (and you can forget about a YA heroine being *gasp* unpleasant-looking) so opts for a hottie with issues about her looks, that she angsts about constantly. Perhaps an evil jock told her she was ugly, once, and she's never forgotten it - that'll do. And now, what next? She needs flaws. Let's make her clumsy. Or perhaps a bad singer - but she totally knows it and doesn't sing, so that's okay. Sorted...the ultimate flawed, ugly character - except she's actually a Mary Sue in hiding, and that is flipping annoying.
Example:
Bella from Twilight. Yes, I got it in there in the end!

7) The abusive, 'romantic' relationship
Yes, I know this has been complained about A LOT. And things are changing, so it's all good. But they're still out there. And they're making a lot of impressionable 13-yr-olds think that this is a good thing. That it's good your boyfriend watches you sleep. Talks to you like dirt. Cuts you off from your friends...because he wuvs you!

Before you all have a go at me for being a feminist - I think this is harsh on boys too. Look what they've got to live up to. They can't be a normal, carefree guy who plays football in the park with his mates and then turns up for a date with mud still in his hair, or who writes a scribbled love note in his girlfriend's history textbook because he can't say those words out loud. Instead the girls expect total devotion, beautiful dresses in the right size delivered to their door, romantic meals feeding each other in swish restaurants.
Examples:
I'm not even going to go there - I'm sure everyone knows of examples, one in particular...

So there you have it - my Sunday Seven. What do you all think? Do you agree or disagree? Have you read my examples?
And most importantly, have you got any Good, Bad or Ugly YA traits that you would like to share?

Memory Monday - Prove Yourself A Hero by K.M. Peyton

PROVE YOURSELF A HERO REVIEW

photo credit

Author: K.M. Peyton

Published: 1977

Summary:

'A lot of rough hands thrust him uncompromisingly into a very small box. He was forced down by the back of his neck till his forehead touched his knees; the sides of the box pressed against him, and when they put the lid down it was hard against his back.'

Kidnapping is always an unpleasant business, but in Jonathan Meredith's case it is positively
barbaric. Kept for hours on end in claustrophobic confinement, he remembers that he used to imagine suffocation as an innocuous death. He would never think that again.

A taught and chilling story, set in the tough world of
horse racing.'

[Summary taken from the back cover of the Puffin Plus 1982 version]


This is probably one of my favourite books ever, for three reasons.


1) Jonathan, the main character. Mentioned in my 'about me' section (because I love him), he is such a vibrant, real character, who if he was real would be just the sort of person you'd want to hang out with. When Jonathan is out on deck (read and you'll know which bit I'm referring to) it's so beautifully and emotively written that it made me tear up a bit. And unlike many books with male main characters, K.M. Peyton's main characters show their emotions, and that makes them all the more 3-D.

2) The kidnapping theme. I love reading books about kidnapping, don't know why (maybe it's something about the danger?) and this one does it so well, that it's a bit of a thriller.

3) K.M. Peyton's writing. There's a reason why she's a real favourite. Plus, plenty of her books are excellent 'cross-over' reads - I know plenty of 40+ people who still read them and love them.

So basically, if you're looking for a good read that makes you think while still being exciting, sad, and hopeful at the same time, read this book. It's not in print at the moment, but very easy and cheap to buy on Amazon UK.

Who else has read this, or another of Ms Peyton's books? And does anyone have any old faves from childhood (or that they discovered on their mum's bookcase, like me), to recommend?

Sunday Seven - My Fave YA Couples

So, welcome to Sunday Seven - because I like order, and order = lists. And, because that's how I roll, I'm going to list in reverse order.

Everyone has their favourites, right? The couple that make you swoon and dream and frown at your boyfriend when he asks if you want to go and see the new Transformers movie. Some people are into the whole "I-love-him-cos-he-watches-me-sleep-and-disables-my-brakes" sorta thing (not me, as you can probably tell), and others prefer a best friends relationship that becomes something else.

But for me, these couples do it best...


7) PARKER & JAKE (Courtney Summers' CRACKED UP TO BE)

Oh, Parker. She treats Jake pretty darn awfully, but somehow, he gets her under all the bitter snark, and the semi-formal dance scene will always be a favourite.

6) JIMMY & ELLIE (Catherine Forde's FAT BOY SWIM)

This one might not be that well known, but Jimmy and Ellie's relationship is lovely in its simple innocence. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a good steamy kiss scene, but these two still make me smile. It's an oldie (p. 2000) but a goodie.

5) ELLIE & WILL (Eve Edwards' THE OTHER COUNTESS)

No, this isn't the same Ellie, getting around a bit. This Ellie is 16th Century Lady Ellie, and her Will is the 18yrold Earl of Dorset. The blonde, troubled, handsome Earl of Dorset. Who has hot brothers. Cue lots of steamy kissing and several excellent sequels. (I know, it's not contemporary, but meh).

4) NATALIE & EMILIO (Jody Gehrman's BABE IN BOYLAND)

Mmmmm...Emilio. This book was great because it wasn't my thing at all. Chick flick, sounds-like-a-look-version-of-She's-The-Man? But actually, it was really good. Funny, great voice, and not that much like She's The Man. It helped that Natalie was independent, witty, and condsiderably less annoying than Miss annoying, stringy-bangs Amanda Bynes, and while N & E only got relationship-y during the last, short section of the book, it was totally worth it.

3) PAT & RUTH (K.M. Peyton's PENNINGTON TRILOGY)

I had to get this one in there somewhere. K.M. Peyton, possibly my favourite author of all time (scratch that, definitely) wrote these 3 books back in the 1970s, and one thing she does right is realistic romances. Sure, she couldn't include really steamy bits, but these characters were so real and so made for each other that I rooted for them every step of the way. Plus, Pat is the ultimate brooding bad boy with a heart of gold.

Seriously, go read these. Fangirling hard.

2) MAGGIE & CALEB (Simone Elkele's LEAVING PARADISE)

First of all, let me say that I love troubled boys. So when I read 'Caleb Becker spent the past year in juvenile detention' on the back cover, I'll admit that I didn't even look inside the book, I just bought it. At the beginning, I didn't like Maggie. Don't ask me why, I just didn't. I knew that I was supposed to despise Caleb and love Maggie, but it was the other way round and I nearly put this book down (or sold it at the church fete, whatever). But I carried on, and their relationship was so readable that I actually started to like Maggie. By the end, I was rooting for them both.

and.....


1) PENELOPE & HARRY (Eva Rice's THE LOST ART OF KEEPING SECRETS)

My winners. A relationship that grew on me, hopeful and funny and melancholy at the same time. Neither are perfect in the way that plenty of the characters in paranormal romances are - Penelope's too tall and in love with someone else, Harry's too short with mismatched eyes and also in love with someone else, but when they get together, it really works. And I love them both.


What about you? What are your favourite YA couples, and why? What do you think makes a couple so realistic, or special? And what turns you off a relationship in YA lit?