Play nice. Use the Golden Rule. If you can’t say something nice . . .
I tell my children these things all the time, and I try to live them as well, although being a parent can make that a challenge (Why? Because I say so! I’m the parent! Sigh.) I also try to blog respectfully, not just on Ink Spells, but in my comments on other blogs as well.
When there are dustups in the Wild West that is the blogosphere, it mostly makes me sad. The medium is conducive to misunderstandings, and that can lead to hurt feelings amongst well intentioned people. Occasionally there’s someone looking for a fight, but it’s best to ignore those types and hang with the cool kids who know how to play nice in the sandbox.
As my lovely readers may have noticed, my book reviews are generally positive. Ok, ALWAYS positive, and that is by design, gentle readers. I know how hard authors work to produce, much less publish, a novel and I don’t have much heart for tearing it apart (this is separate from critiques, which are private and I will always give my complete, honest, but gentle, opinion there). There is also the fact that I am essentially reviewing my colleagues, in public, and it would be rather bad form to tear them apart if I ever would like to join their ranks.
Now, before you think I am hopelessly mired in impotence here, the most important thing to remember is the purpose of this blog: finding good books for advanced readers, ages 8-12. It is not to “warn people away from the BAD books for advanced readers, ages 8-12”, nor is it to “scoff at the obviously poor use of the work ‘like’ in middle grade fiction.” My goal is to help steer parents, teachers, librarians, and by proxy kids, to good books that are appropriate for them.
This is why I make pains to list the content of a book, and take a stab at an age rating, but always caveat that parents know their child best.
And I am carefully selective about the books that I review.
I recently started reading a book that I ended up putting down and eventually returning to the library unread. Those that know I loathe stopping in the middle of a book will understand how hard this was. I was drawn to the book by its high reading level (over 7.5 gentle readers!), and its promising premise. But it turned out the language was difficult because it was poorly written, with lots of high-falutin’ words that, while lovely in other contexts, were mangled into incomprehensible patterns that I could barely hack my way through. Given that this blog posting is reading level 9.8, I’m pretty sure I’m capable of understanding the reading level, but the dense use of the language made the book a struggle to get through. I decided most children ages 8-12 would quickly lose interest, no matter how advanced their reading ability, and I obviously won’t be reviewing the book here (except the anonymous review above for illustration only).
Taking into account that you might not share my love of all things science fiction, and I may not share your love of historical fiction, I also try to refrain from criticisms about the appeal of a book.
So, make no mistake: this is not a proper book review site. In fact, I think I shall start searching out links to more extensive reviews for the books that I cover on Ink Spells, for those that want more information before taking a chance on picking up that paperback.
But I hope that the reading level and content information provide useful guidance in any event.
Or maybe you’ll keep coming back for the cats . . .
Wow. That did help! Thanks for the post. There are a lot of great tips in your post as to how to review books without getting into too much trouble with anyone. I like the idea of only recommending good books to read. I’ll have to change my approach and always remember that if I don’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all.
As for your question, yes, my current WIP is for middle grade. It’s an adventure story, my favorite kind (this month)! Just this week I was able to write a chapter that included both dinosaurs and sharks and that is the sweetest coupling I have ever experienced in my fiction. I did write one middle grade horror novel called Jim’s Monster, which I self published in college (dumb move). But all of my projects have monsters in there somewhere, even if they’re lame metaphorical ones rather than sharks and dinosaurs.
I’ll have to follow your blog. I’ve put down the horror books and horror blogs for the moment and I’m reading Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief and Levin Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. Ahh, middle grade, how I have missed you.
Robert – I'm glad you liked it! I had formulated this approach before now, but your question prompted me to write it down and come clean with my readers about my approach. I always think it best to be up front about your intentions.
I'm going to have to put Levin Thumps on my TBR!
I totally agree with you. I'll talk about books that I've enjoyed on my blog, but I prefer not to broadcast the ones I dislike. I certainly don't like to have sand thrown in my eyes. Do unto others, right?
We're the same at the Boys Rule Boys Read blog–we try to write about only books we like simply because there are so amny boys who don't read that we want to steer them to good stuff. And thanks for posting our award and mentioning us!
You are most welcome – I'm always happy to steer people to great blogs!