The End (Scooters)

We're sure you've heard the news. Really, how could you miss it? It's been on all of the popular Widget/Ball Bearing blogs. Patricorp is abandoning its venture into literary criticism. It's been fun. We've learned a lot. Unfortunately, Patricorp just isn't able to support this branch of the company. We've been shedding costs left and right, but we just can't find the capital to continue running this blog. [We find this odd, as blogging is free]

So here it comes. Here's our state of the YA Lit address. Our parting shots, our final goodbye:

Young Adult Literature is a legitimate sector of the literature world. It is not a world filled with books like Goosebumps or Sweet Valley High. Real authors write passionately and evoke real emotion from their readers. Books like Looking for Alaska are written at or above the level of adult fiction, but marketed towards teens. This is a double-edged sword, allowing the books to reach a broad audience of teens, but placing them as the object of scorn for the snooty.

It baffles us that more people don't like YA. The writing is accessible, the narratives are relatable, and the texts themselves are economical. YA offers the perfect opportunity for someone (perhaps a college student who hasn't read a book for pleasure in years) to get back in the habit of reading. We fell back in love with reading before bed. We genuinely felt good about ourselves when we fell asleep with a book in hand.

We hope to see YA continue to boom. The more that librarians and teachers know about YA, and perhaps more importantly, the more they trust YA, the better off we are.

YA will always exist for one reason. These stories need to be told. Since Catcher in the Rye, we've come to realize that the coming of age tale is important. These authors follow in Salinger's footsteps. We understand that some follow more capably than others. We know that there is a discrepancy in quality within the field.

We just hope that people will begin to see that there is quality.

An Abundance of Katherines OR: John Green, Superstar

We were at the bookstore the other day, looking for this thing or that (we really don't remember), and we happened to run into a book called An Abundance of Katherines. We knew exactly two things about this book: first, that a friend had told us there is math involved, and secondly, that John Green wrote it. You may remember our first encounter with JG, when we openly gushed over Looking for Alaska. Turns out the guy is a consistently good writer. Turns out he knows how to write books.

AOK features a washed-up child prodigy named Colin attempting to find his way in the world. Colin is a melodramatist, which may or may not be a word we just made up. He really isn't that washed up. He's only in his late teens, but is already relatively sure that his glory days are behind him. We know the feeling (after all, we started Patricorp at the age of 5). After the 19th girl named Katherine breaks up with him--yes, you read that correctly--he weeps for days and then embarks on a summer road trip with his quirky friend Hassan. While visiting the tomb of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, they meet a cute girl named Lindsay and their summer begins to get quite interesting.

Once again, we find that John Green knows how to write. When we read JG's books, we start to think that writing is easy. We wonder why he's able to put words on paper that make so much SENSE. Why is he--even when writing about fat Judge-Judy-loving friends--so believable and genuine? And if he makes it seem so easy, why can't anyone else write this well? Frankly, Mr. Green himself shatters any preconceived notions about literary merit in the field of Young Adult Literature. His work evoked such emotion in us that we immediately shared Green novels with three people. After they each read his work, they asked if there were other John Green books to be had. This is nuts. We're going out of our heads thinking about how cool it is that JG makes people want to read so vociferously that they'll put aside video games, TV, the internet, meals and regular bathing.

In short, we realize we're rambling, but also recognize that as a side effect of thinking about John Green. We hope he keeps up with what he's doing. We can't wait to read Paper Towns.