The Final Taboo in YA Lit: The Intelligent Book

“No child naturally hates knowledge. No toddler comes into the world saying, ‘Don’t tell me about how stuff works. I don’t give a shit. Everything about the world sucks.’ . . . It takes an adult to make a child hate knowing things. The fact is that kids don’t believe that thinking isn’t fun until we tell them so.” – M.T. Anderson

Watch M.T. Anderson’s 2009 Printz Award Acceptance Speech and hear what he has to say about the final frontier in children’s literature. Could it be true that we fear the “intelligent” book? What are your thoughts?

The Essence of Delaware

Boy do I have a treat for you today! About a month back, I raved about how fantastic it was to see M.T. Anderson sing at the 2010 SCBWI LA Conference in my “Crack for Children’s Book Writers” post. It was a once in a lifetime experience as uber-intellectual turns into the music man. But in this day and age of YouTube and sizzling sound bites I am able to share the magic that is M.T. Anderson.

So without further adieu…

M.T. Anderson Performs the State Song Of Delaware:

Delcarative Sentences – Talk With Conviction!

Do you speak with conviction? Poet, Taylor Mali challenges you to do so! Check out this great video of one of Mali’s performed poems animated:

Typography by Ronnie Bruce. Poetry by Taylor Mali. Check out more poems by Taylor Mali at his website: http://www.taylormali.com/index.html