August/September 2007

When Benicia resident and award-winning author Kathryn Reiss was young, she loved history and time travel. “As a child I was always fascinated by the idea of time travel. I’m really interested in how the past affects the present. The past is still with us. Its ripples continue, affecting individuals, families and society.” Several of Reiss’s 13 books revolve around this phenomena or past events. “There’s always a story from the past that connects to the protagonist in the present. Sometimes it’s ghosts, sometimes it’s time travel.” She’s written one book about a dollhouse that is a creepy haunted house and another where a dollhouse is a window from the past. “Glass House People (Harcourt, $6.00) deals with faulty memory, or different memories of the same event. I like writing about the nature of truth and memory. Mostly, I write to entertain myself—the same ideas that I was drawn to as a child.”
    Reiss, who has five children ages 12 to 23, also teaches creative writing at Mills College in Oakland. “I teach writing fiction for children and young adults. I feel that it’s my duty to be up on all the new books for young readers. I also teach the craft of the young adult novel. We look at what’s been published in the 20th century, what was popular through the decades—how that mirrors our culture and what’s going on in America.” Reiss also says she’s big on plot. “It’s important to have beautiful style, voice and technique, but you have to have a story to tell. The story’s the thing when you’re writing for kids.”
    The American Library Association chose her book, Time Windows (Harcourt, $6.00) as a “Best Book for Young Adults.” She’s currently working on a murder mystery, Stone Cold Summer, set in a fictional village reminiscent of where she and her husband lived in Wiltshire County, England. “It’s about an American girl who comes to the village and solves a murder mystery. There’s a story from her past that enables her to solve it.” Reiss’s recommendations focus on young adult books she both likes and teaches. “One of the hallmarks of teen books is that they have a kernel of hope at the end that allows for the possibility of a better day. These books are so different from what I write and so eye-opening. They give you insights into life.”

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Ages 9-12

Reiss praises Annie on My Mind (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $8.00) by Nancy Garden for being one of the first mainstream books published about gay teens. “It was banned all over the place when it was first published and it’s still banned in some places. It’s about two girls who fall in love. It’s beautifully written and a beautiful story. It now seems a bit dated because there’s more tolerance for gay teens today than in 1982 when it was published. Liza falls in love with a girl named Annie and begins to realize who she is and who she loves and why. It’s about how you don’t decide you’re going to become gay. This book is an important forerunner to books that come later. It’s also a heavy story with sad repercussions.” Even after 25 years, this book holds its own as a sensitive portrayal of young love, while demonstrating how far our country has come in its attitudes toward homosexuality.

Fat Kid Rules the World (Puffin, $6.99) by K. L. Going is one of those books that Reiss says tackles a difficult subject yet is uplifting. “It starts with a boy who is about to commit suicide by jumping on subway tracks. He’s stopped by this anorexic homeless boy. The two of them form an unlikely friendship that leads them to form a punk rock band. This book addresses body image, identity, music, parents, friendship and homelessness. It’s so funny and moving.” Going creates a realistic picture of the teen punk music world with powerful descriptions of two imperfect yet lovable and sometimes funny teen characters. Despite the excessive use of expletives, especially the “f-word,” this book explores how tough it is for a teen to be different, especially when the difference is measured in pounds.

Reiss says she likes The First Part Last (Simon Pulse, $5.99) by Angela Johnson because of its unusual point of view and style. “It’s about teen pregnancy told from the father’s point of view. That’s unusual. It’s also unusual stylistically because Johnson tells the story backwards. The book starts with the young father coping with this baby and loving it. I like the author’s economy of language. But telling the story backwards is really cool and so is having it told from the boy’s point of view.” This realistic portrayal of the consequences of unexpected parenthood is poetic and riveting. Here’s an important book for teens—and parents, too.

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