The Mehta Machine: Or Why You're Going To Have To Rethink Your Love of Ann Brashares

Like I've said before, the whole Opah Mehta scandal touches on YA literature, and I am not a YA specialist. However, thanks to an especially amusing post at Read Roger, I was pleased to read an article in the New York Observer that delves a little deeper into Alloy Entertainment. Alloy, you will recall, was the company behind Viswanathan in the first place. And since Alloy was responsible for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (which is sort of kiddie lit), I read it through. Not only will you end up never trusting author Ann Brashares again but it contains this first rate quote from Francine Pascal:

But for all the tangled dealings in the Alloy book-packaging world, for a few, the more depressing concern is the content of some Alloy books. “Emotionally, there’s no progress,” said Francine Pascal, the creator of the Sweet Valley High series and an Alloy author. “It doesn’t touch on the classic values that Sweet Valley did—love, loyalty, friendship.”

snicker snicker snort