CNN pundit Glenn Beck invites Ted Bell onto his show to lavish Nick of Time with all sorts of praise, in large part because it's about a young boy who rescues his sister from Nazis (or maybe pirates, I got confused), rather than the other way around, because how are boys supposed to learn how to be men if strong female characters steal their thunder?

Colleen Mondor finds this "analysis" fascinating:

"I'm sure the sociologists would have a field day over all this but I can't believe that anyone in the 21st century would believe that such antiquated notions of what it means to be a hero have any place in a worthwhile discussion... The girl MUST be saved by the boy for the boy to feel powerful? How do these gentlemen think it makes the girl feel to have to wait to be saved? Have they ever thought about that at all?"

Mondor also finds the assertion that Ted Bell's book is a lonely island in a sea of male-undercutting literature more than a little unbelievable, and names several other books where boys still get to be heroes. Be sure to follow the discussion into her comments area (which is how I learned Beck also likes Stephenie Meyer's Twilight).