I've just finished reviewing Lowis Lowry' latest book, a parody of classic children's literature. To prepare for the review, I checked out Number the Stars, Find a Stranger Say Goodbye, and *ahem* the Cliff Notes for The Giver. The Giver is just too intense, folks. Not that her other books are lightweights.
Actually, a few are. I also read Stay! Keeper's Story, a bit of light fiction narrated by a dog, and perused the Anastasia series, which is very popular with younger readers.
But in really considering The Giver and a few of Lowry's other heavy-hitting titles, I got to thinking...the vast majority of "acclaimed" titles for the Young Adult market are really, really heavy. Friends, mothers, sisters die. The Holocaust disrupts lives. The Book Thief is narrated by Death, for heaven's sake.
And I think I know why.
Do you remember being a teenager? It probably wasn't a take-it-or-leave-it time in your life. Everything about being an adolescent seems intense. The right (or wrong) girlfriend/boyfriend could talk you into sneaking a cigarette, cheating on a test, running away, stealing a car, having sex, killing yourself, or a combination of those things.
YA literature has to speak to those intense readers. And - I'm not making this up, research has proven the point - teens' attention spans get shorter, thanks to all the chemical changes in their bodies and especially their brains. So YA authors can't waste words. Every sentence must be worth reading. Nothing is mundane.
Well written books for the age group (YA/MG is a bit of blurred demographic these days) include all the important stuff, but no more...character descriptions move the story forward, the setting matters to the plot, there are no throw-away scenes.
I guess that's one of my top two reasons for reading YA and MG lit.
The other reason is I hope - hope, hope, hope - that reading YA and MG books will help me understand and appreciate those tumultuous teenage years...especially as my own kids approach those years, at an alarming pace.
Sigh.
2 comments:
Hi. I randomly came across your blog online and I was wondering if you could tell me what MG stands for. Does it mean middle grade fiction? Also, I read a ton of YA as well. I am trying to be a writer, and I wrote a YA book, so I figured I should read the genre.I'd always read some YA anyway, but I've been reading nothing but that for the last few months. I love it. Have you read A Great and Terrible Beauty? (Libba Bray?)That is one of my current YA favorites. And of course, I love HP and Twilight. Sorry for the rambling post, I never meet other adults who like YA, so it was cool to read your blog. Thanks! Tam W.
Hi, Tam! Welcome to my babbling blog. Yes, MG = Middle Grade. Loosely defined as not-quite-YA. Seriously, every major publisher seems to have a very slightly different definition of the genre. I've seen lengthy things in college coursebooks about children's literature defining MG books as up to 10,000 words, or about having a limited amount of subplots and/or characters, but I figure if the publishing houses don't follow the textbook definition, then it's not a very good definition. (You can tell I didn't major Children's Literature!)
Now here's some unbidden advice: First, if you're "trying to be a writer," then you're a writer. So you're a writer! Second, if you're at all interested in writing for children, spend some time at the Society of Children's Writers & Illustrators website, www.SCBWI.org - and check out your local chapter. It's a fantastic resource, even if you don't join. And if you attend one meeting, you'll be hooked. The writers are smart, funny, and extremely encouraging to all who "try" to write.
Post a Comment