I read a bit of controversy about young adult fiction a couple of weeks ago, but didn't really think anything of it and didn't feel strongly enough about it to write about it here. Um, but now I do. So I'll tell you what and why.
In a review of a young adult book in the Guardian, the author Frank Cottrell Boyce wrote the following:
There's been a lot of fury among authors recently about the proposal to "age-band" children's books, but in a way they're too late. The real disaster has already happened. It's called "young adult" fiction. It used to be the case that you moved on from children's fiction to adult fiction, from The Owl Service, maybe, to Catcher in the Rye. There were, of course, some adult authors who were more fashionable with teenage readers than others - Salinger, Vonnegut, Maya Angelou. But these were chosen by teenagers themselves from the vast world of books. Some time ago, someone saw that trend and turned it into a demographic. Fortunes were made but something crucial was lost. We have already ghettoised teenagers' tastes in music, in clothes and - God forgive us - in food. Can't we at least let them share our reading? Is there anything more depressing than the sight of a "young adult" bookshelf in the corner of the shop. It's the literary equivalent of the "kids' menu" - something that says "please don't bother the grown-ups". If To Kill a Mockingbird were published today, that's where it would be placed, among the chicken nuggets.
I read the above quote on the blog, A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cosy along with the following response:
[Frank Cottrell Boyce] recalls teenagers going from children's lit to adult lit, and worries that today's teens are being kept from that adult lit. He also seems to be saying that good YA books are really adult books with a bad label.
As a lifelong reader, my choices have always been varied. At ten I was reading adult fiction; but I was also reading children's lit. It was never an either/or; and there was never a "don't read this," either at home, in a bookstore, or in a library. So yes, I did read adult lit as a teen; but I see today's teens doing likewise, reading a bit from here, a bit from there.
As for what YA lit has become.... I look at what we have now and get angry and jealous that I didn't have the reading choices as a teen that teens have today. I recall looking at adult shelves to try to find something that was teen friendly - so some of my adult book reading was not a choice, but a default. I would have loved to have the books that are available today; and I hope that these books don't go away.
When I first read this, I agreed with the above and didn't agree with Frank Cottrell Boyce at all. And then I started (belatedly) reading the excellent Fine Lines column on Jezebel. Reminded of books like Paul Zindel's The Pigman and To All My Fans, With Love, From Sylvie by Ellen Conford, I could suddenly picture myself wandering the library, desperately trying to find a book that appealed to me and, more importantly, a book that seemed relevant to me.
I can't remember reading any British teen fiction at all. It was all Judy Blume, Paul Zindel, Lois Duncan, Paula Danziger. What I would have given for a Louise Rennison or Sarra Manning. Of course, once I'd read all the above authors, I discovered the Sweet Dreams books, which no doubt led pretty much directly to my love of chick lit...
What about you? What did you read as a teen? And what are your thoughts on YA now?
[via The Boyfriend List]
