I’ve long been watching those Mormon authors. I found the sovereignty of God message interesting in the first Levin Thumps book, and I was interested when Shadow Mountain jumped into the kid’s fantasy scene with Fablehaven, followed by Foo, and Far World.
And, of course, there’s always Shannon Hale. Shannon Hale who wrote The Goose Girl and Princess Academy, and Book of a Thousand Days. I don’t care what religion you are, it’d be hard to beat Shannon Hale. Her books are among my all-time favorites. The kind you re-read every couple of years.
Oh, and there’s that Stephenie Meyer gal. Who cares that I thought her first book was boring and stupid? Millions of readers disagree with me. And…she’s a Mormon writing for teens.
What is the deal with all the Mormons writing YA books?
Here’s a great article discussing the issue.
I found it interesting, anyway. They are, for the most part, just leaving religion out of it and writing moral books. It seems to be working for them.
(Although, Twilight’s not moral, regardless of what all the girls in the youth group say about it–who cares if they don’t have premarital intercourse. There are other ways to be immoral than to have premarital sex.)
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tags: Book of a Thousand Days, Fablehaven, far world, Goose Girl, Levin Thumps, mormon authors., Princess Academy, Shannon Hale, stephenie meyer, Twilight
How interesting. I just got done reading a book review on a Mormon reader’s blog of a Mormon fantasy novel and I got started wondering about some similar things as you write about.
I completely agree with your comments that “There are other ways to be immoral than to have premarital sex.” Even at my age, 25 years past my teens, I remember the legalistic thinking of myself and my teen friends. We were OK, so we thought, as long as we didn’t cross the line; no matter how close we got. We were too young to know, we were already on the other side of that line. Seems every generation needs to learn that, though some adults are better at pointing the lesson out than others.
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At least you tried to stay on the right side of line when you were a teen, Dan. Some of us felt the line was impossible and we didn’t even try.
I don’t really mind if authors want to write books about teen sexuality or whatever. What bothers me is when people, as in adult people, think that since there is no premarital sexual intercourse, a book must be fine for their daughters to read. Even if all the kids are acting like animals in heat.
I let my kids read these books but the price they pay is that I read the books, too and then we have to sit and discuss what’s right and what’s wrong with the books and the way the characters view the world.
“Young adult literature is a place where we can still be in love with story,” she said. “There really is meaning, and there is such a thing as a happy ending.”
Interesting thought.
I blogged about the Mormon phenom.
http://noveljourney.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-little-books.html
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That was an interesting thought. And an even more interesting blog post at Novel Journey, Noel. Thanks for linking to it.
I do agree that Christians need to write good stories with Christianity latent. One of the reasons I loved Swallows so much was that the story was consistent with a Christian worldview but didn’t beat anyone over the head with Christianity. I thought she did a wonderful job with it.
I’m working on a YA now that isn’t Christian at all. I do have a religion, though, because I think fantasy worlds are richer when they have religions. It’s tricky, though.
I mean, how many books do we read where the message is that if you believe in yourself enough, you can do anything? Or the message might be, the good is within you, and if you look hard enough, you’ll find it.
In a way fiction is set up to deliver these messages because we want the protagonist to figure things out on her own and not be baled out by God.
So I agree that we need more books by Christians with latent Christianity, and yet, I have a hard time figuring out how to write them, myself.
That’s exactly it, though. Our worldview shapes the ideas in our fiction. So a Christian is not going to write about a girl following her heart, because they believe that the heart is sinful above all things.
In my novel, blood will have blood. That idea was a biblical idea before it was Shakespearean. But I didn’t work it in. It flowed naturally because I’d been raised believing in the reality of divine justice.
Likewise, for example, Stephenie Meyer’s worldview paved the way for her to include the idea of the pre-existence of souls in The Host.
And completely off topic, but because my sister is listening to Emma in the background, no WONDER Emma couldn’t stand Mrs. Bates. The woman’s monologues are insufferable! Breathe, woman! Breathe!
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