I came across this post by Jennifer Banash, about Laura Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls.
I’ve never read Banash or Anderson, but I believe they are probably both good writers. Wintergirls sure sounds like it is excellently executed.
The thing is, I have no desire to read books about anorexia. Or suicide. Nope, I’ve not read Th1rteen R3asons Why. I simply can’t make myself start these books. I want action, humor, romance, good vs. evil. I want danger, but only if there is hope.
So recently I’ve been writing to publicists to line up books for the KidzBookBuzz tour and I’m finding that I’m not attracted to many of the contemporary YA books. What does that say about me? I guess I either don’t like our society and the young adults living in it, or the contemporary YA books aren’t accurately reflecting our society and the young adults living in it.
I know teens are attracted to some dark, angsty things. I know there is a period where the darker something is, the more profound it feels. Pollyannas are seen as shallow and stupid. Angsty, morose people are deep and mysterious. I get that.
But most kids don’t kill themselves. Most kids aren’t anorexic. Most kids don’t have sex every day. Most kids aren’t drug addicts.
Or am I wrong about this?
When I was in school there was a segment of the population doing drugs, drinking and having sex. It was not a majority. There were a couple of suicides. I’m willing to believe that drugs, sex, and rock and roll are all more prevalent now. I still don’t want to read about people starving themselves.
It’s great that Anderson is serving up what a lot of teens want to read. I don’t mean to try to muzzle her. And there are plenty of YA books for me and my tastes, so I’m not crying about having nothing to read. But what I’m wondering is if there are any contemporary YA books for me. I’m just curious about this trend I think I see for dark and/or sex-filled YA literature. Anyone know of any contemporary YA books with characters who don’t do drugs, have sex (with the opposite sex or the same sex), commit suicide, have eating disorders, or mutilate themselves (cutting or breaking bones)?
I guess the question is: Is there more to teen life than drugs, sex, and feeling like a misfit? MG novels are about family and faith and growing up and holding on to your integrity. In an MG a contemporary character might fight crime, or save a friend, or walk beside a friend who has cancer. What happens at the age of fourteen that suddenly turns kids into self-destructive, amoral individuals? Or maybe they aren’t amoral. Maybe they’re just confused. Still, can a seventeen-year-old boy face a conflict that is not drug or sex related?
Alan Gratz has some mysteries out that I love. There is sex in them, but they aren’t about sex. Well some of them aren’t. Any others out there?
Is anyone writing clean, bright, hope-filled contemporary YAs, and if they are writing them, are they selling them?
I read that and thought, Oh, come on, there are tons. And I jumped up and went back into the stacks and walked … and walked … and that scene from Cinderella came to mind, where Cindy tries to list Lucifer’s good qualities and finally says, “There must be something.”
Almost every book I opened my mouth to mention turned out to be MG. Upper MG, but still MG. Example: Frank Boyce. Now I think teenage guys could get into Framed. But most people would shake their heads and say, sorry, MG.
I usually say that I am NOT a depressing book sort of person. But perhaps I’m becoming one through a warped supply and demand cycle. I mean, look at my favorite YA from last year:
Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta
Well Witched, by Frances Hardinge
Impossible, by Nancy Werlin
The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary Pearson
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
All really great/amazing books, but not exactly cheeryful fare.
(Note to self: Noel, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to make this YA novel you’re currently brewing “bright and hope-filled.” Not completely. That’d be boring. That’d be … Pollyanna. But make it … on the up and up.)
Noels last blog post..Book Rack Loot
There are some, you just have to really look for them. Some of my recent positive favorites are:
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Same Difference by Siobhan Vivian
They all have some conflict, but no death or suicide.
Tashas last blog post..2009 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards Short List
Noel, I’m glad that I’m not crazy and there really aren’t that many cheerful contemporaries. The thing is, I’ve been saying for years that I don’t like contemporary novels and since I started the book tour I’ve been reading more contemporary MGs and thinking, “Hmm. How come I like these? I didn’t think I liked contemporary.” So then it struck it me that it’s not contemporary that bugs me, it’s dark and angsty.
I bought Jenna Fox, btw because it got such good reviews. I read a couple of chapters only. Couldn’t get into it. And I guess it’s not just the subject matter–it’s also something about the voice of some of these broken characters. I like NY attitude but some of these contemporary voices are just so…bleak, I guess is the word I’m looking for.
But don’t ruin your novel on my account. I loved Hunger Games. Yikes! I hated the premise but knew, because I am a huge Gregor fan, that Collins was going to write a gripping novel. And she did not disappoint.
It’s not contemporary, though. It’s futuristic.
For some reason I can take dark in fantasy a lot more easily than I can take it in contemporary.
Thanks for the suggestions, Tasha. I’ve been hearing all kinds of good things about North of Beautiful. And Marcelo was being buzzed at SCBWI national summer conference last year, I think. I’ve never heard of the other two. I’m going to check them all out.
Thanks!
Oh, and conflict is good. Every book needs conflict. I’m just wondering why the teen years seem to be so full of a certain kind of conflict. I guess that is kind of true to life. Those teen years are pretty strange.
I’ve read North of Beautiful, Marcelo, and Audrey, Wait! … I liked the first two, but they didn’t strike me as being especially cheerful. Their characters are definitely struggling misfits. Not a bad thing … the teen years ARE confusing. I’m 22 and still confused!
But if we’re talking completely out of the box, I can’t think of many titles.
Noels last blog post..April 23rd … Choose Your Own Adventure
Speaking of Marcelo in the Real World, here is a wonderful post by the editor.
If every editor would work that way….
But I guess not every book is important enough to demand that kind of devotion.
Does “bright and hope-filled” (Noel’s comment above) necessarily equate to boring? I don’t believe so.
I grew up on a diet of Anne of Green Gables, Girl of the Limberlost et al. So maybe it’s nostalgia that makes me yearn for more positivity in YA books. But I suspect dystopian is fashionable, and that’s a big part of it. I totally believe literature should try to represent everyone’s reality, and would defend a reader’s right to read about cutting, abuse, drugs, bulimia. But it’s not everyone’s reality.
Conflict and tension are vital for good writing, yes. However, they don’t have to be in the form of mutilation or moroseness.
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I totally share your point of view, book chook. Down with mutilation and moroseness! I mean, my top three favorite books are Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and The Secret Garden. (And there ARE modern books that live up to those models. The Star of Kazan, for one. With the caveat being that most of them are MG.)
But 100% bright and hope-filled is not true to life. It’s not anyone’s reality. 100% bright and hope-filled is Elsie Dinsmore in an Anne Shirley world. So when I said a completely bright and cheerful YA book would be boring, I meant it. I meant rose-tinted books like … well, books that are often found in Christian bookstores. How upside-down is that?
Noels last blog post..Quotes from The Shuttle, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Wah!
I’ve not gotten to read The Star of Kazan yet. And I have two books in front of it that have to be read this week.
The Anne girl’s story is one of my all-time favorites. My, oh my. And there was plenty of conflict in her life. But so much of it was inner conflict. Anne wanted to be good but she always managed to get herself in trouble. She was a bright. bold character living among people with no imagination. Plenty of conflict for the poor dear.
Thanks for explaining, Noel! And I agree – 100% bright and hope-filled would be cloying and gag-worthy, as well as boring.
I’d like to read Star of Kazan.
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Oh, I really would LOVE it if someone would write more books like Anne of Green Gables and the Betsy-Tacy books. I have heard some folks compare the Penderwicks books to Anne, etc, and when I read the first I did find it had that sort of timeless nostalgic feel — but I’d like *more*, particularly something slightly older (YA) but still charming and lovely and sweet and beautiful. The last recently-published book I found that struck me that way was Eva Ibbotsen’s A Countess Below Stairs.
It would be nice to see something with a modern setting that could still capture that feel. Then again, looking at my own childhood in the 80s in the Jersey suburbs, it definitely wasn’t Avonlea!
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Yes, I think Gloria Whelan’s novels fit into the “Pollyanna-ish” category, although certainly her characters have their problems.
As you know, I reviewed one of her books on my blog recently. It’s Listening for Lions, and here’s a link to the review—>http://hopeistheword.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/book-review-listening-for-lions-by-gloria-whelan/
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I thought Listening for Lions was alright. I mean, when I first saw it in JLG, I was uber-excited, it sounded wonderful, so I was a bit let down. She has a new book coming out in June, The Locked Garden. It looks good, but I’m wary this time …
And yes, Eva Ibbotsen’s A Countess Below Stairs is a bright YA I can totally stand behind!!
Noels last blog post..Readers of this blog, unite!
I really enjoyed The Countess Below Stairs but it was not contemporary.
How about:
DAIRY QUEEN by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS by E. Lockhart
SUITE SCARLETT by Maureen Johnson
MY MOST EXCELLENT YEAR: A NOVEL OF LOVE, MARY POPPINS, and FENWAY PARK by Steve Kluger
pretty much anything by Joan Bauer (actually, everything, I think)
There’s tons of clean fluff, like IN YOUR ROOM, CINDY ELLA, A NON-BLONDE CHEERLEADER IN LOVE (and sequels), HOW (NOT) TO BE POPULAR, HOW TO BE POPULAR, THE QUEEN OF SECOND PLACE and its sequel QUEEN B, ENTHUSIASM, If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince?, and about, oh, a billion others.
Melissas last blog post..LOOKING AHEAD: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
[...] don’t interest me. I have no idea if she’s glorifying eating disorders and cutting. I assume that she is not glorifying those things and I’ve never written a post urging parents to withhold her books from their children. I [...]