tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3424881563665622626.post6270741330056549849..comments2024-03-09T05:16:33.359-08:00Comments on The Boswellians: Taking the Y out of YA lit.Daniel Goldinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11536282665165900502noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3424881563665622626.post-51517455903981105562010-11-08T11:54:10.607-08:002010-11-08T11:54:10.607-08:00Personally, I think classifications of books need ...Personally, I think classifications of books need to either, a) be considered more carefully or b) be explained better. The Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman is a "children's" series, I'm assuming because the protagonists are 12 years old... but, that's absolutely ridiculous. The Dark Materials trilogy are absolutely my favorite books of all time because of how beautifully written they are and, of course, they boundaries they push with religion - but as much as I beg every person I know to read these books, they certainly are not for children. I say that simply because there are HUGE concepts, much bigger ideas going on, than that simple, romanticist story of a gifted little girl going on a journey. <br /><br />Even I didn't understand that the first time I picked up the books (I was probably... god, idk, nine or ten?), and I'd always been about four or five grades above my peers in my reading level. <br /><br />But anyway, in my own school experience, I haven't really found that elementary schoolers have as many book-resources at their disposal as high schoolers do. I mean, teens are going to learn about all kinds of 'naughty' things whether their parents want them to or not (particularly if they go to public school), but do elementary schools even have teen books in their libraries? And if so, why? <br /><br />Really, though, I think that if a sixth grader is intrepid enough to go to the public library and dig around for something more mature, and they can keep the plot straight in their heads, good for them. I'm obviously not a parent, but I say that because I was the only book nerd I knew (excluding my high school English teacher and my mom)... well, ever. I think the world needs more kids to push boundaries of reading. Honestly, if I met a kid who wanted THAT badly to read "inappropriate" books, that they would like, sneak around their parents to find it, I'd give that kid a high five. I do, however, have respect for parents who will take a book away as long as they give it back a few years down the road. <br /><br />(Of course, it's okay with modern parents for nine-year-olds to play who knows what kind of violent/scary videogames, but god forbid their thirteen-year-old get their hands on "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.")Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11710032997583230170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3424881563665622626.post-90626920140760914122010-11-06T09:14:33.831-07:002010-11-06T09:14:33.831-07:00I was, oh, I don't know, 12-ish when I picked ...I was, oh, I don't know, 12-ish when I picked The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, off my mom's bookshelf. It sounded interesting. So I started to read it. She discovered my discovery the next day, a Sunday, when she caught me reading it in the back of the church during service. She exclaimed, "Where did you get that?" I replied "It was on your shelf..." She took it away and said "You can read it when you're old enough."<br /><br />Today Margaret Atwood is one of my all-time favorite writers. I did a 5-essay mini-thesis on Handmaid's Tale as a junior in high school.<br /><br />My mom didn't take that book away from me that day because she thought I wasn't a smart enough 12yr-old, it was that I *was* smart enough - that was the problem!<br /><br />I respect that my mom, a writer herself and the encourager of reading above all else (I mean, hell, she was reading Dickens to us when I was only 10), always pushed us to further ourselves through reading; but also understood that even (especially?) when your child is bright enough, it doesn't mean they should necessarily be reading everything they can understand.<br /><br />Great post Greg.StacieMichellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10378380788906271905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3424881563665622626.post-45502277512756295962010-11-06T07:42:58.696-07:002010-11-06T07:42:58.696-07:00(Spoiler warning...) Concur. I recently read Ant...(Spoiler warning...) Concur. I recently read Anthony Horowitz's "Stormbreaker", a YA BritSpy novel patterned after Ian Fleming's James Bond. It looked like great fun when I picked it up, but is actually rather grim, with all the emotional nuance of a second generation videogame -- and without as much color. The climax is that one of the young protagonist's enemies abruptly shoots the other one. The End.<br /><br />It's not the violence per se that bothers me, within limits and in proper context; it's the utterly flat, humorless, desensitized and desensitizing tone. Further thoughts about "Stormbreaker" here: http://mytwoinnings.blogspot.com/2009/03/video-game-in-paperback.htmlBob Waithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05076522289516653548noreply@blogger.com