This week on the Cafe, we thought we'd try a change of pace and open the floor to a general discussion on YA lit. So here's your chance to weigh in and sound off. The topic, from one of our readers:
What genre or subject matter seems to be neglected in today's contemporary teen lit?
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
42 comments:
I read in a variety of genres, so there always seems to be plenty for me to read, so I can't say I notice anything really lacking, but I have heard recently that there is a dire lack of Boy books--ones that are totally boyish in the vein of Paulsen or Salisbury.
Mary, me, too! I'm never lacking in books.
Miss M seems to crave more science fiction. She's a big Scott Westerfeld fan, but the man can write only so many books a year!
Mar
I'm going to jump on Mary's bandwagon and agree that I believe teen lit is quite diverse where genres are concerned. Also, co-signnig on the lack of boy books.
But I'll add another "missing" link and it's books with more diverse casts. Seems like we have books with either all white, all black, all Latino characters but very few that bring those groups together. I think teen lit is lagging behind its television and movie counterparts on this one. BUT, is starting to catch up.
After all, one of the characters in Traveling Pants was latino.
There's always room for more humor, especially in upper YA. But I also think suspense is an overlooked genre for YA. I'd love more books in the vein of Acceleration by Graham McNamee. Being of the plot-challenged variety, I fully admire the structural ability that goes into crafting suspense and mystery novels. And I think humor is a knack you either have or you don't, and I think both of those points are why we don't see as much of either genre when there is clearly an audience for both.
Paula,
Good point! I think Cynthia did an amazing job including a diverse cast in TANTALIZE. And in my forthcoming trilogy, I hope to accomplish the same thing. I'm also including teen characters who are a combination of many ethnicities, like my own kids.
Religion. Teens are seeking, questioning their parents' faith or lack thereof. Why isn't this reflected in novels?
Justice issues. They want to change the world, confront THE MAN, serve the poor. Not just gossip in cliques or shop at the mall.
But I agree with the humor point, too. You've got to explore heavy issues while retaining and employing the capacity to laugh at yourself.
I find that mysteries tend to be underrepresented. I've read a couple of Alane Ferguson's forensic YA mysteries but haven't really seen much else.
My favorite boy books this year: FIREGIRL, HEADLOCK, SAMAURI SHORTSTOP and some others...I also just read GRIEF GIRL, and I found it both haunting and real - a memoir - not too many teen memoirs, and I already know several teens I'd like to give it too. And yes, humor...I think we need more humor - absolutely. I'd actually like to write a YA that is sympathetic to the parents raising a particularly annoying YA...wishful thinking, maybe or maybe not. Great new YA Cafe, Mar.
All best
Kerry
So many good comments. I know there has been a lot of talk about "boy books" and "guys read" and all, but perhaps people have been so busy talking that very little was actually written.
Younger teen boys I know have recently been looking for historical fiction, and, in particular, WWI and WWII fiction. Let me tell you, there is very little. There's a lot about the homefront, internment, and the holocaust. Not much about anything else, or from different viewpoints. Ken Burns has a new documentary coming out on WWII, and I think we'll see a new wave of interest in this era, also fueled by the sad fact that we're losing those who lived through it. And when that renewed interest hits in the fall, there won't be more than a handful of YA books on hand.
Also, I am continually asked for mysteries at the library where I work. I feel like I have many MG suggestions, and tons of adult suggestions. But YA? Not so much. Acceleration is a great example of the kind of book I'd like to be able to hand to teens. I'd say that about 80 percent -- no, make that more like 95 percent -- of the time I take them over to the mysteries in the adult fiction collection.
Linda,
That makes total sense about a need for more mysteries--especially since mid-grade aged kids STILL read Nancy Drew and have found great newer mysteries like the HANNAH WEST series. So when these kids are a little older, they've already developed a taste for mysteries.
And doesn't EVERYBODY love a good mystery/suspense novel? I know I do.
Mar
What's missing?
Well written real genre books.
It seems that the kids who read both adult & YA go looking for specific areas in the adult, and I think it's because they cannot find it in YA. (Not that it isn't there...but there isn't enough.)
What I mean: mystery. A straightforward, there's a crime, solve it mystery. No ghosts, just a real honest to goodness mystery.
Romance. In adult romance, there is happy ever after; in teen, your heart is broken. Part of that is, I think, the whole coming of age thing; but I do wish for more straightforward happy ending romance. And it's why I see teen girls constantly going to the adult romance section. They want the happy ending.
I'd also say humor; and while we all know humor is tough to write, teens come in and want escape but want it to be good escape. Especially humor for boys.
I'll keep thinking....
What *I* would like to see is some YA realistic fiction that's clean--no sex, no swearing. I'm 16 and like to read about characters my age, but there sure aren't many 16-year-old-protagonist books that are clean. At least not that I can find... I usually have to stick with fantasy if I want a clean YA book.
Mysteries, YES.
(EXAMPLE: The ten books in the Body of Evidence series by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala rock, and I am sad that more than half of them have gone out-of-print.)
Stories that AREN'T dated - Hardcover releases riddled with just-released technology and brand-name clothing can be out-of-date by the time the paperback editions come out a year or two later! - and that could happen NOW just as easily as ten, twenty years ago.
(EXAMPLE: The Creek by Jennifer L. Holm)
Liz said: "Romance. In adult romance, there is happy ever after; in teen, your heart is broken."
Erin said, "I'm 16 and like to read about characters my age, but there sure aren't many 16-year-old-protagonist books that are clean."
The most compelling evidence I have to support both points is the near cult-like status Stephenie Meyer's Twilight has achieved among my 8th graders in the last two months. Ten years of teaching, and I have *never* seen a group of diverse girls so riveted by one title. It's unabashedly romantic (but no sex), and as one young woman said, "It doesn't have a huge mean girl plot -- I'm so sick of that! We're not all mean." (My review here) We need more Jane Austen-esque novels for the YA age.
I'd also like to see more YA books that deal with a teens' religious lives as a primary theme (without it being either too anti-religious or a niche book for a "Christian" bookstore). My students are in perennial conversation about Hebrew School, Greek school, CCD, confirmation classes, youth groups -- last week several were talking about what a perfect "afterlife" would look like -- spurred by one girl's reading of Lovely Bones (I told them to pick up "Elsewhere" and get back to me). It's part of their lives that is not well reflected in their reading.
Can I third or fourth mysteries? I'm looking for a CHRISTOPHER KILLER/ACCELERATION type book, not (forgive me) Joan Lowery Nixon. I want to give kids a mystery that has real tension and suspense, with a crime that has some serious heft to it. Most YA books don't talk down to teens, but for some reason, YA mysteries tend to try to soften the edges too much.
I agree that we need more humorous books, and we need boy books that aren't necessarily about sports or war (though yes, more war stories would also go over well). I can also agree with more diversity. I'd especially like to see books with kids of different cultures/races just hanging together because they're friends, without it necessarily being significant to the storyline that one of them is X and most of the others are Y.
I'd like to add another big old "yes" to diversity; especially where diversity isn't the point. I hope you know what I mean: not that the main character is a token, but that the main character is of Asian descent, or Native American, etc., and of course that infuses the book & what happens in the book, but at it's heart the book is mystery/ romance/ coming of age/ whatever.
I'd also like to add my voice in support of Miss Erin's. Yes, there are kids out there swearing up a storm, etc., and Nick and Norah reflects their lives, etc.; but, there are also kids out there like Erin (happy birthday, btw!).
I went thru highschool with kids whose big curse was h.e.double hockey sticks. And in case you say, oh, that's not kids today.... It is, for some kids and teens. They want the challenging stuff -- or stuff that wasn't written 20 years ago -- but they are not comfortable with extreme language & sex.
I am not saying, of course, to censor; but I am saying that audience is out there. I think that is why a book like Hattie Big Sky has such huge popularity.
I hear the demand for YA mysteries all the time, all over the place. And here it is echoed again and again. The market for it hasn't diminished over the years. Why do you suppose it's such a hard niche to fill?
I agree with Liz, and others, about the need for mystery/suspense novels that are well-written. I also agree with Paula and others who talked about the need for more diversity. I think that we could use more books written from the perspective of minority characters (ethnic, sexual, cultural and other minorities). Not books ABOUT being a minority, just books about mystery or romance or coming of age, in which the character happens to not be straight, white, and American.
Thanks for starting this discussion. It's great to hear everyone's input on this important topic.
Fairly light-hearted, humorous books with African-American characters for the younger end of the YA spectrum. I work in a school library where our population is 98% African-American, so that is a big concern for me. Walter Dean Myers and Sharon Draper, while wonderful, can only take you so far. There are a lot of great new African-American authors being published now, like Coe Booth, but their books seem to be rather heavy, and for older YAs. Sharon G. Flake's books have a lot of humor, as well as drama, and are very popular with my middle schoolers. More like that, especially with male characters, would be great. Also, more fantasy and science fiction with major characters who are African-American. There are some, but there is certainly room for more.
There is a huge market for mystery novels for teens and very little out there. There are horror thrillers and gore fest kinds of things, but almost no real mysteries once you get past Nancy Drew. I don't mean suspense, but detective stuff, like Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes. Most of the teens looking for that stuff have either read Holmes or want modern mysteries. I can't figure out why no one is writing them.
Kudos on the request for historical fiction boy books! We need somthing like treasure island - an action adventure - maybe some fantasy woven in. At least that's my bag and my drive.
Detective Fiction - Veronica Mars did it for TV, someone can do it for YA literature
Happy Endings - Being a teenager sucks, but there are good points every now and then. And there are teenagers who enjoyed high school
Hard Science Fiction - Westerfield does a good job, and so does Monica Hughes, but these are more soft sciene than hard. Where are the rocket ships and time travelers? Where are the creepy futuristic worlds extrapolated from the tech we have today? There's Feed, but not much else.
And yes, I'm actively seeking all those things.
I'd have to say clean YA books, too! At every store I visited last year, the staff told me parents are constantly asking for clean YA books with a positive message.
Boy books definitely are lacking, too. I have heard this statement many times this past month.
I’d like to see a little less teenage angst…there are HAPPY teens out there. I just know there are! Yes, the teen years are full of issues and life-changing decisions and I have always been glad that there were books out there to support teens in need. But there are kids who love (and respect) their parents, like school, want to do "good," don't drink, swear, or have sex and THEY want to read about characters who mirror their lives.
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