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Making up Megaboy
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From: SHERIF SUE _ <fsss>
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 11:15:41 -0800 (AKDT)
I am so happy that we are revisiting MAKING UP MEGABOY so that those of us in the farther reaches have an opportunity to participate.
I found the sketchiness of motivation acceptable because I think that in real life, we all have some trouble understanding the motivation of murderers. Even when young murderers offer up some sort of statement about their motivation, do we really understsand it? We are sometimes offered long explications of the sociology of these crimes, psychological profiles, and detailed family histories by news magazines and those in?pth investigative television shows, but do we end up really understanding much more about why one particular individual murders when others in similar situations choose other avenues---ranging from suicide, substance abuse or vandalism to grafitti or making life miserable for a parent, a sibling, schoolmate, or neighborhood grocer? Is the difference simply availability of the weapon in a particularly dark hour?
Although I haven't had a chance to discuss MAKING UP MEGABOY with a teen reader yet, I wonder if others have found the trend we seem to be seeing here? In a class with middle school librarians and teachers this spring, I heard over and over again that it is now very difficult to find students who will voluntarily read "darker" novels like Cormier's. Although students were very interested in discussing the school shootings in Littleton and elsewhere (including an earlier one in Bethel, Alaska), they don't seem to be willing to confront the issue of physical or psychological violence in novels.
Recreational reading is firmly slanted to fantasy or escapist literature. Action adventure novels, movies, and games are fine, but anything that explores too closely the interior life of the perpetrator or the victims of violence is not of interest. I observe many middle school students choosing books that are way below their reading levels and out of what would apparently be their interest levels: Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, even the Box Car children! Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, the Redwall series, and Harry Potter are first choices. Peer reviews lead more ambitious readers to V.C. Andrews, the DragonLance series, and Stephen King.
Because our high school readers largely read adult books, the YA section of our library is largely the province of the middle schoolers. To judge the patterns of reading here, the challenging novels of Brock Cole, Han Nolan, Robert Cormier, and Virginia Walter are fighting an uphill battle. Is it that book talks are being drowned out by mass marketing? Or, is real life just too scary?
Sue Sherif
Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library
Received on Mon 12 Jul 1999 02:15:41 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 11:15:41 -0800 (AKDT)
I am so happy that we are revisiting MAKING UP MEGABOY so that those of us in the farther reaches have an opportunity to participate.
I found the sketchiness of motivation acceptable because I think that in real life, we all have some trouble understanding the motivation of murderers. Even when young murderers offer up some sort of statement about their motivation, do we really understsand it? We are sometimes offered long explications of the sociology of these crimes, psychological profiles, and detailed family histories by news magazines and those in?pth investigative television shows, but do we end up really understanding much more about why one particular individual murders when others in similar situations choose other avenues---ranging from suicide, substance abuse or vandalism to grafitti or making life miserable for a parent, a sibling, schoolmate, or neighborhood grocer? Is the difference simply availability of the weapon in a particularly dark hour?
Although I haven't had a chance to discuss MAKING UP MEGABOY with a teen reader yet, I wonder if others have found the trend we seem to be seeing here? In a class with middle school librarians and teachers this spring, I heard over and over again that it is now very difficult to find students who will voluntarily read "darker" novels like Cormier's. Although students were very interested in discussing the school shootings in Littleton and elsewhere (including an earlier one in Bethel, Alaska), they don't seem to be willing to confront the issue of physical or psychological violence in novels.
Recreational reading is firmly slanted to fantasy or escapist literature. Action adventure novels, movies, and games are fine, but anything that explores too closely the interior life of the perpetrator or the victims of violence is not of interest. I observe many middle school students choosing books that are way below their reading levels and out of what would apparently be their interest levels: Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, even the Box Car children! Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, the Redwall series, and Harry Potter are first choices. Peer reviews lead more ambitious readers to V.C. Andrews, the DragonLance series, and Stephen King.
Because our high school readers largely read adult books, the YA section of our library is largely the province of the middle schoolers. To judge the patterns of reading here, the challenging novels of Brock Cole, Han Nolan, Robert Cormier, and Virginia Walter are fighting an uphill battle. Is it that book talks are being drowned out by mass marketing? Or, is real life just too scary?
Sue Sherif
Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library
Received on Mon 12 Jul 1999 02:15:41 PM CDT
