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From ME Kerr: Writing for Young Adults Today
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 08:10:30 -0500
That's an interesting question, Megan, and I'm sure as I think about it in days to come ideas will pop up I can't think of now...but since time is getting short, I'll give you what answer I can. The themes seem to be the same to me: feeling like an outsider, wanting to be accepted etc. But you're right, the ways they are played out are different because of changes in our way of life. In the 40's a kid would never think of taking a gun to school and popping off those he imagined had tormented him...just as in the 40's a girl who became pregnant either had a shotgun wedding or found some back alley doctor to perform an abortion. I feel more freedom now than when I started because we have grown in many ways. Next door to me there lives a young single gay parent with an adopted Chinese child. In my new book, Snakes Don't Miss Their Mothers, I feature a young Chinese girl who tells people she has four mothers: her grandmother, her birth mother, her real mother, her godmother. I just finished (as a result of this CCBC program) Alix Flinn's brilliant book Breaking Point, about the son of an abusive parent who becomes abusive himself...It's very sharp and honest but I can remember critics complaints in earlier days that parents aren't presented in a good light...I was cirticized for the harsh mother in Dinky Hocker. There was a time when critics seemed to take it upon themselves to "clean up" any insightful, realistic literature with that kind of slam. I see less of that lately as I read reviews in SLJ, VOYA, the Horn book etc. I feel there is more acceptance now of the fact the dysfunctional family is probably not as rare as once was thought, or certainly we are more able to examine it, and understand it rather than close the door and don't look at it. Television and the internet have greatly expanded our knowledge of everything. As my mother might add sourly, "and I mean EVERYTHING!" It is hard now to reach kids with sugar-coated stories that don't really ring true, just as it is unrealistic to present a world similar to the one I grew up in: no blacks, no Hispanics, no Asians, no divorced parents, a white bread place I write about only as history. I think since my interview with Jim Roginski much has become darker, but at the same time there are writers who find their epiphanies in that darkness and give us books like the kind Robert Cormier wrote, Chris Crutcher writes,Michael Cadnum writes,the above-mentioned Alix Flinn writes, and so forth (I know I'll think of other names after I send this). I also feel there is more delightful humor now:Gregory Maguire's Three Rotten Eggs, Michael Hoeye's Times Stops Fot No Mouse. Many others just as delicious, I think Young Adults are getting the best there is now, dark or light. I wish, growing up, I'd had the choices kids today have...and for me the future is filled with challenge. Good question! Mekerr
Received on Fri 28 Jun 2002 08:10:30 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 08:10:30 -0500
That's an interesting question, Megan, and I'm sure as I think about it in days to come ideas will pop up I can't think of now...but since time is getting short, I'll give you what answer I can. The themes seem to be the same to me: feeling like an outsider, wanting to be accepted etc. But you're right, the ways they are played out are different because of changes in our way of life. In the 40's a kid would never think of taking a gun to school and popping off those he imagined had tormented him...just as in the 40's a girl who became pregnant either had a shotgun wedding or found some back alley doctor to perform an abortion. I feel more freedom now than when I started because we have grown in many ways. Next door to me there lives a young single gay parent with an adopted Chinese child. In my new book, Snakes Don't Miss Their Mothers, I feature a young Chinese girl who tells people she has four mothers: her grandmother, her birth mother, her real mother, her godmother. I just finished (as a result of this CCBC program) Alix Flinn's brilliant book Breaking Point, about the son of an abusive parent who becomes abusive himself...It's very sharp and honest but I can remember critics complaints in earlier days that parents aren't presented in a good light...I was cirticized for the harsh mother in Dinky Hocker. There was a time when critics seemed to take it upon themselves to "clean up" any insightful, realistic literature with that kind of slam. I see less of that lately as I read reviews in SLJ, VOYA, the Horn book etc. I feel there is more acceptance now of the fact the dysfunctional family is probably not as rare as once was thought, or certainly we are more able to examine it, and understand it rather than close the door and don't look at it. Television and the internet have greatly expanded our knowledge of everything. As my mother might add sourly, "and I mean EVERYTHING!" It is hard now to reach kids with sugar-coated stories that don't really ring true, just as it is unrealistic to present a world similar to the one I grew up in: no blacks, no Hispanics, no Asians, no divorced parents, a white bread place I write about only as history. I think since my interview with Jim Roginski much has become darker, but at the same time there are writers who find their epiphanies in that darkness and give us books like the kind Robert Cormier wrote, Chris Crutcher writes,Michael Cadnum writes,the above-mentioned Alix Flinn writes, and so forth (I know I'll think of other names after I send this). I also feel there is more delightful humor now:Gregory Maguire's Three Rotten Eggs, Michael Hoeye's Times Stops Fot No Mouse. Many others just as delicious, I think Young Adults are getting the best there is now, dark or light. I wish, growing up, I'd had the choices kids today have...and for me the future is filled with challenge. Good question! Mekerr
Received on Fri 28 Jun 2002 08:10:30 AM CDT
