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From: Jeffrey Canton <jeffrey_canton>
Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 06:51:24 -0700 (PDT)
Monica,
I don't think you are naive but I am wondering what age readers you are talking about when you say middle schoolers. While Gaiman's writing style in Stardust is quite accessible to what I'd call a Grade 7/8
(12)reader, it's an adult novel that in terms of readers advisory I'd share with teens in perhaps Grade 9 up -- the same audience that I think Gantos is addressing in A Hole in My Life. I think the issue is one of what YA means -- too often today it means that Grade 7/8 audience and what we're calling edgy YA is often geared to those older readers who perhaps are feeling a bit short-changed by the genre.
I do a lot of booktalking to elementary and secondary school teachers and librarians and one of the challenges I find is that YA has come to be perceived as for a younger reading audience and older teens are being guided to adult fiction without having a chance to see some of the very books that are, in fact, sophisticated enough for their reading tastes -- I'm thinking of books like Melvin Burgess' Bloodtide, Martha Brooks' True Confessions of a Heartless Girl, Jamila Gavin's The Singing Bowls or Coram Boy. Part of this is a reaction to the very split within the genre that I think we've been talking about -- YA vs. Edgy YA. There are even books now -- like the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants that are straddling the two sides of YA!
What I am wondering is if it's time for a name change that will better reflect the different nuances within the overall genre of YA because as you so rightly point out how do you deal with a genre that includes everything from Stardust to Hole in My Life to No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman?
Jeffrey Canton
--- "Monica R. Edinger" wrote:
====Jeffrey Canton 54 Fenwick Avenue Toronto, ON M4K 3H3 416F9?90
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com
Received on Sun 18 May 2003 08:51:24 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 06:51:24 -0700 (PDT)
Monica,
I don't think you are naive but I am wondering what age readers you are talking about when you say middle schoolers. While Gaiman's writing style in Stardust is quite accessible to what I'd call a Grade 7/8
(12)reader, it's an adult novel that in terms of readers advisory I'd share with teens in perhaps Grade 9 up -- the same audience that I think Gantos is addressing in A Hole in My Life. I think the issue is one of what YA means -- too often today it means that Grade 7/8 audience and what we're calling edgy YA is often geared to those older readers who perhaps are feeling a bit short-changed by the genre.
I do a lot of booktalking to elementary and secondary school teachers and librarians and one of the challenges I find is that YA has come to be perceived as for a younger reading audience and older teens are being guided to adult fiction without having a chance to see some of the very books that are, in fact, sophisticated enough for their reading tastes -- I'm thinking of books like Melvin Burgess' Bloodtide, Martha Brooks' True Confessions of a Heartless Girl, Jamila Gavin's The Singing Bowls or Coram Boy. Part of this is a reaction to the very split within the genre that I think we've been talking about -- YA vs. Edgy YA. There are even books now -- like the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants that are straddling the two sides of YA!
What I am wondering is if it's time for a name change that will better reflect the different nuances within the overall genre of YA because as you so rightly point out how do you deal with a genre that includes everything from Stardust to Hole in My Life to No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman?
Jeffrey Canton
--- "Monica R. Edinger" wrote:
====Jeffrey Canton 54 Fenwick Avenue Toronto, ON M4K 3H3 416F9?90
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com
Received on Sun 18 May 2003 08:51:24 AM CDT
