CCBC-Net Archives
[CCBC-Net] Octavian Nothing
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Elliott BatTzedek <ebattzedek>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:43:04 -0500
I am a huge fan of the first Octavian book -- I think I personally bought at least 25 copies to give as presents. To adults.
I think both books are pure genius, and raise really important issues about the line between adult and young adult writing and publishing. If Anderson's usual publisher was an adult trade company, or a publisher with both adult and YA titles, would it have been published as only a YA book? What makes this a YA novel rather than an adult novel? That is about a young adult and his coming of age? Maybe, but plenty of adult titles are also coming of age stories. It is told as Octavian is a young adult, not looking back, so has the immediacy (if one can say that of a novel set firmly in the 18th century!) of YA books, but again, some adult books have that. I so wish that a publisher who could push these titles in adult markets would pick them up and get them out there alongside Candlewick's power in the children's/YA market.
And also this -- I think the work Anderson has done here is some of the most important fiction about race in the U.S. written in at least the last 50 years. It should absolutely be taught in every classroom that does Huck Finn, in part to see the remarkable difference between how we as a culture think about slavery. Most importantly, Octavian gives us a powerful, and devastating, definition of what it has meant to be white in the U.S. We've needed that so badly for so long. There are so many wonderful books by authors "of color" about that experience, but usually white writers and readers are so very silent about that it means to be white, how that works, or has worked, what it's meant. Here, we are given a window into the mindset that could scream for liberty for themselves while screaming also for their right to own others as slaves; through Octavian's intelligence and fury, we see hypocrisy and danger of those white people who claimed to care about him, yet also owned him as property and used him as a
lab rat.
Anderson has said he didn't write these books for every teenager -- he wrote them for the kids like himself, who live in books and imagination, and want to know more and more and more about the world. Those kids, the ones willing to work hard at reading a challenging book and reap the words, deserve great books too, he said, and he wrote Octavian for them.
Elliott batTzedek Collections Developer Children's Literacy Initiative
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Lynn Becker Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 3:09 PM To: ccbc-net,Subscribers of Subject: [CCBC-Net] Octavian Nothing
I am a long time lurker, but as a great fan of these books--here I go.
I think that although the language is difficult, Anderson keeps the chapters short and punchy, often ending with a cliffhanger. The reader (at least this reader) remains hooked and looking forward to what comes next. And, like with Shakespeare and unfamiliar dialects, the more you read, the easier they are to understand.
I loved these books, and found them enriched by Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains, a different presentation of a similar time and place. I strongly agree with the hope for more quality, literary YAs for an audience which is certainly out there.
Lynn Becker
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Thu 20 Nov 2008 02:43:04 PM CST
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:43:04 -0500
I am a huge fan of the first Octavian book -- I think I personally bought at least 25 copies to give as presents. To adults.
I think both books are pure genius, and raise really important issues about the line between adult and young adult writing and publishing. If Anderson's usual publisher was an adult trade company, or a publisher with both adult and YA titles, would it have been published as only a YA book? What makes this a YA novel rather than an adult novel? That is about a young adult and his coming of age? Maybe, but plenty of adult titles are also coming of age stories. It is told as Octavian is a young adult, not looking back, so has the immediacy (if one can say that of a novel set firmly in the 18th century!) of YA books, but again, some adult books have that. I so wish that a publisher who could push these titles in adult markets would pick them up and get them out there alongside Candlewick's power in the children's/YA market.
And also this -- I think the work Anderson has done here is some of the most important fiction about race in the U.S. written in at least the last 50 years. It should absolutely be taught in every classroom that does Huck Finn, in part to see the remarkable difference between how we as a culture think about slavery. Most importantly, Octavian gives us a powerful, and devastating, definition of what it has meant to be white in the U.S. We've needed that so badly for so long. There are so many wonderful books by authors "of color" about that experience, but usually white writers and readers are so very silent about that it means to be white, how that works, or has worked, what it's meant. Here, we are given a window into the mindset that could scream for liberty for themselves while screaming also for their right to own others as slaves; through Octavian's intelligence and fury, we see hypocrisy and danger of those white people who claimed to care about him, yet also owned him as property and used him as a
lab rat.
Anderson has said he didn't write these books for every teenager -- he wrote them for the kids like himself, who live in books and imagination, and want to know more and more and more about the world. Those kids, the ones willing to work hard at reading a challenging book and reap the words, deserve great books too, he said, and he wrote Octavian for them.
Elliott batTzedek Collections Developer Children's Literacy Initiative
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Lynn Becker Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 3:09 PM To: ccbc-net,Subscribers of Subject: [CCBC-Net] Octavian Nothing
I am a long time lurker, but as a great fan of these books--here I go.
I think that although the language is difficult, Anderson keeps the chapters short and punchy, often ending with a cliffhanger. The reader (at least this reader) remains hooked and looking forward to what comes next. And, like with Shakespeare and unfamiliar dialects, the more you read, the easier they are to understand.
I loved these books, and found them enriched by Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains, a different presentation of a similar time and place. I strongly agree with the hope for more quality, literary YAs for an audience which is certainly out there.
Lynn Becker
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Thu 20 Nov 2008 02:43:04 PM CST
