From: Lynn Rutan <lynnrutan_at_charter.net>
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:13:05 -0400

I was excited when I saw this topic as I've been wondering about the phenomenon for quite a while and I've been enjoying everyone's comments. In fact I've been grumbling about this to anyone who would listen for quite a while ;-) My complaint over the years has been the scarcity of good sf for teens and when it has been written it has been predominantly in the form of dystopias.

Many of these have been excellent - especially of late - and I've read and booktalked these to teens. Claudia mentioned two outstanding books, Feed and House of Scorpions, and several of you have mentioned Ship Breaker which I adored. I'd like to add several others that have been popular with our teens. Saci Lloyd's outstanding pair, Carbon Diaries 2015 and Carbon Diaries 2017, that feature a wonderfully authentic voice of a young girl who is dealing with "normal teen issues" along with the impact of global warming is very popular. Susan Beth Pfeffer's three books beginning with Life As We Knew It that deal with the global disasters caused by a comet knocking the moon out of its orbit have been in high demand with our teens too. Maze Runner, Pod, The Line, Dark Falls, Compound, Epitaph Road and others have also found a lot of readers from our book club teens this year.

Some even older books that were reliable favorites at my school included some for younger teens, the classic Giver, Margaret Peterson Haddix's Among the Hidden series, Nina Bawden's Off the Road and Will Weaver's Memory Boy. My 8th and 9th graders enjoyed Pete Hautman's Hole in the Sky, Z for Zachariah, Shade's Children by Garth Nix and a personal favorite of mine, River Rats by Stevermer.

The comment I consistently got and still get from teens is that they like the books but that they are so depressing and did I have ANYTHING that wasn't so dark? Which brings me back to my complaint. Why do we have so little science fiction that ISN'T dystopian? Where are the aliens, the alien biospheres, colonization, multispecies empires, space flight, intergalactic war, space opera, technology and where is the humor? The field is wide open and teens of all readers are the perfect audience for asking what if? So many of my really good readers jump right to adult science fiction because they are looking for these sorts of books but many of them aren't willing or able to take on adult books yet. I think there is a huge audience for this sort of science fiction.

There are some good ones out there but they are few and far between. Recently we have Timothy Zahn's Dragon and the Thief series and Dom Testa is starting a new series, Comet's Curse, about a space ship manned by only those under 16 heading to colonize another world. An outstanding example of just the sort of book I'm looking for publishes this month - Black Hole Sun by David Macinnes Gill. Action-packed, suspenseful, terrific characters and world building with great snarky dialog, this book is wonderfully accessible and exciting.

Are authors just not writing sf for teens except dystopia? Do publishers feel it wouldn't sell? Are we librarians and teachers a factor in the equation? I know from doing YA Lit presentations to teachers and librarians that many of us are uncomfortable with or don't like science fiction. How good are we about reading what IS published for teens and buying and promoting it? Do we feel more comfortable with the short-term future that is presented in dystopian novels and read them more readily?

Sorry this is very long! I am eager to hear what others think.

Lynn Rutan Librarian Bookends: BooklistOnline Youth Blog Holland, MI lynnrutan_at_charter.net
Received on Thu 05 Aug 2010 09:13:05 AM CDT