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Dystopias, Disasters and Other Futurescapes
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:07:46 -0500
I appreciate Lynn Rutan's question--is there futuristic fiction that isn't dystopian?--and the challenge to come up with titles to fulfill that desire that some teens are expressing.
I can think of a few funny books about the future. While they still cast a dystopian, or at least sobering, light on what is to come, the humor can make that light less depressing, and therefore the books perhaps a bit more emotionally accessible for some readers. Here are titles that come to mind:
Rash by Pete Hautman Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman Feed (already mentioned) by M.T. Anderson
On a different note, Lynn mentioned Susan Beth Pfeffer's trilogy that begin with "Life As We Knew It." I remember reading "Life" and having to put it down several times because I (as an adult) was so overwhelmed by the sense of doom in the story, which is told from the point of view of a teenage girl who goes from fairly shallow to full-out survival mode over the course of the novel. I don't see that as a negative, it was just a fact of my experience as a reader. I admire the book very much, and admired the author's ability to put me so firmly inside the head of a teen feeling that very same way. Ultimately, I made it through the book, not only because I was compelled to find out what happened, but also because of the humanity of Pfeffer's characters.
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Thu 05 Aug 2010 04:07:46 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:07:46 -0500
I appreciate Lynn Rutan's question--is there futuristic fiction that isn't dystopian?--and the challenge to come up with titles to fulfill that desire that some teens are expressing.
I can think of a few funny books about the future. While they still cast a dystopian, or at least sobering, light on what is to come, the humor can make that light less depressing, and therefore the books perhaps a bit more emotionally accessible for some readers. Here are titles that come to mind:
Rash by Pete Hautman Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman Feed (already mentioned) by M.T. Anderson
On a different note, Lynn mentioned Susan Beth Pfeffer's trilogy that begin with "Life As We Knew It." I remember reading "Life" and having to put it down several times because I (as an adult) was so overwhelmed by the sense of doom in the story, which is told from the point of view of a teenage girl who goes from fairly shallow to full-out survival mode over the course of the novel. I don't see that as a negative, it was just a fact of my experience as a reader. I admire the book very much, and admired the author's ability to put me so firmly inside the head of a teen feeling that very same way. Ultimately, I made it through the book, not only because I was compelled to find out what happened, but also because of the humanity of Pfeffer's characters.
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Thu 05 Aug 2010 04:07:46 PM CDT
