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Lessons in YA Literature
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:17:29 -0500
Ed Sullivan wrote:
"When Lisa Belkin says young adult novels "should teach a lesson," she is saying stories can only be "good" if they impart some kind of moral wisdom upon the reader. That is an assumption unfortunately held by many people, typically by those who know little about YA literature and who have no understanding of why people of all ages are motivated to read stories. Such an assumption greatly diminishes the power and value of story."
I agree completely, Ed. I'll add that I think it's also an assumption made by people who do not have a lot of experience seeing how teens (and children) respond to books. I think adults in this position--of not interacting with young readers--too often discredit young readers' abilities in so many ways, making a lot of incorrect assumptions about young readers (as well as y.a. books) in the process. They assume kids will take everything literally. They assume kids are suggestible in ways that make no sense (as you state). The assume they don't get fact vs. fiction, or can't make sense of nuanced explorations of a topic or idea. They get upset about something in a book--violence or sex or language--and if the book doesn't explicitly condemn those actions at some point see it as a failure--they think readers need that explicit condemnation to understand that something is "bad." In short, they think kids need everything spelled out for them.
So not only do I wish people who think y.a. novels should teach lessons or moralize or instruct would read more y.a. literature, but I wish they would spend more time talking to adolescent readers, or reading what they have to say in online forums, about the books they are reading.
In telling a good story the best y.a. fiction excels at giving readers something (or multiple somethings) to think about: not by spelling it out for them, but by offering them honest explorations of human experiences (and of course that honesty can be just as profound in a work of fantasy or science and speculative fiction as realistic or historical fiction).
A book I keep thinking about as I write this is Pete Hautman's "How to Steal a Car" (Scholastic Press, 2009), about a teenage girl who starts stealing cars. Stealing cars for her own satisfaction, and later in an alliance with a boy who is part of an established car theft operation, becomes one area of her life over which Kelleigh --a suburban, upper middle class teen--exerts total control while so much else feels out of control for her. It's an unpredictable novel in which Kelleigh is neither caught nor punished. Hautman raises questions of morality and ethics while avoiding any hint of didacticism, leaving the final analysis of Kelleigh's choices to the reader.
Hautman, like so many other terrific y.a. authors, gives full credit to teens for being able to read, think, and draw their own conclusions.
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 Fri 19 Aug 2011 08:17:29 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:17:29 -0500
Ed Sullivan wrote:
"When Lisa Belkin says young adult novels "should teach a lesson," she is saying stories can only be "good" if they impart some kind of moral wisdom upon the reader. That is an assumption unfortunately held by many people, typically by those who know little about YA literature and who have no understanding of why people of all ages are motivated to read stories. Such an assumption greatly diminishes the power and value of story."
I agree completely, Ed. I'll add that I think it's also an assumption made by people who do not have a lot of experience seeing how teens (and children) respond to books. I think adults in this position--of not interacting with young readers--too often discredit young readers' abilities in so many ways, making a lot of incorrect assumptions about young readers (as well as y.a. books) in the process. They assume kids will take everything literally. They assume kids are suggestible in ways that make no sense (as you state). The assume they don't get fact vs. fiction, or can't make sense of nuanced explorations of a topic or idea. They get upset about something in a book--violence or sex or language--and if the book doesn't explicitly condemn those actions at some point see it as a failure--they think readers need that explicit condemnation to understand that something is "bad." In short, they think kids need everything spelled out for them.
So not only do I wish people who think y.a. novels should teach lessons or moralize or instruct would read more y.a. literature, but I wish they would spend more time talking to adolescent readers, or reading what they have to say in online forums, about the books they are reading.
In telling a good story the best y.a. fiction excels at giving readers something (or multiple somethings) to think about: not by spelling it out for them, but by offering them honest explorations of human experiences (and of course that honesty can be just as profound in a work of fantasy or science and speculative fiction as realistic or historical fiction).
A book I keep thinking about as I write this is Pete Hautman's "How to Steal a Car" (Scholastic Press, 2009), about a teenage girl who starts stealing cars. Stealing cars for her own satisfaction, and later in an alliance with a boy who is part of an established car theft operation, becomes one area of her life over which Kelleigh --a suburban, upper middle class teen--exerts total control while so much else feels out of control for her. It's an unpredictable novel in which Kelleigh is neither caught nor punished. Hautman raises questions of morality and ethics while avoiding any hint of didacticism, leaving the final analysis of Kelleigh's choices to the reader.
Hautman, like so many other terrific y.a. authors, gives full credit to teens for being able to read, think, and draw their own conclusions.
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 Fri 19 Aug 2011 08:17:29 AM CDT
