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Re: Narrative and Information
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:43:05 -0400 (EDT)
It is no less important to engage middle and high school students than it i s to do the same for younger kids. But there are some differences. Older ki ds know more -- in two senses: they have more bits of information about the world, and they know more about themselves. In a YA novel the author may u se an unreliable narrator, or a morally ambiguous main character, or a plot that does not end happily, or may experiment with style by, say, writing i n verse or having alternating narrators with different points of view. She can take these literary risks because she understands that her readers have read many other books, and also know themselves to be unreliable, morally ambiguous, living amidst conflicting narratives, etc. As we write fnonficti on or older readers we have the same ground to work with -- so Susan Bartol etti writes about Hitler Youth, or James Giblin about Hitler himself, or St eve Sheinkin and Jim Murphy on Benedict Arnold (and I can write about J. Ed gar Hoover). We can go further and darke r. But we are all also intensely co nscious of the need for illustrations and the appropriate design -- in fact , in some sense the design ante is raised because we very rarely get to use color - and if we do, as in some of Tanya Stone's books, it is to delibera te and powerful effect. So in Betsy Partridge's books black and white reads as a design feature not an unfortunate restriction. So we appeal by a leve l of complexity in thought and approach that we think matches our readers, and design and art that is meant to make the book an immersive experience. And if one key aim of books in the elementary grades is to excite readers a bout inquiry and learning, in books for older kids we can hope to ignite th eir idealism and moral questioning -- inspire them to act in the world; if we care and can show it that shines through in the text -- as Philip Hoose did when he worked with Claudette Colvin to tell her story.
Surely there is much more to say here -- but this is a start.
Marc Aronson
Received on Thu 15 Mar 2012 04:43:05 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:43:05 -0400 (EDT)
It is no less important to engage middle and high school students than it i s to do the same for younger kids. But there are some differences. Older ki ds know more -- in two senses: they have more bits of information about the world, and they know more about themselves. In a YA novel the author may u se an unreliable narrator, or a morally ambiguous main character, or a plot that does not end happily, or may experiment with style by, say, writing i n verse or having alternating narrators with different points of view. She can take these literary risks because she understands that her readers have read many other books, and also know themselves to be unreliable, morally ambiguous, living amidst conflicting narratives, etc. As we write fnonficti on or older readers we have the same ground to work with -- so Susan Bartol etti writes about Hitler Youth, or James Giblin about Hitler himself, or St eve Sheinkin and Jim Murphy on Benedict Arnold (and I can write about J. Ed gar Hoover). We can go further and darke r. But we are all also intensely co nscious of the need for illustrations and the appropriate design -- in fact , in some sense the design ante is raised because we very rarely get to use color - and if we do, as in some of Tanya Stone's books, it is to delibera te and powerful effect. So in Betsy Partridge's books black and white reads as a design feature not an unfortunate restriction. So we appeal by a leve l of complexity in thought and approach that we think matches our readers, and design and art that is meant to make the book an immersive experience. And if one key aim of books in the elementary grades is to excite readers a bout inquiry and learning, in books for older kids we can hope to ignite th eir idealism and moral questioning -- inspire them to act in the world; if we care and can show it that shines through in the text -- as Philip Hoose did when he worked with Claudette Colvin to tell her story.
Surely there is much more to say here -- but this is a start.
Marc Aronson
Received on Thu 15 Mar 2012 04:43:05 PM CDT
