Keeping It Real in Teen Lit

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Ok, so it’s not realism, but it’s real cool.  A teenager who read my copy returned it…and told me she spent her own money to buy the sequel.  For a teen to spend $$$ on book is always a REAL COOL thing!!!

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“Teen” Section or “Young Adult” Section

Does your library divide books?  One local library has a teen nook where you’ll find the teenage protagonists in books by Ellen Hopkins and John Green and Lauren Oliver.

Except for Leisl and Po, the Lauren Oliver book in the young adult section, a middle-grade novel about ghosts.  

The Hunger Games is dual-shelved.

Does your library do this?  

Teen Realism in the Newbery?!?

So, I just finished the most recent Newbery Winner.  Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos.  One of his other books, Hole in My Life, is  a huge hit with the teens in my life, mostly because it includes tons of drug references and a run-in with the police (there is jail, too, always a bonus).  Copies of that book disappear from my classroom like Amelia over the Bermuda Triangle, but this book wouldn’t have been one that I would normally choose for teens.  Couple of reasons:

First of all, it won a Newbery.  That’s often the kiss of death for books.  I’ve read a bunch of them.  (Read Sails to Capri was pretty good, but Secret of the Andes, really!?!?!?)  Boring, historical, loftily written and inaccessible, not so good for realism fans.

Second, the protagonist is twelve.  Way too young to take risks, defy parents, or get in trouble with the law.  However, all that does happen, and skillfully.  The writing is pretty tight, the concept is advanced through the funny writing of obituaries, and the educational value of all that history hidden under layers of interesting plot.  Which leads me to my evaluation…

I am going to buy this one for my teen readers.  I really enjoyed the book - and the ending was so sweetly satisfying!  A really impressive study in denouement and resolution, so BRAVO Jack Gantos. The characters are fun, even if I wish his baseball-playing friend hadn’t dropped off in the middle.  The plot is engaging.  The sense of place is strong.

Yet here’s the rub for me….I think this could have been  teen book.  This could have been a book about a 15 year old instead of a pre-teen.  The same plot, the same driving-without-a-license rebellion, the same sentence to a summer of work (it is 1962 after all).  So, the cynic in me feels a bit frustrated.  I wonder, did some editorial team (or the author himself) work this into a Newbery-aged book in an effort to get the award?  

Because we all know (or, at least, I’ve heard) that the Newbery sells books.

The Printz, not so much. 

Lesson learned: write a book for middle grade, include recent history for educational value, and ensure romance doesn’t tarnish its ability to engage the conservative reader, and you’re golden.  The formula is pretty simple.

Course, you still need to be a great writer…

Book being passed around this week…

No More Us For You by David Hernandez.  I love that Carlos is addicted to licorice…

Don’t you hate it when…

Isn’t it the hardest thing to be waiting for someone to get to the really good part of a novel?  You know, waiting until they read that part that makes you want to scream, that part that makes you want to shout words your mother doesn’t like, that part that rips the heart into ticker tape confetti!??! 

It’s so hard to read next to someone who is sipping The Fault in our Stars like it s a really expensive wine….

When it’s over, we’ll discuss it over a real glass of something in stemmed glasses.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

So, this is pushing the “teen” envelope a little - it’s for a young teen audience - but it is realism at a nice, steady, almost-middle-school level.  It’s  a Newbery medalist, so it might be worth reading to see what that year’s committee was into, but I found it a little flat emotionally.

I wanted to like it more than I did. I can see the stark beauty of the desert, but the “my-guardian-wants-to-give-me-back-to-foster-care” emotions just didn’t flesh out for me.  Instead, her doubt of  her French foster mom didn’t feel genuine or substantiated. Nice windstorm, though. I always love a good weather pattern in a book!

Soundtrack to Realism

While I am using YouTube as my personal DJ, I think….

Wouldn’t it be cool if books came with soundtracks? 

What would be on the soundtrack to The Fault in our Stars?  

The Mockingbirds?

Beauty Queens?

(ok, I admit I’m crossing a bit of my genre boundary, but still….)

Realism as Feminism

Forget choosing between vampire or wolf.  The best way to encourage women to be strong and powerful is through real-life stories that show them how to get through what they are *really* facing.  Perhaps it doesn’t matter your age, but I have the sense that young women in particular need real role models for getting through difficulty.  

So check out The Mockinbirds by Daisy Whitney.  And check out my review when I post it later.  Her writing is nowhere near as tight as the best (John Green, etc) but worth a look!

Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles

Wow. Impressive character study. Very well-written, and though it feels mostly like a character piece the plot is very nicely paced, building up to a focused and intense conclusion. A must-read, but not for everyone. Serious subject matter best presented to a liberal and thoughtful audience (readers like me!).  Another example of some of the best realism in contemporary teen fiction.  Teens are complex, and so are power dynamics between peers.  This book won’t let you off easy, and for that, it’s earned a place on my shelves.