Young Adult Fiction: A Definition...maybe...

[Source]

So, after thinking about the NPR poll yesterday and thinking more and more about a] our societies' current obsession with YA fiction and b] how NPR's reply to their poll just muddied the water considerably I thought I'd put in writing what makes YA fiction what it is. And, yes, for the sake of teacher's everywhere, it really does need to be a little more scientific than what NPR has given us.

First, how NPR classifies YA Lit

1. We don't care if it's adult literature, if a teen reads it than we can call it YA fiction, unless we didn't want to...see #5.
2. Young Adult means ages 12 to 18.
3. A book where the publisher says it's for ages '8 and up' or '10 and up' is automatically Children's lit, except, um, see #4.
4. If a book has won a Newbery Award it's too young...um, unless, our judges said it wasn't too young.
5. Books we deem 'rites of passage' should be consider YA even if we deem them too young (The Last Unicorn) or not intended for young adults to begin with (The Lord of the Rings, Dune, The Catcher in the Rye. Did Salinger really mean for his book to be for adults? I'll have to Google that later.)
6. If a book was meant for a teen audience and it has too many adult themes we didn't add it too the list (their examples: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Ender's Game...I guess they forgot all about how Tom Robinson was accused of rape, oh, not to mention the abuse aspect, in To Kill A Mockingbird and that The Hunger Games is set in a future society where 24 kids are forced to kill each other, in pretty gruesome fashion, until there is only one and the reason isn't survival, but domination in a post-apocalyptic/dystopic society)

Some NPR commenter highlights

(at the time of writing this blog post there are 54 comments)

• There should be a list of Middle Grade books.
• Where is Michael Cadnum, manga, Steampunk, Mark Twain, Scott O'Dell, Norma Klein, Cleavers, Jean Little, gender and ethnic diversity, All the Pretty Horses, Out of the Dust, Pride and Prejudice, Science Fiction like Heinlein, ERB, Moorcock, Baroness Orczy, Neil Gaiman, Alexander, McKillip?
• Do kids really like Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, The Chocolate War, A Separate Peace, and other 'classics' anymore? Read my answer to what I feel teacher's should be doing about this here.
• Why are some of the books so new?
• NPR you're being a little contradictory: Yes to LotR as being a rite of passage, but no to Pride and Prejudice? Yes to Catcher in the Rye, but no to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Go Ask Alice isn't too mature? Yes to Twilight and The Hunger Games, but no to Ender's Game? If A Wrinkle in Time is too young so is Tuck Everlasting. 
• Thanks for the variety of genre and age ranges within the YA spectrum and for accounting for all taste...(I think somebody even used the words 'precious gems'). Thanks for your efforts.
• Remember this is a poll of readers.
• The fundamental question was flawed: Was I supposed to be selecting books I read and loved as a young adult? Was I supposed to only be selecting YA books? What is YA? Was I supposed to select books that make you 'well-educated' or are deemed 'classics'? Did I have to actually have read them all or just the ones I voted for? How was I suppose to choose only 10? (I can tell you I picked 10 books that I definitely read that I know moved teenagers in some fashion)
• How did Betsy-Tacy get in?
• Judges shouldn't use personal feelings to determine readership.

A recap of a brief discussion in Young Adult Book-Content Advisory

• Children's and YA should be separate
• Why do bookstores, publishers and librarians get to say what is Children's, YA or Adult?
• YA needs a rating system
• YA should mean 17-25
• An interview with Isaac Marion

My categories...based on Wikipedia, this article, my own brain and a post. These are followed by my 'two-cents', for what it's worth
(this can be found in the above discussion, as well)

There are actually three classifications

Children's
Age: 0-8

Description:
Picture books, early reader books, very simple language, use large print, and have many illustrations

Examples:
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales,
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales,Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,Skippy Jon Jones Collection,Chicken Little

Middle Grade 
Age: 9-12

Description:
1. Middle grade novels tend to be shorter. (Though not always—the huge and intimidating Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is middle grade, while Angela Johnson’s brief-as-a-vivid-dream The First Part Last is quite clearly teen.)
2. Middle grade novels tend to have main characters who are the age of—or slightly older than—the target reader. (Though this, too, isn’t hard and fast: The girls in The Witch Family are younger than the reader who can fully appreciate the story, and even characters such as Mr. Putter or Frog and Toad are for all intents middle-aged.)
3. Middle grade novels tend to be more outwardly focused: Their plot of events, of things happening to the character, is more important over the course of the book than what happens within the character. (Though that matters very much to the climax of the book, when the outward events trigger an inner change.)
4. Middle grade novels tend to have a simpler vocabulary and a simpler sentence structure.
Middle grade novels tend to have a single inciting element—the thing that sets the comfortable, given world a-kilter.

Examples:
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset,Charlotte's Web,
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the whole series)


Young Adult/Teen
Age: 13-up

Description:
1. Teen novels tend to have a wider vocabulary and a more complex sentence structure.
2. Teen novels tend to give as much weight to the interior mechanics of character dilemma and change as to the outward mechanics of plot and event. That is, how a character feels about what is happening is as important as what is happening.
3. Teen novels tend to be less a simple-upsetting-of-a-status-quo (the world as it the reader knows it) and more the realization that the world is more complex than we suspected as children. (Its mysteries are legion.)
4. Teen novels tend to be longer and more demanding of the reader.

Examples:
Twenty Boy Summer,Divergent (whole series),Twilight (whole series)

I find it interesting that these descriptions don't really, directly encompass the amount of sex, cussing, violence et cetera in each book. However, I really didn't think much about it until I read The Hunger Games series. As an adult reader I could tell that I wasn't the target audience, I could also tell that most high schoolers (while they like the books) would find it any easy read, below their reading levels and easy to figure out. I truly had a problem with the amount of violence in those books. I'm not arguing with the tag of middle grade...mostly I'm arguing with myself about whether I would let my kid read those books or not. I've come to the conclusion that I would let her read anything that she was prepared (maturity etc.) to read. 

This is why classifying books in any other way, but the broad strokes above would be so tricky, as subjective attitudes, personal mores and our own morality come into play when wanting to classify books. I am positive that using our personal ideals is fine on a personal level at home, but on a broader level if we, as parents/adults/teachers, use these classifications to determine readership we are doing a subtle form of censorship, as what one person believes on a personal level is totally different than what another person believes.

It is no longer the day where a parent can just grab a book on a shelf, like the cover and let their kid read it. If we want to help our kids make appropriate (according to us) discussion we have to read the book too and not leave the determination in the hands of bookstores, libraries or teachers (as I promise I've been burned a time or two by 'letting' my students read a book that seemed just fine for a 15/16 year old to read). 

And, finally, it would seem to me that book stores and libraries and teachers that do not use these three distinctions are behind in the times and doing everyone a disservice, especially themselves.

A plea to adults everywhere
Read YA Fiction all you want, but leave its plots, themes and expectations in the hands of its appropriate readers; the youth it was intended to propel into reading in the first place. Do I think the Twilight Saga blows chunks? My adult brain says, "Yes" while simultaneously harboring an inappropriate crush on a certain undead vampire. Really, it's perfect YA lit and if we're lucky Twilight readers will find Sookie Stackhouse and then Anne Rice and, finally, the ultimate in vampire literature Dracula (yes, I feel vamp lit has a hierarchy. Heck! I believe all genres have hierarchies). We have to give those reader's time to grow and mature. Let's not impose our adult brains on what teens read either. There are some adult books that truly speak to the growth and maturity of youth, and it's OK that teens read them, but let's not call those books YA just because they do. And, in that same respect, we can read teen lit all we want, but let's not commandeer it as our own, OK?!

"Naked male insecurity really leaves me cold..." or Welcome to Modern Times Cowboys

The other day I watched (as I'm sure many of you did) as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader (Melissa Kellerman) got pummeled by a football player. I thought it was hilarious, handled well and reminded me of being a cheerleader many years ago getting knocked over by basketballs and players alike. 


I sighed, I laughed, I moved on to more stuffing and pumpkin pie...and, then I saw this:

Click on image to be taken to link

My journalism teacher nose smelled a story and did a little research, in fact the Twitter feed that Chase refers to no longer exist, my blogger brain responded...first I posted this onto my Twitter feed, I did the same for my Facebook account and I emailed it to a couple of friends.


I think that Mr. Chase brings up a couple of points that should definitely be addressed, especially when it comes to the use of social media.

1] Timing is everything.

To get a good news story, you really must be in tune to the way the world works, and that means you must be on Twitter and that means you must use social media sites to your advantage. Minneapolis journalist Jason DeRusha (@DeRushaJ) talked about this in a break-out session I attended at the JEA/NSPA Fall Convention in Minneapolis (#hsjMN) last week. His story was about the fact that WCCO got an exclusive interview with family all from a simple question he tweeted about an unidentified hit and run victim. 


In today's world journalist don't have to do much research to find a story, they just have to be plugged in and willing to communicate. I mean look, somebody took a screenshot of Kellerman's tweets and it just took the proper eye and the proper angle to make this into a story. She still gets her 15 minutes and The Cowboys image takes a beating; I hear it's already taken several and could have used the positive spin.

2] In this day and age you can't really silence anyone.

Jerry Jones and others in charge of The Cowboys. "Welcome to modern times." Forcing someone to delete and/or not be allowed to do [fill in the blank] just makes someone else pick up the torch. It takes something small and innocuous and turns it into a rally cry and a cause that can be seen and heard by millions forever. As Chase says, "This should have been a win-win for everyone involved. Witten looked chivalrous when he helped up Kellerman, she became endearing with her laughter and positive attitude. Both the franchise and the cheerleaders looked good after this. Now, only Kellerman does."

And, just look at what the Twitter collective is saying #MelissaRae or @MelissaRae to read all of them. My favorite being "She did nothing wrong...FREE #MelissaRae", 23 more Tweets about this girl, popped up as I typed this.

3] Today's media frowns upon hypocrisy.

I've been looking all over the Dallas Cowboys and Cheerleader sites trying to find where it says that Cheerleaders can't have social media accounts. I found some interesting rules about how they store our information, a rule about drinking in uniform that I still find amusing, and some interesting facts about Melissa Kellerman, but no rules about social media. Chase points out, "Do the Cowboys believe cheerleaders are only to be seen, not heard? Hardly. The team allows cameras to record cheerleader auditions for a reality show on CMT. It's alright when the team controls the message but not when a cheerleader begins to get a following and has the stage to herself?"

OK, so I'm not sure how Darren Rovell got wind of the account being deleted in the first place, and, even if Kellerman leaked the story herself, I'm not sure I care. It's a story that needs to be heard. I just hope that this four year Cowboy cheerleader stills makes the cut if she tries out for a 5th season.


______________________  


Oh, and the quote in the title of this post comes from "The Cutting Edge", one of my favorite movies of all time. It's the New Year's Eve part where Doug and Hale are subtly fighting over Kate by puffing up, trying to prove who's better at what. Watch that scene closely, while it seems the fiance, Hale, wins, as he's the one who leaves with the girl. It's the guy quietly laughing, who gets her in the end. I think there's a lesson there...

Banned Book Week...a teachers' perspective

Over the summer one of my former students posted a newspaper article on my facebook page. It detailed three books that were being banned in a high school near by and she asked if I would write about it. I couldn't and still can't as I have not read the three books (Speak, Twenty Boy Summer and Slaughter-house Five), but I can write about what I feel banning a book at the high school level can mean and I can do that on a personal level.

Every year I give a choice fiction assignment in my honors class, with this assignment I give a list, but I also give a warning, please see below:

Last year I had two parents complain about the assignment because I gave a list of books that they felt were OK for their children to read as their teacher had approved the book in a list. After looking over the books, they didn't understand how I could let their kids read such filth. Now, both of these complaints happened at the end of the unit, after all projects had been assessed and it was May...in essence, shy of exempting the students from the work, there was nothing I could do.

My principal asked me: Would you allow your child to read [he read a part from the book that I'm leaving out only because I don't want people who I know telling the parent that I'm talking about the book]?

My answer: I read that book in high school, I'm not sure now that my mother knows I read it and I'm not sure that she cares I've always been allowed to make my own choices, which is amazing considering how devout my mother is, but there you go.

I didn't want to get rid of the project, the students grades or the ability to let the kids choose what they wanted to read. My principal wanted to make sure that parents understood that books might be questionable. I wanted to make sure that parents could be held accountable for guidelines and papers I give their children to take home.

After another debacle, which occurred during the summer (because it wasn't me, I won't go into detail), we've created the following for the whole department to use:

We'll see if it works...

I'm all for letting my students' parents determine what they read. However, I definitely don't want to be that person...ever...reading creates free thought and I mean all kind of reading, especially the unbridled kind. I remember when I was in high school one of my friends only read romance novels, I mean dirty, making me blush just thinking about it, romance novels and we would tease her about this fact. One day my teacher (and, this was in the world's smallest town in the early 90s) said, "Don't knock what she reads, they're dense, complex, historical and she's reading!"

Over the years, we've had to have alternate assignments for The Crucible (John Proctor says, "God is dead!", of course people don't read the whole play to see why he's saying it or to think about how it's actually promoting the idea of the true Christian, not the hypcritical Christians of Salem), Of Mice and Men (too much cussing, and new for this year, because it is derogatory towards those who are mentally-challenged) and many others. I don't mind having alternate assignments, what you do in your home and how you want to raise your kids is truly not any of my business and, I can find an alternate for pretty much all of the books, short stories et cetera that we read in class. I do mind removing a book from the curriculum or the shelf just because of the mores of a few.

Once we start banning books and censoring their product where does it stop? Whose voice gets to be the loudest? What ideals get to be the strongest?

A List (25 Banned book that I love)
I'm not going to tell you why they're banned...read them just because they're good, not because they're salacious.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
3. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
4. Forever by Judy Blume
5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
7. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
8. Beloved by Toni Morrison
9. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
10. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
11. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
12. The Giver by Lois Lowry
13. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
14. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
15. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16.  Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
17. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
18. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
19. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
20. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
21. The Drowning of Stephan Jones by Bette Greene
22. Maurice by E. M. Forster
23. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
24. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
25. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Some great blogpost
Lesson 24: Books Are Made for Reading & Hiding Girlie Mags in Class
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
I Read Banned Books
Why Banned Books Week Matters
Banned Books in the United States
Still Beating That Old Dead Horse About Censorship

The Most Dangerous Word

"There is more than one way to burn a book.
And the world is full of people running about with lit matches."

~Ray Bradbury

                 Race is a sensitive issue. When questions about the African-American/Black/Colored race arise I either a) ignore them, I dislike when people assume I am a spokesperson for something just because I happen to resemble that something (this includes

matters of race, social class, religion, occupation et cetera) or b) try to answer as honestly as possible and can only do so from personal experience.
            I also try not to give words power by treating certain words like they make or break my life, conversation and my view of people and situations. I know that every word has its time and place. This, of course, excludes the use of the f-word around my daughter (she's at that stage where she repeats everything she hears...just ask her father, who is no longer allowed to play GTA IV while she is awake!) and the n-word.
            Sad to say, the f-word has stuntedly and awkwardly come out of my mouth before, followed by profuse apologies, but I can't even say the n-word. I dislike when people use it even in fun with friends. I visibly cringe when I hear it and I don't like reading it. Like any other person who's part of a minority, I have had my own experiences with ignorance and derogatory words, especially this one.
            The book that helped me to understand this word and its power, is Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. I suggest reading it. In it I learned what I suppose I always knew, the n-word, like any other powerful word, has good connotations (I have even experienced some of these), multiple definitions, a troublesome past and a permanence in the lexicon of the history of the human race.
            While there are words I hate and games I say my husband shouldn't play in front of my kiddo, I do not believe in censorship of any kind and I'm not sure that replacing the 'n-word' with 'slave' in the seminal South/Southwest regionalist novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, so those offended (especially schools who ban it) will read/buy it, isn't some form of it.
             I am positive this does not contradict my feelings. Not liking something and removing it from existence are two very different concepts.
             The town in which I teach has a population of 12, 155 (2000 census); 95.99% of which is white (according to the same census) and yet, this book (in its non-altered state) is part of the Freshman English curriculum. We believe that when that book is taught, not just read, taught...it is life changing. I didn't realize we were so progressive.
             If we take the n-word out of the novel Huck Finn, if we allow those schools who censor the novel to win...we allow a form of laziness that only exist in 'Stoner Movies'. Instead of fixing something to where it's "appropriate" (and, what is appropriate? who decides?) enough for the sensitive and inane, why don't we just teach the reasons why the word is there in the first place? Why don't we just have conversations and dialogue? We can assume the public understands that when we take any word out of any book we create negative history revisionism, we start something that, in 100 years, we won't be able to stop, (read Fahrenheit 451 or at least Bradbury's Coda if you don't understand what I'm talking about) and we give that word more power than it deserves.
             It is, after all, about time and place, right?