Posts Tagged middle-grade fiction

Are Changes in YA novels Changing MG books too?

By on October 18, 2013   /   Book Lists  

Although we usually focus on middle grade in this blog I want to take a moment to consider what shifts in YA publishing mean for younger readers. YA books are not like they were when I was growing up. They’re not even like they were five years ago. Here are some things that I think are impacting the content of books for teens.

  • Money

There have been a few book franchises that have out sold adult books by a mile which has attracted both media attention and writers who would not previously consider this genre.

  • Movies

Most of the big YA book franchises have gone to film, generating more money and also, I suspect, influencing the content of books that are expected to go to film. It’s one thing to write a book, and then as a completely separate enterprise, write a screenplay. I think it’s an entirely different thing to write a book when you know the movie deal is part of the package.

  • Romance

Most of the major romance novel publishers now have a YA imprint. This dramatically increases the number of teen books where romance is the main focus of the plot. However teen romance tends not to be shelved in a separate part of the library or bookstore, so many teens pick up a romance novel thinking they are going to get a YA novel with more substance and variety in plot themes than the typical romance novel. Also the publishing model for romance writers tends to be 2 or 3 novels a year. Some write as many as 4. Most people writing stand alone titles for young readers are not expected to write more than one book a year and many only publish a book every 3 or 4 years–a schedule which allows for careful research, mastery of craft, and artful editing and book production.

  • New Adult books

There is a new category of books for 18-24 year old readers in which the usual conventions of tamer sex, milder language, less intense violence, and upbeat endings don’t apply.  And many adults are reading YA novels not as teachers, librarians, and parents but as if they are written for their adult needs and issues. This has greatly expanded the readership and sales of YA but it has also tended to age up the content and loose sight of the younger end of YA readership.

So what does this all mean for the world of the MG reader. I had an interesting conversation with a person who has written many award winning YA novels. Her most recent is a great coming of age story in a gorgeous historical setting. She was asked in the editing process to make the main character 13 instead of 14 so that it could be marketed as MG fiction. Given the historical setting, a 1 year age difference didn’t affect the plot in the way it might if the character was in a modern school setting and had to be moved from high school to middle school, so she agreed. It works beautifully as a middle grade book. But here’s what bugs me. It works beautifully as a young adult book as well. The character is trying to enter a competitive profession. That’s really a teenage concern and not much of an issue for the 8-14 year olds. The character loves a girl and decides to spend the rest of his life with her. That is a clear candidate for YA, except they don’t have sex. They don’t even kiss. Given the historical period and the structure of the plot there isn’t really room for these kids to get together in a physical way. I think the book just wasn’t edgy enough for YA and so it got moved to MG.  All of which leads me to two questions.

  1. Are we seeing a move to “age up” MG fiction?
  2. What is out there for the transitional teen who is too mature for MG fiction but is not interested in the intensity of much of the new YA fiction?
  3. In short who is serving our tender-hearted readers?

bookJacket

I heard Jeanne Birdsall speak recently at Wordstock here in Portland, and she was passionate about not letting her Penderwick series become a movie precisely because they would age up the content and make more of the romance and more of the sisterly rivalry than the author intended. She was willing to pass up what I would assume is a substantial amount of money to defend her tender-hearted readers.

 

So dear readers, what do you think? Do you writers feel a pressure to age up your work? Do you librarians, teachers and parents find it hard to find books for your tender-hearted readers? Do you editors have trouble placing the more tender-hearted stories? Do you have a great MG title that would also work for teens? Leave your thoughts in the comments please!

 

Back to Top

I laughed. I cried. I read a book.

By on October 11, 2013   /   Book Lists  

Let’s be clear about one thing—I am not some blubbering mama’s boy who leaks tears like a 1949 VW Beetle leaks oil. I just happen to really like books that make me cry. Or at least ones that make me feel like I could cry if I wasn’t so busy being a manly man. Got it? Good.

And speaking of me being a manly man. . . . Let the record show that I greatly enjoy books that make me laugh, too. In fact, one of my goals in life is to absolutely, positively not become one of those old guys whose face is a bunch of permanent scowl marks. I’m gunning for a roadmap of laugh-lines.

Call me a goofball. Call me mentally unstable. But don’t call me overly serious.

Still, I do really like books that make me cry.

I guess it comes down to what Kurt Vonnegut once said:

All of fiction is a practical joke—making people care, laugh, cry, or be nauseated or whatever by something which absolutely is not going on at all. It’s like saying, “Hey, your pants are on fire.”

So maybe it’s too simple to say I like books that make me cry. I like books that make me feel. I want to be so wrapped up in the lie fiction created by the author that I care deeply about what happens to the characters. Unlike Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, I want to give a d**n.

So now, in no particular order, I offer five of my all-time-favorite-middle-grade novels. They all made me laugh. They all made me cry. And a couple even made me do both on the same page.

                                                                  Umbrella Summer        

Umbrella Summer

by Lisa Graff

Okay for Now

by Gary D. Schmidt

      Okay for Now

Walk Two Moons    

Walk Two Moons

by Sharon Creech

Every Soul a Star

by Wendy Mass

      Every Soul a Star

One for the Murphys    

One for the Murphys

by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

 

So what do you look for in a book? Got any laugh-and-cry titles I should add to my to-read shelf on Goodreads? Feel free to post below.

Back to Top

Oops!

By on October 9, 2013   /   Book Lists  

SHCOOL

I’m always on the lookout for middle-grade novels in which real, non-speculative, accurate science is integral to the story. When I find a new (to me) book that fits the bill, I’m eager to add it to my list and my presentation. I love a book that weaves science facts and concepts into the narrative, or one that uses science as a clever metaphor to echo the emotional content of a scene.

What I don’t love is when I’m pulled into the book with some beautiful science (yes, science is beautiful) and suddenly . . .

 slap_in_the_face-hi

 

. . . a glaring scientific error slaps me in the face. I’m tempted to throw the book across the room. (Unless it’s a library book, of course. We must take good care of library books.) And I sadly cross the title off of my list.

Some people may call me a stickler, but accuracy is important to me. I can’t help it. I spent a lot of years learning how to be a scientist, and mistakes are frowned upon in science. These days, I get paid to edit scientific manuscripts and I’m the one who’s supposed to catch the errors, so I read very carefully. Maybe that’s why I’m such a slow reader.

Is it just me? I surveyed some friends what they thought of errors in what they’re reading and here’s what they said. *Results are not scientific.

  • One typo is OK.
  • More than one or two typos could be an indication of sloppy editing.
  • One or two minor factual errors in fiction might be OK, but might lead the reader to believe the author has not done careful research.
  • Factual errors in nonfiction are more problematic and undermine the authority of the author.

But who am I to complain? You’d think that after multiple passes by me, my editor, and my copyeditor that there wouldn’t be any errors in my book. You’d be wrong. When the book was released, a nine-year-old boy noticed a typo–digit was missing in pi.

I hung my head in shame.

Then I discovered another error. This one was scientific (electrical potential, not current).

*dons dunce cap*

Dunce_cap_from_LOC_3c04163u

My publisher made the corrections for the second printing. Maybe those first printings will be valuable one day, like the Inverted Jenny stamp, with the upside-down plane.

 -USA_inverted_Jenny_siegal_nov_07_$977,500_

Maybe not.

Perhaps I’m being too hard on myself, and on other authors. Everyone makes mistakes, right? There are web pages (like this one and this one) devoted to the errors in the Harry Potter books. Those errors didn’t make readers love the books any less.

And scientists like Neil Degrasse Tyson and Phil Plait have listed numerous scientific errors in the new film, Gravity, but they both loved the movie.

In an ideal world, all books would be error-free. But they aren’t. Maybe we can see scientific errors as learning (or teaching) opportunities. Kids love to find mistakes that authors make. If you give a kid a book that you know has a scientific error in it, that kid will dig in to find it, and may find more errors, or may do some research to find out more about the subject. That can’t be a bad thing.

I’ve decided that if the rest of the book is well-written and engaging, and the majority of the science is accurate, I will hold my nose and add a book with an error to my list.

What about you? What kind of errors will you tolerate? How many typos are too many? How far can a story stray from scientific or historical truth for you to stop reading?

 

Jacqueline Houtman‘s debut middle-grade novel is called The Reinvention of Edison Thomas. She believes all the errors have been corrected, but you are free to look for more. If you know of middle-grade books that should be added to her list, let her know!

Back to Top