What makes a good book for middle graders and teens
The topic of last night's panel at Moravian College was "what makes a good book for middle graders and teens."
I am not sure that question was answered, in part because I'm not sure there's any one correct answer. I will tell you that I think the answer is, in part, well-written books with engaging characters who deal with real issues, written by authors who are not afraid to be honest with their readers, and who respect the intelligence of their readers. I offered 5 middle grade titles, and 5 YA titles, as terrific examples of this.
Middle Grade
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
RULES by Cynthia Lord
Young Adult
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
How to Get Suspended and Influence People by Adam Selzer
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend by Carrie Jones
Your Own, Sylvia: a verse portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephenie Hemphill
Others on the panel talked about specific titles as well. The panel was composed of Ellen Mager, owner of Booktenders' Secret Garden Children's Bookstore and Gallery in Doylestown, Stephanie Anderson, children's & YA book buyer for the Moravian Bookstore, who is starting a YA Book Discussion Group akin to Books Inc.'s NYMBC, Melanie Fiske, Librarian and Director of Youth Services for the Bethlehem Public Library, me, and three teens who are members of the teen advisory panel for the library: Tiago Moura, Charlee Redman, and Amantha Bowen.
Amantha, Charlee & Tiago
I learned a lot from these three, and if Paul Acampora's class was paying attention, so did they. When asked to name favorite/best books, here's what they said: Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky -- unanimous among the three of them, hands-down favorite. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; Shakespeare -- any and all; all 7 Harry Potter books by JK Rowling; The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett; the two gilrs also really love Stephenie Meyer's books, beginning with Twilight (they characterize them as relationship stories, not vampire books, as do I). Note the absence of dreck on this list, and the high quality of story in all of their choices (one can argue about the quality of the writing, I suppose, but I consider all of them high writing quality as well, angsty teen issues (Meyer) and adverbs (Rowling) notwithstanding). And not one of the authors mentioned talks down to their readers, or tries to bullshit them in any way (a character might, but the author does not).
Toward the end of the panel session, Paul asked us each to relate a favorite scene from a book and say why it stuck with you. I can't recall which book Tiago's scene was from, but the scene that stuck with him was a scene where the character came to the realization that life is precious, and was focused on truly living that moment. Charlee picked the concluding scene in Perks of Being a Wallflower, where Charlie is driving through the tunnel to Jim Thorpe with his two friends. When she stumbled momentarily over what the last letter in the book said, Tiago immediately jumped in: it was about being alive in that particular moment. Amantha picked a scene from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, where Jem has to go and read to Mrs. Dubose for community service. The woman is extremely racist, and Jem can't stand her. But he comes to realize that she is old and sick and "still deserves consideration."
The scenes that Tiago, Charlee and Amantha picked are not always the busiest, most iconic scenes in the books. In some ways, the scenes that they picked that stayed with them and seemed exemplary are the smaller, quieter moments, where the ideas of connection and interconnectedness come through. My conclusion is that this is true of most people -- the scene that I mentioned when I waved RULES around was the running scene (if you've read the book, you've seen the scene play out in your mind as if you've watched a movie -- if you haven't read the book, then drop everything and go get it). Connection to life and interconnectedness and joy shine through that scene. I wasn't allowed to pick that scene later (Paul loves that scene too, btw), so I picked my favorite scene from Prisoner of Azkaban
The particular scene is played twice. The first time, Harry tries to save himself and Sirius from dementors with a patronus, but fails -- yet one comes charging across the lake, and Harry dimly sees the creator -- he thinks it's his father. In the second scene, Harry has gone back in time with Hermione through use of a Time Turner. He is across the lake from his earlier self, watching the dementors advance on him and Sirius, and he's waiting for his father to turn up. At the last possible moment, Harry realizes that it was himself he saw, and not his father, and he generates the most powerful patronus he's ever managed, in the form of a stag -- the same animal form his actual father had assumed when he was an Animagus.
This scene makes me cry every time I read the books (6 and counting). In fact, I'm crying now writing about it, and I got choked up while talking about it last night. It is not full of joy -- in fact, it is bittersweet -- but it is both a connection to life and a depiction of interconnectedness.
Paul Acampora and me
When Paul asked me to do the panel, he apologized that he had no budget for it, and therefore wouldn't be able to pay me. I believe I'll accept the two bottles of water and the benefit of hearing from Amantha, Charlee and Tiago in fair trade.
For today, I'm hoping to get some of my own writing done. And I'm interested to hear what your stand-out scenes are, and hoping we can all take one giant step back from them to analyze what it is about them that makes them stick.