(no subject)
I had an awesome patron-tutoring session this week. The patron wanted to learn basic Internet use skills and we started with trying to set up an email account for her. That didn't work since she didn't have her cell phone with her (for the verification code). So next we went to Foodnetwork.com and she printed out several recipes that she'd had her eye on. Lastly, she wanted to set up a Facebook account, which was a no go since she didn't get an email account. However, what she specifically wanted to do was see her granddaughters Facebook. Her G.D. is on a two year mission trip to Sierra Leone, helping to build wells. I suggested we just do a Google search on her G.D. and lo and behold -- we found a blog! My patron just sat there enchanted as she read through her G.D.'s adventures and thoughts on said adventures. It was so rewarding for me. The patron kept saying, "I had no idea today when I came here that I would be able to see this! I'm so happy." It was a beautiful experience, and really reaffirmed my convictions that--despite the low pay--I am in the right career for me. What will be perfect is when I can figure out how to make this lucrative. Then Tina will live happily ever after.
Lately I've read several books that have a very distinctive pattern--they take place in a dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic world. Something, usually a virus, has wiped out the adult population or mutated them. Therefore, we have kids ages 16 and under fighting against the adults. Now, this technique of writing YA/JUV fiction without supervising adults his a time-honored tradition. It may have started off with children wandering into magical lands--Narnia or Oz-- and then morphed into children surviving in the real world without adult help -- the Boxcar children or My Side of the Mountain. But now we see a very different spin on that tradition. Not only are there no supervising adults, but the children have to actively fight against, and in most version of the story, brutally kill, the adults. It's a very interesting phenomenon. Often times scholar point out that the reason dystopian and zombie books are popular with kids is because they speak to the uncertainty of a kid's life as well the uncertainty of our times (economic collapse, terrorism). So, does this mean that if kids are killing adults, this means kids blame adults for the mess we are in? And really, who else to blame? Some of the books flat out say (within in the context of dialogue), "We're better off without the adults, they are the ones who got us into this situation in the first place." Of course, these books are all written by adults as well, so that's telling in and of itself.
If you're interested, here are the books I'm specifically thinking of:
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa -- vampires/zombies/dystopian
The Enemy by Charlie Higson -- zombies/post-apocalyptic
Starters by Lissa Price -- post-apocalyptic/virus wipes out all adults between ages of 16 and 70
Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano -- dystopian/virus wipes out all adults between ages 16 and 70/polygamy
Lately I've read several books that have a very distinctive pattern--they take place in a dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic world. Something, usually a virus, has wiped out the adult population or mutated them. Therefore, we have kids ages 16 and under fighting against the adults. Now, this technique of writing YA/JUV fiction without supervising adults his a time-honored tradition. It may have started off with children wandering into magical lands--Narnia or Oz-- and then morphed into children surviving in the real world without adult help -- the Boxcar children or My Side of the Mountain. But now we see a very different spin on that tradition. Not only are there no supervising adults, but the children have to actively fight against, and in most version of the story, brutally kill, the adults. It's a very interesting phenomenon. Often times scholar point out that the reason dystopian and zombie books are popular with kids is because they speak to the uncertainty of a kid's life as well the uncertainty of our times (economic collapse, terrorism). So, does this mean that if kids are killing adults, this means kids blame adults for the mess we are in? And really, who else to blame? Some of the books flat out say (within in the context of dialogue), "We're better off without the adults, they are the ones who got us into this situation in the first place." Of course, these books are all written by adults as well, so that's telling in and of itself.
If you're interested, here are the books I'm specifically thinking of:
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa -- vampires/zombies/dystopian
The Enemy by Charlie Higson -- zombies/post-apocalyptic
Starters by Lissa Price -- post-apocalyptic/virus wipes out all adults between ages of 16 and 70
Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano -- dystopian/virus wipes out all adults between ages 16 and 70/polygamy