When I was a kid, Catcher in the Rye was still forbidden in schools, though not with the intensity of the previous generation. I remember checking it out and taking it to the beach as my afternoon read when I was 13. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't a long-winded, whiny, incredibly boring egomaniac, and I was so disappointed I finally ( Read more... )

The vexed subject of what's appropriate for kids to read has come up a lot here. I didn't know until shewhomust posted this morning that there is an organized movement against the age-banding of books.
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Reminder first, there's a month left for submission of stories to the Coyote Wild Young Adult Issue in August.

Justine Larbalestier has posted twice about how young adult sales are up (see top post, and one below) and speculated on why.
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I made a mental note a couple of weeks ago that if I saw another whack or squee about Meyer's vampires and their princess, I'd put up a discussion topic. I may have even mentioned this elsewhere, because I have a vague memory of a follow-up comments saying oh lets!
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janni (whose Secret of the Three Treasures* is one of my favorite recent middle-grade books, and whose upcoming Bones of Faerie I am looking forward to, rants reasonably here about authors who don't read YA but rant unreasonably about what YA's "should" read, or what "values" YA novels "should" include ( Read more... )

Anent the earlier discussion about reviews, here's Justine Larbalestier about being accused of writing edge for the sake of shock ( Read more... )

. . .in reviews. cedarlibrarian articulated exactly the problems I had with a riff from a group that otherwise I really enjoy.

Especially about "It has an important message."

What kid goes cruising the shelves looking for books "with an important message"? Far too many kids opt out of reading because their reading seems to feature the hammer of Important ( Read more... )

What about moral messages in kids' or YA stories? Are they actually organic to our traditional story structures? Do most kids notice, appreciate, or resent them? Any well-taken (or cautionary) examples from famous SF or fantasy? If "Obey authority" isn't to your taste, is "Think for yourself" still a bit bitter on the tongue?
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I could only go for one day.
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My reading has been extremely sporadic. I hope to get to some titles of things I really liked later, but my timer today is just about out ( Read more... )