2018 School Spending Survey Report
>Putting the A in YA
>Last night we watched "Autopsy Room Four," an episode in TNT's Stephen King series Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
It was perfectly legitimate tv drama, but I was surprised to see it where it was. (Just as I was always nonplussed that my beloved Friends was shown during "family hour" at 8:00PM.) I'm similarly surprised about a great new book, Thomas M. Yeahpau's X Indian Chronicles: The Book of Mausape, coming out this fall from Candlewick. It's a stunning, mordant collection of linked short stories about young Indian men in "NDN City," a myth-shot modern city of gangs, booze, drugs, and sex, where the atmosphere of alienation and disaffectedness is anything but cosmetic.
But it's really, really (brilliantly) raunchy, and I'm having trouble seeing it as YA, although I'd love to be argued otherwise. It's not that it won't appeal to teens, quite the contrary, and Candlewick grades it for 14 and up, rather than the standard 12-up, so they're acknowledging the sophistication of the material. But why not publish it as an adult book? (This is not a question for Candlewick, which doesn't publish books for adults.) One, I'm afraid a lot of adults (and teens who feel themselves beyond YA) are going to miss it; and, two, I'm afraid that the children's buyers and librarians aren't going to know what to do with it. It's one of those books--again--that has me pining for the old lost cause: adult books for young adults. One of those books that deserves being discovered by a young reader rather than presented to.
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Thomas M. Yeahpau
>Actually, I wrote the promo quote and it is within the first few sentences of the book's opening. Sometimes the truth is a bit racist, but what can you do? lie?Posted : Sep 19, 2006 04:48
Roger Sutton
>I dunno, Rinda--essentially, you're claiming that everything is a-ok in Indian Country and only a racist would say otherwise. While I agree someone should have schooled the copywriter in the use and meaning of the word "race,"I don't think you can deny the book its bleakness, nor the catalog copy its attempt to convey the sense of the book.Posted : Aug 21, 2006 05:56
rindamybyers
>I got this quote off Candlewick's page promoting the book:"Mausape belongs to a race that is losing its culture and to a generation that is losing its mind."
I haven't been able to get the book to read yet, and hopefully, it is NOTHING like this promo quote--hopefully something authentic to read. So, I'm hopeful from Roger's review of it to find something good.
This publicity blurb, though, makes me feel queasy,as someone with Native American genes (Chickasaw). I think most Native American tribal members struggle to hold on to whatever they can of their heritages and cultures, and in my book, they ain't losing nothing. They're preserving and passing on their cultures and heritages with great creativity and energy, and hopefully, this book does some of that.
A terrible, TERRIBLE publicity blurb: I find it racist. They ought to fire whoever wrote it at that house. It's, bottom line, just plain incompetent writing--and creates a bad image for the company. I'll wait to read the book before I sort out my feelings furhter on it, though.
Posted : Aug 20, 2006 07:38
gail
>Adults and obsession play a large part in Love Curse, which is a very good book. The child and then YA character is "fully immersed in the moment/time of life." It's just that that moment/time of life isn't one that many teens will relate to. They may like the book, the way any person may like the book, but not because it's connected to their time of life, the way a book set in school, home, a summer job, etc. is.Rosemary, your question about whether YAs are aware that particular books are published as YA is an interesting one. In the long run, though, it may not matter. As you said, YA is marketed to them as part of youth culture, whether they know what it is technically or not.
Posted : Aug 18, 2006 11:49
Rosemary Graham
>I wonder how aware your typical YA reader (of right now) is of whether a book is published as YA or not. My hunch is that they aren't thinking in those terms necessarily. Borders & B&N and many indies now have separate teen sections, filled with books whose covers are often every bit as sophisticated (and sexy, if not more so!) -looking as many adult books. Likewise libraries. YA lit is marketed (to the teen readers) more as part of youth culture, akin to music and movies. We know that these books are published by childrens' publishers, but do they?And now here we're getting circular--with so much of today's YA dealing frankly with sex and sexuality who needs a (so-called) adult book to prove she's "not a kid anymore"?
Is today's YA fiction really a "nest" readers need pushing out of?
Gail--It sounds like you and Roger are asking the same question about two different kinds of books. (Again, I say this without having read either.) Yeapauh's--from Roger's description--is a teen-centered but "raunchy" book. The question there has to do with its raunchiness. It sounds like your ppoint with the Gantos' book is that it seems to be more about the mother. I'd be interested to know how it's received among its target audience.
To me what makes a book YA isn't about content, but point of view. A truly YA book is fully immersed in the moment/time of life. There's no retrospection, no sense of there being "life after high school" or escape from the family you're trapped by. No older, wiser narrator looking back.
Posted : Aug 18, 2006 08:59