…cosy tales in which children’s characters looked forward to future adventures had been replaced by gritty stories that offered no hope for their weary protagonists.Contemporary literature is dauntingly bleak, with depressing endings that do little to inspire.

As someone pointed out The Road of Bones is hardly the cheeriest of reads.

But this is an argument that pops up regularly. We blogged about it a couple of months ago in a US context. Anne Fine must have known that the battle lines would be drawn.

And indeed they have. Arguments are being tossed around but not too many support her point of view. Some Welsh authors appear to, though.

Children can handle the realism, says one commentator. The horror is necessary, says another. And while we are at it,  let’s cheer up the classics.

Darkness in children’s literature has a long tradition. And the debates will continue to rage.

Been doing a lot of reading. As you do in this game. But not just YA books. Plenty of recent adult award winners, books for younger readers, newspapers and magazines. Not to mention the online stuff. And something is really beginning to bring out the inner pedant.

Books for the ‘adult reader’, newspapers, magazines and books for younger readers have the occasional typo or editing issue. They are there, but not often. Picture books, hardly ever. But YA? It seems to be the norm rather than the exception lately that there is at least one (but often more) glaring error in each title. And it’s not just local. A couple of major international award winners have had mistakes leap out that are at best annoying, and at worst disrupt the flow of the narrative.

A few examples, just from memory, but they stick in the mind. No names, no pack drill:

• Homonyms: how hard is it to check whether the correct word is ’slither’ or ’sliver’ (twice in two pages) or ‘discretely’ / ‘discreetly’? Although the ’s’ words aren’t even homonyms if you listen hard.
• Spelling: if a word like ‘gazumped’ is in the text on several occasions, please spell it correctly.
• Checkable facts: Even Wikipedia will do to check the name of the protagonist of a landmark 20th century novel when it is used in an intertextual reference. Or the postcode book for the correct spelling of one of Sydney’s best-known suburbs, both wrong throughout.
• Grammar: ‘he went with x and I’.
• Proofing: the singular ‘woman’ used when the sentence clearly requires the plural. Or a novel that depends on font differentiation in the narrative forgetting to apply it, causing confusion.

Why is it so? I’m not blaming the authors – their job is to write an engaging narrative. But something is not right, and is it fair to our YA audience not to offer excellence in all aspects of their reading experience? Or doesn’t it matter?

Image used under Creative Commons licence.

First, legislation in the UK to ‘vet’ authors before they can visit schools. Along with all others working with children, authors must register on a national database for a fee of ₤64.

Philip Pullman’s objections are loud:

Both Pullman and former children’s laureate Anne Fine said the legislation would mean that they would not speak in a school again. “I refuse – having spoken in schools without incident for 32 years, I refuse to undergo such a demeaning process,” said Fine. “It’s all part of a very unhealthy situation that we’ve got ourselves into where all people who are close to children are almost seen as potential paedophiles.”

Coincidentally, in an essay entitled Manhood for Amateurs : The Wilderness of Childhood in the New York Review of Books, US writer Michael Chabon reflects on how (over) protecting our children may lead to the death of the adventure story. Because there are no more adventures.

There is a small grocery store around the corner, not over two hundred yards from our front door. Can I let her [Chabon's daughter] ride there alone to experience the singular pleasure of buying herself an ice cream on a hot summer day and eating it on the sidewalk, alone with her thoughts? Soon after she learned to ride, we went out together after dinner, she on her bike, with me following along at a safe distance behind. What struck me at once on that lovely summer evening, as we wandered the streets of our lovely residential neighborhood at that after-dinner hour that had once represented the peak moment, the magic hour of my own childhood, was that we didn’t encounter a single other child.

Even if I do send them out, will there be anyone to play with?

Art is a form of exploration, of sailing off into the unknown alone, heading for those unmarked places on the map. If children are not permitted—not taught—to be adventurers and explorers as children, what will become of the world of adventure, of stories, of literature itself?

Image used under Creative Commons licence

Philip Pullman is one of a number of authors to comment:

Designers at Random House have given Lanagan’s novel one cover illustration for younger readers, while another has been chosen for the adult edition being published by Jonathan Cape. Pullman feels the mysterious cover portrait picked for a young audience is likely to draw readers in without giving much information. He does not believe, though, that children’s writers should steer clear of tough material.

“I don’t think there should be areas that children’s books can’t deal with. Why should there be, given that children are likely to encounter much stronger subjects in real life, ranging from divorce – which once used to be something terrible and awful that you must not talk about – to drug trafficking and sex?”

The author has added to the discussion in a long and well-considered post on his Goodreads blog. For which we thank him. Let’s keep talking, folks. This is an important one.

I can say this: When I wrote Into White Silence, I never for a moment doubted that it would be published as ‘young adult fiction.’ This belief was, in part, because of the realities of the publishing world and the joys of having a profile as a ‘young adult’ author, but also, to a large degree, because it was the sort of story I’d have connected with at 15 or 16 years of age. I didn’t write it for teenagers, though. Nor did I write it for adults. I wrote it for myself, purely and simply.

Thanks Anthony.

We’ll keep an eye on developments in West Bend.

Here’s another one: Children’s book editor Cheryl Klein has posted a thoughtful blog seeking a practical definition and her ideas are provoking a lively discussion. Join in if you feel this is a conversation worth having.

Thanks to the marvellous Monica Edinger for the lead.

But the novel (it combines fact and fiction but is in no way ‘faction’)  raises a question. What is it that defines this book as YA? Sure, Eaton has written YA novels before, and very good ones too. Sure, the publishers have entered this title in the CBCA Awards in this category so there’s no problem that it’s made the short list. It was entered, it’s good, it’s shortlisted.

But again there’s that question. What makes this a YA title rather than an adult one? Young adults will certainly enjoy it – it’a page turner. But so will a reader of any age who enjoys a historical mystery, a thriller, a journal, anything about Antarctica.

Unlike another award-winning Antarctic title, Geraldine McCaughrean’s The White Darkness, Eaton’s novel has no youthful protagonist. The narration is cleverly shared by Eaton speaking as himself and the 1921/22 journal of William Downes, aged 25.

So is a protagonist in the YA age group really necessary in a YA novel? We know that there are plenty of novels with young protagonists that are not intended for the YA audience. Especially lately. And we know that some titles are published in the YA market in one country, adult in another. The Book Thief springs to mind.

A quick search shows that this question is being asked more and more. There’s plenty if you look, but try here, here, here, here (and going back a bit), here for starters. The boundaries are becoming blurred and it looks as if we can expect more ‘crossover’ titles hitting the shelves. Surely no bad thing? Isn’t it all about the writing?

With the recent release of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls, the New York Times’s Health pages has asked the question about ‘thinspiration’.

There’s a discussion going on at Jezebel, if you’d like to join in.