Why I read Young Adult/Middle-Grade (aka "Children's Lit")

This is a rant. You've been warned.

I read almost exclusively in the YA/Middle Grade age range. Know why? Because I've found in mainstream/aka "adult" fiction the following happens:

1. We are sloooooowly introduced to either (mainstream) a small cast of characters or (genre, epic fantasy in particular) an extremely large cast of characters. In the case of the small cast, each character will be imbued with some sort of character flaw that repulses me. In the case of the large cast, none will be obviously "the main character."

(this girl is too happy, she must be reading a Middle-Grade/YA book...)

2. In genre, a ponderous prologue will introduce me to events that make no sense whatsoever even after I've read 6 chapters, which is about 283 pages into the novel with another six hundred left to read.

3. In mainstream, the repulsive characters will moan about their life station, while bad things happen to them and/or their repulsive natures cause bad things to happen to them.

4. four hundred more pages will transpire, during which a total of three action sequences are shown, and possibly as many as a dozen new characters are introduced. Nothing else happens.

5. A month will pass. I will find that I procrastinate reading "my book" for enjoyment because there's just no joy left in life.

6. Around page 800 I'll just start skimming (I don't skim fiction, it offends my fiction sensibilities.)

7. Within fifty pages of the end of the book, every single character that didn't repulse me will end up dead in some manner or another, usually gory.

8. I will finish the book and find myself slumped into a deep depression that lasts weeks and weeks...

until...

I pick up a YA or Middle-Grade book, finish it in 3-6 days, and all is right with the world. The sun comes out, the girl gets the guy, the bad guys are vanquished, at least for this book, and there are reasons for living yet again.

Comments

[Marianne Vakiener]

Total agreement from me. You know what else I love about YA novels? The theme is easy to spot.

[Karen Smith]

I've often said that the stories are *straightforward.* I use fiction to escape, to go elsewhere (you know, somewhere NICER, usually, or more amazing than my dull everyday life) and to enjoy a romp in someone else's imaginary world. I like that YA/mid-grade makes it easy to follow the journey there, since it seems a particular joy of adult literary writers to make you not have any idea where you're going (genre, too, sometimes - everything is so strange it's become completely unintelligible.)

[Ben-M]

I can certainly see how you'd form those opinions because there are a lot of books out there that fit those molds. But not all mainstream fiction is laced with ennui, and not all genre fiction swells with a cast of thousands (and I'd submit that not all middle grade/YA is quite as rosy as the picture you paint either).

What I've learned (over and over because I keep forgetting) is to pick my books carefully: the books recommended by critics or even casual readers seldom match my interests. Few casual readers read as much as I do, and few critics share my interests. But then, if taste is subjective, why come up with reasons at all? - there's nothing at all wrong with preferring YA & Middle Grade and really no reason to have to justify it.

So to the crux of the matter, what was the recent non-MG/YA book that inspired the post? :)

[Karen T. Smith]

The primary one that got me started was a story in a "Golden Age of Sci Fi" supposedly short story collection (but the electronic file crapped out on me on page 200+, so this particular story wasn't short at all.) I was relieved, actually, when the ebook stopped responding (reminds me, I need to get a refund or at least a re-download, there were other stories in the TOC that I wanted to read.)

I read the Assassin's Apprentice series at the beginning of 2010 and, while I really enjoyed the stories in a general sense, it was quite a slog, and I ended up depressed (with the way the story ended in particular.) It wasn't a huge-cast Fantasy, though the cast did get large over the course of the three novels, but it was manageable. Time Traveler's Wife bummed me out. I never liked any of the "classic literary fiction" crapola assigned in HS and college (which, mercifully, is long in my past now.) Shakespeare and Dostoyovsky I liked, the rest I could do without. ;)

But Ben, if I didn't find reasons to justify all sorts of random workings of my brain, what on earth would I blog about? ;)

[Shelly]

Lady, you crack me up. Love you.

And with that said, I'm currently reading the 3rd book in a trilogy that I think you might like. It's not YA, but I generally consider my 10 y/o son these days when I read something (he's voracious) and I think this is only just a little bit too mature for him. Not too much violence and not too vividly described, no actual sex (although it's implied a little), a couple of homosexual relationships (both males and females!), and NO rape.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magicians%27_Guild

[Charlotte]

me too!