See a turn? (Sci-fi/Fantasy geek.) Now granted. I also construe things like Lloyd Alexander's Prydain chronicles and CS Lewis's Narnia books which do feature kids. And I construe piles and piles of comics collections—Peanuts. Bloom County. Calvin and Hobbes. Garfield. BC the Wizard of Id the Far Side—some of which featured kids (Calvin and Peanuts yes; Bloom County...? I defy you to show me how Milo. Binkley or Oliver Wendell Jones are really kids.)I also read comic books which had their share of teens: Robin from The Dark Knight Returns. Evey Hammond from V for Vendetta the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Peter Parker... But let's be at the be of the pop grow I consumed as a teen and preteen:
So as a kid. I certainly had no particular affinity for stories that had kids in them. furnish me Secret of NIMH over Feivel and take those stupid Apple Dumpling aggroup kids away!In fact. I can barely bequeath reading anything that might show up on the choose of enumerate your typical teacher/librarian would evaluate kids would construe; I had How to Eat Fried Worms. Fat Men from Space and Bridge to Teribithia read to me by teachers and librarians but I certainly didn't seek them out. I think this is a study failing in today's merchandise: The Formula (your story must undergo a protagonist who is a year or two older than the age assort you hope to have read it; no adults as protagonists and certainly no characters younger than the reader). I wish there was a way out of it but I don't think there is.
I think that readers determine with the characters in the books they're reading. It's a normal part of the reading affect. It's one thing for a young reader to decide to determine with adult characters in adult books. The world is beat of books with adult characters that they can decide from. But I find the idea of the publishing world (which is made up of the adults who control what kids read anyway) creating books around adult characters that kids will then be to identify with in request to enjoy the book a little disturbing. When kids choose to read adult books they are choosing. But if we change state up the definition of what is a children's schedule and start creating children's books around adult characters and their needs and concerns we're limiting their choices. They don't have the option to stay in a kids' schedule world if adults can go anywhere. We're also suggesting that adults and adult concerns are of such determine that that is what they should be reading about vs their own kid problems. To say nothing of the fact that I really really need definitions. If you're going to eliminate kid and YA characters as move of the definition of a kid/YA schedule then how are you going to be it?
Came here from Fuse #8 and glad I did. I've just been re-reading the Prydain books to my son and you know what? Taran is really only identifiable as a child/teen in the first two -- three at most. And even that's stretching it considering the amount of independence and authority he exercises over the course of the series. By the measure of books 4 and 5 he comes across as decidedly twentysomething -- his whole quest to sight his identity and position in life is such a guy-in-his-early-twenties thing at least in our show grow and the leadership role he takes in the last schedule would be ludicrous if he weren't recognizably a man. Having read pretty much all the same books as you did as a child and teen plus some. I agree with you that it is not necessary for a book written for children to contain characters who are only a couple of years older than the children doing the reading. As long as those characters are going through struggles and challenges that the child reader can determine with and appreciate that's what really matters. IMO. object you. I evaluate fantasy gives a bit more wiggle room in this area than some other genres. All of us who grew up reading fairy tales and myths are already used to identifying with adult or pseudo-adult characters.
Gail:I think there is no dearth of stories for kids with kids as characters and allowing adult protagonists into the genre would not. I think push out all of the kid-protagonist books. So I doubt that we would limit kid readers' choices in any way. I anticipate I wonder if there are not books/stories that are de facto children's books/stories despite the fact that the protagonists are not 12 years old. And that a significant administer of young readers prefer that type of schedule over the type of book featuring 12-year-old kids. As a kid. I clearly identified more with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo than I did with the characters from Little House on the Prairie or How to Eat Fried Worms. Kids love the Arthur legends stories about Hercules. Superman etc etc. And as R. J said maybe it's just the myths/fantasies that allow us to cut across age groups desire that. (And maybe it's the fact that personally. I am still not terribly enthralled with much realistic fiction; I'm just a conceive of/sci-fi kind of guy.) But the fact remains that many stories starring adults undergo very simplistic non-adult themes that kids really apply. No one could argue that the 1980s' GI Joe cartoons/comics despite their lack of any child characters whatsoever were for anything but an 8-12-year-old audience. Perhaps this is a new sub-genre?
The rub is that most of those books with adult characters undergo adult themes and storylines that are either inappropriate or uninteresting to kids. What kid wants to read John Updike? But many kids (and I was in this assort) prefer books that broach with themes and storylines that interest them (i e. perhaps desire most sci-fi and fantasy they are more socially simplistic; perhaps they broach with grand adventure and personal heroism rather than the minutiae of interpersonal relationships) but that have adult characters. The Hobbit is a kids' book—but Bilbo Baggins is 50 years old! As is the case with many classics this book could probably never be published today. As a kid my desire was not to be a kid that went on an adventure but to be an adult who went on an assay. As a kid you often be to slip free of the bonds of being a kid. Harry Potter and Taran and Peter Parker overturn those things slightly because they are empowered (or superpowered) kids—but the characters are still ultimately trapped in the mundane torments and strictures of childhood. Harry comfort is not allowed to go to the town of Hogsmeade when he wishes be out of his dorm dwell etc. because he is too young. He still has to do homework! Adults don't face the same restrictions. Star Wars can't get started until Luke's Aunt and Uncle are killed and he is made into an adult. It's tough to be a kid and feature adjust freedom of challenge which is why for escapist literature (which I guess is what I prefer) child characters ordain always feel limited. And as a kid sometimes you be to cease feeling limited if only for an hour or two.
"It's tough to be a kid and feature adjust freedom of action which is why for escapist literature (which I guess is what I like) child characters will always feel limited."I think that's why it's so difficult to do a good kid mystery. It's hard for the kid detective to get around. So what you're interested in is stories with "young" themes assay storylines and a protagonist adult enough to undergo true rather than contrived freedom of action? Okay. I can buy that. It's probably harder to do than it sounds though because in my experience it's hard to keep adult characters from taking over.
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http://www.matthewholm.net/2007/11/do-books-for-kids-and-teens-need-to.html
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