Knowing my place
Which of these represents your view about children's books?
Childhood is a sweet and innocent time, and children's books should be about fluffy bunnies and other comforting subjects.
Childhood is a mean and dangerous time, and children's books should represent reality with all its obstacles and troubles.
Childhood is a mean and dangerous time, and therefore kids need comforting fluffy-bunny stories because that's the way life ought to be.
Children's literature should be prescriptive, describing the world kids should aspire to.
Children's literature should be descriptive, describing the world as it is and kids as they really are, for better or worse.
There are several schools of thought on writing for young people. I don't happen to think any single school has *the* one true answer. I'm not much of an either/or thinker. (You may have gathered that if you've been reading this blog for a while.) IMHO, we need all of these things. We need the soft gentle stories and we need the hard-edged material. We need humor and adventure, realism and fantasy, poetry and prose. We need books for kids who have been abused and kids who have terminal illnesses; we need books for kids with best-friend troubles and growing pains. We need books about the beauty of flowers and books about what happens to sewage when it leaves your house. We need books for boys and books for girls, books for five-year-olds and books for fifteen-year-olds. We need books that challenge kids and books that reassure them.
That doesn't mean I write all of the above. My strength and my preference is with older YA, realistic, darker material. I think it's important to know which stories are in my wheelhouse. When I was a teen myself, I liked reading books that acknowledged the world I saw around me, books that acknowledged that life is horrible sometimes and yet we manage to go on. Some people read to escape from the world; I read to help me cope with the world. And it turns out that my development as a writer has been shaped by my preferences as a reader.
I like seeing the larger world of literature, and identifying my niche in it. Have you found your niche(s)?
Childhood is a sweet and innocent time, and children's books should be about fluffy bunnies and other comforting subjects.
Childhood is a mean and dangerous time, and children's books should represent reality with all its obstacles and troubles.
Childhood is a mean and dangerous time, and therefore kids need comforting fluffy-bunny stories because that's the way life ought to be.
Children's literature should be prescriptive, describing the world kids should aspire to.
Children's literature should be descriptive, describing the world as it is and kids as they really are, for better or worse.
There are several schools of thought on writing for young people. I don't happen to think any single school has *the* one true answer. I'm not much of an either/or thinker. (You may have gathered that if you've been reading this blog for a while.) IMHO, we need all of these things. We need the soft gentle stories and we need the hard-edged material. We need humor and adventure, realism and fantasy, poetry and prose. We need books for kids who have been abused and kids who have terminal illnesses; we need books for kids with best-friend troubles and growing pains. We need books about the beauty of flowers and books about what happens to sewage when it leaves your house. We need books for boys and books for girls, books for five-year-olds and books for fifteen-year-olds. We need books that challenge kids and books that reassure them.
That doesn't mean I write all of the above. My strength and my preference is with older YA, realistic, darker material. I think it's important to know which stories are in my wheelhouse. When I was a teen myself, I liked reading books that acknowledged the world I saw around me, books that acknowledged that life is horrible sometimes and yet we manage to go on. Some people read to escape from the world; I read to help me cope with the world. And it turns out that my development as a writer has been shaped by my preferences as a reader.
I like seeing the larger world of literature, and identifying my niche in it. Have you found your niche(s)?
Childhood is filled with different kinds of young readers, who wants fantasy OR humor OR reality OR suspense OR action-adventure. Children's literature should supply addiction-producing books for ALL those readers. :)
Edited at 2009-05-12 01:12 am (UTC)
As for my niche as a writer, well, while I am working on branching out into different sub-genres, at heart I'm an Epic Fantasy, multi-generational storyteller.
I think that describes me best, although I don't think children's literature "should be" any one thing.
I wonder if writers ever find their niche and then fear what they have found?
Thanks :D
There were a lot of complex themes and questions going on in that series, stuff I didn't even pick up on at the time but that I really appreciate now. The best YA fiction are books that I can pick up today and still get something out of as an adult. Animorphs has this, as do plenty of others.
'Course, there's plenty to be said for pure silliness, too.
(Anonymous)
This is mainly because my 6 year old son adores dark themes. He has read all the Lemony Snickett books, and he likes "Redvol" series. Both of which I have deemed too dark for *my* tastes and might have vetoed them if I was a better mother and kept closer eye on his choices in literature. When I was a kid, I also had lots of dark and gloomy stories I enjoyed. Well, actually almost all good children books have dark streak in them - think Astrid Lindgren, think Lewis Carroll with the poor piglet who's beaten when he sneezes, think nearly all fairy-tales. I think children simply see them differently.
Then again, there is a demand for fluffy children books for the kids who are sensitive to any kind of violence or dark themes. As well as for grown-ups who like to think about childhood as a "happy time" :)
/ Ieva, http://www.creativity.lv/birdcherry
Maybe we sometimes need to acknowledge that we all have impulses and interests that aren't "pretty," and a constructive way to look at and channel them.
Both/and
Re: Both/and
(Anonymous)
Wow,what a line!
I think I should quote you from now on!
Re: Wow,what a line!
I will go with options 4 and 5 - books describing the world, that resonate with good values without being preachy.
"Some people read to escape from the world; I read to help me cope with the world"
I too read to help me cope with the world. I think I have identified my niche and I try to write the books I love to read.
the plot thickens
I have written a quiz on Facebook called, "Children's Writers: Where Are You At?" (QuizMonster) I think you might like it if you have a chance to take it.
Re: the plot thickens
I am not on Facebook (I had to draw my online line somewhere, to give me time to write!) but your comment's up here in case others are interested.
Too Many Shoulds
Re: Too Many Shoulds