From NYT!!!
The Kids’ Books Are All Right
By PAMELA PAUL
Oh, did I mention? “Mockingjay” is for teenagers. I am well into my 30s.
But I am not embarrassed by my, shall we say, immature taste in literature. And I wasn’t much concerned when, barreling through “The Hunger Games” at the hospital after giving birth to my third child, I hardly noticed whether he ate or slept. When will the rebellion begin, I wanted to know. Which suitor will Katniss choose? Nor am I alone. According to David Levithan, editorial director at Scholastic, Collins’s publisher, roughly half of the “Hunger Games” fans on Facebook are full-fledged adults. “The Harry Potter generation has grown up,” he told me.
For the full article
Thank you for this article! I'm considering working YA lit into my thesis proposal, and I would have done it without any back-up from the NYT, but it's nice to have that in my back pocket.
ReplyDeleteAlso, David Levithan, who is quoted in the article, is the author of some of my favorite YA books, like Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List (both with Rachel Cohn), Will Grayson Will Grayson (with the inestimable John Green), Wide Awake and The Realm of Possibility. He's noted form bringing LGBT themes to mainstream YA Lit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great article. I've read the Hunger Games Trilogy and just wanted to say that it wonderfully popular at Jr. High I teach at. It is taught to all 8th graders and off the top of my head I can't think of a book that I'd rather teach to adolescents. I taught Fahrenheit 451 to 8th grade accelerated students last year and it went great. However, that text is a little difficult for most 8th graders. Hunger Games is a fresher, more readable introduction to dystopian lit. than say The Giver, which is still taught amidst yawns.
ReplyDeleteI think that the article missed the boat when it claimed that "Y.A. authors aren’t writing about middle-aged anomie or disappointed people.” Not true. Hunger Games deals with significantly disappointed people, as does the majority of Y.A. lit. Chris Crutcher spoke at our school on Friday and his books are all about disappointed people. Harry Potter is a disappointed character. It is the focus on disappointed people that makes Y.A. both relevant and popular with readers of all ages. Disappointed characters are some of the finest in literature: Caulfield, McMurphy, Hamlet, Zorba, Murdoch's and Hemingway's characters, and Nick Carraway, to name a few. Since stories rely on conflict, it is natural for characters to be disappointed. One of the most popular summer reads, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, relies on disappointed characters. Since when don't people want to read about disappointed characters?
I read the Hunger Games this summer as well. It is in the process of being approved for 9th grade at Mountain View. Will it become a problem if so many teachers teach in in junior high? As a new teacher, I wonder how teachers deal with wanting to teach a book that they just found out was taught the year before. Teachers from all grades are wanting to teach it at my school. Sounds like many of you are saying it is most appropriate for 8th grade?
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