Saturday, June 1, 2013

Armchair BEA 2013: Children's/Young Adult Literature


Design credit: Nina of Nina Reads

I fell in love with books as soon as I could read. My parents were only too happy to encourage my love of reading, and I was surrounded by books as a child. I still vividly remember my kindergarten class trip to the library. It was the first time I’d gone there, and seeing all those books on the shelves—it was like Christmas. I also still remember the book that I borrowed most often from the library—a Return of the Jedi picture book featuring photos from the movie. I read it and reread it numerous times before I ever even saw the film.

Some of my favorite childhood reads were Dr. Seuss’s books, the Babar the Elephant books, Eloise, the Mr. Men and Little Miss books by Roger Hargreaves, Richard Scarry’s Great Big Schoolhouse, and the Berenstain Bears books. As I outgrew these books, most of them ended up in yard sales, but I still have the best memories of my mom reading them to me, or the two of us reading them together.

When I was about ten, I was crazy about Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley Twins series. In every book, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield would have some little adventure that would wrap up neatly by the last chapter, and then there’d be a cliff-hanger-ish setup for the next book. Which I absolutely had to read! It was a sad day when I realized I’d outgrown the twins’ stories, too. The plots had become too predictable, and the characters said and did the same things over and over again.

Throughout high school and college, I didn’t have time for leisure reading, and I pretty much didn’t read anything that wasn’t school-related. It wasn’t until I read Twilight in 2008 that I rediscovered my enthusiasm for reading. I’ve moved on quite a bit from those books, but I’ll always think of them as the books that got me back into reading as an adult.

I’m in my 30’s now, but I mostly read YA, particularly YA paranormal. I think part of me is trying to make up for not having these kinds of books when I was a teenager. If Sweet Valley High-type books weren’t your thing back then (and they weren’t mine. I tried.), there weren’t a lot of other options available. At least, I don’t recall any other choices besides making the leap into adult fiction.

I can’t say exactly what it is that draws me to YA. There’s just something about it that captivates me in a way that adult fiction usually doesn’t. I do like the occasional adult read, but then it’s right back to YA. The stories, the characters, and the worlds in YA are endlessly fascinating to me, and I can see myself still reading it when I’m even further removed from my adolescent years than I am now.

19 comments:

  1. Sounds like you got a good foundation for reading in childhood. I too, still enjoy YA and I'm far older than you are. :)

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    1. I owe my love of reading to my parents. They encouraged me in every possible way, from constantly buying me books to taking me to the library all the time. And hooray for adults who love YA!

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  2. "I think part of me is trying to make up for not having these kinds of books when I was a teenager."

    YES! Exactly that. I think we must be about the same age (I'm 33), and I remember those Sweet Valley books being around a lot - I read one, don't remember which kind, but it all seemed completely alien to me. I don't think I could really relate to the world of an American teenager (and I've no idea if this is true but the general consensus was that they were "bimbo books"); teenagers are always looking for books that speak to them personally I think, and their world - looking for someone who understands them, perhaps? - so I gravitated towards books from my own country more.

    When I read YA these days, I always wish the books had been around back in the day. It would have been so much fun and so exciting! But also, I think I would enjoy them so much more. I can't read YA all the time anymore, like I can't read paranormal romance all the time, I have to read them in-between more substantial, "adult" fiction. Great post, Lee! And I can't believe I forgot Richard Hargreaves' Little Men/Little Miss books!

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    1. I'll be 36 very soon, and the YA of today is so different from what I remember passing for the genre back when I was a teen. I read the first 3 Vampire Diaries books a few years ago, and I didn't know that the first few volumes were originally published back around 1991 until after I'd read them. The funny thing is, while I was reading them, they reminded me of the type of book that was available back then- because they WERE from back then! With today's YA, I often forget that I'm reading a Young Adult book. As much as I love YA, though, I like to balance my steady reading diet of it with some more grown-up reads once in a while, too.

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    2. I had the same impression when I was reading the first 2-book volume of the Vampire Diaries several years ago; I knew they were older books but they definitely were written in a style that felt, I don't know, more 90s? Is thee such a thing? ;)

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    3. Yes, I think there is, lol! I didn't feel like there was a lot of depth to either the VD plots or the characters, especially Elena. I couldn't stand her! In a weird sense, those books reminded me of the Sweet Valley books in that both were more focused on whatever was happening in a particular book and not so much on what came before or what might happen after. That's a big contrast from today's YA series, with their multi-book story/character arcs.

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  3. I'm right there with you, keep getting drawn into YA books even though I'm years removed from that age group :)

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    1. Ten years ago, I would have laughed at the idea of me reading so much YA at my age. I love it, though, and I'm going to keep reading it!

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  4. I was the same way growing up. All through my childhood and middle school I read like crazy. I took the turn toward adulthood into highschool and couldnt be bothered. Twilight got me back into reading also. We have a lot in common haha.

    Amanda @ i solemnly swear

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    1. At first I didn't want to read Twilight because 1) I didn't like vampires and 2) I thought I was too old for it. My best friend, who's the same age as I am, recommended it, though, and when my teenage cousins started reading the books, I decided to join in. I owe a lot to that series.

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  5. I love YA too & I'm 22 years old. I always find it insulting whenever my mom or sister tell me that I'm reading children's books. They're not for children! YA is becoming more and more popular among adults!

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    1. It certainly is! I'm not embarrassed to be seen in public reading a YA book (which I often do), and I've read quite a few YA books that were much better written than some adult titles I've read.

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    2. LOL, I'm not embarrassed either to be seen in public reading them. I read them with pride! :)

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  6. It was a sad day for me when I realised the repetitions in Sweet Valley and also the new Nancy Drew stories. I love YA too, and I think it's because of the coming of age aspect, there's all these things and feelings to be discovered for the first time. I prefer paranormal to contemporary too - I can't put finger on why.

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    1. Contemporary and I don't always get along, and I think it's because I like the escapism of paranormal, where the extraordinary is possible. I love reading about worlds that are so different from real life, which I can leave behind for a little while.

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  7. I feel the same way about Twilight..loved the first book..meh as it continued..but glad I read because it sparked my interest in reading more YA!

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    1. I was obsessed with those books when I first read them, but I'm definitely over them now. But- I do owe all of the reading that I do today to that series.

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  8. Gah, another post that seems ripped from the pages of my diary LOL LOVE that your fav childhood book was a Star Wars picture book!! ♥ I also fell in love with books at a very early age and remember loving Babar, The Berenstain Bears & Dr. Seuss! Then I totally got hooked on those Sweet Valley books and I bought like hundreds of them until I outgrew them...that makes me feel like I read more quality, literary YA books now, to make up for those years haha Then I stopped reading much for fun in HS & Uni, until Harry Potter and then Twilight brought me back :D

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    1. Today's YA has come a long way from the Sweet Valley books, lol. I still get sentimental about them, though, because they got me reading. One day, I am going to to try that Sweet Valley Confidential book that came out a few years ago, which features the characters as adults. It's gotten some really bad reviews, but I'd be reading it more for nostalgia purposes than literary value anyway.

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