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Why a Grandmother Reads Young Adult Fiction

Aussie setting

Why a Grandmother Reads Young Adult Fiction

June 11, 2016 by Sheree Leave a Comment
First, to clarify; I’m not that old.

Instead of a rocking chair, shawl and knitting, think professional, competent and cool—and ignore my family laughing in the background. A few years ago, the birth of my first grandchild brought home that I was approaching my mature years, but I didn’t see any reason why that should change my reading habits.

Since my age first hit double figures I’ve been reading books aimed at a wide variety of audiences, whether children, teenagers, adults, female and/or male. There were a few ‘adult’ novels I probably read a bit too early, but that’s what happens when books like that are left around the house and a voracious reader doesn’t have access to enough appropriate literature.

Since I was a kid, I never stopped reading books aimed at kids or teenagers.

I read all sorts of other things as well, but I don’t see any reason to give myself an arbitrary limit on reading material based on what publishers decide is their target readership. When I write I don’t stop writing a story because the protagonist is a particular age. I should probably re-evaluate if it’s a crap story, and that’s the same issue when I’m reading, but protagonist age, viewpoint or intended target audience don’t have anything to do with whether it’s a good story, reading or writing.

9781406311525Sometimes I read a YA book simply because it’s great entertainment, like much-lauded and much-maligned The Hunger Games. Other times they’re brilliant in every sense of the word, like Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls. There are so many excellent YA books, including a huge and growing list of Australian titles, that there’s no way I can keep up with all I’d like to read. If I’d had these sorts of books around when I was a teenager I would have read a lot less inappropriate stuff.

Books with rich subtext and emotional truth abound on YA shelves.

15757486Melina Marchetta’s novels Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca and On the Jellicoe Road are three excellent examples, as are Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy. The stark realism of A.J. Betts’ Zack and Mia, or the ambiguity of Garth Nix’s Clariel give a lot of food for thought and discussion.

ClarielAmie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s Illuminae, written as found documents in a format which encourages reluctant readers, is a space science fiction epic which encompasses the ethical dilemmas of corporate greed, epidemics, quarrantine, and the lengths we will go to survive. Tristan Banks’ novel aimed at the younger end of YA, Two Wolves follows a boy on the run with his family and how he comes to terms with his origins.

23395680Guilt and grief are themes in Trinity Doyle’s Pieces of Sky, and it would be difficult to surpass the honesty and depth of David Burton’s memoir How to be Happy. Fleur Ferris’s Risk has authenticity 19392551and psychological sophistication far in excess of most adult novels of crime and loss I’ve ever read. There are so many more I could fill up pages, and already have.

The oldest of these books was published when I was more than a decade past the target audience, and several have been published in the past year or two, now that—let’s just say—I’m a long way past the 23603939target audience. Does that mean I should forgo the pleasure of such excellent reads?

25674284Besides, how else is a bookaholic, pop-culture loving grandmother going to keep in touch with what it’s like to be a teenager today? I have no illusions of fitting in to the teenage scene, or that the reading sub-culture represents all teenagers. On the other hand, no sub-culture represents all of them and diversity is improving.

Diversity in Australian YA books is emerging

It’s al24973955so the most accessible to me, except for Youtube and blogs, which I use but find a huge time sinkhole. The experience of reading, of seeing through a modern protagonists eyes, or even knowing what teenagers around you are talking about, helps keep perspective when the inevitable ‘this-generation-doesn’t-do-X-like-we-did’ discussions arise.

But I’ve also found that sometimes I can bring another perspective to YA books. Teenagers, naturally, read YA from the perspective of the teenage protagonists. Those of us who are older—much, much older—read with the protagonist’s perspective, but also with more life experience. One blogger I read recently talked about how her parental impulses when reading some YA books now are making her feel old, and at the time of writing she was the grand age of twenty-one (here). It’s true, though, that sometimes there are things in YA novels that are easier to see from an older, more experienced perspective.

While some teenagers may see things I don’t because they’re immersed in teen culture, sometimes I see things they miss.

I’ve come across quite a few articles disparaging adults who read YA novels. It’s strange. The arguments just seem silly. It’s like telling me I should watch Downton Abbey and trying to shame me for watching Tomorrow, When the War Began. They’re both excellent programs, so why shouldn’t I watch and enjoy both?

Sure, I read other types of books and enjoy them. As time goes on though, I’m finding that I’m getting impatient with some adult books. Not all, just some.

You see, YA novel authors have to be good these days—very good. Why?

  • Competition to be published is, as in all publishing, fierce.
  • There’s generally a limit of around 70-80,000 words, on the higher side for science-fiction or fantasy to account for the needs of world-building.
  • Stories tend to be complex (contrary to the belief of some) so there’s a lot to pack in. YA authors have to write tight.
  • Teenagers have highly tuned crap detectors. If a novel starts getting airy fairy with language that doesn’t convey a clear meaning, teenagers will call it. That doesn’t mean there isn’t beautiful writing—there is—but it also has to be rich in meaning. There’s no reading a line or paragraph three or four times to work out what it’s saying.

So, when I start a huge Booker-nominated door-stopper, and in sixty pages there’s been some lovely airy descriptions and a lot of musing, but I still haven’t reached the premise of the book… I might just use it as a door-stopper.

Once upon a time I would have ploughed on. Someone who’s supposed to know about literature thought this was a great book, so I should finish it and find out why.
Not anymore. I look ahead and realise that I have a finite number of books I can read in my life.

A boring Booker-nominated door-stopper will take up the time which could be devoted to two or three other books I could enjoy and learn from. One of them might be a different Booker-nominated novel that I love. Another will probably be a Young Adult novel.

Links
#LoveOzYa  for teachers, writers and readers of Australian youth-lit.
Inside a Dog  State Library of Victoria’s Young Adult Page (Home of the Inky Awards)

Posted in: Adult Fiction, Aussie books, Aussie setting, Australian Women Writers, Books, Children's books, Opinion, Personal, Reading, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, Adult fiction, Books, Novels, Reading, Young Adult

Two Wolves – which will you feed?

April 24, 2016 by Sheree 3 Comments
Released as “On the Run” in the US

Ben Silver is home with his little sister one afternoon when the cops show up looking for his parents. After they leave, his mum and 19392551dad arrive and bundle them in the car, supposedly taking them on a spontaneous ‘holiday’.  Ben finds it hard to believe the two things aren’t linked.

So begins a tale of tension, suspicion and fear. Why did they leave so fast, without clothes or food? Why do his parents take Ben and his sister, Olive, to a filthy cabin in the middle of nowhere?

What’s in the bag his father
tries to hide?

Two Wolves is a novel at the lower end of the YA bracket that tackles some difficult questions. Parents are supposed to look after you, but what if other things are more important to them? What if they neglect you, or worse? What if they betray you? What if you come from a family who do things that are wrong? Does that mean you’ll be just like them?

Tristan Bancks handles these and other questions with skill. While his other books have lighter subjects and tones, Two Wolves captures the confusion, loneliness and longing of Ben as he tries to make sense of what’s happening to him and his family.

The title is taken from a story in the pages of Ben’s grandfather’s almost-empty journal, which is printed as a brief preface before the first chapter. In this version of the old story, a man tells his grandson that inside all of us a battle rages between two wolves.

“One wolf is bad – pride, envy, jealousy, greed, guilt, self-pity.
The other wolf is good – kindness, hope, love, service, truth, humility.”

23310747When the child asks who will win, the grandfather answers, “The one you feed”.

The conclusion to the novel isn’t a tidy, neat, Disney happily-ever-after, but it’s a satisfying resolution that stays true to the characters and story, while still allowing the reader to ask themselves, “What would I do?”

Highly recommended, for readers from late primary school up.

 

 

Details
Two Wolves by Tristan Bancks (On the Run in US)
Random House Australia
ISBN: 9780857982032
Published: March 2014

Links
Tristan Bancks website: http://www.tristanbancks.com

AUSSIE-AUTHOR-2016 Aussie Author Challenge 2016

Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Children's books, Contemporary, Family, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #LoveOzYA, Aussie setting, Book review, Books, Child Protagonist, Children, Contemporary, Review, Tristan Bancks, Young Adult

And the Winner Is …

October 14, 2015 by Sheree 2 Comments

… Young Adult books!

Though the literary world seems abuzz with Man Booker fever over a novel that sounds like Stephen Hawking meets Psycho, the #LoveOzYA community is celebrating the winners of the Inky Awards. (I’m sure the MB prize winner is a great book; I’m just excited by the Inkies.) If you haven’t heard of the Inkies, don’t despair. Once upon a time no one had heard of the Man Booker Prize either – or the Oscars.

The Inky Awards are bestowed through The Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria, who promote reading as “not just something that is done as school work” and “an active, pleasurable and essential activity for all young people”. One of their projects is Inside a Dog, a website which promotes young adult literature, showcasing both Australian writers and their work and the cream of international YA literature.

Why “Inside a Dog”? It comes from a Groucho Marx quote:

insideadog-small“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

The name of the award comes from the Inside a Dog mascot, Inky, the all-round wonder-dog. The Gold Inky is awarded to a book by an Australian author while the Silver Inky is awarded to a book by an international author.

So, who are the winners for 2015?

The Gold Inky winner is:

Gold_winner_nobkgnd_1 9780732297053

The Intern,

by Gabrielle Tozer

 

 

The Intern is great book, a contemporary story of a girl in her first year of university who is pushed out of her comfort zone by an internship at a fashion magazine as part of her course requirement. You can read my review of The Intern here. Congratulations Gabrielle!

The Silver Inky winner is:

Fangirl_Pan Macmillan_0_1.previewSilver_winner_nobkgnd_0

Fangirl

by Rainbow Rowell

 

 

I haven’t read Fangirl yet but it’s on my list, and this has bumped it up quite a few places.

A quick look at the long list for this years awards shows the calibre of books that were in the running for the Inky Awards this year.

2015-Inky-longlist

Though I’ve only reviewed Clariel by Garth Nix, the quality of books is amazing. It’s impossible to keep up with all the excellent YA being produced as well as Australian speculative fiction – and that’s great news for everybody.

Links

Inside a Dog Homepage

The process of nomination and judging the Inky Awards plus previous Long Lists, Short Lists and Winners, here

Gabrielle Tozer’s website

Rainbow Rowell’s website

Man Booker Prize 2015 Announcement

 

Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Australian Women Writers, Awards, Contemporary, Opinion, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, Aussie setting, Awards, Books, Contemporary, Gabrielle Tozer, Inky, Rainbow Rowell

Cloudwish, by Fiona Wood

August 27, 2015 by Sheree 1 Comment

Wishes aren’t real. Are they?

Vân Uoc knows the score. She’s a scholarship kid in an exclusive school where most of the other kids were born with silver spoons in their mouths. She’s under no illusion about fitting into the designer-clothes-and-huge-house set, but it hasn’t prevented her crushing on A-lister and rowing star Billy Gardiner.

24248906When a creative writing teacher hands around a box of items as prompts, Vân Uoc picks out a little glass tube with the word ‘wish’ on a slip of paper inside. Her wish? For Billy Gardiner to prefer her to everyone else. Afterwards she can’t find the glass tube, and Billy takes notice of her for the first time. Coincidence – isn’t it?

Though Cloudwish begins whimsically, the struggles Vân Uoc experiences between home and school feel very real. Being the only daughter of Vietnamese refugees, she feels the full weight of her parents’ expectations and the responsibility of being worthy of all the terrors they suffered and sacrifices they made so she could have a better life. Her day-to-day world is one of restriction and enforced study in their housing commission flat, carving out her small freedoms by bending the truth in translation to her barely-English-speaking parents and rationalising her dishonesty.

She doesn’t want anyone at school to know any of that, of course. She’s always tried to fly under the rader; life is easier if she’s invisible. With Billy’s sudden attention comes an unwelcome spotlight, and a few girls in particular aren’t too happy to see Billy’s affection straying outside home turf.

Billy really seems to like her, though, just for herself. She doesn’t believe wishes are real, but how else could this have happened? And can she live with that, if he hasn’t really chosen it?

Cloudwish is the story of a girl caught in the tension between two cultures. Fiona Wood immerses us in Vân Uoc’s world and we can’t help but feel the pressure from her parents and the otherness she experiences at school. The book begins with a quote from Alice Walker at Sydney Writers’ Festival:

I recognised myself in Jane Eyre. It amazed me how many white people can’t read themselves in black characters. I didn’t feel any separation between me and Jane. We were tight.

I love this quote and find it puzzling at the same time. The magical thing about stories is that they enable us to become other people, to understand who they are from the inside, to ‘look out through other eyes’ as Neil Gaiman has said. A good book is a leveller, making us all see from the same perspective, and I find it incredibly sad that some people have a racial barrier stopping that process.

The quote is perfect, though, because Jane Eyre is Vân Uoc’s hero and muse. “What would Jane do?” is a refrain throughout the story, and lovers of Charlotte Bronte’s classic will love the way Wood weaves snippets into Cloudwish.

While Vân Uoc seeks to be as brave as Jane, she suffers from the insecurities endemic in young women – or women in general – and many girls will identify with her doubts when the most popular boy at school pursues her. Is it a set-up? A joke? If not, it must be the wish.

Though most of the novel is written in third person, it perfectly fits the voice of its lead character. It’s a lovely touch that her name, Vân Uoc, means ‘cloudwish’ in Vietnamese.

I can’t help comparing Cloudwish with Looking for Alibrandi in the way it presents the life of a second generation Australian living between cultures. Reading it doesn’t feel like an education, only a great story, but afterwards I realised I understood a lot more than I had before I read it.

That’s a great book.

* I received an e-copy of this book for review through Netgalley

Details
Cloudwish by Fiona WoodNetgalley badge
Pan Macmillan Australia
ISBN: 9781743533123
Published: 1 Sept, 2015

Links
Fiona Wood’s website

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Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Australian Women Writers, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, Aussie setting, Book review, Books, Contemporary, Fiona Wood, Review, Romance, Young Adult

The Intern, by Gabrielle Tozer

August 10, 2015 by Sheree 1 Comment

When I first heard this title my interest was piqued because I thought it was about a young doctor. Shows where my preconceptions come from.

9780732297053I soon found out it actually follows Josie, a first year journalism student who lands an internship with a fashion magazine.

The character of Josie had me hooked from the first page, moaning over her tiny bust in thesaurus-like list of euphemisms. Academic, ambitious, but with the fashion sense of a dairy cow and a tendency to embarrass herself, she isn’t happy that her mandatory internship is with a fashion magazine rather than a ‘serious’ publication. Without any choice, though, she throws herself into the one-day-a-week job with help from her oh-so-cool younger sister, Kat, to make sure she looks the part. Kat, the fashionista, is envious:

In her world, my inability to use a curling iron meant
I didn’t deserve the intern position.

At the job she’s faced with two other interns and a challenge; the best intern at the end of twelve weeks will win their own column in the magazine, complete with by-line and headshot, plus five thousand dollars. Josie, her mum and her sister have been doing it tough since her dad left, and that five thousand would go a long way.

Josie is a heroine who is smart and capable, but suffers from all the fears and lack of confidence a ‘not cool’ young woman would endure when she’s thrust into a unfamiliar world. She’s determined to make the most of her opportunities, but sometimes doesn’t realise what’s going wrong until it’s too late. What’s important about Josie, though, is that she doesn’t give up. She goes back and gives it the best shot she has, and ultimately that’s what counts.

Magazine

Image: Alex LaSpisa, Link: Flickr

There are a cast of interesting characters around her, most notably her popular, self-absorbed younger sister, and James, the flatmate of her cousin, where she stays the night when she works at the magazine, as she lives too far out of the city to commute. James provides the love interest – with the added complication that he turns out to have a girlfriend.

Having been a writer for many girls/women magazines, Gabrielle Tozer obviously knows how they tick and provides a believable setting without giving approval or judgement. The staff of the magazine have the usual mix that occur in any workplace; the generous and kindhearted, the bitchy and brash, and gradations in between. In other words, they’re human.

Tozer’s prose is engaging and witty. The story is told in first person with Josie narrating, and her personality and humour do all the work. In an early conversation with James, she’s trying to think of an answer when he asks about her most humiliating childhood incident. She thinks, both with humour and poignancy,

My life was an ongoing series of humiliating incidents wrapped
in a box of shame and tied with a bow of awkwardness.

It’s an easy read, but that doesn’t mean its light on the emotions. If you’re a teenager starting to do new things, or you remember what it was like going out of your comfort zone, you’ll identify with this.

The Intern has a sequel, Faking It, which chronicles the further adventures of Josie, and Gabrielle will have a new contemporary book (not about Josie) out in 2017.

Details:
The Intern by Gabrielle Tozer
Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780732297053
Published: Feb 2014

Links:
Gabrielle Tozer’s website

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Australian Women Writers Challengeawwsml-2015

Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Australian Women Writers, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, Aussie setting, Book review, Books, Gabrielle Tozer, Review, Romance, Young Adult

Afterlight, by Rebecca Lim

August 8, 2015 by Sheree 1 Comment

What would you do if a ghost turned up in your bedroom, giving you the terrors every night? What if she had tasks for you to do? What if it all led to a mystery that put your life at risk?

Sophie hasn’t had it easy. Her parents were killed in a motorcycle accident. and in the pain and loneliness of grief she threw herself at her long time crush and only managed to incur public humiliation. So in her final year she moves to a new school, and though her height and bright red hair quickly earn her the name “Storkie”, at least it’s a fresh start.

25215400Then the ghost turns up, who looks so much like her mother they could have been sisters. As her terror lessens, it becomes obvious the woman won’t leave until Sophie does what she wants. Instead of leaving her alone, though, things get more complicated. It all starts to snowball, even involving Jordan, the most popular and enigmatic guy at school. But it’s all a lot more dangerous than either of them were expecting.

Afterlight is a story of a girl trying to make sense of her life, while dealing with the afterlife. In Sophie, author Rebecca Lim gives us a protagonist who is grieving, lacking confidence and lonely, yet finds the strength to carry out the tasks the ghost sets for her, even though they’re way out of her comfort zone. The more involved she gets with the ghost, the more she comes to life.

There’s romance woven in, though Jordan serves more purpose in the plot that just the ‘hot guy’. Sophie has shut out everyone from her old school and is a loner in her new one. It’s only the ghost that brings Jordan and Sophie across the walls they’ve built around themselves.

The writing is tight and well-paced, witty and charming in many parts. It’s one of those books where the words disappear and all you see is the story.

The only thing I didn’t like about this book was the ending. I had that feeling, as you get closer to the last page, ‘How is this all going to be wrapped up in the space left?’ It wasn’t, of course. There is obviously more to come.

So, on one hand that’s great, because there’s more story. On the other hand, I was left on the last page, yelling, ‘Nooo!’

I can’t wait for the next one.

Details:
Afterlight by Rebecca Lim
The Text Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781925240498
Published: June 2015

Links:
Rebecca Lim at Text Publishing

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awwsml-2015Australian Women Writers Challenge

 

Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Australian Women Writers, Contemporary, Ghost/Afterlife, Romance, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, Aussie setting, Book review, Books, Contemporary, Rebecca Lim, Review, Romance, Young Adult

The Fault in Our Stars VS Zac and Mia #LoveOzYA readalikes

August 2, 2015 by Sheree 6 Comments

I didn’t want to read The Fault in Our Stars.

Not because it was everywhere, not because it had been done before, and not because it was a teen romance written by a man, though if I’m honest those prejudices were part of the package. The real reason was because it was about teenagers with cancer.

11870085I have a thing about putting people with a life-threatening illness on a pedestal, and referring to someone’s “battle with cancer”. Why do we need to label it as a battle? Sometimes it’s as much as they can do just to hang on. Likewise, many stories about kids and teenagers with cancer have presented them as half-saints. This can shape people’s expectations of cancer victims, and put an even greater burden on them when they most need understanding.

So, this was my rather disparaging attitude towards The Fault in Our Stars. I’d seen the cover, read the blurb, saw it was on the New York Times best-seller list for ages, and turned up my nose.

Then one day I saw a Youtube video of John Green in Sydney. It resulted in a conversation with my daughter that went something like this:

Me: Did you know John Green had been in Australia?
Dtr: No! When?
Me: Not sure. There’s a video on Youtube of him, walking in Hyde Park, I think.
Dtr: Maybe he was here to promote The Fault in Our Stars.
Me: No, not that John Green. The one from Crash Course.
Dtr: Yeah, he wrote The Fault in Our Stars.

Me: No, not the old author guy. (Raises voice for emphasis.) The Crash Course guy.
Dtr: What old author guy? (Peering at me to determine the extent of brain damage.) The Dtr: John Green from Crash Course is the same one who wrote The Fault in Our Stars.

Me: You’re kidding.
Dtr: Nope.
Me: How did I not know that?
Dtr: No idea. But this particular win is going last me quite a while.

I felt stupid. How had I not linked these two John Greens together? And why had I assumed the novelist was some ‘old author guy’? Were my prejudices showing? (Coughs and decides that question is rhetorical.)

I enjoyed the Youtube Crash Course series, in which he teaches literature and history (and his brother, Hank, teaches various sciences). It’s upbeat, insightful, no crap, and demonstrates a love of words and learning. Could this guy have written a novel about teenagers with cancer that didn’t drive me insane? I went back to Youtube and sought out some interviews he’d done about the book.

The first thing I discovered was that he’d worked as a student chaplain at a children’s hospital for six months, during which he’d encountered a lot of kids and teens with cancer. He also often mentioned a young friend who’d had cancer. The thing that impressed me the most was the way he spoke about people with cancer – as people. Not with awe or pity, but that someone with cancer was just that, a normal person with normal interests and normal emotions, who has this horrible thing happening to them. I decided this teens-with-cancer book might be worth a look after all.

It was. Given all the hype that had surrounded it, I was surprised it more than lived up to expectations. The teenagers we get to know in The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel, Augustus and their friend Isaac, aren’t saints. They’re teenagers who have their own interests, hang out, laugh, get angry, take advantage of their ‘cancer perks’, and fall in love. Sometimes they try to be strong for their parents, but often can’t be. The love story is sweet but down-to-earth, shadowed always by the knowledge that it will never be a long one.

The writing is beautiful with many memorable phrases, many of which capture reactions that a diagnosis of cancer at a such a young age may induce. One that sticks with me is:

The world is not a wish-granting factory.

It’s such a succinct statement of bald reality, flipping the fairy tale on its head. Another beautifully prosaic line is:

The existence of broccoli does not affect
the taste of chocolate.

This is in relation to the oft-spouted rationalization that bad things have to happen in order for us to appreciate goodness, or “Without pain, how could we know joy?” This point has been discussed for centuries, but for those experiencing the ‘broccoli’ the discussion tends to become, if not irrelevant, then ridiculous. How does their cancer promote the experience of joy?

The Fault in Our Stars, though, is a romance at its core, though a tragic one and as unlike a Disney fairy tale as it’s possible to be while still allowing the romantic element to predominate. It deserves its success.

Since reading it, my prejudice against so-called ‘sick lit’ has been broken down to a large extent. If John Green has written about people with disease in a more realistic way, maybe other authors have too. I heard about Aussie author A.J. Betts’ novel Zac and Mia, and her job teaching kids and teenagers in an oncology ward seemed to place her in an excellent position to understand the realities of their lives better than most people. I’d been intending to read it for ages, but it wasn’t until blogger Danielle Binks posted her first #LoveOzYA Readalikes that I finally did something about it.

15757486Like Hazel and Augustus, teenagers Zac and Mia both have cancer. They have adjacent rooms in a Perth hospital, but don’t meet face-to-face at first because Zac is in isolation after undergoing a bone marrow transplant for his leukemia. Mia is loud and angry, but they end up communicating, first through taps on the wall, then through messaging in Facebook.

It isn’t a match made in heaven; Mia isn’t letting anyone close enough to help her, and Zac doesn’t have the energy to take the crap she dishes out.

Zac and Mia isn’t a romance. It’s a story about two young people who’ve had the stuffing knocked out of them, and how they react to each other. By telling the story from both Zac and Mia’s perspectives it allows us to see two very different people with some of the same problems, and the impact of their illnesses on their lives.

I found the portrayal of Mia particularly interesting – a girl who had based all her self-worth on being beautiful and popular suddenly thrust into a world of needles, medication, surgery, and vomiting. As she starts losing her hair due to chemotherapy, she goes ballistic. Her world is falling apart, and the people around her keep telling her she’s ‘ lucky’. No one seems to understand how devastated she is.

There is no sugar-coating, and both Zac and Mia have their struggles and successes, but it’s the differing perspectives that make Zac and Mia such a strong story. Zac’s life back on the family olive farm and tourist petting zoo, and his preoccupation with cancer statistics, play against Mia’s stormy relationship with her mother, refusing to tell her friends she’s sick, and going on the run in an attempt to get as far away from her life as possible. The reader understands why each of them feel the way they do, even when they oppose one another across a wide chasm.

So how does Zac and Mia compare with The Fault in Our Stars?

The Fault in Our Stars
Zac and Mia
Setting Indianapolis and Amsterdam Perth and
W. Australian farmland
Reality of being a teenager with cancer Very good Excellent
Plausibility of events Good Excellent
Writing Excellent
(often poetic)
Very good
Romantic elements  Major  Minor

It’s inevitable that Zac and Mia will be compared to The Fault in Our Stars, because it’s about a boy and a girl who both have cancer, and it came out the year after TFIOS. In many ways that’s a shame, because if someone picks it up expecting another John Green book with the same romantic feel they’ll be disappointed.

However, if it means Zac and Mia gains more attention, as it did with me, then it should be encouraged. It’s an excellent book in its own right. Don’t expect a love story, but do expect an insightful and emotional book about a strange relationship, amid the realities of being a teenager who’s been hit by the cancer bus.

Details

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 9780525478812
Published: January 2012

Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts
The Text Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781922147257
Published: July 2013

Links

John Green: website, tumblr
John and Hank Green: Vlogblothers (Wikipedia), How to be a Nerdfighter (Youtube)
Crash Course: English Literature, World History, a list of other Crash Courses
A.J. Betts: website
Daniel Binks: Alphareader #LoveOzYA Readalikes

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awwsml-2015Australian Women Writers Challenge

Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Contemporary, Readalike, Romance, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, #Readalikes, Aussie setting, Book review, Books, Contemporary, Review, Romance, Young Adult

Everybody Loves YA Panel #nswwc

July 21, 2015 by Sheree 4 Comments

Speculative Fiction Festival,
NSW Writers Centre #LoveOzYA

It was quite a line up. The NSWWC Festival was a star-studded event with big names in Australian speculative fiction making up every panel. The Young Adult panel was a prime example as we were treated to the collective literary wisdom of Marianne de Pierres, Garth Nix, Richard Harland, Isobelle Carmody and Amie Kaufman.

Richard was the host and he began by introducing the panel and their impressive credentials. He posed a number of questions and each panel member responded. There was plenty to absorb, so what follows is an attempt to capture as much of the excellent advice and insight that poured forth in the session as possible. I’ve done a lot of paraphrasing and it’s not in strict chronological order, as I’ve tried to group similar topics together.

I’ve used the writers first names hereafter, for brevity and because I don’t want to sound like a British boarding school teacher by using just surnames. This isn’t the place for Harry Potter role play. Though… no, no, it’s not.

Everything that follows is gleaned from my notes and memory along with excellent tweets from numerous sources. I’ve also added links and comments, just because I can.

NSWWC YA3

Why is YA so popular, particularly with adults?

This question was thrown at Marianne first. Her response was that it allows those of us past adolescence to revisit that time in our lives, perhaps before life has become difficult or complex, to re-imagine our youth or what our lives could have been like if it had gone in a different direction. YA stories are often about identity, and so they appeal whether we’re in the process of finding our own identity or re-examining it. Young adults are also good bullshit detectors, so authenticity of voice is crucial, and that is inherently appealing in a story.

GN Story is kingYA has won the industry’s attention, said Garth, but we can overthink its popularity. He stressed that people shouldn’t get hung up on categories. Books put on YA shelves provide strong, clear stories with interesting characters, so naturally people other than teenagers are going to want to read them. “Story is king.” The best books always have multiple layers of meaning that can be appreciated at different stages, and can be revisited with a new perspective at a later age.

Richard RH Lit YCpointed out that literature has always been full of young characters going through change. (I  thought of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Tom Brown, Jane Eyre and Holden Caulfield.) “It’s an interesting time of life. Your impressions are stronger than at any other time.” The emphasis on YA in recent years is more about the way books are marketed. The writers came back to marketing a little further on.

“No wonder YA is so popular,” said Isobelle. “Who wants to be an adult when we see what adults have done to our world?” She told us of the 20 year old MP in the UK she watched on Youtube the previous night.

Mhairi Black’s maiden House of Commons speech

This young woman had made her think a lot about YA books. Adults have made such a mess of the world and those in positions of power are behaving in such juvenile ways that there is a yearning, in both young people and those older, to return to ideals that seem far from being lived out in the real world. We crave a clearer sense of values which YA provides, as its characters strive to work out who they are in the world.

Basic motivations are also something that drive Isobelle, striving to understand why people do what they do. She thinks about what famous people were like in their formative years. What was Martin Luther King, Jr. like in school? Was he different to the other kids? What about others who grow up to be shining examples or do horrific things? What formed them? YA resonates with adults because it holds the seeds of who you become.

IC Inside every ageIsobelle is drawn to adolescent POV because they are characters who are growing, changing, becoming, but the core within doesn’t leave the child’s perspective behind. “Inside you is every age you’ve ever been – they don’t die or go away!” If the writing is good enough, it will resurrect the 12 year old inside of you.

Amie reminded us that YA is the literature of transformation, “and we’re all going through transformations, all the time”. Everyone, can identify with YA stories. Good stories are about change, so YA stories are inherently appealing. She said that in her teens she was working out who she was, then in her twenties sAK tranformationhe felt like she was already supposed to have worked it out. She found YA stories still spoke strongly to her then, and perhaps the YA appeal is about exploring who we are no matter our age.

Then Amie discussed how she has found it difficult being told someone doesn’t read fiction because they “don’t read something they can’t learn from”. After the gasps and incredulous laughter died down, from panel and audience alike, Amie said what we all know; in fiction we walk in others shoes, and learn so much about other people and the world that we could never understand from non-fiction.

Can Reading Fiction Improve Empathy? (PsychCentral)
Can Reading a Fictional Story Make You More Empathetic?
(Psychology Today, n
eurobiological emphasis)

Richard pointed out that imagination in itself it incredibly valuable. Einstein, for example, developed his theories of relativity through his ability to imagine. The stimulation of imagination is one of the most important things we can cultivate in our children and young people, and society in general.

Richard found the labelling of speculative fiction as ‘escapist’ fiction, using it as ‘dirty word’, offensive.

“The Life and Times of Harry Houdini,” muttered Garth. Pardon? Oh, escapist fiction. :)

Besides, Richard insisted, what’s wrong with escapism anyway? What’s wrong with games? We learn from games and ‘escapist’ things too. Play is essential for children. Adolescents and adults need to play too.

What Neil Gaiman was told when he asked why China is encouraging science fiction in its population.

Isobel also believes the craving for idealism and clearer values is also a driving factor in the popularity of speculative fiction.

The writers had varying responses to people who liked to tell them they “don’t like fantasy”. Garth: “I don’t like you, either.” (Most popular response.) All agreed that a lot of bias still exists about ‘genre’ fiction. Isobelle thinks many other writers would create great stories if they weren’t afraid of ‘genre’. Garth again re genre bias: “I don’t breathe often but when I do I choose air.”

Being categorized as YA

Story firstAll the writers agreed that the story came first, rather than writing to a category or age group. Richard reiterated that coming-of-age stories have been around for a very long time, but now they’re being collated and called YA for marketing purposes.

YA stands for “Yes, Awesome!” according to Garth. He considers, though, that age targets or genre categories aren’t inescapable ghettos but places booksellers and librarians situate a book that will be most likely to connect with its initial target audience, from which it will, hopefully, spread out to the rest of your potential readership. He quoted Schuster of Simon & Schuster, who said, “The most dangerous disease for a publisher is a hardening of the categories.” He also advised that writers of YA should make sure potential agents and publishers GN Yes Awesomeare interested in YA and have experience and expertise in it, as opposed to only being interested in its selling potential.

Don’t let categories determine what you write or what you read. Amie advises we should all read across genres & age groups as a matter of course, as we’ll learn from other genres, whether crime, romance, thriller, literary, or whatever. There will be aspects of all of them that will improve your own writing.

Sex, Drugs and Violence in YA

Concerning sex and drug use in one of Marianne’s books, she was told by an overseas publisher that “teenagers weren’t interested” in those things. (???)

Amie noted that when she was in high school, the John Marsden books in the library would always fall open at certain well-worn pages. (That makes more sense.)

GN Adult in YA“People forget the ‘adult’ in Young Adult,” Garth said in relation to gatekeeping in YA, and many don’t discern between Children’s and YA. These aren’t books for kids. If those things are part of your story, you should use them to tell the story.

One of the writers (Amie?) had an overseas editor ask about sex scenes in a book, and was concerned that one occurred. When she explained the scene was one of violence, there was no problem. All agreed how bizarre the value system is, to accept a scene of violent sex in preference over consensual, pleasurable sex.

Garth was proud when one of his books was banned due in the U.S. It was due to coarse language, strangely citing many words that didn’t occur in the book. He advises, though, that the forces who come out to bat for challenged books are usually more powerful than those who try to ban them.

He then advised that if you’re going use swearing in your book, don’t make it on the first page, as that seemed to be the trouble with his book. Amie helpfully informed us that it won’t be a problem if you can postpone it until after the first 50 pages. It seems the automated scanning for such things stops at page 50. I’m wondering if all authors start using this information, will the scanning algorithm be changed to random pages? There has to be a librarian joke in that, but I’d better not go there …

Isobelle: “I have to admit, one of my proudest moments was having one of my books burned.” It was a European town which she later visited. Ah, fandom.

My quote award goes to Garth Nix, who provided so many succinct quotes over the day, for this:

GN Banned

Many thanks to Festival Director Cat Sparks for an excellent day, and the staff of the NSW Writers Centre for all their work. Thanks also to all the tweeters who captured so much of the wisdom of the day, especially Tehani Wessely who storified the day’s tweets, which you can find here.

If I’ve left things out or made any mistakes, please add them in the comments.

Links: Websites

Marianne de Pierres
Garth Nix
Richard Harland
Isobelle Carmody
Amie Kaufman
NSW Writers Centre

Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Dystopia, Fantasy, Science fiction, Writers Festival Book, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, Aussie setting, Books, Dystopia, Fantasy, Garth Nix, Myth, Paranormal, Science fiction, Young Adult
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