Contrary Brin: Science Fiction for Young Adults: A Recommended List

[deborahjross]

David Brin's list of science fiction for young adult (teen) readers, with comment about each one. He also suggests some authors as the next step toward more challenging reading. What else would you include? Or leave out?

My favorite part of the list is the repeated comment, "Any book by this author will please a bright teen."

Contrary Brin: Science Fiction for Young Adults: A Recommended List

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

[rant on]

He loses me with his first sentence, alas. Because if you're going to insult a large subportion of the genre you're making recommendations in as your starting point, well, you may score points with those outside the genre, but you've shown a limited understanding of those who read within it.

And the idea that YA is something you read until you transition to "the really thoughtful, grownup stuff ..." No, no, no. Like too many adult SF/fantasy writers, he sees YA SF/fantasy as this little adjunct of his adult sf/fantasy world, instead of as a vibrant genre of its own that has been functioning independently of it for some years now, and so preaches at it without at all understanding it.

I'm going to go hang with all the actual bright teens I know in the vampire swamps, thanks very much. Because those swamps themselves are interesting, and because you can get to all manner of interesting places from there, even if vampires aren't your thing.

[/rant off]

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I agree totally that there is much objectionable in Brin's post. Otoh, he's been active in promoting sf in middle and high schools for some time now, and he has name recognition and creds that open academic doors. When he creates such a list, it has the power to influence the buying and book-recommending choices of a lot of high school English teachers. That's why I think it's worth discussing.

I wonder how we can open a discussion so what gets put out there to the schools/libraries/teachers is more balanced. Not to mention respectful of the sophistication and "seriousness" of contemporary YA literature. Do we really want him as the only spokesperson?

[janni.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure our schools and librarians are unbalanced. I mean, no, kids aren't reading Heinlein (which might not be a bad thing--Heinlein has aged badly), but they are reading SF/fantasy, a lot. And there are organizations such as YALSA that are working to help get quality books of all genres, including ours, to teens, and I think librarians listen to those folks a lot more than to an adult SF writer who few teens have heard of and who is hung up on books so clearly out of date.

Brin's name recognition is in the adult world, I think; it's not really a name to conjure with in YA. And the need so many adult SF/fantasy readers seem to think is both desperate and that he's helping to meet, is already being worked on and advocated for through other channels much of the adult SF community seems unaware of.

Because, you know. They're not our channels. And the books kids are reading through them, while genre, aren't the books we've read as kids.

I think adult SF/fantasy readers who want to reach out to teens need to start by learning what teens are already reading, and why, rather than going on crusades to substitute in older, more dated books for that reading simply because we think they're more worthy.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

You've convinced me.

I think your point about "they're not our channels" is an excellent one. Some authors, either by innate temperament or an inflated sense of importance due to academic or commercial success, are all too happy to present themselves as authorities on things they know nothing about, blissfully ignoring that there are others who do know about those subjects.

I'm not an expert on current YA by a long shot, but I have read a little, and I was struck by the absence of those works and authors I've loved. True, most of them were fantasy and I'm really not into grim, dystopic sf, no matter what the target audience.

Just because we fuddy-duddies loved certain books and authors when we were teens does not mean these are the only ones out there. And you are so right about Heinlein. I never liked him -- if I had not stumbled upon Andre Norton, I'd likely never have gotten into sf -- and the older I get, there more I see to actively dislike.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I don't know YA SF anywhere near as well as fantasy (YA fantasy is very, very healthy indeed), but Phoebe North, who reviews YA SF, has a pretty good column on the state of same. I think it's not all grim and dystopic. (And also, that not all that is dystopic is grim, and not all that is grim approves of what it needs to be grim about.)

Current teens' children won't like what their parents read, either. :-) Tastes change, and what feels relevant changes. It's just what happens.

I doubt most of us in our 40s, 50s, or 60s were reading what our parents read, either. I know I wasn't ...

I should did through YALSA's lists. I keep thinking they have a YA SF list.