Column: Books and Writing
Dear Jennifer Byrne…
Dear Ms Byrne,
Did you know that if the manuscripts of To Kill A Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye were pitched today, they would most likely be marketed to the young adult readership? Now, imagine if that were the case and you didn’t review either book on your wonderful program, simply because it had a ‘young adult’ label attached. Think if you never met Holden Caulfield or Scout Finch, and only because they were young people telling their coming-of-age stories.
With that horrible thought in mind comes the reason I am writing to you today. I love The First Tuesday Book Club, but I think your program is long overdue in representing and reviewing young adult (YA) literature. You had such a great segment on Jennifer Byrne Presents in 2012, titled ‘The Harry Games’. It was a really wonderful show that was choc-full of Aussie greats: John Marsden, Melina Marchetta, Steph Bowe and Morris Gleitzman talking all things YA and highlighting what a powerful readership it has become. But now I think you need to present what you preached.
Clearly, your reading audience are already on-board with this idea, as evidenced by your 2012 ‘10 Aussie Books to Read Before You Die’ list. Two young adult books were voted onto that list by your fans: Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief and Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones. You even said, Ms Byrne that these books being YA didn’t matter: ‘we’ve gone past that stage. We all read all books.’ We do, but your Book Club only reviewed those two because your fans voted for them.
Another book to crack the Top 10 was Australian children’s classic The Magic Pudding, which prompted panellist and Wheeler Centre director, Michael Williams, to note that Australia has a ‘particularly rich tradition’ of wonderful children’s literature. Australia does indeed have a proud literary history, founded on children’s and YA books. It might be nice to pay homage to some classics like They Found a Cave by Nan Chauncy, The Watcher in the Garden by Joan Phipson or Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park.
But don’t think that Australia’s best literature for young people is in the past or only appeals to Australians. The Michael L. Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that recognizes the best book written for teens, based entirely on literary merit – and Australian authors have a proud history with the illustrious award. In 2009 Melina Marchetta won for On The Jellicoe Road (which is currently being adapted for the big screen). In 2007, Sonya Hartnett was a Printz Honor nominee for Surrender, and Margo Lanagan has twice been honoured, in 2006 for Black Juice and 2009 for Tender Morsels.
But perhaps the most important award lists to pay attention to are those voted by actual young adults, as opposed to their literary gatekeepers. The Inky Awards were created by the Centre for Youth Literature, and are perhaps the most significant YA book awards in Australia because the shortlist is partly chosen by teen judges, and the voting is done entirely by teen readers. The Inkys are the truest representation of what young adults are reading and loving today – and to that end you should definitely review 2012 winners Shift by Em Bailey (winner of the Australian gold Inky) and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (winner of the international silver Inky).
I am a really big fan of The Book Club, Ms Byrne. But I’m also a lover of young adult literature, and I really think your show needs to start better representing a readership that has long produced some remarkable talent and is responsible for igniting a reading passion in many people, both young and old. Even the New York Times had to create a bestseller list specifically for Young Adult books – further proof that literary institutions are starting to sit up and take notice of YA, and it’s high time you did too!
I’m not saying you should turn the ‘Book Club’ into the ‘Teen Book Club’ (though that would be fabulous!) Just remember that today’s young adult book could be tomorrow’s Catcher in the Rye classic.
Sincerely Yours,
Danielle Binks
P.S. Marieke Hardy may need some convincing on the YA front – after all, she did criticize Zusak’s book by saying ‘it reads like a Young Adult novel. It’s a simple, saccharine way of telling a story.’ Of course, she’s entitled to her opinion. But such a misguided statement would suggest that Ms Hardy hasn’t actually read much young adult fiction. Please give her copies of Salvage the Bones and Sea Hearts (and kindly inform her that Margo Lanagan’s latest YA offering made the Stella Prize longlist). Hopefully these books will prompt Ms Hardy to revaluate her literati snobbery.
Danielle Binks is a Killings columnist and book reviewer on her blog Alpha Reader, with a particular interest in children’s and young adult literature. She is also Digital Editor at Spinifex Press, and is currently working on her first young adult manuscript.
18 Responses to Dear Jennifer Byrne…
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11:49 am, March 19, 2013
Hear, hear.
Australian authors are exceptional well regarded critically and commercially and should be discussed more in the media. The Book Club needs to start waving the YA flag.
Late last year Publishers Weekly found that 55% of people purchasing YA are adults. 78% of those adults are purchasing YA for themselves. Something to ponder…
12:13 pm, March 19, 2013
I also concur. One title in particular I would commend for review on The Book Club is Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield. This book is simply breathtaking and a tour de force by the author. It is what quality YA is all about here in Australia (along with Justine Larbalestier, Scot Gardner, Doug Macleod, Lili Wilkinson, etc, etc, etc…). YA has been neglected too long by the mainstream media. Time for The Book Club to pick up some slack!
1:01 pm, March 19, 2013
Can someone tell me what is allowed to be said about YA novels these days? Seeing as though it’s considered rude or incorrect to suggest they might have simpler story lines etc? What is the difference between books targeted for teenagers and books targeted to adults??
2:21 pm, March 19, 2013
You can say anything you want about YA….just make sure it is informed. If you’ve read widely enough in the YA category you’d realise it’s hardly literature featuring “…simpler story lines”.
2:28 pm, March 19, 2013
Well said, Danielle, and a wonderful call-to-arms!
If the Book Club incorporated a greater representation of YA among its regular offerings, perhaps we could start judging books by their literary quality rather than their marketing tag!
2:39 pm, March 19, 2013
Can you hear all the cheering, wolf whistling and applause out here in reader-land? Many of these wonderful Aussie authors including the very lovely and extremely talented Margo Lanagan would perhaps also add that their work has simply been classified as YA but its readership is in fact all encompassing and its stories timeless. As for The Book Show, the juicy repartee between Jennifer and Marieke adds to my viewing pleasure but hey, even Marieke was a teenager once! Oh, was that a dare Ms Hardy?
2:51 pm, March 19, 2013
Hi Danielle, just so you know The Hunger Games will feature soon… I know, because I sent the panel the books. I know it’s not Australian YA, but I thought I would mention as it is YA and was one of the winners of the Inky Awards a few years back.
Also Michael Gerard Bauer was pitched to go on for his Ishamael series, unfortunately was dropped at the last moment (reasons unknown by myself) but the team are in contact with me about children’s literature.
5:37 pm, March 19, 2013
Hi again Adele. Just the question is met with such defensiveness and I am trying not to offend anyone. I am asking for someone who knows about YA to give me some informed comment about how it is definable against adult fiction? And why should I read YA books when I am not a YA? If I should, then I am genuinely wanting to know why I should. That’s all. Or if the category is indefinable, why is it a category?
8:40 pm, March 19, 2013
I believe that it is adults who want labels. Teens just want story. YA is a category that loosely envelopes stories written from a teen perspective in a time of change. Within YA every genre is represented, sometimes several. There is literary YA, commercial YA, sci fi YA and paranormal YA etc. New Adult is a further subset that is emerging that represents the YA voice post high school, pre-career. They are all marketing constructs.
YA is typically moves at a quicker clip and has a tighter narrative structure. Reading choices should be driven by your own interest. If you aren’t interested in reading some of the stories (amazing ones have been suggested by Danielle and Sue) then maybe YA isn’t for you.
But why should you read YA? If not, you’re missing out on some of the most amazing writing talents (in any category) in Australia. Sonya Hartnett, Margo Lanagan, Marcus Zusak, Melina Marchetta, Cath Crowley…. Reading is subjective but it is nice to step outside of our own boundaries every now and again. While I love YA (and it is my career), I also read non-fiction, literary, romance and fantasy. Variety is the spice of life.
Hope this answers some of your questions.
9:27 pm, March 19, 2013
Adele, I tip my hat to you :)
And to ‘writer’ – I’d just like to point out that you may have already read some YA novels without even realizing it (*GASP!*).
Often what’s marketed as ‘young adult’ in one country, will be targeted to adults in another. Such was the case with Zusak’s ‘The Book Thief’ and Silvey’s ‘Jasper Jones’ – both of which were labelled as YA in Australia, but in the US/UK were aimed at adult audiences.
And the same way that the ‘Harry Potter’ books found an adult fanbase, so too have some adult novels found a young adult following. Check out YALSA’s ‘Alex Awards’, which is a list of novels “written for adults that have special appeal to young adults”.
Adele is quite right – it comes down to labels and anyone who thinks ‘YA’ means “not sophisticated” or “simple” (to borrow Ms Hardy’s word) just needs to be a little more open-minded and expand their reading landscape. The ‘YA’ label is not a warning-label equivalent to “You must be ___-old to read & enjoy” Stories are about human connection, and we were all young once – that’s why adults can read ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and relate to Holden’s jaded youth, or sympathize with Scout’s changing world view in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.
I do like what Jennifer Byrne said: “We all read all books.” It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.
10:09 pm, March 19, 2013
Who has time to read all books, Danielle? We all have to pick and choose. And there is no need at all for the GASP! I’m pretty sure I know what I’ve read.
Adele, thank you for the thoughtful reply.
7:39 pm, March 20, 2013
Writer, you’re taking comments very literally and not quite “getting it.”
Own up to who you are and put your name to comments.
10:16 pm, March 19, 2013
Yeah, sure, we were all young once, but some of us are actually not that interested in youth. I find adulthood far, far more interesting and do not understand people fixated on youth and childhood. Zusak and Silvey’s books were decidedly for children. And, as for Harry Potter, really???
I’m with Marieke Hardy who I suspect is repressing what she really thinks about YA books. She likes most to read about dysfunctional adults getting pissed and shagging. She is not interested in the angst and/or fantasies of children.
10:16 pm, March 19, 2013
I think because YA can be a market and can be a genre descriptor, it can be confusing.
Originally YA referred to the market – basically teenagers from about 13-20 who have outgrown children’s books, but are still keen to read books that reflect their own inner and outer experience. However publishers have been noticing for a while that while teens do read YA so do a lot of adults. In this sense, YA has started to be considered a genre rather than a market, as the market doesn’t fit the originally intended demographic.
As a genre, YA books tend to be character driven. YA novels tend to focus on a young protagonist who is making sense of the world and their own identity, which is apparently in a state of flux. They can be fantasy, realism, literary, pulpy…they can be light or dark, they can be “issue-y”, they can be philosophical, or just tell a good story.
As an author of YA novels I don’t particularly “research my market” (my publisher doesn’t hold focus groups with local teens), I just write books I want to write about characters I am interested in. My most recent novel Only Ever Always is written in first, second and third person. It has two girls in parallel worlds and at its heart is a philosophical quandry. It is not an easy read, and I never intended it to be – it’s a novel for readers (of all ages). I described it in my head as a “children’s book for adults” as I wrote it. It’s published as YA because it is about 2 young protagonists navigating first experiences of grief and love though the girls are quite young (13ish), but I don’t think it is necessarily only for the young.
For my money, Australians write some of the more interesting and edgy YA and always have. As well as the ones already mentioned I recommend Joanne Hornimann, Ursula Dubosarsky, Simmone Howell, James Roy (especially his fabulous short story cycles Town and City), Neil Grant, David Metzenthuen, Karen Healey (NZ)…and, well, lots of others.
10:21 pm, March 19, 2013
As a fellow grownup lover of YA lit, I really enjoyed reading your letter.
I agree wholeheartedly that YA has been neglected by the mainstream media, and I would love to see it change, but I don’t think The Book Club is the best place for this discussion to take place.
Given the way they spoke about The Book Thief and Jasper Jones I am genuinely interested to know why you would like to see them discuss more YA books. I had really looked forward to that episode, and I was absolutely gutted to hear the things they had to say about some of my favourite books.
I am all for discussion and different opinions, but I would hate to see them dismiss authors like Melina Marchetta, Margo Lanagan or Kirsty Eagar the way they did Markus Zusak and Craig Silvey.
If they could call The Book Thief ‘saccharine’, do you really care what they think about other YA greats?
I would much rather see a fresh approach, where YA is discussed by people who read it and appreciate it for what it is. Maybe you and Adele should get out your cameras and start a YouTube channel?
10:43 pm, March 19, 2013
Funny, I don’t think Jasper Jones is YA, because I don’t think the protagonist learns anything or changes or grows as a result of his experience. He just observes the crappiness of the world – that’s adult fiction to me. It’s more “coming of age” like To Kill A Mockingbird.
Book Thief is on my teetering To Read pile of doom so cannot comment there.
7:35 am, March 20, 2013
Penni, I don’t think Jasper Jones is YA either – I heard a rumour that Craig Silvey and/ or his publisher declined to have it short listed for the older readers category of the CBCA awards. As I say, it’s a rumour, so it probably isn’t true. I don’t really see The Book Thief as YA either – I tend to think it was published as YA in the US because his previous books had success in that market.
In the end, of course, the only labels that really matter are the books you like and the books you don’t.
This is probably the biggest reason it bothered me to hear TBT called YA like it was an insult. So what if a book is YA – what does that have to do with if it is good or not? The Magic Pudding is a book for younger readers, and no one said it shouldn’t be on the list because of that.
I just find that Marieke has a very narrow reading taste, and isn’t able to add much of value to the discussion of a book she doesn’t enjoy.
7:27 am, March 20, 2013
Nice one, Danielle.
I’m constantly baffled by the lack of respect for YA in the industry. I’ve talked about this too many times to do it again at length, but hope this gets everyone talking again about the incredible literary choices out there for YAs – a damn important readership.
Read Jo Horniman’s My Candlelight Novel, MT Anderson’s Octavian Nothing. Alyssa Brugman. Penni Russon. And more, and so much more.