Sunday, August 4, 2013

“Issue Books” for Kids

A common complaint I hear about YA and middle-grade novels lately is how saturated the market has become in "issue books." Whether it's drugs (Crank), facial deformities (Wonder), terminal cancer (The Fault in Our Stars), or losing a sister (The Sky is Everywhere), books for kids have gotten heavy.

Hazel & Augustus from The Fault in Our Stars

And I think that's a good thing.

Kids are going through heavy stuff. Honestly, they always have — life doesn't wait until you're 18 to throw stones at you. I went through some heavy things myself, and I could have used a few "issue books" as comfort and guidance. Instead, my library had books about dragons and tesseracts, or cheesy teen romances that culminated in (gasp!) illicit kissing. Most of the novels in the "young readers" section of the bookshop seemed to be written by adults who had never been young themselves. Childhood is innocence, they seemed to say — and we must keep our hands over those pretty little eyes.

While the adults were writing for sweet Ophelia (pre Act IV), many of us were dealing with real slings and arrows of misfortune. I survived a fatal car accident, several friends were enduring sexual abuse, and a handful of my classmates found their lives so unbearable they committed suicide. For me, not only would a book like The Sky is Everywhere have helped me, but if my friends had read that book, they might have been more patient with my loud, unending, wrenching grief. They might have been able to stick with me, instead of running away in panic.

And vice-versa: when a close friend told me her stepdad was molesting her, it had pretty much never occurred to me parent-figures could do that. So before I learned to believe her, to listen, to support — I recoiled. If I had read a book about that particular horror — which is unfortunately common — I'd have had a frame of reference. I wouldn't have been so shocked, wouldn't have said so many wrong things. I might have been a better friend.

Wonder author RJ Palacio with 8th-grade fan Michelle
Fiction builds empathy. Steven Pinker even argues that fiction is one of the major causes of the decline of violence we've experienced. When we read about a character going through an experience, we incorporate their viewpoint for a while. We can't know absolutely what it's like to be a child bride, or a terminal cancer patient, or a gay teen with Pentecostal parents; but when we listen to stories of these people — real or fictional — we come closer. The empathy gap narrows, and those "strange" people no longer feel so strange or scary. We are less inclined to hurt or marginalize people we empathize with.

I am not saying there's no room for lighthearted fiction — and the glut of heavy books about specific issues threatens to exclude books about universal issues. What makes Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret such a perennial best-seller is its timelessness: every girl gets her period. We need books about relatable kids dealing with everyday problems. We also need silly-light books like Diary of A Wimpy Kid. Some emerging writers for kids and teens are being told by agents that unless their book has a dead parent* or a suicidal friend in it, they won't publish it. That's a shame, because even kids who are going through a bad time want, like all of us, to rest their hearts with other subject matter from time to time. Variety is good.

Steubenville rape case: real life is often worse than fiction

Some of my friends worry that books like Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, about date rape, will be too upsetting for their child. They worry their son or daughter will be damaged by reading about such awful issues: their kid doesn't know about stuff like that, and they don't want them finding out about it from a book. To be sure, Speak is not appropriate for the elementary school set. But it might be more
appropriate for middle-readers than parents realize. Eighth-graders are teenagers; sexual assaults do happen in junior high. And anyway: how else do you want your kid finding out about date rape? First, innocence is not protective. Second, parents are typically unequipped to have serious discussions about these issues, unfortunately: too often we find ourselves saying, "Erm—don't do that, OK?" and moving swiftly onward to safer territory. That, or we get so preachy our kids tune us out. The parental voice is necessary, of course, but novelists who delve into these issues tend to do a lot of research on the subject, and can bring an honesty that readers will trust. If it's well done, an issue book will usually teach readers effective ways to handle difficulties.

Rather than be alarmed at the number of issue books out there, I believe we should celebrate the opportunities these books give kids: readers can dip their toes into lives less privileged than their own; they can get a taste of virtual sorrow before real sorrow hits them. Fiction is a gentle teacher, far gentler than experience: the bad stuff will happen. Stories give us a way to navigate those waters.

What do you think about the growth of the "Issue Book" industry? Are some issues overdone, or depicted badly? What's missing from the shelves? What book do you wish had existed when you were a kid?



*Speaking of dead parents — as kid issues go, that one's pretty rare, yet a huge number of realistic-YA books deal with this topic. Conversely, we have a dearth of books about child sexual abuse. We are starting to see novels about date rape, which is good — news stories like Steubenville illustrate the need to write about that topic. But child molestation is a different issue, and seems to be untouchable at the moment. Tens of thousands of children are sexually abused every year in the US, often by relatives, and they have no narrative right now. Novels about these kids not only will make them feel less alone, but will start conversations. Kids might even feel safer disclosing their secrets, and those who could help them will be more equipped to do so. A good novel about an issue can do more to help than a hundred PSAs.

22 comments:

  1. As you say, life's troubles don't wait until you're 18. I think any book (or any artistic medium) that addresses its audience as intelligent and sophisticated people has a better chance of long-term success. Children's and YA literature is no exception.

    I do think there's a place for that book about tesseracts, too...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did love A Wrinkle in Time, so I have to agree with you about tesseracts!

      Delete
    2. I do agree with your broader point. There is a lot more variety in the market than in our day and that's a very good thing. The Harry Potter books were, without a doubt, a huge catalyst for print media in general. A lot of kids started reading because of that series. But they don't work for everyone. My daughter wasn't overly impressed. We had to look elsewhere to find her hook.

      As I wrote before, kids are a more sophisticated audience than most realize. They don't need to be told what to like. There should be different books to suit all of them.

      Delete
  2. I don't have a particular opinion about most YA books, because I don't tend to read many YA books. I don't like the present trend of doing everything in 1st/present or, even, just 1st. In theory, I agree that books that deal with these issues is a good idea, but I can't make a statement beyond that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1st/present does seem to have taken over completely, and nowhere more so than in YA. Middle-grades, not so much. Which is kind of funny, since you'd think the two would be similar.

      Delete
  3. I am all for the trend of "issue books." These books create a place where kids can go, at their own speed, to experience issues that their parents are unequipped to handle easily. But maybe the most important thing that you say is that there must be variety. A steady diet of issue books would be depressing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "A steady diet of issue books would be depressing." Yes it would. I'd hate for these books to be the only ones in the library. I did a quick peek at the current Top Ten list for YA books in the New York Times, and it was fairly evenly divided between "issue books," universal-problems books, and speculative fiction. Point of interest: John Green wrote four of the ten. (!!!)

      Delete
  4. I suspect there is a way for novelists to decrease the incidence of hate without depicting it. This cannot be easy or without emotional and intellectual cost to the writer but I believe it exists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, I'm not sure what you mean about "incidence of hate" here. Do you see issue books as being primarily about hate? Of the YA books I listed above, only "Speak" deals with something one might call "hate," although that's probably not the right word either. The others deal more with grief (that's a biggie) and alienation; the endings are generally positive.

      Delete
  5. Reading through this post, there are a couple of things that stood out to me:

    1) I'm glad to see a change in the YA landscape. I was at the library just the other day and decided I'd review a YA book. There was a veritable smorgasbord of fantasy and dystopian novels and I gave a long sigh. Yes, these escape genres are good every once in a while, but I just feel sorry for teenagers when this is all they seem to get inundated with. "Issue books" making a comeback (because I believe certain issues have been addressed in YA in the past, but have been going through a long dry spell) is a good thing. It's nice for a kid to see that he/she is not alone in what's going on. Fantasy and dystopian just don't do the trick!

    2) The subject of molestation and sexual abuse isn't touched upon much because most agents who represent YA are very clear on their websites that they don't read or represent those types of books. I've seen this on multiple agents' sites. Like you, I find that somewhat bewildering since it is a major problem this day and age. I have shades of it in my family's history and I've often wondered about writing a book on it. I also think that this topic tends to be a pretty hard topic and gets pushed into the adult category. After all, where do you draw the line with some issues and how they're written? If they're too graphic, should they be shelved in the adult section?

    Thanks for highlighting this subject, Steph. It really does make one think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How interesting that agents explicitly refuse to take on that topic: so it's not just that writers aren't writing about it, then. The industry is deliberately shutting out these books. What is going on with that? I saw what you saw in the YA section of the library — loads and loads of speculative fiction, which is almost always about teens fighting some sort of giant war. (Hunger Games, Divergent, Delirium, Legend, etc etc), and those novels can be pretty brutal. Next to those books you have "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins, and that whole trilogy pulls no punches about drugs. "The Fault in Our Stars" is about kids with terminal cancer — which hardly happens to any kids, but they still get a book about it. And yet child sexual abuse is a taboo topic? By definition it happens only to kids, so there really ought to be books about it for kids. Grrr. (I know, I'm preaching to the choir here! Thank you for harrumphing about it with me, ha.)

      Delete
    2. As to agents' refusals of sex abuse books, I'm not 100% sure why most outright say they don't represent those works, but I have to wonder if it has something to do with the criminal landscape today (in the U.S. at least). They might not be willing to touch books like that because there is such a heightened awareness over what gets passed around online and they don't want to find themselves at the wrong end of some sad and awful investigation. I really can't say I don't blame them, but, yes, how does the literary world go about bringing these topics to teens?

      Delete
    3. A couple of things came to mind as I was reading these comments:

      1. Like Sister Mary says, I believe issue books are making a comeback. There were a lot of issue books in the 70's, darker than in later years, it seems. "Go Ask Alice" and "Ode to Billy Joe" for example. Alice really shakes you (as a teen AND as an adult) but I believe it has a good/impactful anti drug message.

      2. Steph, you mention dystopian books that deal with brutal situations like teens who must fight for their lives. The difference with the issues you mention (molestation, rape) is that these are rooted in the real world (as opposed to the fantasyland of the Hunger Games, for example) and therefore are more difficult to handle (for the reader AND the writer). This may be one of the reasons why they're not being written (rather than a ban of some sort.)

      Delete
    4. You're the second person to mention issue books from the 70s (the other person was on my FB wall). I guess I'd forgotten about those, except of course Go Ask Alice and the Outsiders, which have remained perennial favorites. I agree the unreality of dystopian makes the violence seem less scary. But there are a number of realistic books on rough topics, too, like Ellen Hopkins' "Crank" trilogy. While you don't want to hand the wrong book to the wrong kid at the wrong time, I can't imagine too much real damage coming from the reading of a book. If a book is too hard for a child to handle, I really hate to think what life is going to do to that kid.

      I wouldn't have thought there was an actual ban, either, except what Mary Mary said: that agents refuse to handle books about that one particular subject. Date-rape and drug-abuse books are ubiquitous, but there are hardly any books about child sexual abuse. Why is that?

      Delete
  6. Wow. I LOVE this analysis of issue books! I wish all the people out there who say that "children" shouldn't read anything heavy could see this. The thing is, teens do see a lot of stuff, and I'd rather prepare them through fiction than have them suddenly confronted with something awful and have no frame of reference for how to deal with it. Perhaps if their parents read the same books and talked about it with their teens it would ease their minds a bit AND be a good learning experience AND strengthen the connection between kid and parent.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Caryn! You have echoed my thoughts precisely.

      Delete
  7. I personally think issue books are great. It allows teens to research those types of things through written words to avoid the embarrassment of "asking" someone. I think it's a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those are also good points, OE. And I think a widely-read book can even change a culture, making something previously acceptable, like date rape or bullying, into something totally unacceptable. And then teens feel they have a right to speak up, and a chance at being heard and protected. One can hope, anyway.

      Delete
  8. I don't have kids, so I might not quite understand why some parents oppose books that deal with difficult issues, but I think it would be great to have a book introduce issues to kids and teens so that I, as a parent, could talk to them about it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's certainly how I feel about it; my sense is that many parents feel they are protecting their children by keeping them in the dark about the bad things of the world. And of course, it's not like there's a simple answer to the question of how much to tell a kid, and when. I just think in recent years we may be erring on the side of overprotection (in many ways).

      Delete
  9. I struggle a lot as a parent trying to find a balance between giving my kids realistic information about the world and preserving some of their innocence. As much as I'd like to keep them innocent and protected I see the value of knowledge, and what better venue than fiction? After all, storytelling has always served the purpose of sending a message and cautioning kids, right?

    Excellent, thought-provoking post, Sister.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! My own kids go back and forth between reading realistic fiction (sometimes fluff, sometimes an "issue book") and speculative fiction; I make recommendations to them but it's interesting watching what they settle on. Just this week my son has alternated between Hank the Cowdog, a series he has loved since he first learned how to read (and which is way beneath his reading level now), and first two "Divergent" books (he blasted through them in three days). I'm surprised he hasn't got literary whiplash! :) I used to control his reading material, but now that he's in middle school I let him — and his big sister — choose what they want to read. Though I do know which books they are reading and what they're about.

      In fact, my 11th grader chose to read, on her own, "Half the Sky," a nonfiction book about women's oppression in the developing world and how to end it. I read it after her and I was thrilled, proud, and horrified to think she'd read those words. Talk about an issue book! It pulls no punches in discussing rape, prostitution, genital mutilation, and obstetric fistulas. And she read it! Voluntarily! Wow. If you'd told me even two years ago she'd choose to read book like that, I wouldn't have believed you. She is becoming quite the activist. I'm very proud of that, even if it means I don't have "my little girl" anymore. *wistful sigh*

      Delete

Disclaimer: The views expressed on this blog are the sole responsibility of each sister and do not reflect the opinions of the entire sisterhood.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.