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oyceterShayla's twelve and living in a poorer section of Houston with her mother and her sister Tia. She wants to be a writer, but the poetry classes she wants to take at the community center get cancelled; she loves her sister, but Tia's been hanging around a boy lately and pissing off their mom; and she's found a new friend, Kambia, only Kambia tells strange stories and seems to be in a lot of trouble.
This sounds a lot like a problem novel and feels like one in places, though I'm still not sure if I would classify it as such. It addresses issues like teenage mothers and poverty and abuse, but I was surprised and pleased by how the Tia plot played out. Then again, the resolution of the Kambia plot was obvious from the very beginning, and I could use with fewer "very odd friends who tell stories" characters.
I think what ended up saving it from being a problem novel was how real Shayla felt, particularly her relationships with her mother, grandmother and sister.
Not a horribly exciting book, but not a bad one either, and I'm curious enough to check out the sequel.
On a side note: how do you guys define a YA problem novel? And how can authors balance including issues in their books without making the book into a problem novel? Because I do think it's important to address things like class and race and sexuality, but I hate anvils.
This sounds a lot like a problem novel and feels like one in places, though I'm still not sure if I would classify it as such. It addresses issues like teenage mothers and poverty and abuse, but I was surprised and pleased by how the Tia plot played out. Then again, the resolution of the Kambia plot was obvious from the very beginning, and I could use with fewer "very odd friends who tell stories" characters.
I think what ended up saving it from being a problem novel was how real Shayla felt, particularly her relationships with her mother, grandmother and sister.
Not a horribly exciting book, but not a bad one either, and I'm curious enough to check out the sequel.
On a side note: how do you guys define a YA problem novel? And how can authors balance including issues in their books without making the book into a problem novel? Because I do think it's important to address things like class and race and sexuality, but I hate anvils.
(no subject)
Thu, Feb. 28th, 2008 06:53 pm (UTC)OTOH, I love problem novels. I think they're a brilliant genre: like everything else, there are weak examples (which I also usually enjoy, in a trashy sort of a way) but a good YA problem novel is one of the greatest things in life. Where you say:
how can authors balance including issues in their books without making the book into a problem novel? Because I do think it's important to address things like class and race and sexuality, but I hate anvils.
I would say that 'anvils' are the symptom of an unthoughtful, formulaic problem novel, and that problem novels are all books which take an issue/ social problem (teenage pregnancy, eating disorder, gayness, non-monogamy, whatever) as their starting point. But I think I am probably the only person trying to reclaim the term, so feel free to ignore me...
Great problem novels of our time:
Deborah Hautzig, Second Star to the Right (anorexia)
Cynthia Voigt, When She Hollers (really interesting deconstruction of the abuse-novel genre, not sure if it's successful in the end)
Everything by Jacqueline Wilson ever (has she made it over there? She is the most popular author in the UK by about seven million miles. I have some reservations about her but mostly I just really love her so I tend to stuff the reservations into the back of my brane)
Jenny Pausacker, What Are Ya? (sexuality, including - and this is the good bit - heterosexuality)
Laurie Halse Anderson, Prom
... nothing else comes to mind, though. Will think more about this, though - thanks for prompting me to do so!
(no subject)
Fri, Feb. 29th, 2008 12:05 am (UTC)I think I get what you're saying re: the Williams. I liked the focus on Shayla, because the dilemma between breaking confidences and helping a friend felt very real and because I generally think talking about things like abuse and depression are important, but yeah, it's definitely not Kambia's story. I'm curious to see how she follows it up in the next book, because I want to see how Kambia is.
I keep wavering between using "problem novel" just to describe the anvilly ones and using it to describe the subgenre that does deal with issues and social problems in general! Right now I am leaning more toward the latter.
I don't know if Jacqueline Wilson's out here! I will have to check. And oooo, I had no idea Voigt wrote a deconstruction of the abuse-novel genre, awesome.
(no subject)
Fri, Feb. 29th, 2008 03:58 am (UTC)