Juvenile Literature

Currently, I am in the middle of reading a trio of books labeled Young Literature in the bookstore.  They are by Jeanne DuPrau, and the series is called Book of Ember.  The first is "The City of Ember" [2004, Yearling, New York] followed by "The People of Sparks". [2005} and "The Prophet of Yonwood" [2007], a prequel.  A fourth is due out September, 2008.

It's an interesting, well told story, and I am enjoying reading them.  As I said, I am about half way through the second.  The impetus for this post, however, is not the story itself.  It is more about how these books became labeled "young reader" literature, and how some people react when an older, senior citizen asks for them in a bookstore.

When I first went into a bookstore, I looked in the science fiction/fantasy section for the books.  None were there, so, I asked the clerk whether the author, Jeanne DuPrau, could be ordered.  She looked in her computer, and then led me to the "young Reader" section.  Two of the books, the first and third were there.  She would order the middle book for me.  Then she asked me how often I read juvenile literature.  I was surprised at the question, but managed to say something like "I read anything that I think is good, regardless of its label."

I recently had a similar experience with a couple of the guys I golf with.  They were very surprised to hear that I had read every one of the Harry Potter series.  I told them that they are good stories, well written, and both my wife and I enjoyed them all.

Yesterday I was in another bookstore.  The clerk was shelving books, and we got to talking about the Star Wars series and associated paraphernalia that goes with it.  She is a Trekkie, and takes extra special care of the Star Wars section of the shelves.  Then we talked about Harry Potter.  Then, I mentioned that I was reading The Books of Ember, and she too asked me how often I read  juvenile literature.  She, it turns out, reads juvenile literature regularly, though she had not read DuPrau.  We talked for a while about how some adults would never even consider reading a book labeled young literature.

I wonder when, perhaps how would be a better word, people become so label conforming.  It's not only in their books, but in many areas of their life.  Good writing is in every genre.  A.A. Milne wrote a lot of children's books, and the lucky person is one that remains transformed at 60 by his words as he was, perhaps more so, at 6.

I hope that I never get so rigid that I cannot read and enjoy "young literature."  A good book can lift me, carrying me to places that don't even exist.  I don't always like them, but invariably I am changed by them.

Comments

[Felix Grant]

I feel a blog post of my own coming on ... in the meantime, I absolutely agree: what matters is the story, and whether it is a good one well told, not the label attached to it.

Of course ... having myself recommended /Ember/ in enthusiastic terms to all and sundry, I /would/ say that, wouldn't I? :-)

(A fourth and final part of the sequence is due out later this year, by the way, returning to follow Lina and Doon into their new world after the events of /Sparks/: /The Diamond of Darkhold/)

When you've finished the /Ember/ sequence, I also recommend Philip Reeves' /Mortal Engines/:
http://sammysdot.blogspot.com/2004/06/mortal-engines.html

[Felix Grant]

FG> I feel a blog post of my own coming on ...

It later duly came on, at:
http://sammysdot.blogspot.com/2008/04/juvenilia-feminism-love-and-other.html

[Felix Grant]

PS: Apologies for mentioning /Diamond of Darkhold/ when you'd already done so ... obviously I wasn't reading properly...