JULY 2010 LIBRARY COLUMN
By: Mona Clark
As summer vacation begins your library would like to say "thank you" to the 2009-2010 Teen Advisory Group. This year's members, Joanna Davies, Shawna Naklicki, Marissa Nebreda, Alexandra Dixon, Chrissy Trudel, Kelly Nebreda, and Matthew McDonald added their contemporary voices to our collection development and helped out with programs and fundraising.
This is also the perfect time to focus on the books that are part of young adult culture. 2010 saw the passing of J. D. Salinger, the author of what is still perhaps the best-known young adult novel of all time, The Catcher In The Rye. This ground-breaking novel written in the free-flowing vernacular of a teenage boy gave young people an authentic voice that had been absent in literature, and influenced the way authors write for people of all ages. Catcher In The Rye paved the way for many cutting edge writers of fiction for and about young adults, but Salinger's influence is particularly noticeable in books like Sapphire's Push and Russell Banks' Rule Of The Bone which are driven by hip, realistic narrations.
Young adult and tween fiction has become big business in the publishing world in recent years. Wildly popular series like Gossip Girl, It Girl, Twilight, Madison Finn and Mates & Dates are being swept off bookstore and library shelves. However, away from the mainstream of the best-sellers lists, there are many hidden gems written for young readers and I would like to feature those titles this month.
Lost among fantasy epics by Kenneth Oppel, Christopher Paolini and J.K. Rowling is David Almond's esoterically beautiful Skellig. Amidst the trauma of moving to a new town and having a critically ill infant sibling, 10 year old Michael finds a strange winged creature living in his decaying garage. The being, at first seemingly beast-like and frightening changes into something very different when Michael and his new best friend see it for the first time in the sunlight. Is Skellig a bird, a man or an angel? This novel, winner of an American Library Association prize for excellence is worth reading regardless of your age. It is ripe with honest depictions of serious illness, family dramas and ultimately the healing powers of the unknown. Another of my favourites in the young adult fantasy genre is Canadian author Andre Alexis' Ingrid And The Wolf, an arcane blend of Little Red Riding Hood, and Never Cry Wolf. On a visit to Hungary, 11 year old Ingrid finds companionship in the form of a wolf while learning about her unsettling but exciting family legacy.
If you are a parent looking for empowering reads for your teens and tweens in the sea of materialism-driven popular fiction, I recommend Witi Ihimaera's Whale Rider and Scott O'Dell's Island Of The Blue Dolphins. Whale Rider is the story of a contemporary Maori girl who is heir to the chieftainship of her tribe. To earn her rightful place, she must fight battles with the encroaching modern world and with her grandfather who does not believe that a girl has what it takes to be a tribal chief. Gifted with determination and the sacred ability to communicate with whales, Kahu proves her merit and sets out to help her people regain their ancestral heritage. Loosely based on the true story of a woman who was rescued from a small island off the coast of California in the 1800's, The Island Of The Blue Dolphins follows the trials and triumphs of a young Native American girl and her brother who are left behind to fend for themselves when their small tribe boards a ship full of foreign explorers and never returns. Karana's brother dies shortly after the story begins and she must learn to hunt and forage for food, to find and maintain her own shelter and most difficult of all, to keep her sanity and remain tenacious in the face of abject loneliness.
An equally compelling story of isolation and survival in modern times is Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now. Set in contemporary society, a teenage girl hoping to escape the mad rush of New York City heads off to vacation with her British cousins in the English countryside. Not long after Ann's arrival, a major war breaks out, a modern war that does not only involve gunfire and bombs, but biological weapons as well. A series of events leave the young people without adult supervision or care and for a time the story teeters somewhere between The Lord Of The Flies and Peter Pan. Few adult authors have portrayed adolescent politics with such candor and honesty and in the beginning, fear of the future and the struggle to survive are overtaken by the children's simple joy in living with no rules or expectations. When the reality of their situation, and the fate of the world set in, Rosoff's heroes and heroines do not disappoint. They pull together with an impressive amount of camaraderie and innovation.
I could not end this month's column without mentioning my favourite young adult novel of recent years: Susanne Collins' The Hunger Games. In the not-too-distant future in a reality-television obsessed world-gone-mad, the hottest show on t.v. is a horrific combination of Survivor and The Most Dangerous Game where an annually filmed series pits 24 government appointed contestants against one another in a competition which only one will survive. This incredible book brings to mind too many classic predecessors to mention, but if you are an adult who enjoyed The Running Man, Atlas Shrugged, or 1984, don't overlook this novel because of its young adult classification. If you are a teen looking for a wild ride of a book that will make you reconsider some of the trappings of popular culture, read The Hunger Games.
In August, application forms for next year's Teen Advisory Group will be available. If you are between the ages of 12 and 19 and are in grades 7 to 12, stop in and join this enthusiastic group. Make sure that your voice is heard in our Teen Zone!
