Developing understanding of teen/childrens literature

Warning: may contain rambling...............


Teenage fiction, to my now fading memory of school and of being a teenager I’m pretty sure our school had a ‘young adult’ (YA) reading section rather than ‘teenage fiction’ that would have been to obviously directed at us and we wanted to be young adults above teenagers, when this distinction came I’m not sure but I do remember the books in the YA sections were certainly not the teen fiction Burgess mentions, somehow point horror and romance are not quite in the same category as junk in terms of content. The other books were mainly bigger, wordier books often just more accessible adult books rather than a directed teen fiction, though thinking on it teen fiction is really only of appeal to those just reaching their teens, wanting to be seen as more adult and reading more adult literature, for example despite being called ‘Just 17’ the average age of the magazines readership is the lower end teen market of 13/14 year olds so much so that these "tweenagers" (aged 9 to 13) have created a market of their own as far as magazine media is concerned and may be a more likely teenage fiction audience.

Authors like Jk Rowling and Philip Pullman would fit into the young adult category more so than teen literature as they are authors who manage to satisfy both adults and children alike but are not seen to be writing for this transitional age of early teens specifically and not challenging them with characters of their own age in situations they have little experience of, the realms of fantasy are not explicit and cannot suggest a reality to them, Burgess by making his characters of a similar age to his intended readership manages to hits this market, controversially or otherwise and bring together the ideas needed to aid a transition from more childish and fantastical storytelling to a more adult subject matter and a little read realism.

It would be wrong to suggest that Burgess breaks new ground, junk pushes the boundaries on what can be expected of the genre of 'teen' fiction, Judy Blumes Forever (1975) was published at a time when censorship was rife and in writing of first teenage sexual encounters and the use of contraception in books not just aimed at young adults and the teen market but read by the young adult market who had been brought up on her children’s books, "commonly considered the first YA book to deal with teen love and teen pregnancy. Although Bradbury press infuriated Blume by advertising the book as Blumes first adult book, forever... is a young adult novel; it soon made its way into the teen audience" by the time she had written forever Blume already had a large following often tackling taboo subjects head on in books written for primary age children and almost as her career has progressed she has written increasingly more adult theme work (she has currently settled into writing adult literature)
Burgess is therefore not unique in stirring up controversy and has not chosen to use it as a platform to become known, otherwise he is likely to have taken the step into adult fiction rather than continuing to write for the teen market and find subjects that need to be addressed in his own truthful style, there are weaknesses to the reality of Junk, some of the language seems a little unlikely for a streetwise child 'a monstrous lie' would sound okay in lord of the flies but seems to be an adults view on teen slang. What is useful about Burgess is his ability and want to defend his work and his reasoning for writing, he backs it up with confirmation of having seen true events, it is a shame as he himself points out, that it is the adults that do not seem to understand the point of junk, one of his school talks was cancelled midway through the day due to an adult compliant about the language used, language Burgess was keen to point out that is pertinent to the book and to the age of the children nothing not heard in a 15 rated film.

You could say that fictional portrayals of teens successfully addressing difficult situations and confronting social issues helps readers deal with real-life challenges, the controversy that comes from books like junk is as much down to ignorance as it is to content, those adults that complain the most about their children reading it have obviously not read it themselves, personally I enjoyed it from a critical perspective but found it difficult to enjoy the disjointed morals of the characters, finding it difficult to empathise or even care if they get clean as the characters all seem to fickle and self satisfying.

Junk is an intelligently approached novel that deals with the reality and closeness of drugs to everyday life, the themes of addiction are dealt with but are not in any way glorified, Burgess has continued to choose controversial topics and is fortunate that his readership and not the parents decide to read his work. What parents need to really worry about are not the truthful writers like Burgess and Blume but the current heat magazine trend for celebrity styled and themed young adult literature.

'Gossip girl' has become a bit of a phenomenon in YA fiction, again read mostly by 13 year olds it tells stories of rich kids who have access to money, drugs and sex, glorifying it all the way through, with the exception of the trend for this kind of teen literature books are possible the safest place for teens to learn about sex, not so much the physical but the complex set of emotions that go with it, fictional characters allow the pondering of multiple scenarios, perspectives and situations to gain insight into this new stage they are entering.

Wolf didn't really tick all the boxes of teen fiction, true the main character is 14, she is sent to live with her mum in a squat because as it turns out her dad is IRA and on the run but due to visit her gran, all themes some may identify with, only one parent, having to move around a lot and look after themselves even not knowing their father. The IRA aspect will be confusing to this generation, leaving only the connection with the fruitcake of a mother (a possible hint to drug use) and the mystery to why she was sent away so quickly as a storyline, I’m not sure I would have identified with the character as a teenager meaning the book may have been lost on me, as it has been now.

Children’s literature is difficult to define at certain ages, generally a child character that’s easily identifiable with of the same age or slightly older than the reader seems to be important, adult characters tend to be the enemy or sometimes the eventual saviour, teen fiction is even more difficult to pin down though it seems the target audience is generally the lower end of the teenager category largely due to teenagers wanting to be adult and behaving in adult ways once they reach 15/16 and therefore have already ‘been there, done that’ with regards to teen fiction and feel that they already know it all.

There are certain periods within a Childs education that requires a different kind of reading and access to more truthful literature, not glorifying or consciously neglecting to mention certain facts of life and death, teen fiction for the transitional period from child to young adult does this at a time when they need the most guidance in the development of decision making and continuation of moral development. Some would say it’s the place of the parent to provide this structure and information to their children, we gain our morals from books so why let it end there with literature approached in careful styles picking up the slack.