Adults opinions on YA

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

ok before i start i am not belittling an adults view of YA at all.

BUT, why is it ( and not just on this forum) the focus of opinions people see as more hmm 'valid (?)' are from adults..and whereas and adult may be more able to comment on the grammatical style to the novel i think that in the case of YA books its the young adults opinion that counts for me after all it i them the author wanted to enjoy the book.

 

[Alia]

Carlotta... I'm sorry hun, but I'm lost in your statement. Let me see if I can understand it...

why is it ( and not just on this forum) the focus of opinions people see as more hmm 'valid (?)' are from adults..

Experience, Adults have more experience. Not saying that kids, young adults, or children might not. But it's more likely that adults have experienced more in life.

whereas and adult may be more able to comment on the grammatical style to the novel

This is true...

i think that in the case of YA books its the young adults opinion that counts for me after all it i them the author wanted to enjoy the book.

Again, I think you're right! Opinion is important both from the targeted audience, Y A in this case, and from others such as adults.

So where's the conflict?

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

because i have to put up with ( and in this forum i'll admit i havent had anything said to me personally) but adults who because of experience ( which one would assume has little nessescity in a youth novel) seem to view the youths opinions as less important ...i'd argue it's the other way round

 

[Alia]

i'd argue it's the other way round

So lets take a logical approach to this...

Because an adult who has a more experienced life then a youth, opinion isn't as important as a youth's concerning Y A literature? Right?

This is regardless of the fact that to become an adult one must be a youth first.

Now, the youth's opinion is always taken in. I have a 15 year old and I listen to her needs. She will voice her thoughts to me and I listen. Then I analyze it. I point out things that might make her idea a not so good one... on the other hand I might tell her it's an excellent idea... go for it. As an adult, with more experience then a 15 year old, I analyze. I'm not always be right (and I will shoot the first person to tell my children that) but for the most part I'm able to think beyond the realm of a 15 year old.

There are many youths today that are mature and can do the same things as an adult... to them I have to say "Enjoy life in your youth. Adulthood is for the rest of your life."

Edit: Youth's ideas are important... any adult who shrugs off a kid doesn't realize they are a mini adult in the making.

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

understandalbe yes..However i know teenagers with greater knowledge and more life experience than most adults i am forced to tolerate.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

But part of that experience Alia is talking about includes being a young adult -- plus (one hopes) the perspective to look back on some of the things we did and felt, and understand them much better than we did at the time. There are adults who forget what it was like to be younger but I think it's a safe bet they aren't reading very much YA literature.

Besides, in a lot of cases YA is just a marketing term, and the writer didn't write the book just for young people. In which case, there is no reason at all why the book shouldn't be analyzed on adult terms by adult readers. And really, to say that a book should be judged only on the value it has for teenage readers is dismissive and insulting to the book and the writer, because that's as much as to say that the book can have no other value.

And frankly, it's not a good arguement for the validity of the young readers viewpoint to dismiss the validity of everyone else's.

edit -- Cross-posted with Alia, who already made some of my points. Carlotta, how do you know those adults had less experience than some of the teenagers you know? People don't always tell you everything that ever happened in their lives.

 

[Alia]

How can that be, Caroletta? How is it that teenagers have more experience being a teenager than an adult who has lived through the whole process???

Now granted, a youth might know more about being a teenager in this year then an adult. But overall, an adult has lived through all the teenage years and survived.

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

hang on
i didnt say that the adult readers opinion is not valid..merely that i think the ignorance of many reader in dismissing the Youth aopinion in YA fiction. i ALWA?Ys look at others views but it also mature to be critical of where someones viewpoint stems from.

and some teenagers go through more in there young lives than some adults will EVER have to contend with ( im just playing devil advocate with this but im hoping you can see the point)

 

[Alia]

and some teenagers go through more in there young lives than some adults will EVER have to contend with

This could be true for many teenagers and many adults.

Some adults need to learn to live while some teenagers need to learn to wait.

(And I understand that there are few teenagers who are forced to grow up, and that should be a crime)

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

i dunno.. i think some teenagers need to be forced to grow up...

before people start again..i'm not arguing with you... .

 

[Alia]

*giggles* I didn't think you were, Caroletta.

And I have a teenager who needs to grow up!

 

[BookStop]

i think the ignorance of many reader in dismissing the Youth aopinion in YA fiction. i ALWA?Ys look at others views but it also mature to be critical of where someones viewpoint stems from.

It is true that youth opinions are often dismissed by adults (though hopefully not by their peers). I see parents in the shop suggesting and buying titles for their kids/teens but when the kids/teens try and suggest a book to the parents I usually get the isn't-he/she-so-precious-thinking-he/she-can-suggest-a-book-for-me-smile. It's a little sad. I read a lot of YA so I try my darnedest to take 'em seriously and stick up for them (yes, old folks, kids, and everyone in between suggest loads of books to me every day) if I can, but I fear I am a minority.

 

[Alia]

It is true that youth opinions are often dismissed by adults (though hopefully not by their peers). I see parents in the shop suggesting and buying titles for their kids/teens but when the kids/teens try and suggest a book to the parents I usually get the isn't-he/she-so-precious-thinking-he/she-can-suggest-a-book-for-me-smile. It's a little sad. I read a lot of YA so I try my darnedest to take 'em seriously and stick up for them (yes, old folks, kids, and everyone in between suggest loads of books to me every day) if I can, but I fear I am a minority.

I was forcing my ten year old to read books and he was fighting me. I complained to his teacher that he wanted to read books that didn't challenge him. She replied back, "Does it matter what he reads as long as he reads?"

I protested telling her that all he wanted to read were Dragonball comics. She replied, "He's reading and that's all that matters."

*sighs* It was hard as a parent to let my kids pick their books, but I do it. I want them to be challenged... but they want it to be fun and that's how it should be.

 

[BookStop]

Ah yes. I really want my children to enjoy the same books I enjoyed as a child. My 7 yr old refuses to read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh even though I know he'd love it. My girls do the same thing with each other and their brother, try to force each other into reading certain books. Probably my bad example.

 

[Alia]

He'll work his way around to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. Might show him the movie first then show him the book.

I suppose the key to getting kids to read is to let them discover the greatness of it on their own and encourage them to read whatever they want.

My daugher reads nothing but horse books, fiction or nonfiction, it doesn't matter. So I let her buy her own books.

 

[BookStop]

He'll work his way around to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. Might show him the movie first then show him the book.

I tried that already. He loves the movie! Didn't work though. Maybe he's just not ready. He's been reading a Legend of Zelda book all summer. I bet he's read it 20 times already.

 

[jackokent]

My parents used to get me to read books by telling me they'd prbably be a bit too difficult for me or I wouldn't understand them. It was like red rag to a bull and I'd read them imediately. I only found out many years later that this was thier ploy.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Carlotta, your posts interest me. I'd like to hear the opinions you have about YA books that are being dismissed by adults.

(Oh, I just thought of something. Do the adults who write the YA books dismiss youths' opinions, too?)

 

[BookStop]

Carlotta, your posts interest me. I'd like to hear the opinions you have about YA books that are being dismissed by adults.

(Oh, I just thought of something. Do the adults who write the YA books dismiss youths' opinions, too?)

Like biting the hand that feeds you. I hope they don't.

 

[Mark Robson]

Interestingly, two young lads in Cornwall, England, (Tim and Christopher Cross) sought to drill home the very message that Carlotta started with - that young adults would be better writing some of the reviews for YA books. They started a website that offered reviews by teenagers for teenagers called Cool-reads. (www.cool-reads.co.uk) It took off in a massive way, and is now highly respected by schools and the media alike. The Times frequently ask the two boys to write articles for their arts section. There are school book suppliers who go to them for information on what books to put into their different selection boxes. Authors take the power of a good review on their site very seriously - I noticed Anthony Horowitz had a quote from Cool-reads on the cover of one of his Alex Rider books.

Having just looked at their site to refresh my memory, it looks to me as if the boys may have started to lose interest a little. It does seem a bit out of date now, but a couple of years ago it was one of the biggest UK sites for searching out YA fiction.

I would like to think there will come a time when reviews by this website will have as much respect in the SFF world, as Cool-reads had a couple of years ago in the YA world.