The value of children's fiction

[Conchis]

This is an interesting point. Young adult fiction writers are allowed to write about anything but not anyhow*. I imagine the person you knew wanted to write about the subject of her/his choice without compromising or ‘cheating’. I wonder why s/he wanted to write for young adult readers.
* especially if it makes adults uncomfortable

french frank
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I'm with ff (now there's a surprise!) here

At the risk of sounding sexist, at the time of writing, she was somewhat of a 'girly' woman, who worked with teenagers and related to them better than she related to people of her own age. The choice of the YA genre was almost certainly informed by the people she mixed with.

[doversoul1]

At the risk of sounding sexist, at the time of writing, she was somewhat of a 'girly' woman, who worked with teenagers and related to them better than she related to people of her own age. The choice of the YA genre was almost certainly informed by the people she mixed with.

That was a pity. Maybe when she has more/other experience and can put her experience with teenagers in perspective, she may have something to offer others to read.

I imagine many forum members who, as children, enjoyed reading but not exactly prodigious readers felt lost when they had read all Narnia books, all Arthur Ransome, or most books from Oxford Children’s Library, and found nothing between these and Somerset Maugham or Henry James.

(If you know all about these things, please ignore the rest)
Back in 1970s and the early 80s, publishers made effort to cater for these readers by creating series such as Puffin Plus (Goodnight, Prof, Love was, I think, a Puffin Plus), Methuen Teens and other similar series. These series had some very good books but they were definitely children’s books, and as such other than teachers and specialists, these books did not attract adults’ interest. I won’t go on about the new breed of young adult fiction but amongst the books about gruesome dystopia, teenage pregnancies or family betrayals and murders etc. there are many excellent books that are written for older children from 12/13 up to 16 or thereabout. If anyone is interested in books for older children, some of the following may be worth reading although they are not the latest publications and the choice is entirely based on my taste and opinions. If you do read any, please remember that adults, young or otherwise are not the intended readers.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeves
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
The Hunted by Alex Shearer
Frozen Fire by Tom Bowler
Clay by David Almond
Tamar by Mal Peet
I am a Great Horse by Katherine Roberts
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine

[vinteuil]

I imagine many forum members who, as children, enjoyed reading but not exactly prodigious readers felt lost when they had read all Narnia books, all Arthur Ransome, or most books from Oxford Children’s Library, and found nothing between these and Somerset Maugham or Henry James.

... I think I found a lot to read as a teenager (not sure whether "Young Adults" existed in the 1960s), between Arthur Ransome and Henry James*. As we lived in a time-warped household, it included - Arthur Conan Doyle (not just Sherlock Holmes), Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, GK Chesterton, Saki, PG Wodehouse, Jules Verne, Aldous Huxley, Wilkie Collins...


[ * ... actually I didn't 'get' Henry James until I was in my forties... ]

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[Conchis]

That was a pity. Maybe when she has more/other experience and can put her experience with teenagers in perspective, she may have something to offer others to read.

I imagine many forum members who, as children, enjoyed reading but not exactly prodigious readers felt lost when they had read all Narnia books, all Arthur Ransome, or most books from Oxford Children’s Library, and found nothing between these and Somerset Maugham or Henry James.

(If you know all about these things, please ignore the rest)
Back in 1970s and the early 80s, publishers made effort to cater for these readers by creating series such as Puffin Plus (Goodnight, Prof, Love was, I think, a Puffin Plus), Methuen Teens and other similar series. These series had some very good books but they were definitely children’s books, and as such other than teachers and specialists, these books did not attract adults’ interest. I won’t go on about the new breed of young adult fiction but amongst the books about gruesome dystopia, teenage pregnancies or family betrayals and murders etc. there are many excellent books that are written for older children from 12/13 up to 16 or thereabout. If anyone is interested in books for older children, some of the following may be worth reading although they are not the latest publications and the choice is entirely based on my taste and opinions. If you do read any, please remember that adults, young or otherwise are not the intended readers.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeves
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
The Hunted by Alex Shearer
Frozen Fire by Tom Bowler
Clay by David Almond
Tamar by Mal Peet
I am a Great Horse by Katherine Roberts
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine

When I read it, it was under the Peacock imprint of Penguin Books. Peacock was a series that began in (I think) the late sixties and lasted throughout the seventies, though hI could be wrong. It sounds like Puffin Plus superseded it.

I also read Catcher In The Rye in a Peacock edition. That was probably near the raw edge of what you could give you teenagers in those days (I was 11, when I read it, of course).

[vinteuil]

When I read it, it was under the Peacock imprint of Penguin Books. Peacock was a series that began in (I think) the late sixties and lasted throughout the seventies, though hI could be wrong. It sounds like Puffin Plus superseded it.

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... ah yes! Peacock books.

http://www.penguinfirsteditions.com/index.php?cat=mainPK

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[doversoul1]

... ah yes! Peacock books.

http://www.penguinfirsteditions.com/index.php?cat=mainPK

.

Ah, yes. Peacock books. I think The Greengage Summer was that too.

[ed.] when they were published (in print), I wasn’t here. How well read/popular were those books?

And, yes, detective stories of all sorts as well as (classic) science fictions. Looking back, I must have been a very late developer. I was still holding on to Rosemary Sutcliff at the age of 14/15.

I read this book some yeas ago. I might read it again.

The Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Child-that-Books-Built/dp/0571214673/ref=sr_1_1?Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=37&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9&__mk_en_GB=%C3%85M%C3%85Z%C3%95%C3%91&qid=1557155493&refinements=p_28%3AThe+child+that+books+built&s=books&sr=1-1&unfiltered=1

[ * ... actually I didn't 'get' Henry James until I was in my forties... ]

Let’s say Graham Greene then

[Conchis]

I've had my memory jogged. Peacock published an anthology volume called Is Anyone There? around 1977, in association with the Samaritans. It was aimed at preventing teenage suicide. It was a very strange book - for some reason, it included an interview with Pete Townshend (of the Who). But it also included an astonishing story called, iirc, 'Steve' by a female teenage author whom the anthologists had been unable to trace. It had originally won a short story competition back in the early sixties. I can remember thinking it was amazingly accomplished.

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/is-anyone-there-peacock-books/GOR005501401?keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwtr_mBRDeARIsALfBZA69pExYZGYO9ZUK_mz6lk0RaHU2sM25GnQiStn-cQyl8WOCvj8v6QsaAh3bEALw_wcB

[doversoul1]

I've had my memory jogged. Peacock published an anthology volume called Is Anyone There? around 1977, in association with the Samaritans. It was aimed at preventing teenage suicide. It was a very strange book - for some reason, it included an interview with Pete Townshend (of the Who). But it also included an astonishing story called, iirc, 'Steve' by a female teenage author whom the anthologists had been unable to trace. It had originally won a short story competition back in the early sixties. I can remember thinking it was amazingly accomplished.

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/b...saAh3bEALw_wcB

That’s very odd. I have a copy of 1986 reprint in Puffin Plus but neither the interview nor the story you mention are included. There are 17 stories and there is no mention of revised or second edition. I wonder what happened.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30191624801&searchurl=sortby%3D17%26tn%3DIs%2Banyone%2Bthere%253F%26isbn%3D0140320466%26an%3DMonica%2BDickens&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image1

[Conchis]

That’s very odd. I have a copy of 1986 reprint in Puffin Plus but neither the interview nor the story you mention are included. There are 17 stories and there is no mention of revised or second edition. I wonder what happened.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/B...-srp1-_-image1

I may be misremembering the title but it was definitely a boy's first name, like 'Steve' and the final two sentences were 'And Steve walked. He walked home.' Try checking the ends of the stories and let me know if it's there! :)

I remember thinking that the Townshend interview was a bit anomalous in a work for teenagers published in 1978 as PT was by then nearing his mid-thirties and didn't have much 'teen appeal'. Maybe they dropped the interview because it was no longer relevant? I seem to remember he talked a lot about Meher Baba in it.

[teamsaint]

I may be misremembering the title but it was definitely a boy's first name, like 'Steve' and the final two sentences were 'And Steve walked. He walked home.' Try checking the ends of the stories and let me know if it's there! :)

I remember thinking that the Townshend interview was a bit anomalous in a work for teenagers published in 1978 as PT was by then nearing his mid-thirties and didn't have much 'teen appeal'. Maybe they dropped the interview because it was no longer relevant? I seem to remember he talked a lot about Meher Baba in it.

https://sutcliff.fandom.com/wiki/Is_Anyone_There%3F

Any help ? This is the first edition with the PT stuff.

[Conchis]

https://sutcliff.fandom.com/wiki/Is_Anyone_There%3F

Any help ? This is the first edition with the PT stuff.

It was 'Tommy'. Thanks! :)

[Conchis]

https://sutcliff.fandom.com/wiki/Is_Anyone_There%3F

Any help ? This is the first edition with the PT stuff.

The other story I remember well is Jan Marks' I Was Adored Once, Too - very funny and very touching, centred on a high school production of Twelfth Night.

[doversoul1]

It was 'Tommy'. Thanks! :)

Yes, That is in the new edition too. Thank you!.

..and what an interesting site this is!

https://sutcliff.fandom.com/wiki/Sutcliff_Wiki

[ed.] I’ve just read Tommy. What an amazing work for a 15-year old. Unsparing until the end which I think is perfect for teenage readers. I wonder what happened to the author Angela Irene Stratton.