Hey, all you Children's-and-YA authors (and parents of smallish ones) - do you read 'An Awfully Big Blog Adventure'? Over there today Meg Harper is bewailing the focus on getting boys to read at any price, and citing the increasing poo-and-fart books taking over the shelves. One of her commenters says that all the rest seem to be 'social issues' books. When she asked what had happened to losing yourself in a good story, she was told 'it's a waste of time'.
Have a look and tell us what you think....
1 comment:
I'm not sure I agree actually. Meg seems very sincere but I just can't say the same thing. Surely some kids fiction for that age range has always been that way, both for boys and for girls? I'm thinking Roald Dahl for example - his poems are disgusting! And rude too - do you remember the one about Red Riding Hood whipping a pistol from her knickers?! And the moment when then BFG belches in front of the Queen - fantastic! If children find those kinds of jokes funny (and adults too, let's face it!) then why not cater to that? Perhaps I don't read widely enough with the age range she is talking about here, but I haven't personally come across a huge number of books like this - there are a few, for sure, but there are also loads that aren't all about toilet jokes. Mr Gum for example - extremely popular, but I don't think there's any in there. Same goes for Tommy Donbavand (although I'm very new to his writing) and he writes expressly for boys aged 7-9. Incidentally, I'm reading a book called Swim the Fly at the moment and it's brilliant - a YA aimed at boys (I assume) - genius and hilarious - WITH significant amounts of toilet humour. Had me giggling on the bus like a right eejit. I think probably kids have enough to deal with in real life - why not let them be silly?
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