NEWS: The Harsh Change of Teen Lit, Or "I Want to Fuck the Boxcar Children"

Huzzah for FLB!!

Yeah, I was always a "Rumble Fish," "Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack" kinda guy. I'm not sure though if I feel happy or sorry for kids if this is any indication they might end up like myself.

I first read Girl Goddess #9 when I was 13, and she made me want to be a writer. I just read Weetzie Bat again and she still makes me want to be a writer. I love her so much and I am so, so happy to hear she's getting that award. Aces.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 2:28PM]

When people go by names like "Space_Travel" and "apesamongus" or whatever, I don't see a difference between "reality" and Block's novels...Stranger things have happened than babies born out of wedlock or gay and straight couples living together in LA.
...And it's nice to know someone's sympathetic to me!

If you've ever read "Nancy Drew: Mystery of Pimps Up, Hos Down", you'd know that this type of story telling is old news.

Seriously, the books are good.

'any book is a children's book if the kid can read.' - mitch hedburg

Oh, so full of hate reading this thread. I will keep those hateful comments to myself.
That article is very misleading and downright incorrect. (Agreed, what pimps?)
There are no actual sex scenes, or detailed depictions of drug use. The conception of Cherokee wasn't dealt with as "group sex" or even sex at all. It was conceptual in that she was everyone's daughter.
The names are part of the fairy tale. Some of them have particular meanings.
There is no "seediness" at all... the author of this post made worse assumptions than the article. There are dark things that happen, strange sadnesses and evil temptations. Block's books are urban fairy tales, and these things are the wolves and evil queens of the modern world. And they are dealt with as such.
She's not even close to edgy or controversial.

Furthermore, i would hardly even consider her books best described as Young Adult, although that is how they are labeled. I think they are written for the youth inside every adult. I can't quite explain it any better than that.

There is no torture in FLB! That is a bunch of shit. The story of Cherokee's conception is more akin to a woman choosing insemination without marriage. I wish that people would actually read the books/at least the back of the book or the inset, before posting on books they have never read. True the book deals with neo-Nazi's (one character is badly beaten at a club), incest ( a child is molested by a photographer who's pretty much made a career out of it, a girls anorexia is linked to her father raping her), coming out to parents, living with a transgendered parent, and group parenting, but kids (take that word at any age you like) deal with this stuff.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 by tffny]

Parents Against Bad Books blocks Blocks Books

try saying that three times fast...

i agree with m0use, i haven't read all of her books but of what i've read there is no seediness to them whatsoever. i don't want to repeat what was said already because i couldn't put it better so i will just leave it at that.

I liked the first Boxcar Children book, before it became a mystery series.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 by Jeff_Fries]

And it would be nice to be able to stop calling them alternative.

But the Religious Right hates the humanization of alternative lifestyles. They are able to keep their power through promoting hatred and fear. If everyone started thinking of homosexual and/or transgendered persons as people instead of deviant sinners, the zealots (sp?) would lose that power....




edit: poor choice of words.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 by datsun]

group sex is a problem with the youth of today...

a very sexy problem

Well, I can tell you this much. I have been researching young adult novels for the past 3 years. I'm not familiar with the work of Francesca Lia Block. But I can say that I have found that young adults are big fans of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Steven Chbosky which is a work of fiction and “Please Don’t Kill the Freshmen” by Zoe Trope which is a memoir. Trope’s novel is pretty honest and gives a pretty realistic view of “young adults” these days with material that some parents don’t like, according to the Amazon reviews but in my opinion that’s because parents don’t want to think about their teens making out, using the f-word and drinking.

I swear that I’m not trying to plug my book every other thread but this particular subject is close to me because my project which is coming out in June is a very honest, true “coming of age” young-adult memoir. It is a positive book that will undoubtedly have some effect on young adults’ as I was suicidal and a cutter. There is some sexual content and some drug experimentation but the ending is happy and healthy.

Ok I’ll stop plugging. I do have to say one more thing about it. DigDug designed it. He’s the brilliant man who designed the SG book and he fucking made my book better than I could have ever imagined (it’s richly illustrated). Anyway. I’ll shut up now. Promise.

You mean who'd have thought that a person making a sweeping comment about geography and attitudes toward censorship might have any idea about the economic and political demographics of Fairfax

It's not because I live in Virginia. It's because I'm tired of ignorant statements. even about a (very small) group of totally misguided parents on a media crusade.
/tangent

and I love Block's books too. though I don't think I would have *felt* them the way I can now back when I was thirteen...

PS. I totally learned about sex from the Clan of the Cave Bear books.

Oh hell yes.
When I was a kid, my family tried to keep me from reading the books they did. Of course, I now know that they were only trade paperback mysteries, but still...
I will never tell my children what they can or can't read.
Even if group sex is involved.

[Edited on Feb 24, 2005 by softreply]

I've always looked at books as self-censoring. That is to say, if you can read it and enjoy it, then you're old enough to read it and enjoy it. Still, the Boxcar Children...I remember being read that story in first grade. I don't think it's in the same category at all. That's a flat-out children's book, not young adult. I think of YA as being something that involves things like murder and suicide, though sexual situations were sort of skirted around or dealt with with innuendo in the few traditionally YA books I read when I was that age.

I doubt I'd really encourage a 12 year old to read these things, but I wouldn't try to stop them either. I mean, I found my dad's porn stash when I was in my early teens and read Penthouse Forum. I doubt they're more explicit or retarded than that.

Edit: I should read the thread before I post anything. From what people are posting, it sounds as though a lot of the seamier elements of these books are innuendo, as opposed to being explicitly stated. That's fine; it adds a layer of depth for adults when they read the books.

The thing that intrigues me here is the "fairy tale" aspect people mentioned. Can someone expand on this so I don't have to do any actual research or expend any energy or think at all? I'm extremely lazy, and would appreciate your accomidations. Are these sort of magical realism books, or do they just take the form of fairy tales within the confines of the real world? Because I'm a fantasy/sci fi geek, and I can't say I really give two shits about some YA soap opera, but I do love fairy tales something fierce.

[Edited on Feb 24, 2005 by TedKoppel]

You gotta love that there's a group thats against "Bad books in schools". I'm personally against bad books anywhere, but schools seem to have an overabundance of them. Perhaps their definition of a bad book is a little different, I'm talking about books that just plain suck.

The YA being 18-25 freaks me out though. I totally skipped over YA books I went from like childrens books when I was in like 3rd grade to fully fledged adult books. I've found that most stuff categorized as YA is just poorly written crap, although I never read any of this particular author's stuff so I can't say either way here.

I've been reading and rereading blocks work since I was 13 years old and I never grow tired of her beautiful stories. I think its the perfect combination of real life and fantasy. Her books aren't afraid to address issues that actually affect young adults, and she does it in a non threatening way.

true, however,

freedom of speech and press is all well and good, but too often such things are taken for granted, and teachers or parents don't put such books into the proper context, and the point behind them is lost in the fantasy of the reality for the young and impressionable..... you cannot simply expose kids to everything there is in the world without supplying them with a rational viewpoint and reasoning to help them understand why....