Adventures in teen literature

[lizbee]

I am currently reading Joel and Cat Set the Record Straight, a teen novel by Nick Earls (Brisbane's leading author of lad-lit) and Rebecca Sparrow (Brisbane's leading author of chick-lit).  As I loathe both authors' work in general, you may ask why I'm trying to read their teen fiction.  Answer: it was free.  I'm a simple soul at heart, really.

Anyway, it wasn't a bad read for the first few chapters, despite an overwhelming desperation on the parts of the authors to be seen as Being Down With The Kids.  This mostly expresses itself in the form of cultural references that are already out of date, like Paris Hilton's musical career.  It lost me, though, when the seventeen-year-old male protagonist describes a restaurant as "being on the verge of taking itself too seriously".  I consulted with people who used to be seventeen-year-old males, and the consensus was that at that age, they would have been more interested in whether there was food, how much, and would there be tits.  Also, what kind of wanker goes around saying that about restaurants, unless he's a food critic or Gordon Ramsay, etc.

On a related note, I was playing my favourite game of reading one-star Amazon reviews, and I found one for a Judy Blume book -- Just As Long As We're Together, I think -- which said, "With its themes of parental divorce and separation, this book was totally unsuitable for my sixth-grade daughter". 

My parents separated for the first time when I was in the fifth grade, and I had this delightful mental image of myself saying to them, "But you can't break up!  It's not age-appropriate!"

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

The former seventeen year old boys in my company might've been ones to say "that restaurant took itself way too seriously." But probably not "on the verge." Also, there probably would've been swearing, waving of arms, and some comment about the food to accompany it.

"HIDING TRUTH FROM MY CHILDREN ENSURES THAT THEY WILL NEVER EVER SUFFER IN LIFE!" I want to collectively beat these parents.

[kerravonsen]

What is your icon from? I've been wondering for a while.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

It's from a photoshoot Billie Piper did for Mansfield Park, a plain series of photos of her posing with an old book. I have some of the images in hi-res, revealing that the book is blank and she bites her nails.

[melengro.livejournal.com]

I remember my mother reading me Do I Have a Daddy?: A Book for Single-Parent Families when I was two and a half years old. That was when I finally understood the hitherto-mysterious concept of 'fatherhood' and also why it had been so mysterious to me. I can't begin to imagine what would have happened if I had said 'But mommy, it's not age-appropriate for me to know what a daddy is and why I don't have one!'

[marymac.livejournal.com]

My17-ear-old cousin would probably say something like that but he's...him. And would be taking off Gordon Ramsay. Death metal drummer wannabe chefs do such things.

So, fifth grade is, what, 11? If she's managed to shield her daughter from the very idea of divorce until now I am in awe. There were three people in my year with divorced/separated parents by the time I was 11 and that's in Ireland. Such parents are stupid. And the kid probably knows a hell of a lot more than her parents would like to think. I hope she does.

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

But my parents and I have such happy memories of the nail-biting finish to the divorce referendum campaign of 1995 when I was 11!

(And yes, Donegal North-East has pulled into the lead, and that's a strong help to the No side, but... wait! wait! Is that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown closing in? Why yes, yes, what a majority! And Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown's sliding into the finish now, and ooh, it's still a close one, but - and it's over! The constituency of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has secured overall victory for the Yes team with a nationwide margin of less than half a percentage point!)

[infiniteviking]

I have occasionally wondered whether my parents' antipathy to anything but the traditional-happy-family sort of literature stemmed from trying to prevent anything else through blind denial.

Such such is life.

[bewarethespork.livejournal.com]

I'm not a huge fan of Nick Earls' work - had to read Forty-Eight Shades of Brown for English in Year Ten and have never forgiven my English teacher for that - but I met him once, when I was in Year Seven, and I remember him being a really nice, incredibly funny guy, so he gets a pass from me.

(Also, my parents have been fighting since I was three, possibly earlier. I now have this image of three-year-old me running in between them during an argument and yelling, "Stop! You can't do this until I'm old enough!" I blame this mental image on you.)