I have to admit I don't read Young Adult Fiction, but I love reading about it because perhaps more than any other type of literature, it points to where things are headed. In theory, it is targeted at readers 12 to 18 years old but the experts tell us a great many readers are considerably older. If true, that in and of itself says something about the nature of U.S. society at present and may help to explain certain electoral trends.
But anyway, who are the authors and what are they writing about? A recent edition of the New York Times Sunday Book Review contained a summary of four books targeted at Young Adults by authors who hadn't written one previously. They are illuminating.
The first, "Every Body Looking" is by first-generation Nigerian-American writer and dancer Candice Iloh and it is about a young Nigerian-American woman who isn't happy about her body, in part it seems because she was sexually abused as a child. Moving forward, thanks to a question posed by a dance teacher, we are told she explores such things as artistry, divinity and sexuality. That reminds me a bit of Dante's "Commedia" and especially because Ms Lloh's book contains poetry.
In the words of NYT reviewer Jennifer Hubert Swan, "this blazing coming-of-age comet will have everyone looking up." How's that for a blurb?
The second book, "Cemetery Boys," is by Alden Thomas -- self-described as a queer, trans Latinx who prefers the pronoun "they."
"Cemetery Boys" is described as a "supernatural romance" set amid East Los Angeles Latinx culture and the chief protagonist is a 16-year-old gay-identifying trans boy. Latin American witchcraft (here identified as the brujx community, brujx being a word that apparently includes both the male "brujo" and the female "bruja" practitioners) is central to the story and, not surprisingly, there is a lethal secret "festering" within.
According to Ms Swann, the story's queer paranormal romance is depicted within a lavishly detailed blend of Latin American cultures and, among other things, deals with cultural appropriation -- definitely a timely topic in the age of cancel culture -- the stale, old culture, that is.
"Windows into the intersecting Latinx and L.G.B.T.Q. experience are plentiful here and the opportunities for discovery and discussion are endless," says Ms Swan.
"K-Pop Confidential," the third Young Adult title under consideration, was written by Stephan Lee, a Korean-American, and the chief protagonist is a Korean-American teenager named Candace Park who lives in -- oh, no -- New Jersey. We'll she's not long for the home of Bridgegate when, after taking a tryout on a whim, she ends up in Seoul and the now dazzling world of K-Pop where the glitter is apparently at least somewhat offset by stalker fans and social media backlash.
Ms Swan summarizes this one as "a frothy bubble tea of a book." That's a drink that apparently originated in Taiwan as opposed to South Korea (is there such a thing as Tai-Pop?), but one gets the idea.
Lastly, there is "Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf," by Haley Krischer, a Jewish writer and journalist, about a high-school girl who is raped by a school sports star (soccer rather than football -- itself a sign of the times) upon whom she has had a crush. Behind all of this, in an author's note, are the Congressional confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a painful episode in Krischer's life.
In the end, according to Swan, the book is more about female bonding than about retribution for the crime of rape, but at the same time "this novel serves as a sobering reminder: the fact that consent is being discussed in the classroom doesn't necessarily mean it's being enacted in bedrooms."
I previously wrote about rape and YA fiction here.
So there you have it: a list commendably devoid of any white male authors and one that deals with topics you won't learn about watching re-runs of "Leave it to Beaver." This is presumably the new world in which American children are now growing up.
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