The first three paragraphs of this article about M.T. Anderson (who was previously unknown to me) really, really strike a chord with me. I touched on it a little with my very first entry about Twilight and how I think we should be giving youth a lot more credit for intelligence than adults tend to. I was not nearly as pointed as this:
“If we’re going to ask our kids at age 18 to go off to war and die for their country, I don’t see any problem with asking them at age 16 to think about what that might mean.”
The article goes on to discuss Anderson’s works, his philosophy on writing for young adults, and how he came to be a writer — typical things for an author profile. But what really caught me is that he’s an author writing for young adults, explicitly, who writes books that seem as though they might be a heck of a lot more challenging and complex than a lot of the supposed adult fiction I read.
I think part of what gets me is that we can see just how responsible and intelligent kids can be — for example, last week’s presentation about youth who are interested in social justice and activism — and yet many people still want to protect them and shield them and tell them they’re somehow “not ready” to be given responsibility. Including the responsibility of reading whatever they would like to read — be that Twilight or Octavian Nothing. Maybe I’m an idealist (okay, yes I am) but I tend to think that the more responsibility a teen is given, the more responsible they will turn out to be. I know this isn’t universally true. Heck, it’s not even true for some adults. But still.
Curious to know if anyone has read anything by Anderson, and what they thought?
Posted in Collection Development, Reading and Literacy, Representations of Youth, YA Literature Tagged: authors, M.T. Anderson, teen responsibility, washington post
I haven’t read Octavian Nothing yet, but it’s on my list. I loved “Thirsty” — a smart and funny vampire novel that gives new meaning to coming of age. And “Feed” is one of those books that stayed with me for a long time. Has anyone else read it? I’m considering putting it on the reading list for my first year undergrad class next term (FYI: Information and Its Contexts); I’d be interested to hear what you think.