“Coming-of-age literature is an overlapping set of art forms, all of which keep pressing against their boundaries. If this forces us to keep questioning ourselves and redefining our terms, that is just as it should be. The literature that deals with coming-of-age should be just as engaging, perplexing, complex, and changeable as the stage of life it describes.”

(Aronson)

From Gary Salver today in “Why Young Adult Literature Matters”: We need to “honor young adults and their stories.”

How true

Having just read The Gospel According to Larry I have had time to reflect on what a gospel that I might write would include. Things like, “When you’re going to kiss someone for the first time…” or “Make sure to floss at least twice a month…” Practical things, yet quirky… information that might not be included elsewhere. Random pieces of information that not a lot of people would know, yet would be utterly grateful to hear from my fingertips.

 Of course, then I realized that my random information quotient has become quite low. I used to be a potential Trivial Pursuit reality show winner (until I met a college friend, Melissa, who made it her goal to memorize TP cards). Unfortunately, somehow… my life has become full of more practical information. For example, it’s important to buy groceries about once every two weeks, so that you aren’t stuck with Ramen noodles or dry oatmeal. Or, you should listen to people who care about you when they make suggestions about your life, as annoying as they might seem at the time (the people or the suggestions). And finally, drink milk, even if you have to put chocolate or strawberry syrup in it… because you never know when you’ll end up with a broken hand after a too-crazy-to-believe sledding accident.

 And finally, you should read Janet Tashjian’s The Gospel According to Larry. The book is quick, fast-paced, and language driven. The narrator is one that young adults can connect with in his over-driven willingness to change the world and make Beth fall in love with him. Teens will find themselves captured by Janet’s rhythm and anti-consumerism rants through the voice of her previously mentioned unique narrator.

Plus, you get to learn the word for, “turnip-shaped” and who doesn’t want to know that?

Having just finished Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War, I am only slightly less speechless than after my completion of Lord of the Flies. Cormier creates a dark world from a setting (an all-boys Catholic high school) that one would consider complete darkness implausible without the hope of a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is an on-coming train. And while a few of the characters, Brother Jacques, Jerry, and Goober do stand out as light in this dark world, ultimately evil reigns with no hope of a sequel.

 Other than not having a happy ending (as I am a sap and an admitted sucker for a positive and even moralistic twist), the often two-dimensional characters frustrated me. Not until about page 200 did I find the characters believable in the setting in which they were located. The lack of strength in the characters, combined with the less than happy ending, and the often times hyperbolic metaphors were distracting; however, there is no doubt that Cormier is a writer.

Why is he a writer is the question that I find myself asking? His setting is a school–seems simple enough for a YA book. His characters center around the students and teachers of the school, with very little mention of families. In fact, when Jerry’s father is brought into the story, it feels like he doesn’t belong. The only true characters in this story are those that have some connection to Trinity.

And then there are the obvious religious themes. The book is set in an all-boys Catholic high school named, of all things, Trinity. Brother Leon has a strange resemblance to the devil, specifically in the ending fight scene. Archie is so slippery and sleek that he represents the snake in the garden (always pulling out the white marble and never the black, because his evilness is disguised as good). Jerry, Goober, and Brother Jacques stand firm for the good side, and yet in the end… evil wins out.

But you know what they say? Life is like a box of chocolates…

After reading The Influence of Anxiety by Frances Fitzgerald, I came away with an excellent piece of advice as both a reader and a writer of YA literature:

 ”We need wisdom, and for that we must have fiction–young adult fiction, that is, which is written for and about adolescents and the mind-boggling problems that now plague and perplex them–not formula-driven fiction, but a new kind of problem novel that is as real as the headlines; yes, but enriched by the best means literature can offer… a young adult fiction, in short, that takes creative (and marketing) risks to present hard-edged issues of relevance so that it may offer its readers revelation and, ultimately, that elusive wisdom” (Michael Cart).

 How beautiful is that?