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Subject Topic: Fantasy book suggestions ... Post ReplyPost New Topic
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guitarnan
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Posted: May 06 2011 at 12:14am | IP Logged Quote guitarnan
I've been a Pern fan from the beginning (amazingly, one of my dear friends dated Anne McCaffrey's son...he now writes some of the Pern books) but I would not let my 13 yo daughter read any of her books except perhaps the Harper Hall trilogy. When she's older (16?), yes.

I have read every single Pern book more than once, I own most of them, and there are adult themes in almost all of them...as there are in McCaffrey's other books, which is fine because they are aimed at an adult audience. It is not the fault of Anne McCaffrey if 1) publishers aim her adult books at teens or 2) libraries mis-classify the Dragonflight-Dragonquest-White Dragon trilogy as young adult material. It is my job as a parent to know what is in the books and go from there.

I grew up reading SF (my third grade reader had an excerpt from Asimov's "I, Robot"!) and I have to agree with previous posters. Parents should pre-read SF/F books whenever possible. Even "clean" books like The White Mountains can be very disturbing for young readers. The whole purpose of SF/F is to challenge the status quo and confront existing conditions and stereotypes, so that readers rethink them. This can be a very worthy exercise. We should not, however, expose our young readers to material that they might find disturbing. (This is where prudential judgment comes in. We, as parents, know our children best. I would never hand a copy of Dracula to my daughter at age 13, knowing how this novel disturbed me at age 19. Nor would I hand her a copy of Dragonflight right now. Age 16? Perhaps...this is the age when my parents allowed me to read Gone With the Wind.)

Even as a teen I felt uncomfortable with some SF/Fantasy because no clear lines were drawn between children's/young adult/adult stories. I truly believe that parents must carefully pre-read all SF/F books before presenting them to their children. This is a prudential decision parents must make - and they should read the books that interest their middle schoolers and teens in order to make that decision, IMHO.

I do feel obligated to respond to posts here and elsewhere on the 4Real boards if I have knowledge of the subject matter involved. In the case of Anne McCaffrey's books (and her son Todd's continuation of the series), I feel qualified to comment because I own most of the series and have read the entire series multiple times. If my dd walked into my basement right now and asked about the Pern books (remember, she is 13), I would ask her to wait a couple of years, at least, before reading them.

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Erin
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Posted: June 07 2011 at 12:10am | IP Logged Quote Erin
Just going through old threadsand found a fantasy discussion tucked away. Adding it here as there are some great recs;
Angel wrote:
The dark nature of teen fiction bothers me, too. It's not just fantasy for teens... it's the whole fantasy genre. It's one of the reasons I took a break from my writing. I am/was a fantasy writer -- a very, very minor one , with only a few stories published, pretty much all of them before I reverted to the Church -- and the field really does seem to be pretty dark. A lot of anti-heroes. Wizards and dragons don't bother me, but when all the protagonists are kind of surly and not even very likeable... I'd have a problem with that no matter what genre. My stories also tended not to be of the light sort, so I needed to step back and investigate why that was.

My friend Sarah Prineas generally has a lighter touch. I've not read her book *The Magic Thief*, but my ds loved it. I've been meaning to read it, but haven't been able to excavate it from his room.   

Here is Patricia Wrede's website; I don't think she writes dark. (At least, that isn't the impression I have ever gotten of her work.)

The Official website for Diana Wynne Jones I've never read her books either, but from some of the descriptions (her new book prominently figures gigantic vegetables), I don't think she writes dark either.

Holly Black -- The Spiderwick books are good. I've seen some of her other books described as "dark" and "edgy".


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