Colleen Mondor is one of my favorite bloggers on YA literature, as well as a variety of other sorts of topics. Here she is talking about the need for more YA literature (and I add to this the need for any sort of literature) to consider this incredibly ignored and swept-under-the-rug (at least here in America) aspect of our lives:
If you don’t read about kids in your economic strata who make it, who study great subjects, or build great things, or create great art, then you don’t think you can either. If you don’t see success for those from “your world” reflected on tv or in movies or in books then you will come to believe that certain – or maybe all – levels of success are not possible for you.
You will never be rich enough to be anything.
There are certainly some excellent books out there today that reflect the current economic situation for the majority of Americans (and I will be posting on some of them next month), but there are not nearly enough. That is what we should be talking about. Why do writers continue to write above the means of the average American kid and why do kids continue to want to read them?
Why must it so often be about the life you do not have, instead of the one you should aspire to?
Click here to read the entire entry and the lively conversation in the comments section at Colleen’s place.
Leave a Reply