Perfect, Perfect, and Perfect

Or "Three Very Different Reasons To Love Young Adult Fiction."

What began as procrastination ended up as a fortuitous examining of three different approaches to one of my favorite genres: young adult fiction. Yes, of course, I had initially intended to write about each book separately. But once I was about halfway through the third, I was quite glad that I hadn't because they complement each other while simultaneously being vastly different in every single qualifying trait except that they are all written for the pre-adolescent set.

The books in question are Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, Suzanne Collins's Mockingjay, and E.L. Konigsburg's The View from Saturday. What I can't get over is how marvelously each of these books interacts with their intended readers. Little House is not only light and lovely, but it also paints a vivid picture of what life in the late-1800s was like for a child. Mockingjay is profoundly respectful of its audience with its unflinching, uncompromising look at the impact on violence. The View from Saturday barely even reads like young adult fiction; instead, it's just like regular ol' grown up fiction with seventh grade protagonists. So we've got history, we've got social commentary, we've got sophisticated language - these are exactly the kinds of books that turn ten-year-olds into life-long lovers of literature.

Little House in the Big Woods was a delight beyond my wildest expectations. I hadn't read it since childhood, so my only memory of it was the cousin who got stung hundreds of times by the hornets because holy hell that scared the bejeezus out of me when I was little. But although that episode took up 100% of my Little House memory, it actually only lasts about a page and a half. The other 210 non-hornet-related pages are reflective and admiring of a bygone era without ever crossing into that irritating, cloying Little Women territory. It feels important in its simplicity, illustrating The Way Things Used To Be to a whole readership of plugged-in technology kids. Almost nothing at all happens - it's just a season to season description the life of five-year-old Laura Ingalls - but the end still had me all heart-clenched and weeping, excited to plow through the rest of the series (which I am embarrassed to say I have never read).

Mockingjay is the third and final book of Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series. Please do yourselves the favor of reading this trilogy. I love it as an adult, and also deeply appreciate it for what Collins is giving to her intended audience. She is fearless in her exploration of violence, never shying away from the grisly side of human nature. She, unlike a lot of young adult fiction authors, has no qualms about gray areas: everything is morally ambiguous, the characters are complex, their relationships are complex. She shows a dark, difficult side of real life, interspersed with moments of real beauty, and I am so grateful for the respect she has for her readers. Plus the characters have great names (Peeta Mellark, Finnick Odair, Katniss Everdeen, just to name a few), it's white-knuckle-sweat-on-your-brow-edge-of-your-seat exciting, and a more-than-satisfying cap to the first two books (which are no easy acts to follow).

The View from Saturday is the charming - charming, I tell you! - story of four misfit seventh graders competing in a knowledge bowl tournament. The format of the book is that a question is posed in the tournament, one of the kids buzzes in to answer the question, and the following chapter is the story of how that particular student knows the answer to the question. It. Is. Charming. One flaw that's a little hard to get past: the portrayal of two Indian characters, one of the students and his father, is a bit...questionable. It borders too close to Johnny-Quest-"Hadji" country for me to be totally comfortable. Still, the story is woven together delightfully, and it is written with extreme sophistication and gentleness. I mean, it's the lady who wrote From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler -- what's not to love?!

Sometimes I read books for grown-ups, too. But then I tend to gravitate towards non-fiction. I'm realizing that it's because the protagonists of adult fiction books are usually horrible people doing horrible things, and I see enough of that in real life. At least in young adult fiction there are still lessons to be learned, morals to be formed, jouneys to embark upon - the whole world is ours to explore.