>Oh, Grow Up Pt. 3

by Roger Sutton
Feb 07, 2006 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>The March issue's focus on graphic novels has me thinking again about how we do/should/shouldn't define YA literature. Graphic novels, like comics before them, have done just fine outside the frame of traditional children's book publishing. Thrived, even. But now it seems like every children's publisher is adding graphic novels to its list, or creating a new imprint to handle them. I wonder if part of the success of graphic novels, though, is due to their not coming from the children's book establishment, not published for teens, or for children?

But maybe this will at least mean that publishers might start cutting back on their fiction lists, which have become completely out of control.
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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XiaoMu

>In total agreement, Roger.

"too much children's fiction these days feels very high concept (wasn't there something recently called "Babysitting and Broomsticks"?) or very high-falutin', with gorgeous prose brought to bear on not enough. The first kind of book has a premise; the second has talented writing, but neither--too often--has a beginning, middle, and end."

--begin rant--

It is really as if much of the fiction is written with a "concept" to fit a trend, a fad, a "demand" and very few written either from inside the Head or from the Heart. I have been highly disappointed over and over again of books recommended by reviewers or friends to find that the book is just so... ordinary.

And I am really sick of the bandwagon-syndrome: not just this budding GN fad (with very poor results since the editors are nowhere in the right "league" to edit and enhance such entries) but also the campaign for a FAT THICK PILE of Fantasy novels that even on the "concept" level is nigh laughable.

--end rant--

Posted : Feb 14, 2006 04:44

Anonymous

>Note to self:
Use the phrase "Eloise-on-crack" at least once each day.

Posted : Feb 10, 2006 08:57

rindambyers

>Thanks, very much, everyone....I will be now checking out some graphic novels and am looking forward to the novelty of perusing them as I have tradictionally been a word book sort of person myself..

I have to agree with Roger's comments. There are audiences for everything...but for some audiences, there's just too much stuff.....

Posted : Feb 10, 2006 08:55

Roger Sutton

>I think I defined what I meant by "necessary" above in my original comments but am happy to amplify here. Unnecessary books are the ones neither the public nor the literature needs. Think, for example, of what we here at the HB call the "blah-blah" books--books in which a preteen first-person narrator yammers on in a breathless, Eloise-on-crack kind of way about her friends, family, school blah, blah, blah. There have been dozens if not hundreds of these published in the last five years alone. For those who like that sort of thing, there is plenty to choose from. Who needs more?

Posted : Feb 10, 2006 05:55

Anonymous

>Oh, too much "unnecessary" fiction. So glad you cleared that up. I think Elizabeth is onto something when she suggests nostalgia may be behind your cranky complaints about all the "out of control" and "unnecessary" fiction.

What makes a book "necessary"?

Posted : Feb 10, 2006 02:34

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