Multicultural Book Awards- bookhenge

I have to be honest. Book awards? I understand them, appreciate them, but nothing could be further from my mind. I rarely notice stickers of achievement on books or put much store in anything other than the opinions of well-read friends. Now, would I appreciate an award for a piece of my writing? Yes, the more the merrier. For right now, though, as my writing career falls behind for a more dramatic victory, I feel very distanced from the world of book awards. I feel like there are certain circles and audiences that will view the novels that win certain prestigious awards in a new light and base their reading schedules on those same awards, but that is not that case for this guy.

                Thus, Aronson’s initial essay struck me as more of a social commentary than a commentary on the state of book awards within the ALA. However, I chose to put myself in the shoes of someone who had worked incredibly hard on an African American character. Maybe I poured over library books about the deep south and did my best to extract quotes and voice and tension from old articles, pictures, and newspapers. I really did my homework and the character I created really jumps off the page. I love the way he moves through the plot, the way he grows as a person, and how authentic he feels. Let’s go crazy and say I capture this perspective better than any other writer in a given time frame (a year, a decade, whatever). I’d be very upset that my character, who reflects a certain people from a certain time in a particularly genuine way, cannot be up for an award like the Coretta Scott King. Aronson’s point about their being multiple awards that require someone to be a specific race for eligibility being similar to two dot’s forming a line (a line that can include an infinite number of points) seems sensible. I agree that awards, no matter how distanced I feel from their significance, cannot exclude author’s based on their race. If you are excluding characters or genres in the hopes of honoring specific features of literary quality, than by all means. But, as a writer, I would be incredibly disparaged by the idea of exclusion through skin color. Aronson honors the origination of such awards and the necessity for facilitating literature within and for races that had not previously been recognized, but we are at a new place in literature. These “racially based awards” seem like a step backwards instead of a pathway to honoring authors who deserve it. While the awards may really seek out spectacular literature, it seems tainted by the lack of availability to others who wish to create stories and characters deserving of consideration.

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Prep for Peril and Promise of YA Literature- bookhenge

         YA literature continues to remain a mystery to me. Aronson, in section 4 of Beyond the Pale, suggests that any book can be YA literature. His final quote in the chapter reads, "To return to the publishing dilemma, a YA book is one that offers art and ideas in a fashion that communicates especially well to teenagers. A book a teenager should read, is any book". We have to keep in mind that this is from the standpoint of a publisher. I look at the book that I'm working on and assume that it isn't meant directly for teenagers. Could teenagers read it? Certainly. In the same way that a teenager might pick up a book like Tolkien's and really dive into it. However, YA authors will clearly be gearing their content and work towards a YA crowd and must offer as he says "art and ideas" in a way that "communicates especially well to teenagers".
        However, in his other article, Aronson seems to struggle with what it is that really communicates and connects well with teenagers. His article addresses the disconnect we find between knowing that YA literature is popular and what it is that kids get out of these books. Aronson says, "We know that young people respond to books. And we know that authors, parents, and teachers all try hard to mold that responsiveness through the art and text in books". So there is response and there is a host of different people trying to make literature that brings out a good quality in that response. But Aronson asserts that everything else involved in the process of YA literature is somewhat of a mystery.
         I still belive that there is something in each person, some unique perspective, that is unpredictable. Based on the myriad of experiences, dreams, hopes, and passions that each person experiences, it is hard to know what they will highlight in any given work. What they find beautiful about a certain novel or piece of art is going to be different than what any of us might see. That is why we must work on what we do control as teachers and writers. One, we can help to encourage reading and writing in every high schooler/middle schooler we meet. Two, we can continually address the content of the books we write and suggest to make sure they are positively reinforcing.
        I would clearly be a little more on the literary side of the continuum. I do have a sense of morals and I know there are certain books that contain some information that is simply not appropriate for certain high school ages and certain middle school ages to read. How would I operate then? I'd give students as many opportunities to read as possible. I'd find ways to enliven texts that really do find themselves in the canon and I would also do my best to find out what students are looking for. I might not have a book like Nothing or Will Grayson, Will Grayson involved in my classroom. However, if I know it is the type of book that would relate very clearly to one of my students that is struggling to get into the text that we're currently studying, I'd suggest it just for the sake of keeping them on their literary toes.
       I also think that Aronson makes a good point about the disconnect between YA literature creation and target audiences. He seems to suggest that by the time most writers have the writing ability necessary to go back and write about their experiences, they have lost touch with what it was like to be that age. Thus, the target audience is much harder to connect with. I had the pleasure of meeting with a young writers club at Carrboro High School the other afternoon and I encouraged them to journal, journal, and then journal some more. I showed them the quotes by Aronson about how these writers struggle to really connect to young teens. I then suggested that the more they journal, the more they write down feelings, struggles, hopes, and dreams; the easier it will be for them to look back at this time and capture it with the ever-increasing writing skill they experience as they grow as writers. They seemed extremely excited about this fact.
        It is our responsibility to encourage students towards writing and reading as often as we possiblly can. I think a lot of YA literature needs to be incorporated. Certainly, some of the classics should never go untaught, but why not use literature that has managed to connect with a rising, transforming generation.
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