All this week I have been volunteering at the UEA's Festival of
Literature for Young People (aka, FLY). At the festival, students aged 11-18
get to listen to author talks and take part in workshops run by authors to get
them thinking differently about literature - both reading and writing.
Yesterday, I was an usher for the mornings author talks, so I got to sit in on
the talks and listen to what both Bali Rai and Alex Scarrow had to say. I had
heard of Alex Scarrow before - mostly due to his brother Simon Scarrow who
wrote The Last Centurion series and came to my college to talk about it - but
had never heard of Bali Rai. Both gave very different talks.
Alex's talk was totally geared towards his
readership, 11-14 year olds. He performed at the front of the lecture theatre
and had all the students roaring with laughter.
Bali's talk, on the other hand, was very
much spoken up to the students rather than down to them or at them. As an older
student who has a vested interest in the production of literature, it was his
talk which really stuck with me.
Bali spoke extensively on the need for diversity in children’s,
teen’s and young adult literature. As a first generation immigrant – born in
Leicester to Indian parents who spoken very little English – he found that the
books he was reading were not at all connected to him. He couldn’t identify
with either their protagonists or their plots. It was only his love of reading
which made him stick to trawling through various adaptations of the well worn ‘Famous Five’ plot (upper middle class
white children who speak the Queens English going on adventures).
Similarly he spoke about the whiteness of highly successful books.
Harry Potter, had he been named Harish Patel, would never have been successful,
mostly because it would never have been published. (This being said, I love the
head cannon of Harry being a mixed race kid, James Potter could easily have
been a black man, Lily Evans a white woman – Harry the boy with unruly hair and
unusual eyes).
He also spoke about the success of American books and authors as opposed
to books set and written in Britain by British authors such as himself. He
specifically pulled out The Fault In Our
Stars by John Green and Before I Die by Jenny Downham to compare. The
Fault In Our Stars is a book about two terminally ill teenagers who fall in
love. Before I Die is a book about
one terminally ill teenager who wants to experience all life has to offer.
However, Before I Die only became
hugely successful after it had been Americanised – it was reformed into Now Is Good, a film starting Dakota
Fanning doing an (incredible, in my opinion,) English accent. The plot may not
have been changed, but the title change and the decision to cast an American
fundamentally changed the way the book was viewed.
As a writer, he decided to write about the thongs which spoke to
him – inner city life, characters from the full spectrum of racial and ethnic
backgrounds, plot lines which were inspired by the gritty reality of life. He
doesn’t shy away from discussions of abuse, racism and classism. He doesn’t
pull punches, either, as he proved when reading a small extract from his book
The Web of Darkness.
Throughout the talk he made it very clear that he was writing hard
hitting stuff, and that if you as a reader do not enjoy reading about nasty,
grimy, gritty characters who do horrible things, then you will not enjoy his
books. However, the area of his discussion which really interested me was this:
Why shouldn’t all students
of all ages been given the opportunity to read about it if they want to?
He made the example that an emotionally mature 11 year old who is
a confident reader is probably better suited to read some of his books than an
immature 15 year old, and has just as much right to pick up one of his books
from their school library shelf as any of the older students.
All of this kept I mind the idea that age warnings/content warnings
should be displayed on the books in a prominent place (an argument I tend to
agree with, and one which Patrick Ness heavily debated on Twitter a month or so
ago - @Patrick_Ness).
I pretty much agreed with Bali, although I do understand how it
can be hard from school teachers and librarians to judge whether one child of
one age group is more or less emotionally ready than another child of a
different age group. However, as a confident reader myself, I remember the days
when I had read through the entirety of my age ranges books at my local library
and was bored of reading the same boring things again and again. I also
remember reading a book before I was ready for its content precisely because
the age warnings were not displayed on the book.
If I could implement a system which both allows confident readers
to read broadly as well as warning readers about the content of the books it would
be something similar to a tactic which used to be used by the Little Black
Dress publishing house. A small pie chart was placed on the back cover of the
book showing how much of it was romantic, funny, sad etc. This could easily be
adapted to show if the book featured sexual or triggering content.
Another way to do this would be the same way as films show why
they have been given their age rating – a small table which says things like ‘Sexual
content: none, Bad language: Some, mild’ etc etc.
Of course, both of these systems would have to be approved by all
publishing houses to have any effect. The last way to warn younger readers about
what they might be reading is the enlarging of the ‘Not Suitable For Younger
Readers’ notice which appears on the back of some books, including Bali’s The
Web of Darkness.
The idea of censoring children’s literature is a controversial
topic, one which Bali did not tread on lightly, and many people have very
strong opinions on the innocence of children. Sadly, I believe we do not live
in an innocent age – we never have – and it is much better for children to read
about horrific events within the context of literature, where morals are often
clear and laid bare, than through the media with its scare mongering or, as
Bali suggested, through potentially damaging pornography.
If you are interested in engaging in the debate, as I know I haven’t
fully expressed the extent of it here, then please either leave a comment
below, or contact me via twitter @VickMaitland. If you want more information on FLY please visit the festival website or contact @UEAFLYFestival on twitter.
