I've just read two disparate works of “youth literature.” Ostensibly this is what the “young people” of “today” are reading. The level of intellect involved with reading each, as well as the targeted age group provided such dissonance, I am inclined to review both of them simultaneously to cast each of them into relief against the other. First, I read "Fearless" by Francine Pascal. Someone said it was good, and I was in a rush to get an Amazon order muled over for me by a friend, so in it went. I guess if I’d known that the same author had provided the unending drama of Sweet Valley High, the quality level of Fearless would have been a mite less surprising.
The main character, Gaia, is a high school student who has an absentee father, a dead mother, and lives with her Dad's brother and his shrill wife. She is bad at making friends, since she is as surly as any other high school student who is not running for student government; this should make her stand out, but it seems a cheap nod to endear itself any pre-college student who might be antisocial enough to read instead of watching Beverly Hills, 90210. This is doubly ironic, as the whole of the book reads more or less like a novelization of evening dramas featuring pretty people. The only point of departure in theme from said TV programming, is that Gaia has no sense of fear. For whatever reason, she is physically incapable of feeling fear. Additionally, she has been trained in Batman-style multitude of martial arts to be a grade-A asskicker. So it's basically 90210-meets-Buffy.
There is some coarse language that doesn't fit with the rest of the presentation. Fearless isn’t bad, it’s just confusingly targeted if the author wants parents to feel comfortable with what their elementary or junior high school student children are reading. It’s also a little too obviously structured to be endlessly extruded youth lit product. I’ll not be picking up sequels, since the characters are unlikely to advance over the course of a few dozen books.
The next children’s book finished was Phillip Pullman’s Golden Compass -- or Northern Lights if referring to the UK edition; apparently book publishers like to sow confusion through needless changes in title. It is the first in a trilogy called His Dark Materials.
The Golden Compass was a real page-turner, very engrossing, and deeply touching. Lyra is a young girl who is studying at Oxford. She is an orphan, a tomboy, and very curious about the world around her. She has a familiar, a dæmon in the book’s vernacular, as all humans do; these creatures always stay near their companion human. The book has magic and sentient non-human creatures, but other than that I am unable to find another book on which to rest a comfortable comparison. As warm and easy a read as Harry Potter was, the drama and intrigue in that series simply pales in comparison to The Golden Compass. I look forward to reading the remaining two books in the series with great interest.
The main character, Gaia, is a high school student who has an absentee father, a dead mother, and lives with her Dad's brother and his shrill wife. She is bad at making friends, since she is as surly as any other high school student who is not running for student government; this should make her stand out, but it seems a cheap nod to endear itself any pre-college student who might be antisocial enough to read instead of watching Beverly Hills, 90210. This is doubly ironic, as the whole of the book reads more or less like a novelization of evening dramas featuring pretty people. The only point of departure in theme from said TV programming, is that Gaia has no sense of fear. For whatever reason, she is physically incapable of feeling fear. Additionally, she has been trained in Batman-style multitude of martial arts to be a grade-A asskicker. So it's basically 90210-meets-Buffy.
There is some coarse language that doesn't fit with the rest of the presentation. Fearless isn’t bad, it’s just confusingly targeted if the author wants parents to feel comfortable with what their elementary or junior high school student children are reading. It’s also a little too obviously structured to be endlessly extruded youth lit product. I’ll not be picking up sequels, since the characters are unlikely to advance over the course of a few dozen books.
The next children’s book finished was Phillip Pullman’s Golden Compass -- or Northern Lights if referring to the UK edition; apparently book publishers like to sow confusion through needless changes in title. It is the first in a trilogy called His Dark Materials.
The "His Dark Materials" trilogy, of which this it the first book, has been compared to the Harry Potter books, both of which have won awards for children's fiction. It's a comparison that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Whilst both series could be classified as older children's fantasy, and both have been commercially successful, that's where the similarities end. Pullman takes us into much less familiar territory where the boundaries between good and evil are far less obvious. (NY Book Review)There is also a play based on the works running in the UK right now. Do not doubt that I would give someone else’s left nut to attend a showing.
The Golden Compass was a real page-turner, very engrossing, and deeply touching. Lyra is a young girl who is studying at Oxford. She is an orphan, a tomboy, and very curious about the world around her. She has a familiar, a dæmon in the book’s vernacular, as all humans do; these creatures always stay near their companion human. The book has magic and sentient non-human creatures, but other than that I am unable to find another book on which to rest a comfortable comparison. As warm and easy a read as Harry Potter was, the drama and intrigue in that series simply pales in comparison to The Golden Compass. I look forward to reading the remaining two books in the series with great interest.
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