Novels For Young People Research Articles

A "Better Reality": The Enlightenment Legacy in Erich Kastner's: Novels for Young People

Erich Klistner (1899-1974) is credited with revising standards of writing literature for young people in Germany. His popularity helped to reverse trends of the repressive reward-and-punish didacticism and the pious edification born out of nineteenth-century juvenile literature. The history of German children's literature also recognizes KMistner's for young people as paradigmatically modern; urbanity, poverty, rationalization through technology and administration, and contemporary settings all resound in the sober observations and engaging wit of his narratives. Because of the contemporaneity in his work, Klistner is regarded as the father of a new realism in young people's books.3 He prefaced his three early milieu novels with assertions that his characters spoke and acted as young people do, they lived in present-day Germany, and they were not spared the troubles that young people suffer in real life.

"By Faith Noah": Obedient Servant as Religious Hero

"By Faith Noah":Obedient Servant as Religious Hero Kathy Piehl (bio) When authors and illustrators of children's books decide to recount the tale of a Biblical hero, they do not usually turn to Moses despite the drama of his encounters with Pharaoh, the Israelites' daring escape across the Red Sea, and the adventures in the wilderness. They do not recount the battles of King David, including his remarkable victory over the giant Goliath. They ignore most of the Old Testament figures that the writer of Hebrews extols, "who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched raging fires, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight" (12:33-34). Instead, they tell and retell the story of a hero whose chief virtue was unquestioning obedience. "By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household," the author of Hebrews notes simply (11:7). By far the most widely used Biblical character in children's literature is a man who not only initiates almost no independent actions but who doesn't say a single word during the section of his story in Genesis that provides the foundation for most children's books (6:5-9:19). What kind of hero is Noah to attract so much attention? Like the flood myths that have been documented by Sir James Frazer and others, the story of Noah has been told and retold for centuries. Muslim and Jewish legends cluster about him and his family. Indeed, existing literary evidence suggests that an entire Book of Noah once existed, whose remnants were later incorporated into the Book of Enoch (Charles 168). Early Christians, eager to reinterpret Old Testament characters in the light of the New Testament, embraced Noah as a "type" of Christ. Wall paintings in the catacombs show Noah emerging from the ark/sarcophagus that floated on a watery grave just as Jesus left the tomb. The death/rebirth theme of water persists in Christian baptismal rites, some of which cite Noah (Lutheran 122). The highly visual nature of Noah's story translated easily to stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, altar carvings, cathedral mosaics (Miller). [End Page 41] Some works incorporated the oral tradition that had developed by the Middle Ages to embellish the story. For example, Noah's wife shakes a nagging finger at him in one of the panels of Chartres Cathedral's Noah window. Although many artistic representations concentrate on the flood's destruction, another popular theme that emerged through the centuries was the embarkation of the animals. Both traditions found their way into the many picture books produced in the twentieth century. The legends about Noah bore literary as well as artistic fruit. Medieval miracle play cycles include at least one section about Noah. Although he retains his quality of obedience, most plays introduce dramatic tension by incorporating legends of Mrs. Noah, unwilling to board without her gossips. The cautionary aspects of Noah's tale made it appropriate for the didactic tradition in children's literature, as exemplified by a tract published in 1795 that features Noah's story "accompanied by a gruesome woodcut of the drowning multitudes" (Lundin 2). Not until the late nineteenth century did poets imply that Noah's unquestioning obedience resulted in inexcusable indifference to the fate of the rest of humankind. Lord Byron in "Heaven and Earth" shows Noah as unsympathetic to his own son Japhet, who argues that others deserve to be saved from the flood. Earlier literary and artistic works for adults sometimes included Noah's post-flood drunken behavior but left the exploration of his pre-flood character to the twentieth-century imagination. Such questions appear in some contemporary novels for young people as well as poems, plays, novels, and short stories for adults. In many artistic and literary guises, Noah as a hero has endured through centuries. Although in certain ways Noah's adventures resemble those of his Middle Eastern counterparts who appeared in earlier flood stories, Noah differs from them in one important respect. Ziusudra and Atrahasis, the...

Children's Literature: Ideology and Response

My article, Black Experience in Children's Fiction, argued that the criticism and evaluation of children's literature must attend not only to the aesthetic qualities of literary works, but to their sociohistorical, and cultural values as well. My central thesis held that demands for realistic, nonstereotypical characters, and for historical and cultural accuracy and authenticity in writing about the Black experience for children need not conflict with the demand for literary excellence (Taxel 1986, p. 249). This thesis was made with support from those (MacCann and Woodard 1972; Sims 1982; Thompson and Woodard 1972) who are directly concerned with the ways that Black Americans have been presented in children's literature, from recent research in the sociology of school knowledge, and from an analysis of three award winning novels for young people about Black experience. The first novel, Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976), was selected for discussion because it has been lauded for its literary values as well as its perspective on the Black experience. Ouida Sebestyen's Words By Heart (1979) and Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer (1973) were examined because of the controversy they have engendered. That is, although they received prestigious literary awards, these novels were the subject of harsh criticism for their alleged racism and stereotyping. My analysis of Roll of Thunder led me to conclude that it was indeed deserving of the coveted Newbery Medal. The novel is successful both in terms of its literary values and in its historical, cultural perspective on the events it describes (Taxel 1986, p. 260). My reading of Words by Heart led me to concur with those, like Rudine

War and Peace in Recent German Children's Literature

War and Peace in Recent German Children's Literature Winfred Kaminski (bio) Translated by J. D. Stahl (bio) Translator's note: The legacy of two world wars has profoundly if unconsciously shaped the outlook of the present younger generation in Germany. Before and even after World War II, the codes of Prussian militarism, based on an all-pervasive ideology of hierarchy and control, were reinforced by a tightly structured educational system. Romantic representations of military history, often in sumptuously illustrated volumes, depicted the uniforms, weapons, and battle formations of European wars. The abdication of responsibility implicit in an ethos which demanded exact fulfillment of duties strictly defined by one's superiors has been traced by some critics to the implications of Enlightenment philosophy. The concept of duty, though it demanded the loyalty of individuals to collective ideals, did not carry a reciprocal obligation of the state to the individual, nor did it permit subordinates to consider the broader social consequences of their actions. (The central character of Siegfried Lenz's Deutschstunde [The German Lesson] disturbs the social order when he responds to a school essay assignment to write on "the joys of duty"—for he honestly considers the ironic and painful moral consequences of a wrongly conceived "duty.") To replace the earlier hierarchical yet fundamentally individual definition of duty, many postwar Germans have sought to develop a philosophical rationale for a political and social morality. Their analysis sees every feature of society, including children's literature, as participating in or criticizing the maintenance of power by the dominant class(es). Winfred Kaminski, who is engaged in a major research project at the University of Frankfurt concerning German children's and youth literature since 1945, here employs such an approach to examine the representation of war and peace in that literature. He identifies the same issues in novels for young people about the Vietnam War, and he questions their distortions from the same viewpoint. Que serait le récit du bonheur? Rien, que ce qui le prépare, puis ce qui le détruit, ne se raconte. —André Gide, L'Immoraliste Literature for children and young people has rarely been in step with current events, but it has led the field in examining the contemporary peace movement and its related concerns. The literature of [End Page 55] peace is the clearest expression of contemporary political consciousness in children's literature; its concerns include fear of war, opposition to willful destruction, and a desire to mitigate the power of technology. How effectively children's books deal with these issues is another question, but is is a hopeful sign that they do so at all. Discussion of peace necessarily entails a consideration of war—indeed, many authors attempt to define peace by describing war. But there are as yet no novels about World War II comparable in quality to Grimmelshausen's work on the Thirty Years' War, Tolstoy's on the Napoleonic Wars, or the antiwar novels written during the Weimar Republic. This lacuna exists not only because many writers feel that modern, technological warfare, with its mass destruction, lies beyond description, but also because many authors doubt that their desire to write in the cause of peace will be received by the readers in the intended spirit. As Marieluise Christadler has recognized, even antiwar portrayals of war contain exciting moments of adventure and trial; a serious war novel can be read as breathlessly as a dime thriller. Horror has its own aesthetic dynamics that first make the reader receptive and then teach him to find horror enjoyable, even if he shudders (Christadler 5). Undoubtedly, we must keep the ambiguous nature of readers' responses in mind. The problem of anticipating young readers' responses to the literature of peace is also related to the question of the criteria we should use to evaluate it. We may, for example, attempt to evaluate the "success" of this body of literature in light of traditional "aesthetic" criteria such as coherence, subtlety, or vividness; we may look for a protagonist with whom readers can identify or the psychological depth and narrative force that hold the interest of the reader. But these criteria, of course, are not truly "objective...

The Black Experience in Children's Fiction: Controversies Surrounding Award Winning Books

ABSTRACTDespite receiving prestigious literary awards, two historical novels for young people—Sebestyen's Words By Heart and Fox's The Slave Dancer—have evoked the bitter criticism of such politically oriented groups as the Council on Interracial Books for Children. It is claimed that these books present a distorted and inaccurate view of black culture and history. The controversies that have surrounded these books are examined and the books themselves are discussed in relation to a third novel—Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, a book lauded for both its literary qualities and its perspective on black history.It is argued that the traditional evaluation and criticism of the aesthetic values of children's literature must be joined by criticism which focuses on the sociohis- torical and cultural dimensions of that literature. I suggest that any liberties or inaccuracies in historical fact taken by authors must be justified by the contribution to the aesthetic qualities of the work. These liberties or i...

Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction , and: Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People , and: Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching , and: The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction , and: Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist (review)

Reviewed by: Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction, and: Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People, and: Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching, and: The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction, and: Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist Margaret Esmonde Barron, Neil , ed. Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction. 2nd ed.New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1981. Wehmeyer, Lillian Biermann . Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People. Littleton, Co: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1981. Parrinder, Patrick . Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching. New York: Methuen & Co., 1980. Schlobin, Roger C. The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. Lynn, Ruth Nadelman . Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist. New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1979. Science fiction and fantasy, long the stepchildren of literary criticism, have received ever increasing scholarly attention in the last ten years. From sophisticated analyses such as Darko Suvin's The Metamorphosis of Science Fictionand W. R. Irwin's The Game of the Impossibleto practical bibliographies and teaching aids, volumes devoted to SF/F scholarship continue to be published with some frequency. If you can buy only one SF reference work, the one to buy, without doubt, is Neil Barron's Anatomy of Wonder, now in an updated and revised second edition. Divided into two main sections, "The literature" and "Research," it first preseents three essays covering the history of SF from its inception to 1980. Chapter 4, "Children's Science Fiction" by Francis Molson, and Chapter 5, "Foreign language Science Fiction" by six different foreign scholars, offer a special focus within the larger area of interest. A bibliography accompanies each essay. The research section includes bibliographies related to "Selection, Acquisition and Cataloging of Science Fiction," "Indexes and Bibliographies," "History and Criticism," and "Autobiography, Biography and Author Studies." Each entry in these various bibliographies is annotated with a paragraph averaging about 10 lines, which presents a balanced evaluation of the work in question. The last six chapters of the section offer comprehensive bibliographies of "Science Fiction on Film and Television," "Science Fiction Illustration," "Science Fiction Magazines" (both scholarly and popular), and "Classroom Aids." The volume concludes with a chapter indicating the location and summarizing the contents of library and private collections of SF/F, and, finally, a core collection checklist. A wonderfully complete work. Of particular interest to ChLAQ readers is Francis Molson's excellent essay on children's SF. He has greatly expanded the essay which appeared in the first edition with material discussing pre-Heinlein SF written for young people, an area almost totally ignored in most histories of children's literature because it appeared, for the most part, in boys' story papers in the nineteenth century and the Grosset & Dunlap/Stratemeyer Syndicate series which librarians and teachers have traditionally considered subliterature. He has likewise added new titles to his original bibliography, deleting such works of pure fantasy as LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, which were included in the first editions. I heartily agree with Analogmagazine's comment that Anatomy of Wonderis ". . . probably the most significant and valuable bibliographical tool in the history of the field to date." Lillian Wehmeyer's Images n a Crystal Ballis a less ambitious "resource book" which focuses on what she calls "futuristic fiction." Its text was developed from her 1978 dissertation (UCal, Berkeley), and her opening chapters have not entirely escaped the blight of dissertation style. Once past the discussion of futuristics, she competently annotates 154 science fiction novels, giving publication data, and a two-to-five-paragraph plot summary followed by a short paragraph in which she offers a brief evaluation and suggestions for teaching. An index arranges the novels according to sub-genre, theme, and topic. As an aid to teachers, a dagger symbol identifies each novel which contains sufficient material on a specific topic to lend itself to classroom teaching. The books selected for inclusion were required to meet four criteria, the third of which was rather limiting...

The Breakdown of the Family: Fictional Case Studies in Contemporary Novels for Young People

The Breakdown of the Family:Fictional Case Studies in Contemporary Novels for Young People Kate Fincke (bio) The trouble the American family has been having recently is not news to any of us anymore. We take note, as we watch ourselves, our friends, and the culture at large, of the factors within the family and outside of it that stress its structure. And we note the consequences. Sometimes a family breaks apart. Sometimes its integrity is badly damaged. Sometimes, rarely, there is a new and dynamic adaptation. But whatever its state, the family must come to terms with the strange shifts that seem to keep cropping up anew in our culture, confusing everybody and demanding either to be assimilated or denied. In the interest of assimilation, we are seeing more stories for children designed to instruct them in how to grapple with these threats to family life. Adults have always told stories for the purpose of initiating children into the psychological norms of the culture. But what we seem to have now are stories told to initiate children into the psychological confusion as well. In the books discussed below, children live in families that are failing, their integrity undermined. The adults, being weak and fallible, are unable to help children face this confusion. The children, therefore, must be resourceful, not out of some feisty adventurousness, but because the families fail them psychologically and because the survival of their personalities intact requires it. The four books that will be discussed here are: The Man Without a Face by Isabelle Holland (1972), The Drowning Boy by Susan Terris (1972), Nobody's Family Is Going to Change by Louise Fitzhugh (1974), and Where the Lilies Bloom by Vera and Bill Cleaver (1969). They offer a representative sample of recently published novels portraying variations in family life. One problem which seems to recur in these books is the failure of adult leadership. The children either live with leaderless families or with families in which the leader is a despot who rigidly adheres to a misguided code. The father's role particularly tends to be distorted. Mothers, relegated to [End Page 86] either some passive or intrusive role, are at any rate of diminished importance. In these stories, the father as a strong guiding light, that kind and knowing figure, seems to have passed from the culture. In his revered place is either some pathological patriarch or, just as bad, someone whose absence forces the child to find substitute leadership in him/herself, perhaps prematurely, or to seek it elsewhere. Authority in these stories is deaf to the psychological needs of children and to the changing culture. Where leadership in families exists, it obstructs. It is an authority that stands as clearly for psychological immobility as the child's resourcefulness stands for growth. This leads us to the morals of these stories, for I do think these stories all have to do with instruction, and particularly psychological/moral instruction. The authors attempt to demonstrate the problems confronting children in troubled families by presenting autocratic characters who offer values which readers must infer to be false. The questions posed to each child protagonist are: first how to circumvent these powerful but false values; then how to find values appropriate to the child's emerging sense of self; and lastly, once found, how to integrate these new values into the family. Simply because they are moral, these tales are profoundly optimistic, no matter how delightfully fantastic or how sadly realistic; they imply that if the particular moral is learned, change will follow. The moral well-learned is presented as a powerful ally, perhaps even a magical one. This presentation is seductive then. Each of these books explores a particularly tricky family situation in which what the children most need is some kind of moral guidance. And this is not to be found in the family or at school. But consciously or unconsciously the authors of these books suggest that there are answers and that they, the authors, will be the beacons. The first book, Isabelle Holland's The Man Without a Face, addresses the issue of adolescent homosexuality. Holland seems to have a twofold purpose here. One...