Kids' Stuff

"You have to write the book that wants to be written," stated Madeleine L'Engle. "And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children." This advice worked out pretty well for the author of A Wrinkle in Time, a book that's been adapted into an upcoming feature film with Oprah Winfrey and Chris Pine. In fact, she made a fulfilling career of writing for young people.

I didn't read a great number of children's books when I was a kid myself. Sure, I adored the clever Encyclopedia Brown tales, and I usually inhaled Hardy Boys novels on road trips, but those would count more as part of my love for mystery stories. The fact is, even as a child, I tended toward adult reading. There were sci-fi and fantasy books when I was in the single digits, biographies like Russell Baker's Growing Up were tackled during the tween years, and I made my first attempt at Lady Chatterly's Lover at sixteen.

My true discovery of juvenile and young-adult fiction didn't happen until I was in my late thirties, when I started teaching. The first such book that made a real impact was Nothing But The Truth by Avi, which was being read by the seventh-grade class I was about to long-term sub for. Just so I'd be up to speed with them, I took home a copy and finished it in one sitting, although there was a moment during my reading when I was tempted to hurl the maddening, frustrating little book across the room. Despite that depressing experience, I found myself intrigued by the writer, and, the next time I saw the name Avi on a shelf, I reached for it.

Avi's works are most enjoyable, not only because of their style and accessibility but also because of their diversity. He writes contemporary dramas and comedies, suspense thrillers, fantasy, and historical fiction. When I began collecting his books, I intended to build my classroom library on them, and I actually did that. But I also bought copies for my home library, where they continue to pile up. I even wrote Avi a fan letter, though I got no response; I prefer to think he somehow didn't receive it.

I'm not embarrassed of my fandom or of avidly reading young-adult fiction. It's actually quite diverting stuff, and the perspective of the main character (who's almost always young) can give a sort of insight into the thinking of children. So, I expanded my interests to other children's literature. There were my beloved Vampirates novels, the Invisible Detective series, and the young Jack Sparrow saga. And, despite my loathing for the 1939 musical film, I became enchanted by L. Frank Baum's Oz tales.

Then somehow, at some point, the idea got into my head of writing some children's stories myself. I think my first idea was actually for a nonfiction book about John Quincy Adams, right after I soberly discarded the notion of turning America's greatest statesman into a werewolf killer. But fictional concepts soon followed. And, strangely enough, I fulfilled L'Engle's advice by turning some of my plans for complicated adult novels into plans for YA books. There was my proposed trilogy about a mystery-solving schoolteacher in Colonial Virginia which became a YA series when I just switched the narrative focus to the hero's youthful sidekick. And my long-planned Death Pride, which I'd intended to write as a kind of massive Stephen King homage, has morphed into a tighter tale about the erstwhile protagonist's teenaged niece.

As these various projects develop at their own pace, I'll continue happily reading juvenile literature myself. In fact, I've got a new Avi novel to dip into. Should be a blast.

#fiction