Expectations for books for younger readers

Ever since I started my blog, I’ve had middle grade and young adult book reviews mixed in with the other books I’ve reviewed. Most of these books have been ones I’ve selected to read for myself. Some are books that I’m reading with my daughter in mind.

I have no problem reading books for younger readers.

In her memoir A Circle of Quiet, Madeleine L’Engle is asked “Why do you write for children?” She answers:

My immediate response to this question is, “I don’t.” … If it’s not good enough for adults, it’s not good enough for children. If a book that is going to be marketed for children does not interest me, a grownup, then I am dishonoring the children for whom the book is intended, and I am dishonoring books. And words.

Sometimes I answer that if I have something I want to say that is too difficult for adults to swallow, then I will write it in a book for children. This is usually good for a slightly startled laugh, but it’s perfectly true.

I have several books I’ve read recently, but am waiting on the review while I try to figure out what standard I should hold them to.

Some of them have language that seems noticeably simplified. Some have characters that are acting all too age appropriate. I can imagine that I’ll come across books that back off on subject matter.

Young Adult Books

The issues are different for YA books than for young adults.

I’ve had the issue of teenage characters acting like teenagers, and annoying me.  That’s appropriate for the audience, and I feel I should give them some leeway on that.

On the other hand, the language should not be simplified, and subject matter should not be restricted for this age group.

I use my normal rating scale and call out any issues in my review.  I’ll let the reader decide.

Middle Grade

I’m having a harder time with the middle grade books.  I don’t know that it is fair to hold them to Madeleine L’Engle’s standard.

The best of children’s books clearly are there.  Even when reading the Harry Potter books, I never stopped to worry about any of these issues. I didn’t  need to remember I was reading books written for kids. I just enjoyed reading them, even if I recognized flaws later. This has been true of other books as well.

It isn’t always the case. On the other hand, things that bother me can be complete non-issues to my kid’s book review partner, my 11 year old daughter.

I’ve decided not to assign a numerical rating to middle grade books, because I can’t reconcile decide what scale to use.

I’ll try to call out in my review whether an opinion is relative to an adult reader or a child reader. If I read the book because I wanted to, I’ll represent both views as best I can.  If I read it as a book for kids, I may not bother with the adult view.

Books for younger audiences

In general, I’m not expecting to review books aimed younger than 3rd-4th grade.  There are always exceptions, and I’ll deal with them individually rather than coming up with a general policy.

What do you think?

Is that enough? Is there anything else you keep in mind as a reviewer, or would like to read in my reviews?  What do you do?

 

Review: Malice Domestic 3

MALICE DOMESTIC 3 by Rosalind Greenberg

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I downloaded this collection of  “cozy” short stories  from Overdrive on a whim.

I find short story collections to be hit or miss even at their best. As I listened to the first pieces, I thought perhaps this one had been a mistake. Short story mysteries are tricky, and maybe they don’t adapt well to the audio format. Not having a list of stories/authors didn’t help*.

I started with
# His Tears by Marilyn Wallace
# Sign of the Times by Nancy Pickard
# Cast Your Fate to the Wind by Deborah Adams
which didn’t make much of an impression on me. In fact, I remember pretty much nothing about them.

After that, either I adapted to the stories, or the stories got better.

I really enjoyed
# Fannie’s Back Fence Caper by Susan & Bill Albert
and will need to track down the authors, who have been recommended to me before. Following the path of a small town adventure through call-ins to the local radio show was very entertaining.

# The Dying Light by Taylor McCafferty
Was an interesting character study. Very creepy, a little spooky, and a nice buildup.

# The Family Jewels by Dorothy Cannell
Is an absolutely hilarious parody of historical adventure/romance novels.

# The Trouble with the Shoot by Camilla T. Crespi
Didn’t grab me. Fashion and a dead body.

# High Heels in the Headliner by Wendy Hornsby
This was entertaining. I looked at as meta-fiction, the story of a woman who got a little too involved in the research for writing a myster novel. Or she could have just been delusional, in which case this would just be creepy and bizarre.

# Cara’s Turn by Marlys Millhiser
Something about real estate. I restarted several times, but I just kept tuning out. Don’t know whether it was the story or the narrator that was the problem, but it didn’t click for me.

# Gentle Reader by Sharyn McCrumb
A humorous piece, which I enjoyed, even if it was a bit predictable– an author and the mob.

# Double Delight by L.B. Greenwood
# Make Yourselves at Home by Joan Hess
# Highwater by D.R. Meredith
As far as I can tell, these weren’t in the audiobook, even though they were listed in the IBL as being in the collection.

In the end, I think the collection was successful. I’ll check out more from Overdrive at some point.

*(Thanks to the Internet Book List http://www.iblist.com/ for the list of stories and authors)

View all my reviews.

 

Review: Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

Pardonable Lies: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
As I was reading, I was thinking this might be my first 5 star rating in a while. The characters were intriguing, the plot drew me in, the details on life in the 1930s were fascinating. The writing was wonderful (and I normally don’t notice the writing). The plot lines wrapped up one by one. Just one left dangling…

Then the book almost dropped to 3 stars, I was so angry about how that story line resolved. OK, I suspect if I went back to the beginning, the details needed to make the conclusion relevant were there. But I really felt like it was pulled out of nowhere.

Grumble. But the rest of the book was really good, so I’ll focus on that.

I’m a character driven reader– If a book has interesting characters, I can gloss over a lot of plot weakness. If the characters are weakly drawn, I have trouble caring about strong writing and plot. This book was strong on all of these.

The characters in this book were wonderful. I was drawn into Maisie’s conflict, coming to terms with her past while trying to solve some cases that dredged up her history with WWI. Even most of the secondary characters were textured, and there are several I’d like to get to know better.

After the characters, what I liked most about this books were the reflections of the effects of war, even years after it ends. You see the effects on people that were there and of those that are left behind, of the effects on entire communities.

I like this series, the earlier books as well as this one. I’ll go on to read the rest sooner rather than later. I’m just still disappointed in the conclusion of that one plotline!

View all my reviews.