I'm still in school, attending workshops to prepare for the new Core curriculum, and I have been working on two editing jobs, so, apologies again for my inconsistency.
I've recently discovered websites where I can go to get free books for my Kindle e-reader, so I'm trying to broaden my horizons with more middle-grade books as well as some mystery-suspense and women's fiction. The middle-grade books are in anticipation of my new responsibility teaching 7th and 8th-grade reading next year. I would love to find some good stuff to recommend to my students. Unfortunately, that's turning out much more difficult than I'd anticipated.
The last two middle-level books I read were shockingly bad. Great story ideas that completely fell apart in their execution. Somebody explain to me how this crap gets past editors and publishers. The books I've read so far have been published hardcover at a couple of major big-box publishers.
Is it because authors, editors, and publishers all perceive 9-12-year-olds as being completely indiscriminate as to prose, pacing, and character development? Are they thinking that, as long as they're entertained, kids don't care about quality writing?
To which I reply: How are young people to appreciate or even demand quality writing when they haven't been exposed to enough of it to tell the difference? If anything, they are the group of readers that are the most deserving of quality, as they are forming their own tastes and exploring a wider world.
*steps off soapbox*
I leave you with a quote from Madeleine L'Engle, one children's writer who respected her young audience:
"You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."
Thanks for stopping by. See you next week.
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