YA Through the Decades Challenge Wrap-Up

Way back in December 2009, I signed up for the YA Through the Decades Challenge hosted by Youth Services Corner. I said I would read one YA book from every decade from 1930s (or earlier) to the 2000, with an additional book in 2010.

Until today, I thought I had not completed the challenge because I had a book from the 1980s left. But when I was looking through my blog posts from 2010, I realized that I had read a YA book from the 80s and had forgotten I could include it because my original intention was to go without rereads. So here is the list (finally) of my completed challenge with links to my review of each book:

• 1930s or before - Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (1912)
• 1940s - Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freeman (1942)
• 1950s - Fifteen by Beverly Cleary (1956)
• 1960s - The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1967)
• 1970s - Summer of My German Soldier by Betsy Greene (1973)
• 1980s - Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (1986 - the late found re-read)
• 1990s - Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta (1999)
• 2000s - Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman (2006)
• 2010 - Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner (I was surprised to see how many "current" books I read in the past year; this just happened to be the first)

All in all, this was quite an interesting experience. I was most struck with how situations changed while much of the characteristics remain the same: dealing with difficult issues, coming-of-age/growing up themes, regular use of first-person or close third-person accounts are all common throughout the decades. Humor and play could be found in the 2000s or the 1960s, and issues like prejudice are still present in the 1990s, not relegated to the past. At the same time, some stories such as Fifteen, are rooted very much in their times can come across as dated or quaint, making them feel like a much younger story for kids of today or nostalgic parents rather than teens. What an interesting mix it turned out to be!

Mrs. Mike

by Benedict and Nancy Freedman
New York: Berkley Books, 2002 (original copyright 1947).

In the early 1900s, sixteen-year-old Katherine Mary moves to Canada to live with her uncle, hoping that the air will help her pleurisy. She meets Sergeant Mike Flannigan, a Mountie. He makes her mad with her teasing, but as she confides in her new friend, Mildred, "he has eyes so blue you could swim in them." When they marry, duty calls him to the North, where there are few white women and being a Mountie isn't so much being a policeman as it is peacemaker and doctor.

This was a sweet, sad, but hopeful tale. I enjoyed Kathy and Mike and their growing relationship as the years pass and they go through various experiences in their married lives. Having just read The Egypt Game and The Summer of My German Soldier, I couldn't help but notice how this book from the 1940s dealt with race. "Mrs. Mike" lives in a territory where there are primarily trappers and Indian women, and her opinions include historically accurate generalizations, such as when she wonders about introducing strikes to the Indian women, but concludes that they're "savages and wouldn't understand." Yet the portrayal of some of the individual characters, especially when compared to some of their white counterparts, give a much more nuanced picture. Though Kathy's spoken opinions never say as much, one can see a difference in the way she responds to characters in given situations as she continues to live and work with Indians and half-Indians. This is a story I would definitely read again, and I'm going to look for the sequels as well.

Summer of My German Soldier

by Bette Greene
New York: Dial Press, 1974.

Patty Bergen is a twelve-year-old Jewish girl growing up in Jenkinsville, Arkansas during World War 2, the summer that German POWs are imprisoned right outside of town. She's a lonely girl who tries to be good so her parents will love her, but nothing she does seems to turn out right. Then, several POWs come to her father's store, and she begins a friendship with one of them, a young man named Anton Reiker who speaks English and isn't really a Nazi at all.

I'm not really sure what I expected when I picked this book up, but I found the story surprising in many ways. The book was originally published in 1973, and I couldn't help but compare the way race was dealt with in this story versus The Egypt Game, which was published in the 1960s. Patty's family is described as not having a lot of money, but Patty and her sister Sharon are looked after by a black woman, Rose, who lives in "Nigger Bottoms." I'm fairly sure that the use of the word "nigger" in this example and others was historically accurate, but I still found it jarring when I came across it. On the other hand, the people Patty loves most are Rose and Anton, a fact that's clearly not socially acceptable in the 1940s when the story is set. I was also surprised by the presence of child abuse, an issue I did not expect to see addressed in a children's book of its era. The age difference between Patty and Anton was a little shocking, and I dearly wanted an "Author's Note" at the end to explain whether or not some of the events could have (or did) happen, but no such luck. When I first started reading, I wasn't exactly taken by the story, but it grew on my as Patty herself, narrating the story started to grow on me too.

The Egypt Game

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
New York: Yearling Book, 2004 (c. 1967).

When April moves in with her grandmother, she meets Melanie and Marshall Ross. April and Melanie become fast friends, discovering a shared delight in reading and imaginative games, and both become fascinated with Ancient Egypt. In a neighbor's abandoned yard, they begin playing the Egypt Game, using their knowledge of Ancient Egypt and imagination to create altars and rituals in an elaborate game. But their play is threatened when a local child is murdered, and there's a possibility that the guilty person is someone they know.

I chose this as my read for Banned Books Week, curious to see what sorts of rituals and descriptions might make someone react so strongly as to challenge this book just in the past year. I'd expected a fantasy where the gods came to life, and ancient rituals were described in detail. I'm still somewhat baffled, because what I found was a book steeped in imaginative play that reminded me of the games I used to play with my friends, cousins, and neighbors. In fact, reading the book became more of an experience of walking down memory lane, remembering how we played games based on movies or TV shows that we would stop to discuss who was getting eaten by dinosaurs, or if which dinosaur we were calling on for super powers. The descriptions of the kids' imagination, discussions, and power plays for making game decisions, were quite realistic. I was also surprised that a book written in the 60s has aged extremely well. Though I laughed at some of the kids' expressions ("Sheesh!" reminded me of another friend from my childhood...), for the most part their story could have been one that happened in almost any small town neighborhood. Also, the main characters are white, African American, Asian American, and more, quite a varied cast for its time. I seriously wonder what book the challenger was reading, because it doesn't appear to be at all like the one I read.

And while it may be a little on the young side, as four of the characters are 12, it just barely squeaks in to count towards the YA Through the Decades challenge for my 1960s read.

YA Through the Decades: Pre-1930s

Daddy-Long-Legs
by Jean Webster
New York : Grosset & Dunlap, 1912.

Jerusha is an orphan at the John Grier home, a teen who has worked for her room and board since graduating early from high school. When one of the orphanage trustees anonymously provides her with money for college, she has the opportunity of a lifetime. Her story is conveyed in the letters she sends her benefactor - whom she calls Daddy-Long-Legs after a glimpse of his tall shadow - as she grows to know the wide world beyond the orphanage.

This book was written in 1912, and I couldn't help but make comparisons to the story of another orphan, published only four years before. Like Anne Shirley, Jerusha is full of life and humor, quirky phrases, and sometimes swinging from emotional highs to the depths of despair. She never knew a family, and she wants to be an authoress. But there are substantial differences as well. The format is almost entirely letters, and the author often calls attention to the fact that this is a story - Jerusha, who quickly renames herself Judy, often makes comments like "if we were in a storybook" or "if we were story characters." Judy also talks more about what she's learning academically, discussing such subjects as languages, biology, and philosophy. She has rather more progressive politics than Anne, who, I daresay, would find some of Jerusha's educated opinions shocking (and Rachel Lynde would have found them downright blasphemous).

I kept thinking about audience as I read this book. While it's so innocent, I could see it being a middle-school-age young adult novel now, I think it was really intended for what I think of as a "young adult" age group when we're not talking about books and marketing. That is, the 18-25-year-old crowd, about the age of Judy herself over the course of the novel. Webster clearly intends her audience to be at least somewhat familiar with the books that Judy mentions, and I think she intends her readers to be somewhat more knowledgeable than Judy herself, who is rather naive in many ways. I wonder if this book has a somewhat limited audience today? I've been pondering that question, and I'm not sure I have the answer.

YA Through the Decades: 1990s

Looking for Alibrandi
by Melina Marchetta
New York: Orchard Books, 1999.

Josephine Alibrandi knows what it's like to deal with labels. She never felt like she fully fit in, because she was born in Australia but had Italian roots, and has a single mother. Now she's a scholarship student and a senior at a Catholic high school, still struggling to know herself. Josie has to navigate relationships with her mother, her Italian grandmother who seems to find nothing good to say about her daughter, and her father, Michael Andretti, who shows up out of the blue after abandoning her mother eighteen years ago. She wants to break free of everyone's rules and expectations, but does Josie even know what she expects of herself?

Written in an almost-diary format, Josie has a compelling and authentic voice of a seventeen-year-old. Each chapter is written in first-person past tense, but comes across as if the events she relates just happened. It's not quite a diary, however, as there are no dates heading up each chapter, and weeks can go by between the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Almost an entire year is covered, as Josie learns about herself, her family, and her dreams. The story covers a lot of ground in terms of her relationships with friends, boys, her father, and her grandmother, but the theme holding the story together is Josie's coming of age and growing to know herself. Realistic teen fiction doesn't always age well, but the only elements that date the story are brief references to Doc Martens and a tape deck. Josie's search for identity certainly continues to have currency and I would still recommend it to today's teens.

Howl's Moving Castle

by Diana Wynne Jones
Greenwillow Books, 2008, 1986.

Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters, and as everyone knows, that is not the birth order one wants to have in a fantasy story, especially if this particular sister is the stepsister of the youngest. But this is not your typical fantasy story and Sophie is not your typical heroine. When the Witch of the Waste grows jealous of Sophie's magical ability and turns her into an old woman who can't tell anyone she's under a spell, Sophie leaves the hat shop to seek her fortune. She comes across the Moving Castle owned by the Wizard Howl, who - as everyone in Ingary knows - eats girls' hearts, and bullies her way on board. Calcifer, a fire demon, let her in and seems to like her alright, offering to break her spell if she will break his contract with Howl, though he can't tell her what it is either.

I usually try to keep my summaries short, but there's a lot going on in this story. Believe it or not, I only scratched the surface and didn't go beyond page 60. Part of the reason I love and reread this story is because of its complexity and having the opportunity to perhaps pick up on small clues to the plot that I overlooked the first time. The other reason is that Sophie, Howl, Calcifer, Michael (Howl's apprentice), and all the rest are fabulous characters. I love Sophie's sort of bullying magic, Howl's ridiculously vain behavior, and Michael's longsuffering. Their interactions are entertaining whether it's the first or the third time I've read the book, and even when I know exactly what's going to happen and how, I enjoy spending time with them. Howl's Moving Castle has a permanent place on my bookshelves.

A Conspiracy to Keep Me Rereading

A Conspiracy of Kings
by Megan Whalen Turner
Greenwillow Books, 2010.

For the other titles in the series, this is a **spoiler warning**

Last we heard of Sophos, Eugenides receives intelligence that a group of rebels captured the heir of Sounis, and no one is sure whether he is alive or dead.  In this story, readers get to learn Sophos' story, primarily told by him as narrator, when he is captured while in exile and sneaked off the island disguised as a slave.

Faithful readers of the series will remember Sophos as the young blusher, looking up to Ambiades and the Magus during their adventure in The Thief.  Even while staying true to his character - and keeping readers on their toes by shifting to his perspective believably - this story explores how he grows into a man and king.  Reading this today and yesterday, I was so full of anticipation and hurry hurry hurry, I need to know what happens, that I read the book over two days, taking a total of about four hours.  I think I would have to reread it to really do the story justice and figure out how I like it in terms of the rest of the series, but I have no doubt I would read it again.

YA Through the Decades: 1950s

Fifteen
by Beverly Cleary
William Morrow and Company, 1956

Jane Purdy is just your normal, everyday teen growing up in the 1950s. She has babysitting jobs that she trades off sometimes with her best friend, Julie. She is not one of the popular crowd, like Marcy who has a ton of cashmere sweaters (Jane just has one), nor part of the intellectual crowd. But despite all this, she meets a boy while she is babysitting a holy terror, otherwise known as Sandra, and he's interested in her! Now if only her parents will let her go to the movies with him...

Reading this for the YA Through the Decades Challenge, I couldn't help but wonder to myself how this story would hold up today. In some ways, it's an old-fashioned read. Jane and Stan walk to the movies on a first date, Jane worries that her mother doesn't wear stockings, she puts her hair up in pin curls. As they were a little before my time, I had to look up what pin curls looked like.  My mom explained how one made them.  Another item I wasn't too sure about was the dirndl to go with Jane's peasant blouse. Turns out a dirndl can be a tight-wasted, full skirt.

But really, what I kept thinking was "the more things change, the more things stay the same." Sure, it's tame by today's YA standards - Jane's a good girl and doesn't go parking, for example - so it probably skews a little younger today than it might have fifty years ago. Yet Jane has common teenage concerns: Will I ever meet a guy who I can date? Will my parents embarrass me when this boy comes over? Why don't they understand how important this is to me? Will he call? I kept thinking how Beverly Cleary's Ramona books always seemed to hit the nail on the head of my experiences as an eight-year-old. This book did the same, if in a more nostalgic way, and I'm afraid I laughed at Jane far more than I ever laughed at Ramona's earnest eight-year-old feelings. Though I probably would not have chosen to read this book at fifteen, reading it now I could look back and see how much Jane's experience mirrored my own as a teen, even if some of the details are a little different.

Edit: I tried to upload a picture of pin curls, but for some reason it's gone, and I can't get it to upload anymore. Oh well.

YA Through the Decades: 2000s

Enthusiasm
by Polly Shulman (2006)

Ashleigh is an Enthusiast, the personality type that jumps into an interest wholeheartedly, much to her best friend Julie's embarrassment. Now, Ash is into Jane Austen. She's not just reading the books, which would suit Julie just fine as Pride and Prejudice is her favorite book. No, Ashleigh wants to dance a quadrille, wearing dresses only, and - most importantly - finding True Love. Ashleigh's plan: to infiltrate the upcoming boys' school dance to meet their very own Mr. Darcys. And of course, she's going to drag Julie along.

This was a fun teen romance that could appeal to teen lovers of Austen as well as those who have never read the books (or seen the movies). While there were some nods to Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice that I picked up on, Julie and Ashleigh's story stands well on its own and doesn't need any prior familiarity with either to be enjoyed. I liked Julie as the narrator, and could relate to her love and loyalty towards Ashleigh as well as her exasperation with some of Ash's more drastic schemes. Julie's romantic troubles were believable, if somewhat predictable and quickly wrapped up, but it was a nice, quick light read that I would easily recommend.

Enthusiasm fits into the 2000s for my Read YA Through the Decades challenge. For the main challenge page and links to others participating, check out the original post at Youth Services Corner.

Reading Challenge 2010: Read YA Through the Decades

The Youth Services Corner is hosting a YA Through the Decades Reading Challenge. Though I'm not a teen librarian myself, I love reading teen/YA books. I thought this would be a fun challenge to see if writing for teens has changed over the decades, and if so, how.

I'll be reading a book from each of the following decades:

• 1930s or before
• 1940s
• 1950s
• 1960s
• 1970s
• 1980s
• 1990s
• 2000s

And just for fun, I'll throw in another book published in 2010 - this decade. I haven't decided yet what I'll be reading for any given decade. Feel free to make suggestions!