Sunday, April 29, 2007

reading the love

All the Georgette Heyer readers are converging at Bookshelves of Doom at the moment. I wonder if there's a lot of crossover between (adult) children's book readers and romance readers? I suspect many children's book readers are also drawn to genre fiction because they share, generally speaking, an emphasis on satisfying storytelling that more highly regarded categories of literature often don't bother with.

I'm a little bemused by the idea of reprinting Eva Ibbotson for YA's though. I mean, yay for us adults who have been haunting ebay, but though her books are relatively clean, as these things go, they are kind of heavy on some of the more outdated romantic ideals. The hero is always spying the heroine giving a friendly hug to a beloved relative and immediately concluding she must be a hoo-ar. If I were choosing adult romances for a teenger, I might prefer something with actual sex but a saner attitude.

(No, wait! That would let out Twilight on both counts!)

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3Bligs:

Anonymous Anonymous bligged...

I'm a bit puzzled about this decision too. It's not just the older romantic ideals but also the age of the protaganists (adult) and even their concerns (jobs etc). I think it's just that old+clean book = children idea popping up again.

But I will be quiet now so they don't change their minds and take the books away altogether...

4/30/2007 5:57 PM  
Blogger web bligged...

It's probably a lot to do with cashing in on her children's book market.

4/30/2007 6:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous bligged...

I'm just happy that you used the word hoo-ar. I'm going to try and work it into my conversations all day. Thanks!

(As for the grown-up fans of YA also being fans of genre fiction -- I agree.)

5/01/2007 8:53 AM  

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