YA, Children's Books (someone on the internet is stupid)

[threemeninaboat]

“You've got to give kids really beautiful children's books in order to turn them into revolutionaries. Because if they see these beautiful things when they're young, when they grow up they'll see the real world and say, 'Why is the world so ugly?! I remember when the world was beautiful.' And then they'll fight, and they'll have a revolution. They'll fight against all of our corruption in the world, they'll fight to try to make the world more beautiful. That's the job of a good children's book illustrator.”
― Tony Millionaire


Lately I've been seeing internet comments about how someone will dislike a YA book and another person will comment something like, "Of course it's crap, it's for kids. Go read some adult books if you want substance." And then I want to cut a bitch.
Children should have the very best of books or they will never get ideas or want to read more. Often, they do.

Children's Books I Have Read That are Better Than Adult Books:
The Mysterious Bennedict Society
Harry Potter
Amulet
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Bless Me Ultima
Bone
Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey
Anything by Louis Sachar, Roald Dahl.

And if you want REAL substance: Dr. Suess.

I could go on forever.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

John Bellairs.

[manintheboat.livejournal.com]

Requested from the library! Thanks!

[ziz]

Agreed, so agreed.

I feel like the children's/adult's divide is often not very useful, but when it is, it's more like "does this book have things that are sufficiently graspable for a younger / less experienced / less mature / more innocent / etc mind?"

Les Miserables; Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; Feynman's biographical works; Godel, Escher, Back; these all have huge amounts of value to children of various ages. They also have a lot of depth for more experienced readers, but the depth is in no way required for consumption, appreciation, or substance.

...But there's also a lot of places in most those books (Feynman is really an exception here) that don't readily offer handholds for the substance to inexperienced readers, and I feel that's really a big part of what differentiates them from good YA: they assume too much extant experience on the part of the reader.

Of course, good books for children also don't push the lack-of-experience side of things either, or they'd be a lot less enjoyable for adults as well.

[manintheboat.livejournal.com]

I was going to go on about there shouldn't be a divide between children's/other books, but you beat me to it.

[ziz]

"Godel, Escher, Bach", even. I can type, I swear I can.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Pinkwater!

Diana Wynne Jones is an interesting case; she seemed to try to dumb herself down when she wrote for adults.

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

I like Roald Dahl too - kids books ARE a lot better than adult books :-)