May be I am mistaken, but I've got the impression that almost all YA stuff, kids are reading nowadays, is not good literature. It is associated in my head with books like Forever by Judy Blume, not with Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer [is it YA?], Anne of Green Gables and its sequels (are they for YA or children? The latter books feature her as a wife and a mother, after all. She even has a sort of a marital conflict with Gilbert in the last one), Little Women, etc.
Admittedly, I haven't read many YA books in English. In my childhood in Ukraine I remember reading fairy-tales, Dumas, Conan Doyle, adventures by foreign and Soviet/Russian authors, books for adults, some books for YA of Russian writers, etc. When I came to Israel in the library in YA English section I saw mainly books like those of Blume and they were much worse than those YA books I remember reading in Russian. The best one was The Wave. They were simply boring for me.
I don't want to sound snobbish! Probably I was just much luckier in finding good YA books in Russian. Besides, most books for all ages aren't very good.
Re: 3 Musketeers falling through the cracks. I think some books like 3 Musketeers and its sequels are good for reading at any age. Isn't 20 Years Later dealing with political situation in France? (I dislike it for that, even though Mordaunt improves the situation :) ). But I am the same person, who read Anna Karenina in Ukraine, and in Israel with great pleasure discovered Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and The Secret Garen, so... May be other people won't enjoy it after a certain age.
For what age was 3 Musketeers intended? Didn't Dumas write it for adults?
What do you think in general about YA stuff? Are the classics in the first paragraph YA or for children? Am I misguided?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-10-05 04:03 pm (UTC)Admittedly, I haven't read many YA books in English. In my childhood in Ukraine I remember reading fairy-tales, Dumas, Conan Doyle, adventures by foreign and Soviet/Russian authors, books for adults, some books for YA of Russian writers, etc. When I came to Israel in the library in YA English section I saw mainly books like those of Blume and they were much worse than those YA books I remember reading in Russian. The best one was The Wave. They were simply boring for me.
I don't want to sound snobbish! Probably I was just much luckier in finding good YA books in Russian. Besides, most books for all ages aren't very good.
Re: 3 Musketeers falling through the cracks.
I think some books like 3 Musketeers and its sequels are good for reading at any age. Isn't 20 Years Later dealing with political situation in France? (I dislike it for that, even though Mordaunt improves the situation :) ). But I am the same person, who read Anna Karenina in Ukraine, and in Israel with great pleasure discovered Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and The Secret Garen, so... May be other people won't enjoy it after a certain age.
For what age was 3 Musketeers intended? Didn't Dumas write it for adults?
What do you think in general about YA stuff? Are the classics in the first paragraph YA or for children? Am I misguided?