GENRE 101 – Juvenile Literature

“My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.”

L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

The Curse Of Youth

As we become adolescents, we enter the fast track to full development of our young brains. This means we are capable of understanding very complex concepts that were only visible to the adults before, we begin to be interested in deeper connections and do not merely ask how things work, but why they do in one way but not the other.

Adolescence comes with its own rules. A world of astounding variety and opportunity is unlocked and at the same time everything seems so much darker then before. We may have learned about virtues by reading children’s books, but now we see that there are people who do not care about them as we do. We have been promised that diligence and decency will be rewarded, but we meet people who due to no fault of their own lost everything they had. We have been taught that bad people will eventually face punishment for their injustices, but we see horrible people getting richer each day. The world is ruled by wolves.

Of course the world is never all bad, but as a teenager it often feels like it, because once the pretty tapestry of cute bunnies and brilliant rainbows comes off, the continual emergence of evil things sucks all the joy out of life. And there is a lot revealing in the teenage years: Mum and Dad are not perfect and sometimes they behave like they do not even love each other or their children. The pop star who is the only one who understands your misery (as he constantly sings about it) turns out to be a wife beater, a plagiarist or a suicidal drug addict. There are more murderers and thieves than you would have ever suspected and they don’t wear eye masks like in the cartoons but pinstripe suits and ties, they shake hands and smile. And worst of all, the girl you love is going out with your arch enemy. They both laugh at you. Life is churning out boxes filled with disappointment on a conveyor belt of doom.

Being young without being small is a tough state. Parents, teachers and friends pile responsibilities on your head and make you feel like there is no more time for play. Clean your room, mow the lawn, watch your little sister, do your homework, study for the next test, shower your girlfriend with attention, be nice to the old lady next door and don’t you dare forget your best friend’s birthday or they will publicly humiliate you in front of the whole world thanks to social media. While we are at it, there is this new game everyone is playing and you don’t know it yet because you got your pocket money cut or you simply had no time to check it out because you had to attend your aunt’s third wedding, visit your grandfather in the retirement home right after delivering the newspapers and walking the dog. You better make it work, because if you don’t play the game with your friends while it is fresh, you will have to play alone for the rest of your life.

And all the while you have learned and discovered so many wondrous things you wish to tell someone about, but nobody is listening. After all, you may be able to take on adult tasks now and a full schedule of responsibilities but in your head you are still a child, so what do you know?

What a swamp of deficiency, incomprehension, disregard and desires, what an excellent pool of literary opportunities. And these are only the best case scenarios. It is time to put virtues and values to the test, to break the rules and defy authorities: it is time for a rebellion!

Rebels Welcome

Juvenile novels can be combined with pretty much any other genre. The options are unlimited. Some of the most popular themes include Family, School, Romance, Friendship, Horror and Mystery, Adventure, Detective Stories and Fantasy. But there are very specific problems that all teenagers share in some way or the other and they will have to be part and heart of your story. Children know nothing of them and only very few adults remember those bad times. Most of them are glad they are over. Some wish they could go back and make better choices.

The Juvenile Fiction genre has been enriched with some of the most engaging stories because of the conflicts young adults have with the universe they live in. They are transferable to any era and place in the world or an entirely different universe.

Your protagonist does not have to be a renegade to be considered a rebel. Every teenage character is a rebel in their own right. If they are not, then there is really no reason to write stories about them. The drive to change things and defy social and cultural norms is the prerogative of the youth. They are still allowed to act foolishly, to make mistakes and to throw tantrums. They have to whet their teeth on a fossilised society, they have the energy to gnaw down the dead bits and they are flexible enough to eventually grow into the empty spaces of the structure they used to abhor. They will grow or they will break trying.

Anne of Green Gables longs for a time when she is not treated like a servant anymore and appreciated for her sparkling wit and beauty of mind. She is the epitome of the smart dreamer, a loner who has the potential to inspire change. Her opposition consists of those who fear change and aim to oppress her by isolation.

Juvenile detective novels like The Three Investigators by Robert Arthur Jr. however seem to aim at teaching logical thinking in an entertaining tale, but only when looked at superficially. The confrontation with crime and criminals in a playful manner softens the blow to a very fragile sense of security and promotes proactivity against them, even if most parents would consider such a hobby dangerous.

The universality of moral norms are being questioned in adventures that feature heroes who oppose the law: Pirates, outlaws, thieves and even bullies. In Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, an underage crime lord uses his outstanding brainpower to steal the treasury of the fairy people. He is like a modern day Valiant Little Tailor from Grimm’s Märchen who believes that intelligence always trumps morals, that the smart have every right to take what they want. His juvenile problems of absent parents and a low social skill level eventually take their toll and make him more caring.

Even though Harry Potter lives in a fairy tale like world, the series of the same title by J. K. Rowling is not a children’s book. It has all the elements of a brutal coming-of-age story. Harry’s endless search for a suitable guardian leads him to illusions and hopes, through disappointment, loss and literally death until he realizes that he has grown up and is old enough to be a parent himself. This evolution of the character is the heart of the story without which it would be yet another fairy tale.

Being a teenager often feels like being in a hurry to reach the mainland after leaving a deserted island. The promised land looks the more pleasant when seen from a raft in the middle of a treacherous ocean.

The lure of wealth, love and freedom are particularly strong in the youths, who do not yet have realistic expectations regarding these values. Teenagers tend to feel animosity towards their parents for not having enough money nor enough time, because they do not understand these things as currency yet, that come at a cost.

Mentor Archetype

Adults in juvenile novels hardly ever have problems that seem real to a teenager. They, on the other hand, view teenage problems as not being worthy of attention. This divide is an essential part of the juvenile novel, but there may always be someone who is able to bridge it: an adult with a childlike mind or a child with a very mature attitude. They take the place of the wise owl and the fairy godmother from the children’s stories. These Merlin like characters can help the growing process along without being the protagonists. They understand the young heroes‘ needs and can provide them with the knowledge and strength to fulfil their tasks. They are Yoda and Athena, older, wiser masters of certain skills and they represent the kind of person the young hopeful desires to become one day. In rare cases they are the same age as the protagonist or even younger.

There can be more than one mentor, depending on what the hero is eager to learn. In the Jungle Book the black panther Bagheera teaches Mowgli how to survive while the easy-going Baloo shows him how to make life fun.

Mentors are a wonderful character addition that provides the protagonist with a skill set and their lessons may be remembered in tight spots. Without a mentor figure the hero is likely to fail.

The death of a mentor marks a point in the hero’s life, where he needs to step up and put his skills to the test without a safety net. As sad as it may be, this measure is sometimes necessary, especially when the mentor outshines the hero in every possible way. If the mentor can do everything better than the protagonist, then there is no need for the protagonist. Alternatively mentors can be wounded, disabled, getting too old to keep up or like Gandalf often does, vanish for a while, to make space for the hero.

Turn Back The Clock

One may suppose that all conflicts between adults and teenagers stem from ideological disagreements, but sometimes it is much simpler than that. Adults and teenagers use different vocabularies. Try to keep that in mind when you are writing dialogue between the two parties as well as in your prose. Write in a way that is easy for teenagers to understand and do not drown them in technical terms. Teenagers might find offence at being talked to in a condescending manner.

When it comes to perspective, young readers do not merely want to tag along, they want to be as close as possible to the protagonist. Writing from either the ego-perspective or a limited third-person-view is preferable. Since the inner workings of other people are often a mystery to the young adult, this makes a lot of sense.

For the same reasons, make sure you stay in the set time. You may think of yourself as an adult looking back at events in your youth, but you will have to write about these events as if they are happening right now with no future knowledge of what would have been the better choice. There is a reason for that. Teenagers do not think outside their time or place, they are young now and here and this state seems to last forever. An adult mirroring experiences they are going through now may at some point judge them for being foolish. Be very aware and careful about this. Avoid being the smarter version of your younger self. If your protagonists messes up, let them mess up hard and find their own way out. Your young readers will thank you for it.

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