A WORD (OR TWO HUNDRED) FROM THE EDITOR

Going through publishers’ catalogues, I feel like a kid in a candy store. So many authors, writing on so many diverse topics... and only so many hours to a day in which to enjoy them! Authors whose books I love, new authors, books on subjects close to my heart and books on subjects I’d never thought one could write a whole book on.

In the children’s/young readers’ sections I’m delighted to see that  classics like Ballet Shoes and Scarlet Pimpernel are being republished. And that culturally-appropriate books like Namaste Is A Greeting, I’ll Go and Come Back or My Grandma Wears A Sari are available for desi kids.

Sometimes, though, a blurb halts me in my tracks.

Like this one for Never Vacation With Your Ex. Described as a “Young adult second chance romance from fan-favourite author couple”, it is about a 17-year-old volleyball star who looks forward to the vacation her family spends in Malibu with another family. “This year, there’s only one problem: Kaylee and their son, Dean, dated for the past three months, and Kaylee just unceremoniously dumped him. Hoping to spare them the worst summer ever, Kaylee comes to Dean with her unconventional solution: she’s going to walk him through her rules for getting over an ex”.

It might well be a great book, but I find it astonishing that the YA fiction categorized under Romance is seen as appropriate for kids from ages 12 up. Twelve?

Takes me back to the days when our older son, then around 9, began reading Goosebumps. All the other books we had at home sat collecting dust while he borrowed title after title in the series from the library.

Realizing that my collection of Anne of Green Gables or Little Women, etc., wasn’t exactly going to be popular with him, and he had outgrown Hardy Boys, I approached the librarian for help.

“Oh, they’re all reading those now!” she said with a laugh, but also recommended books by Kenneth Oppel and by Newbery Award-winning authors. I recall The Hollow Tree, which won the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Fiction and was a Canadian Children’s Book Centre Choice. 

I may be terribly out-of-touch, but I believe that kids should also be introduced to classics. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or Treasure Island. I might have suggested abridged versions, but a generation raised on door-stoppers like Harry Potter (before which there was the Eragon series) can handle Great Expectations. For the beauty of the language, if for nothing else.

Books are an adventure, transporting us to other lives and worlds, and not just vehicles to fast-forward us into adult experiences.

Not at 12, at any rate.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that a whip-smart, tech-savvy kid is still just a kid. There’s plenty of time ahead for crushes and break-ups and all that, life will present those as they mature. For now, let’s nurture innocence.

Happy Father’s Day!

Shagorika Easwar