There.
All fixed.
Took me three starts to finish Lucky Jim; couldn’t figure out why everyone called it the wittiest British novel of the 20th century. You know what? It doesn’t start getting funny until CHAPTER THREE.
One guy the kids today definitely aren’t reading is Kingsley Amis.
Fantasy is easily the biggest genre in kid lit these days. Book after book about magical power and wizards and spells and all that shit. I find the whole genre utterly boring and haven’t read a single Harry Potter or any other fantasy. There is certainly good sci fi for kids, though. If one of my young patrons asked me for a science fiction recommend I would point them towards The Search for Wondla or Ship Breaker or Airborn or The Boy at the End of the World. For something more classic maybe The White Mountains or Fahrenheit 451. Most of the classic 50s sci fi is getting pretty dated and is not very relatable for today’s kids. Plus there has been a boatload of really good kids’ science fiction written since those “classics” were published. Modern books are more appealing to kids, both in style and substance.
I was looking for a copy of “Where’s My Cow?” for a friend who was a new grandfather, when I came across a little girl looking for a book. I greeted her and asked her how old she was and she told me she was 9. So I found a copy of “Wee Free Men”, handed it to her, and told her it was about a 9 year old girl with a bratty little brother who finds out she’s a witch. I don’t know if she bought it or not. They didn’t have “Maurice and the Amazing Rodents.”
It’s less niche now than it used to be. I was in high school exactly during the run of ST:TOS, and there were not a lot of kids into it, and we did not have anything like a shared experience of the Star Wars movies. I did a massive analysis of the books of Arthur C. Clarke, comparing the non-fiction with the fiction, in 9th grade.
As for Clarke, I’d recommend “The City and the Stars” as a good starting point. When I reread it I found that he predicted VR video games back in the early 1950s. It’s less dated than the closer to now space books.
Right, one thing I hate is schools forcing Bradbury on kids, telling them it is Science fiction and not much of it is), so that then they hate SF for the rest of their lives, not knowing what they are missing.
Slightly OT, I noticed “Have Spacesuit Will Travel” on my home library shelf the other day and thought ‘you know, I haven’t read that since I was a kid.’
You’ve inspired me to pick Heinlein back up and see how well he’s aged (keeping in mind it was a juvenile).
Preach it brother!.