{"id":815,"date":"2010-12-08T08:40:56","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T12:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/?p=815"},"modified":"2010-12-07T23:09:32","modified_gmt":"2010-12-08T03:09:32","slug":"wolf-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wolf-brother\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolf Brother"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the Teen Book Group (which is grades 7 to 9) discussed Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother<\/em>, the first in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness<\/em>\u00a0series.\u00a0 This was a book nominated by a group member, and voted on by all members of the group, which definitely boosted the conversation about the book (as opposed to the book I chose\u00a0 for them at the beginnning of the year, Mortal Engines<\/em>).\u00a0 Interestingly, though, we spent a good amount of meeting time not discussing this book in specific, but rather addressing one of my pet concerns about contemporary children’s and young adult literature.<\/p>\n

I will admit that I was less than inspired for this meeting of the book group, having just gotten over last Thursday’s stomach bug – just in time to get this week’s sore throat and cold.\u00a0 But I think that my less-than-healthy physical state actually helped to inspire a slightly different type of conversation than we usually have.\u00a0 At first, I kind of sat back in a stupor and let the kids have at it.\u00a0 They kept looking at me from the corners of their eyes, utterly astonished that I wasn’t complaining about the fact that they were comparing Wolf Brother<\/em>\u00a0 to Harry Potter (usually, I vociferously enforce my anti-Harry Potter ban in all book group discussions).\u00a0 But as I sat listening to them take the discussion in this direction, I decided to ask them to talk more about why so very many children’s and young adult\u00a0books are part of a series, and why so very, very few are stand-alone works.\u00a0 Why do kids and teens prefer to read books that are a part of a series?\u00a0 What is the appeal?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group members replied that a series is better because you learn more about the characters – the plots are better able to be described and fleshed out – and the reader isn’t left with a cliff hanger; all plot issues are worked out in full over the course of a series.\u00a0 One member commented that he read a stand-alone novel once that ended with a cliffhanger, and he would have much preferred it if there was a sequel, since the book ended in an unresolved manner.\u00a0 To my mind (something I didn’t say to the group), I prefer a book that leaves something to the imagination at the end.\u00a0 I love finishing a book, then going to bed and dreaming about what might happen next to the characters.\u00a0 I love getting so involved in a story that I can continue it for myself, in a myriad of possible directions.\u00a0 But I didn’t say that to the group, though in hindsight I wish that I had.<\/p>\n

Instead, I asked them the following: do the reasons that they stated\u00a0for the value of series books mean that most children’s and young adult literature is about plot, not quality of writing?\u00a0 And they immediately agreed, and said yes, most books they read are about plot.\u00a0 One clever young lady raised her hand very high, looked me in the eye, and said, “Abby, I’d like to ask you: what is your definition of quality literature??”\u00a0 Ouch.\u00a0 Tough question to be asked as you’re sinking down in your chair, under the influence of\u00a0a mega-sore throat.\u00a0 But I replied that I love Jane Austen’s works (groans from the peanut gallery), and that I also love some books by contemporary authors, like Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere<\/em>.\u00a0 I also said that the definition of “quality literature” is obviously subjective, and that we each might have a different opinion.\u00a0 But I thought that we could all agree that the Twilight <\/em>saga is\u00a0plot-driven but terribly (terribly!) written.\u00a0 Thank goodness, they agreed, and then we tried to rank the book of the day’s discussion, Wolf Brother<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We all agreed that the strengths of Wolf Brother <\/em>lie in the relationship between Torak and Wolf, and most especially in the meticulously researched details about life as a hunter in Europe 6,000 years ago.\u00a0 We all finished reading the book with the feeling that we had a sense of what life was like all those thousands of years ago, which is a big plus for the book.\u00a0 But the writing is neither great nor terrible: it furthers the plot, but doesn’t excite the reader with its use of language.\u00a0 I’d say that 90% of the group agreed that the book was a good diversion, but not our favorite, and that we wouldn’t bother to read the rest in the series (there are currently six sequels).\u00a0 It should be noted that the book has one very big fan in our book group, who has read all seven of the books multiple times – and who was the group member to nominate it for discussion.\u00a0 So of eight readers in attendance, Wolf Brother<\/em>\u00a0 has one very devoted follower, and seven readers who see its worth but don’t adore it.\u00a0 That, actually, is not all that bad for a book.\u00a0 And it did lead us to an excellent discussion, which I appreciate.\u00a0 This teen book group is a smart, well-read, incredibly cool bunch of kids, and it was great fun having such a deep conversation with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, the Teen Book Group (which is grades 7 to 9) discussed Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother, the first in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness\u00a0series.\u00a0 This was a book nominated by a group member, and voted on by all members of the group, which definitely boosted the conversation about the book (as opposed to the … Continue reading Wolf Brother<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-groups","category-teens","category-young-adult-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}