Cerucee just posted about her difficulty figuring out what books kids will like. She notes:
as a selfish adult reader, what I’m constantly looking for is glimmers of adulthood in those books–complex plotting, elegant art, darkness, sophistication–and I get excited when I see them, so excited that I sometimes forget that what makes a book a good grown-up book isn’t necessarily right in a kids’ book. The first service of children’s comics is not adult readers like me, but to children.
That’s a reasonable enough stance, certainly…but it’s not one I share. I mean, I’m happy enough to tell other adults what they should read and why; I don’t know why it should be different for children. I don’t always agree with my son about what’s worthwhile, but I don’t always agree with my wife, either. (Steve Earle…blech.)
The truth is, I think a lot of the things Cerusee points to: complex plotting, elegant art, darkness, sophistication — can easily be things that kids like too — especially if you’re talking young adults. Many of the great young adult series, in fact, are extremely dark and complicated. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle…and for that matter Dokebi Bride, which I was just rereading. They’re all aimed at tweens, or even younger, I’m pretty sure. The Harry Potter books, for that matter, are quite complicated and plenty dark.
Obviously, when you’re dealing with 5 year olds (as I am) you don’t want anything too scary. But still, I think there’s often quite a bit of overlap in taste…and I guess, moreover, I don’t see why I shouldn’t have an opinion. The point of children’s literature isn’t solely to entertain children. I have to read the stuff, after all; that makes me part of the intended audience, surely. The best products for children often keep in mind that there’s an adult audience as well — not too many kdis are going to get Alistair Cookie, but it’s thrown in on Sesame Street because they know that there are a lot of folks out there who *will* get it. And lord knows, if you’re home with the kid all day, it’s not selfish — or, at least, it’s very reasonably selfish — to want to be able to interact with the entertainment without being hideously bored or irritated.
Besides, it’s not like all adults hate all kids books. I like a lot of what my son does — Sesame Street is great, obviously (though he’s a little beyond that now.) So were the Teletubbies, actually — pretty visuals, tripped out plots, what’s not to like? And of course there’s Peanuts, which is probably about the best comic ever, for kids or adults. And there’s Dr. Seuss and Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and on and on.
Cerusee says she tends to like adult books for their adult qualities. There are definitely things that kids aren’t going to like that much — explicit sex, explicit gore, complicated dialogue that references stuff they don’t know about. But the things that are fun in children’s literature are often things adults can and often do like too…imaginative goofiness, slapstick, fart jokes, cute animals, pretty art, entertaining wordplay. In short, I don’t think there is or has to be an aesthetic barrier between children’s comics and adult comics. Let there be commerce between them, as some adult said.
Madeleine L'Engle
Her too!
Hi.
My largest, most enduring complaint about kids' comics (or any children's literature) is the tendency for the inexperienced author/publisher/editor/etc to offer children *less* of something. Stripped-down art, dumbed-down plot, simple-mindedness in general is not appreciated.
Some of the best things that we give to kids are not things that are explicitly *for* them. Like Looney Tunes, Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes and things of that nature. Children don't have a full knowledge of the world, but they are not stupid. They must be respected as any audience should be.
I would even argue that in many cases, children demand a greater sophistication in their products than adults do. Things need to make a certain kind of sense, "look right," and an author can't gloss over shoddy storytelling with things like extreme swearing or distracting nudity, colorful violence and so on. The children's author really has to have a complete handle on the storytelling process. That, in my opinion, is a large part of why children's comics are still in this day and age, a limited resource.
As a kid, I loved X-Men. I also tried to read the X-Men Adventures spin off (based on the 1990s cartoon) and it was completely and fully awful. Kids are smart enough to know when they're being lied to and they know when adults are asking them to settle for some make-pretend, knock off "kiddie version."
The comic shops that I go to have kid's comics sections. It seems to me that the overwhelming majority of these so-called kid friendly comics are licenced adaptations of popular properties and very little in the realm of engaging, original stories in the tradition of BONE. There's some, but the proportion of these to the tie-in stuff is very slim. It's a sad state of affairs.
When someone asks me to recommend some good comics for kids or all-ages material, my list is always embarrassingly short and predictable: Bone (of COURSE; then the speaker, me, fills the air with flourishes about its greatness, further stalling for time), Scary Godmother, Spiral Bound, Owly, and possibly one or two others if I can remember on the fly. It's a pitifully short list that takes nothing into account–genre, specific interests of the intended kids–apart from its general suitability for a youthful audience.
I'd actually argue that many of the adaptations for kids are better than the stuff that's for adults. Marvel Adventures Spider-Man is a fine title; Franklin Richards is probably as good a comic as Marvel produces; Mini-Marvels is undoubtedly better than most of the series it is based on, and so forth.
On the other hand, I think Bone is incredibly overrated.
But I agree with your overall point. Comics for kids can be funny and sophisticated and smart
Yes…but I do agree with Cerusee in more general terms. My kids often like things that seem incredible to me…We have a vast array of kids books, many hand-me-downs and things I can't even remember ever reading. Sometimes the kids pull one of these out and love it…and I just don't understand why. They love Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Where the Wild Things Are, and all kinds of things that I do think are good…but to impose my/our adult tastes on kids isn't always the answer. Sometimes, they like things that we don't, and won't….
I don't think you have to impose your taste on them…but you probably shouldn't impose your tastes on adults either. I don't know that my kid has ever liked anything as inexplicable as "This American Life," and lots of people like that, obviously….
Tolkien for tweens? The Hobbit, maybe, but Lord of the Rings was written for adults.
darrylayo: If you're looking for kid's graphic novels, your best bet may be the public library. My local library has a large section of children's graphic novels, many by publishers I'd never heard of who have evidently bypassed comic book shops entirely.
The Hobbit is for tweens and under. Tolkein may well have written LOTR for adults…but I'm sure I'm not the only kid who read it at 10.