Gays unwanted in Young Adult Books?

When you think of the young adult books capturing the attention of America's adolescents and pre-teens, predominately-white, predominately-straight novels like the Twilight and Hunger Games series come to mind. In a post on Publishers Weekly's website, two writers argue that the reason most YA books don't include LGBT characters, especially ones of color, is because book agents don't have the balls to sell manuscripts with them.

Rachel Manija Brown, author of the memoir All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India, and Sherwood Smith, writer of the YA novel Crown Duel, say that fear is running the YA book industry. Brown and Smith wrote an unpublished novel together called Stranger, featuring a young Asian gay male character with a boyfriend.

"An agent from a major agency, one which represents a bestselling YA novel in the same genre as ours, called us," Brown and Smith write. "The agent offered to sign us on the condition that we make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation."

Full report here Advocate

I know what you read this summer

Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series, the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan: the names trip easily off their tongues. But ask them about Young Adult (YA) books written by Indian authors that rolled off the presses this past summer and you hear a studied silence.

“I generally don’t read books by Indian authors,” says Kinnisha Michellin Andrew, a third-year student of Mount Carmel college.

Andrew, a voracious reader, gets most of her recommendations for books from her college peer group or from social networks for bookworms (Shelfari, Goodreads). She is currently reading the latest in the Hunger Games series (Mockingjay) and Name of the Wind, the first book in yet another fantasy series The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss.

The hyper-success of Twilight was supposed to draw all these young readers into bookstores and into exploring the burgeoning YA literature from India. This past summer, a large number of young Indian writers have published their books; among them are Samit Basu with his Terror on the Titanic: A Morningstar Agency Adventure, star blogger Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan with The Confessions of a Listmaniac, Vodafone-Crossword book award winner Siddhartha Sarma with The Grasshopper’s Run (all three published by Scholastic India), Giti Chandra with The Fang of Summoning (Hachette India) and Tushar Raheja with Run Romi Run (Roli).

Full report here DNA

Vampire mysteries

The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner, a novella by Stephenie Meyer tells the story of Bree Tanner, a vampire first featured in The Twilight Saga's Eclipse.

The novella, primarily set in Seattle, is told from the viewpoint of Bree, a new born vampire who narrates her journey along with the members of her coven and vampire army as they unknowingly prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens.

Riley, the coven's leader whose main job was to lure humans, had captured Bree and probably the other members of the coven and taken them to their mysterious creator known to them only as ‘her'. Little did they know, they were entangled in a maze larger than they could have ever imagined.

Full report here Hindu

The new phenomenon called young adult fiction!

Young adult literature in India is surprisingly prolific and publishers are vying to bring out high quality well-written and original new fiction in this segment, feel contemporary writers.

From 2010, Vodafone Crossword started awards for the children's section too and entries are works of children and teenage prose fiction or non-fiction.

According to Shreekumar Varma, whose The Magic Store of Nu-Cham-Vu has been shortlisted for the Crossword award (Children's Award category), writers as well as publishers are taking young adult fiction seriously.

"When I was in Delhi a couple of months ago, I found there's so much more coming up for young adults. It has become a big market. The upside is that young readers are turning to books by Indian authors. The trend was to say 'we never read Indian authors, don't find anyone interesting'."

Full report here NDTV

The day of the Grasshopper

As Siddhartha Sarma claimed the first Crossword Award for the Best Children’s Book in Mumbai this week, a bunch of writers at the Jumpstart festival were asking a key question: Should adults read books for children?

Technically, The Grasshopper’s Run is a children’s book — published by Scholastic last year in the emerging category of fiction for young adults. This is a growing segment of readers in India, and an important one: historically, despite the wide variety of literature for children, we haven’t had much literature for teenagers and young adults, across most Indian languages. But as writers from Paro Anand to Samit Basu know, writing for children or young adults effectively consigns the author to invisibility on the book-review pages. This means that kids, and teens, will read Sarma’s book — but adults will miss out.

And that would be a shame. Sarma’s real audience, as he says on his blog, is “all you closet Commando readers” — or anyone interested in the almost-forgotten Japanese siege of Kohima in 1944. “The (Second World) war touched India in many places, but the only region invaded on the mainland was the North-east,” Sarma writes. “It was a time of great misery, great courage and remarkable events. But if you expect much fiction about India and the war, forget it. Mostly it is because a couple of years after the war we began a bigger adventure: Independence and the rest of the jing-bang. People weren’t really into what their soldiers did fighting for another country in some far-off place.”

Full report here Business Standard

Never-ageing story

Why are adults reading books meant for teenagers? Poulomi Banerjee explores

As 29-year-old Piyali Sanyal sat reading the lines, she began to grin. She could feel the romance coming. “Just as I passed, he went rigid in his seat. He stared at me again, meeting my eyes with the strangest expression on his face — it was hostile, furious. I looked away quickly, shocked, going red again.”

Then Piyali forwarded the link of the book, one of the Twilight series, to her friends with a note attached — “check this out, good read”.

“I was so hooked to the book that I would read even if I had a five-ten minute break at work. I just couldn’t stay away. I was extremely surprised because I’m not really into mushy romances, but here I was, reacting like a giggly teenager to Edward,” she recalls.

When Edward’s and Bella’s eyes lock, the world and its aunt are riveted to the love story between a human and a vampire, with the werewolf Jacob providing an interesting third angle. Marketed as a story for teenagers, the series is often as big a hit with the moms and elder sisters.

The series writer Stephanie Meyer had confessed in an interview: “I didn’t write these books specifically for the young-adult audience. I wrote them for me. I don’t know why they span the ages so well, but I find it comforting that a lot of 30-somethings with kids, like myself, respond to them as well — so I know that it’s not just that I’m a 15-year-old on the inside!”

Full report here Telegraph

I’ve absorbed the natural world in my books: Deepak Dalal

What made you interested in writing for kids?
It is a disturbing fact that kids in India read more of foreign books and know better about the foreign land than their home turf. Kids can only be interested in reading when the information is dished out to them in a palatable manner. Keeping this in mind, I have written six books in my 10-year-long writing career.

What is it that you want kids to pick up from your books?
I realise that kids these days know very little beyond the tethers of their own city. India is a beautiful country with a lovely geography. Since all my books are set in India, I want to make the kids familiar with our environmental and wildlife content.

What has been your biggest achievement as a writer?
My books are now used in nearly 100 schools as part of their curriculum. However I felt really heartened to know that my second book Ranthambore Adventure has inspired many kids across
India to join several ‘save the tigers’ campaigns and conferences.

Full report here DNA

His story

He was a chemical engineer, but decided to follow his true calling writing 10 years ago and went on to create the Vikram Aditya series, an adventure tale involving two young detectives, modelled on famous youthful crime busters such as the Famous Five and Secret Seven series.

“The stories have elements of travel, photography, adventure and exotic locales. I enjoy all these activities tremendously and they find a place in the books,” says Deepak Dalal, the author of the series. Speaking at the launch of the latest book in the adventure series, Sahyadri Adventure at Reliance Timeout, Deepak says, “I always felt that most children growing up in urban areas do not learn much about their own cities. Schools follow a regimented style, which ensures that students give up the subject as soon as they can.”

“Sahyadri Adventure” is a story that goes back and forth in time and concerns itself with a tale in the Sahyadri ranges that surround Pune, Deepak's home town. “The regimented form of teaching history ensures that not many children or adults have any idea about the history of cities like Mumbai, which has seen a multitude of changes in its long history.” Though the Fort in Mumbai is a well known location, not many people know that an actual fort stood on that very location few centuries ago, he points out.

Full report here Hindu

Weaving magic in a plot

Deepak’s latest book Sahyadri Adventures features Vikram and Aditya  along with a girl  Chitra and their adventures in Sahyadri. Deepak’s books are set in exotic locations like Lakshadweep, Ranthambore, Ladakh, Andaman and now the Sahyadri. The best part is that he gets to stay in these places for research work! Windsurfing in Lakshadweep — check, snow leopard expedition — check, well, one gets the gist. Excerpts from an interview:

Tell us about your two latest books Sahyadri Adventure — Anirudh’s Dream and Koleshwar’s Secret.
The two books follow the adventures of Vikram and Aditya in the Sahyadri. Koleshwar’s Secret is a sequel to Anirudh’s Dream, although one can be read independent of the other. Just like the Harry Potter series took seven books to tell the story, this needed the two books. But it took me a long time to finish these two books (almost four years) because a lot of research was involved.

Your protagonists, Vikram and Aditya, always put up a good fight?
Well, they tackle things intelligently. They are always fighting against mining industry. For instance, the Supreme Court passed rule to stop all mining in Kudremukh or Bellary because mining was taking place in a forbidden territory. With just two to three per cent land preserved as sanctuaries, at least choose where you mine sensibly.

Full report here Bangalore Mirror

Ya, Mowgli son is on!

The 30-something author, who published his first book eight years ago, is now a veteran of a three-book fantasy series, some cool comics, a couple of screenplays and now a new series of “Young Adult” fiction, called YA. The YA list of Scholastic has kicked off with Basu’s ‘Morningstar Agency’ adventure series with the first title Terror on the Titanic just out on the shelf.

The book, launched at the South City Mall Starmark on Thursday, is about Nathaniel Brown, a Morningstar agent, who is on the Titanic to prevent a jewel from reaching America. He is Mowgli’s son.

Samit spoke on Indian publishing opening up to young readers and the may genres. “The world over it has been a golden age for children’s literature since 2001 with Harry Potter, Lisbeth Salander, the Percy Jackson series and so on.” But in India, there were only RK Narayan and Ruskin Bond, nothing contemporary. Kalpana Swaminathan was appreciated abroad but not in India, feels Samit.

The reason is not far to seek. “With poor marketing budgets, books weren’t getting visibility.” Except a Vikram Seth or someone with a million-pound advance. Samit was interested in writing a book for children. “But I write to make a living. I wouldn’t really be interested in something that wouldn’t sell. Besides, publishers didn’t want to touch anything unless they were sure of numbers.”
 
Full report here Telegraph

A blend of myth and fantasy

She thinks pen is a mightier tool than any powerful sword. Dynamic and talented, Nabila Jamshed, 22, comes across as any other girl her age. But deep down, you discover something more substantial. The international edition of her debut novel, Wish Upon a Time: The Legendary Scimitar, was recently unveiled by Roman Books.

True to its fantasy-fiction genre, the book promises unlimited fun. The storyline unfurls nuggets of myths, fairytales, supernatural elements, apparitions, warriors with sabres, winged creatures, et al. It takes readers into the world of Eyelash, a typical 15-year-old girl who is a bit more concerned with the unknown than with the known and is always ready to believe in something unbelievable. But what lies beyond the make-believe realm of otherworldly occurrences, bizarre beasts and grotesque gnomes, is a fibre of reality.

Targeted at the young-adult segment, stings of terrorism and jibes of politics are an extra bonus in the novel. A stickler for spreading world peace “with the power of ideas and imagination and in the process, translating the same into actions,” Nabila admits that she had always wanted to write a creative piece laced with the parameters of a mystical fantasy. “The USP of this tome is that it starts conversing with any given reader, irrespective of his/her age-bracket. It is not generation specific and ambles across all societies and time periods. One good advantage of trying my hand at this literary type is that it did offer me ample scope and space to toy with certain real issues and braid the same ith a tinge of mystery into the plotline,” she says.

Full report here Asian Age

Young adults on the shelf

Once young adult meant 20-somethings ready to get on to life. The contemporary young adult seems someone with the gift of the gab, a sense of humour, the ability to laugh and sneer (at others and himself/herself) and preferably street smart, if also underage.

They are growing in number as authors and finding new customers for publishing. Young adult fiction is fairly new in India with a handful of publishers developing their list and purchasing rights to foreign publications.

Anshuman Mohan of St Xavier’s Collegiate School, 15, has written his much-publicised book about school and life thereafter that goes by the name of Potato CHIPS. Pradipta Sarkar, a 25-year-old editor at Harper Collins which published Potato CHIPS, feels lack of choice spawned the trend: “We thought that after Enid Blyton, Rudyard Kipling, Ruskin Bond, what does the young adult read? He then has to skip straight to adult fiction,” she says.

Full report here Telegraph

Indian Hardy Boys

The author on a forgotten city and why urban children can relate to two precocious boys

Achemical engineer by profession, Deepak Dalal set out to write “Indian tales for Indian children” in 1998. And thus was born the VikramAditya series of adventures, set in some of the most picturesque places on the map—Lakshadweep, Ladakh, the Andaman Islands and Ranthambore. Vikram is a meticulous, intelligent and very correct schoolboy. His friend Aditya is the opposite—strong, impulsive and not averse to bending a few rules. Both love the great outdoors, which helps forge a bond among them as they fight to save wildlife from poachers and evil traders.

Twelve years and six books into the series, Dalal has turned publisher. This week, the newly launched Tarini Books released the seventh and eighth books in the series—Sahyadri Adventure-I: Anirudh’s Dream and Sahyadri Adventure-II: Koleshwar’s Secret. Though set in gritty Mumbai, the books tell the story of the city before it became a megapolis, when Fort was not just an address and Churchgate meant more than a railway station. Edited excerpts from an interview:

What are the ‘VikramAditya’ books about?
They are stories of adventure of two schoolboys, Vikram and Aditya, set in the very beautiful wild world beyond our cities. These are primarily meant for the 12-16 age group. Today’s children live very urban-centric lives. What I’m trying to do is tell them about the exciting country beyond: the Himalayas, the coastlines, the wild forests. There’s a lot of wonderful children’s books—old favourites like Enid Blyton or the Harry Porter series or Artemis Fowl. But there’s hardly any good Indian stories being told to Indian children. Yet India is one of the most vibrant countries in its history and geography.

Full interview here Mint

Coming of age

Indian publishing boasts of a thriving children’s market, but it has remained limited in scope...

Worldwide, readers of young adult (YA) fiction have never had it so good. That trend is now gathering steam in India. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, House of Night, Twilight, Princess Diaries — young adult (YA) readers have never had it so good. But while shelves overflow with YA books of every genre, if you go looking for home-grown fare, the view is rather more dismal.

Indian publishing boasts of a thriving children’s market, but it has remained limited in scope. Classics, folk tales and mythology have been rehashed and regurgitated innumerable times, suiting both publishers who are largely content to stick with the tried and tested, and parents who decide what children ought to read. And while there is a fair amount of original writing for younger children, it is slim pickings in the YA segment. In fact, YA itself is a category difficult to pin down, more so since young people trying to find their place in the larger scheme of things are near impossible to slot into convenient “types”. One thing is clear: while the term might be “a snappy shorthand for a global phenomenon”, as Anita Roy of the YA publisher Young Zubaan puts it, there’s no doubt that pre-20 age group is hungry for good literature.

Globally, the crossover market to which YA belongs, comprising books that appeal to youngsters as well as adults, has taken off in a big way. The trend has not escaped the notice of Indian publishers. So far only a handful — Young Zubaan, Puffin, Hachette, Scholastic and HarperCollins, to name a few — are actively exploring it, but it is early days yet.

In India YA publishing has gotten the cold shoulder. A well-rounded exploration of adolescence hasn’t been a strength, says Vatsala Kaul Banerjee, editorial director (children’s and reference books) at Hachette India. Reaching out to this category of readers is not simple: “Ever tried being interesting to a 16-year-old?” she asks. Not easy, since young people are discerning readers.

Full report here Business Standard