We have a treat in store for you today :0) It's a guest post by Ingrid Jonach, one of the growing number of brilliant authors that have been signed to the Strange Chemistry label. Ingrid hails from Australia, and is here to talk about the YA scene down under. Enjoy....
The
Young Adult Scene Down Under
If you were to walk into an
Aussie bookstore or library, you would find the shelves groaning under the
weight of novels from abroad, particularly the US.
We too were swept up in the Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games
Series’. We have grown accustomed to international slang and even spelling
if the novel has been ordered from overseas (note there has been a lot of
robust discussion around parallel imports in Australia, but that is another
blog post altogether!). And we Aussies are actively engaging with international
readers and writers through social networking sites like Twitter and Goodreads.
There is no doubt in my mind
that the young adult scene is going global in Australia.
There also seems to be an
ever-emerging trend for Aussie authors to not mention the name of towns or
cities in young adult fiction, particularly for those novels in urban settings.
For example, the very successful The Violet Eden Chapters
by Aussie author Jessica
Shirvington is set in a location referred to simply as the City. Of course,
having a non-descript setting makes translation easier, as it removes the use
of slang and, as Shirvington explains in this interview
with Chapter-by-Chapter, it allows the readers to choose their own setting.
This has certainly worked for The Violet
Eden Chapters, which has been picked up for a TV series to be produced by
Steven Spielberg!
But in the interview, Shirvington
also explains an identity crisis familiar to many Aussies. A large number of us
are only first generation Aussies and it seems like every second person has
dual citizenship or has lived in another country for a year or two. For
example, my father is an Austrian who lives in the US with my half-sister, who
is American, and my maternal grandfather was a Pommy (our tongue-in-cheek term
for the English), which means I am basically a mongrel or a bitzer (made up of
bits of everything)!
With this being said and done,
many of the young adult books I grew up with were very Australian.
The defining novel has to be Tomorrow When the War Began (and
its six follow-up books) by John
Marsden. The series starts with a group of friends who go out camping in
the bush for a week, only to return home to discover an unnamed army has
invaded Australia. The novels are addictive, but I wonder whether non-Aussie
readers would struggle with the vernacular, e.g.
So: it
all began when Corrie and I said we wanted to go bush, go feral for a few days
over the Christmas holidays. It was just one of those stupid things: ‘Oh
wouldn’t it be great if...’ We’d camped out quite often, been doing it since we
were kids, taking the motorbikes all loaded with gear and going down to the
river, sleeping under the stars, or slinging a bit of canvas between two trees
on cold nights. So we were used to that. Sometimes another friend would come
along, Robyn or Fi usually. Never boys. At that age you think boys have as much
personality as coat hangers and, you don’t notice their looks.
Then
you grow up.
I have previously read that Marsden
turned down a number of movie deals that would have seen the series reset in US.
The first book was finally made
into a movie a couple of years ago and while it debuted at number one at
the box office in Australia, it only made under three million in the rest of
the world. And yes, there have been many online discussions around its
similarities to the upcoming remake of Red Dawn, which ironically
stars Aussie actors Chris Hemsworth and Isabel Lucas.
Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta was another
young adult novel of my generation.
"Oh, Jozzie, Jozzie. Look at your hair. Why,
Jozzie? Why can you not look tidy?"
My grandmother says that to me every afternoon. She
says it with a painful cry in her voice as if she is dying. I'm not sure if
anyone has ever died of the fact that their granddaughter looks untidy, but I'm
sure my grandmother will one day because she'll strain her voice so much she'll
choke.
I loved this novel and its film adaption remains the most
financially successful Aussie teen movie to date. I was lucky enough to hear
the author speak at a festival the other week. After a series of very
Australian novels, including Saving
Francesca and On the
Jellicoe Road, she is now focused on a fantasy series, the Lumatere
Chronicles, which have a setting that is distinctly European. Again, I
think it is an example of how universal we have become in Australia.
While many thought we were busy
riding kangaroos and wrestling crocodiles, we have become wordly. My sister and
I barely notice the gap between our cultures anymore, although she took on the
informal role as translator for my
upcoming young adult novel When the
World was Flat (and we were in love), which is set in a fictional town in the
US: bomb cars became crappy cars; mollycoddled became babied;
and crop top became training bra.
Let me wrap up with a few more
recommendations for those interested in Aussie contemporary young adult
fiction:
·
Graffiti Moon
by Cath Crowley, which won the most recent young adult Prime Minister’s
Literary Award in Australia.
·
Sleeping Dogs
by Sonya Harnett, which I discussed on a literature panel about ratings for
books. It is THAT controversial!
And for those interested in young
adult science fiction and fantasy, I can highly recommend ANYTHING by Victor
Kelleher, including Taronga
and the Parkland
Series. His books fuelled my love of reading and writing, especially his
childrens’ book Brother Night.
There is also great list on Goodreads
of the Best
Australian Young Adult Books.
See you next post,
Kaylie :0)
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