The Angel Animals Network 2010 True Story Contest is now accepting submissions of true stories of animals helping children, parents, and families deal with difficult situations and circumstances. Animals featured can be dogs, cats, horses, gerbils, rabbits, ferrets, or any house pet or animal in nature. They can be family pets or therapy, assistance, or service animals.

The stories can be written by parents or guardians of children or by the children or teens themselves. Stories can also be written by adults who recall a special animal from childhood or teen years who helped them through a tough period.

This contest hopes to find real-life stories that demonstrate animals comforting and helping to heal children during everyday ups and downs or traumatic events such as divorce or other losses. The stories can depict how children and teens de-stress with animals while learning valuable life lessons.  The deadline is 15 September 2010. For more details visit Angel Animals.

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2. True Life Stories – market opportunity
3. Writing Fantasy Fiction

Over-commercialization

While most children’s authors are out to entertain, educate and inspire, there exists the danger of over-commercialization. Once a children’s book or youth reader succeeds at a certain level it becomes a “property” and begins to “spin-off” into other product and program categories. For example, the author may find her characters on clothing, translated into toys and games and appearing on food and beverage packaging.

The dilemma becomes how to determine when a property is over-commercialized. There are three classifications that any product or program falls into: GOOD FOR KIDS, NEUTRAL, and BAD.

‘Good’ products

Products and programs that are GOOD for kids include sports toys, school supplies, developmental toys, and most books. Products that are NEUTRAL are a little trickier in that used wrongly or to excess these products could be harmful. Neutral products and programs include clothing, TV programming and food & beverages among many others. These products and programs need to be monitored and managed by parents and caregivers.

‘Bad’ products

Then there are those that are just plain BAD for young people. These include many videogames – especially those with violence and with inappropriate sexuality. The Bratz dolls have been criticized in this regard. This BAD category also includes inappropriate internet content and the obvious such as tobacco, drugs and guns.

‘Neutral’ products

Where most children’s authors might get into contracts that end up being bad for kids is in the neutral category. An author must determine if allowing their characters to appear on food and beverage packaging, for example, will result in harm at some level. If the food or beverage content has excessive sugar or other ingredients that may be harmful it would be best to stay away. As cute and loving as Barney, Dora, the Muppets or the Webkinz pets are, they can end up hawking harmful products.

Keeping your characters clean

The key is to keep these three categories in mind. Continue to ask yourself: Will my book’s content – especially its characters – ever promote anything that may turn out to harm children in any way? If so, decide against it and keep your nose and your character’s noses clean.

Crafty tip: make sure you read the small print about commercial spin-offs in your contract; not just who earns what, but what products may be endorsed. Ask your lawyer or agent to ensure that the contract is worded in such a way that you retain control over what products you may be associated with in future.

Dr Dan Acuff is the co-author, along with Dr Robert Reiher of Kidnapped: How Irresponsible Marketers Are Stealing the Minds of Your Children. He offers an evaluation service for children’s and YA authors and inventors of toys and games. His website, Stories Toys Games also has free advice for authors with tips on how to consider the psychology of young readers in your writing.

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3. Writing for children: mysteries and thrillers

Image courtesy of ginieland

The difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy

Although these genre have much in common, the essential difference is that Science Fiction broadly deals with the ‘theoretically possible’ (although often improbable!) whereas Fantasy deals with the impossible (although that doesn’t mean everything in the story is impossible). Science Fiction takes the existing world to another dimension; Fantasy creates entirely new worlds and infuses them with a degree of familiarity. See for example Terry Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ fantasy novels. The most recent, Wintersmith, won the British Bookseller’s Children’s Book of the Year (2007).

The difference between Fantasy and Magic Realism

Although some critics place them both in the same basket, strictly speaking, Magic Realism is a genre in which fantasy elements such as magic or the supernatural enter a realistic, natural world without the reader questioning their presence. Clay by David Almond is a good example of Magic Realism.

Fantasy as ‘crossover’

Long before Harry Potter, adults were secretly enjoying ‘children’s’ literature in the form of fantasy. The Lord of the Rings was originally categorised as a children’s book, as were Orwell’s Animal Farm and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, even though all three deal with very adult themes. It is really only from the late 1970s and early 80s that fantasy was given its own shelf in the adult section of the library. So is there still a dedicated children’s fantasy genre? I think so. Although it has much in common with adult fantasy (similar plot lines, conventions etc) there are things (common to all children’s writing) that set it apart, such as: child protagonists, age appropriate language, sanitised plot lines (no or limited sex and violence). In addition, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy suggests that what sets children’s fantasy apart is the theme of transformation. This is a fantastical metaphor for the age-old theme of ‘coming of age’ that is found in most children’s writing for the 10+ group. As Lisa Tuttle explains in her Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction:

It is the ability to experience either a transfer of self from place to place or through time, or a change in being (from poverty to riches or from beast to beauty). The latter process is particularly important as it allows the child to come to terms with its own change from child to adult.
(Tuttle, p119)

Common fantasy sub-genre in children’s writing

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy suggests six common sub-genre:

• Worlds in miniature (eg Mary Norton’s The Borrowers)
• Secret gardens and hidden worlds where children can temporarily escape from real life (eg The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis).
• Time fantasies where children travel to another era or encounter ghosts from the past. (eg Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quartet)
• Otherworlds (secondary worlds such as Tolkien’s Middle Earth or Ursula Le Guin’s Earth Sea)
• Wish fulfilment (Mary Poppins, PL Travers)
• Animal Stories (eg Dick King-Smith’s The Sheep Pig aka Babe!)

General fantasy conventions:

The following are the main conventions you’ll need to be aware of when writing fantasy:

• The fantasy world
• Myths, legends and fairytales
• Magic
• Archetypes
• Landscape with meaning
• Maps
• Journeys
• Suspension of disbelief and internal logic

The fantasy world

Ever since The Lord of the Rings, the stock setting for most fantasy books is a pre-industrial one, with much in common with Earth’s Middle Ages. However, ‘futuristic’ fantasies are becoming more common as the stock setting has been done to death.

Myths, legends and fairytales

Elements of Celtic, Arthurian and Central and Northern European mythology are easily identifiable.

Modern fantasy has its roots in fairy tales, myths and legends – an imaginary past more than a real one. It is therefore less concerned with novelty and innovation than with old stories retold. Even the most inventive and original fantasy tends to look back to earlier epic tradition and what might be considered eternal truths.
(Tuttle, p22)

Magic

This is an almost essential element, as without it, ‘logical’ explanations would have to be found for fantastical events – that would make it Sci Fi, not Fantasy. Critics of Fantasy say that often the ‘magic’ reflects forms of occultic religion, unsuitable for children.

Archetypes

Fantasy is rich ground for Jungian psychologists: the wise old woman, the divine child, the young hero or heroine sent on a quest, helpful animals, a walled castle, the wasteland, the dying king, shape-shifting tricksters, dragons and unicorns. These archetypes have a pre-existing meaning for the reader, and are, to a degree, expected to appear in some form or another.

When they’re handled well, these familiar characters have the ring of truth about them, and seem both familiar and yet original; but if the author is lazy or unskilled they’ll come across as cartoons or clichés.
(Tuttle, p21)

Landscape with meaning

In fantasy, the landscape or ‘world’ that is created has equal importance with character and plot. However, resist the temptation to go overboard on description, and only include as much as is needed to further characterisation and plot.

Maps

Since Tolkien, these have become almost de rigeur in helping your reader to picture the world you have created.

Journeys

Much of fantasy fiction writing has a journey of discovery or ‘quest’ at its heart. We accompany the POV character on his / her journey, and this helps us to navigate through the new world.

Suspension of disbelief and internal logic

When writing fantasy you will expect your reader to suspend their disbelief as they enter your world and take it as you describe it. However, this doesn’t mean that anything goes. Every fantasy world has rules or laws that cannot and should not be broken. Characters need to act within the restraints of these laws. For example, dragons derive energy from the sun and can’t stay on the ground for long (‘Glint’, Ann Coburn, p26). As the creator of this world, you make up its rules, but you too must be subject to them.

A writing exercise:
Create your own fantasy world and write a story set in it. Ask yourself:

1. What is the name of your world?
2. What does it look like?
3. Who lives there?
4. Describe a typical child in your world.
5. Is the world at peace or at war?
6. If at war, who is the enemy?
7. If at peace, what threatens that peace?
8. Who rules your world?
9. What are the ’10 Commandments’ of your world?
10. What happens if someone breaks them?

Now write your story.

Related posts:

1. Science Fiction, fantasy and Faith
2. Writing Romantic Suspense – When Love Gets Mysterious
3. Writing historical fiction 3 – using fact in fiction

I think we can learn a lot from ‘eavesdropping’ on other writers – we learn more about Wordsworth as a writer in his letters to Coleridge than anywhere else. What writer’s correspondence have you read that brought their work into perspective? What do you think of the Zusak / Bartoletti series?

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For those of you new to the Book Club, we discuss best-selling novels from a writer’s perspective to see what makes them tick. As in the last Book Club discussion, I’ll pose some questions under the following headings:

• Author
• Genre
• Characterisation
• Plot and structure
• Style
• Market success

The Author

Australian Markus Zusak was born in 1976, the child of German parents. He authored four other novels before The Book Thief – all of them classified as ‘young adult’ – The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger, recipient of a 2006 Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature.

Zusak wrote The Book Thief in response to a series of stories his mother told him of growing up in Munich during the Second World War, including that of a teenage boy giving a piece of bread to a marching Jew. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald he said: “We have these images of the straight-marching lines of boys and the ‘Heil Hitlers’ and this idea that everyone in Germany was in it together. But there still were rebellious children and people who didn’t follow the rules and people who hid Jews and other people in their houses. So there’s another side to Nazi Germany.”

As I grew up as a white teenager in South Africa during the Apartheid years, I understand why he might need to ’set the record straight’. Of course, the book is about so much more than that; you can read more in Zusak’s own words:

For discussion:
When an author is motivated by a need to ’set the record straight’ what might the dangers be? Do you see any of this in The Book Thief?

Genre

The Book Thief is classified as a Young Adult novel but its phenomenal international success is due to it ‘crossing over’ into the adult market – more of that later in ‘market success’. For now, let’s limit ourselves to discussing the book as a young adult historical. Like most books in this genre the historical landscape is the backdrop of a coming-of-age story. The trials and tribulations of being a young person in a hostile world are the primary concern of YAs. Despite the extra-ordinary circumstances that the young protagonists endure, the ordinary spheres of home, neighbourhood and school are the source of most of the conflict in this book.

For discussion:
How might this primary function of a YA novel affect the plotting and character choices of an author? What pros and cons do you see in The Book Thief? How does the historical landscape affect the ‘coming of age’ plotline? Consider the age of Liesel (10 – 14); what impact might this have on plot choices?

Characterisation

Zusak provides us with a colourful cast of characters, carefully chosen to present a cross-section of Germany during the period. We see Jews, Nazis, rich, poor, soldiers, civilians, young and old. Liesel, of course, is the lynch-pin of the story and all of the characters impact upon her in some way. By choosing to have her introduced to Himmel Street as an outsider, we get to know the people in her life as she meets them. I don’t think the same thing could have been achieved as easily if we had her born and growing up there. Also, of course, by setting her up as a wounded outsider, welcomed by the people of Himmel Street, Zusak allows her to be a kindred spirit to the desperate Max. It also allows us to see her foster parents as people who will ‘do the right thing’ despite the requisite sacrifice.

Although the female characters are memorable (Rosa, Mrs Holtzapfel, the mayor’s wife) it is the male characters we are most drawn to – Hans, Max and Rudy. A trite explanation would be that Zusak is a man and so has more sympathy with them; but I’d like to think it’s more than that. Zusak is a father and if the warmth with which he sketches Liesel’s relationship with Max and Hans is anything to go by, he’s a good one. Speaking of Max, I found that relationship at times uncomfortable to read. At 24, he was a young man spending sometimes whole nights alone with a young teenage girl. Perhaps it’s a sad indictment of the world we’re in, where every man is viewed as a potential paedophile, but I couldn’t help wondering about the appropriateness of it. However, I applaud Zusak for not backing away from it.

Let us not forget our charming narrator: Death. Just like everyone else in The Book Thief at times, he is presented against type. When I first picked up the book I feared it would be like Terry Pratchett’s ‘Mort’, with Death’s apprentice as the narrator, but I knew that I was with a complex and benevolent being when I read: ‘It’s the leftover humans. The survivors. They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions, I still fail.’ (The Book Thief, p15).

For discussion:
Which characters in The Book Thief represent ‘type’? Consider which of them Zusak has chosen to subvert. In other words, how are our preconceptions challenged through his characterisation? And yet others are simple cardboard cut-outs. Which ones? Why?

Plot and structure

Towards the end of the book Death tells us that he has a ‘circular heartbeat’ and is cursed to be beyond time. That explains his character’s need to tell us the end before we’ve reached it. But why does Zusak do it? This book starts with a series of visions of what’s going to happen to Liesel. We know the end before the book’s barely begun – we know who’s going to die and who’s going to live. Each chapter and section is also prefaced with a summary of the main points, like the cue cards in a silent movie. The tension in most books is achieved when the reader wonders what’s going to happen. Apart from a few instances (Zusak keeps us hanging on about Max’s fate until almost the very end) this does not happen in The Book Thief. And yet it is still a tension-ridden book.

For discussion:
How does Zusak establish the rise and fall of tension despite his narrator having a compulsive need to tell us what happens in the end? What are the strengths of this approach? What are the dangers? What does the choice of Death as narrator contribute to the book?

Style

In a book narrated by Death I was surprised at all the colour. Zusak uses the pages of this book to paint a picture in every possible colour. Similes and metaphors are communicated in colour and emotions too. I wonder if he is synaesthetic. It is the poetic language of The Book Thief that lifts it from the populist to the literary (sorry for sounding like a snob!). Quite frankly, it is beautifully written.

This is a post-modern book – not in telling, but in style. The story is conventional, but the author’s recurring references to books, the nature of books and the power that words have to enslave or set us free, repeatedly brings attention to the nature of reading and writing and that the story we are involved in is a literary construct. The delightful hand-written books and sketches, the references to the dictionary definition of words, the stolen books from the library, the development of Liesel from illiteracy to literacy which parallels her emotional, social and moral growth, all reflect a post-modern sensibility. And of course, the story that is being told to us came to Death through a hand-written book in fading pencil – even as we read the story is disappearing and will only live on to the extent that we allow it to in our hearts.

For discussion:
The use of overly poetic language in a novel may at times undermine the forward momentum of the plot. Is this the case in The Book Thief? How does Zusak balance the poetic with the prosaic elements of style? While the post-modern compulsion to draw attention to itself is clearly present in The Book Thief, do you feel it becomes a distraction from the story? Why or why not?

Market success

As we’ve already mentioned, The Book Thief is an international best-seller. I believe this is largely because it has managed to capture that elusive ‘crossover’ market that the likes of Pullman, Rowling and Almond have claimed as their own. Or have they? I’ve met David Almond and he would be the last person in the world to consciously write with an eye on the crossover market. Almond says he just writes stories – Skellig, his first children’s novel, just came out that way. He did not intend to write a children’s book. Simon Morden, another author I know, was rather surprised when his The Lost Art was bought by children’s publisher, David Fickling. It’s quite a violent book without a teen protagonist and I would have pitched it for an older readership.

So why do publishers try to push books into this market? Frankly, because thanks to the likes of Pullman and Rowling it’s the fastest growing readership demographic. That being said, I think that The Book Thief fits well into this market. It has a young protagonist with a coming-of-age plot. The question is, what has pushed it into the ‘crossover’ market. What is in this book that gives it universal appeal and attracts adults too? I’ll leave that to you to answer.

For discussion:
How has The Book Thief achieved crossover appeal?

Please take part in our poll and rate The Book Thief:
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Please feel free to enter into this discussion by leaving comments below (which is after all the main purpose of a book club).

The next Book Club title, which we will look at in two month’s time, is The Interpretation of Murder by American author, Jed Rubenfeld. Remember, if you buy it through The Crafty Writer Bookshop we will receive a small commission that will help to keep the Book Club and all the information on this site free to users. If you can’t afford to buy it, support your local library, we won’t hold it against you!

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Like Dark Materials, Clay grapples with issues of faith and the nature of God. It’s about two teenagers – a boy cast out of a seminary for practising evil arts and an impressionable altar boy. Together the boys create a monster out of clay but the question is, which of the boys is its master. The story follows the dark descent of the altar boy into a twilight world of insanity and murder as he tries to retain his goodness and humanity. Almond’s spartan text allows for no distraction from the central action. His characterisation is carried mainly through dialogue in an accessible rendition of a Geordie dialect. It’s an incredible book that I fully recommend.

Almond deals with very adult issues in this book. It’s been a while since I was a teen, but I’m not sure I would have grasped it all back then. Like much YA fiction, its confusing where the distinction lies. It seems to me that the only thing that gives it that label is the presence of a young protagonist. I think too of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Yann Martell’s Life of Pi. Both of them were written for adult readerships but have now been given a YA label. A stage production I saw of Pi recently was certainly aimed at teenagers with some of the darker images and themes glossed over. Is this a good thing? Do very good books lose an adult readership by giving them a YA label? On the other hand, if adults consider themselves too ‘grown up’ to read YA fiction it’s their own loss. What’s your opinion?

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3. Book Club: The Book Thief