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#Post#: 4--------------------------------------------------
Space a "hard sell" for kids' books?
DIR By: Mr Twisty
Date: August 18, 2013, 2:17 pm
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S F Said - author of the decidedly earth-bound Varjak Paw - has
written quite an exciting-sounding space opera for younger
readers called Phoenix. I was reading an interview where he
basically said that space was a "hard sell" for children's books
but argued that it was ready to make a comeback.
Space certainly does seem to be under-represented in children's
books, but I always thought that was more to do with the
influence of the big trendsetters - which in recent years have
been Harry Potter books and Twilight, placing the emphasis
firmly on the magical/supernatural. I can think of a few kids'
books set in space, both old (Charlie and the Great Glass
Elevator) and new (Larklight). It didn't occur to me that space
might have a jinx on it.
What do you guys think?
#Post#: 5--------------------------------------------------
Re: Space a "hard sell" for kids' books?
DIR By: Expecto
Date: August 18, 2013, 2:45 pm
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I guess the counterargument is the "trendsetters" have *always*
been magical. Before Harry Potter you had Hobbit, Narnia, Worst
Witch, etc.
Look at Roald Dahl - one book was set in space (Charlie and the
Great Glass Elevator) but most of the rest were stories about
magic of some kind (the crocodile tongues/talking insects in
James and the Giant Peach, the magic potion in George's
Marvellous Medicine, the actual witches in The Witches, and so
on).
#Post#: 8--------------------------------------------------
Re: Space a "hard sell" for kids' books?
DIR By: silverchair
Date: August 18, 2013, 5:31 pm
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i think fundamentally children are attracted to fantasy.
As time goes by and we learn more and more about space, there's
less scope to fantasise about it .... because we know there are
no aliens on the moon and no civilisation on mars, and so on. I
think that's why magical settings are more popular with children
(anything is possible at hogwarts but not on Mars)
Back in the day, when we didn't know nearly as much about Mars,
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a whole series of books set there.
Since then, we've learned more about space and haven't found any
aliens (let alone any fantastic civilisations). It's only
recently that steampunk fans rediscovered the old fun times when
Mars could have been covered in canals or red vegetation for all
we knew. That steampunk vibe has opened the doors for books like
LARKLIGHT by Philip Reeve.
i think a lot of childrens authors (and their readers) will
always prefer the setting that constrains them the least. Space
used to be a free for all/blank canvas for daydreaming but now
we actually know a lot about it, and that makes it less
appealing.
#Post#: 12--------------------------------------------------
Re: Space a "hard sell" for kids' books?
DIR By: ginger
Date: August 19, 2013, 1:55 pm
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I think Silverchair hit the nail on the head. If you want to do
fantasy in space, you have to do something very
whimisical/far-fetched - which might alienate older readers -
*or* you have to set it in a galaxy far, far away (or far in the
future) to make it realistic, since we pretty much know there's
no intelligent life on our neighbouring planets.
The problem with a galaxy far, far away is it can be a bit
remote. I think children relate to fantasy because they feel
like there really could be fairies at the bottom of the garden,
a magical world on the other side of the mirror, a witch in a
run-down neighbour's house, or a boogeyman in a bedroom
wardrobe. Whereas the Galactic Republic of Tha'arg or whatever
isn't quite so immediate for them.
#Post#: 16--------------------------------------------------
Re: Space a "hard sell" for kids' books?
DIR By: jmc
Date: August 20, 2013, 1:11 pm
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In the interests of full disclosure (and having read the welcome
notes for newbies) - my hobby is that I run a sort of small
press to publish children's books (we have a tiny stable of
three writers)... and I'm about to point you towards some of our
own titles!
One of our authors has released the first two books in a series
of space adventure stories
HTML http://www.spaceadventurestories.com/
for kids aged 9-12, with
book three to follow this September. They're humorous and
whimsical (more space fantasy than sci-fi) and adults tend to
enjoy them too!
#Post#: 32--------------------------------------------------
Re: Space a "hard sell" for kids' books?
DIR By: Mr Twisty
Date: August 22, 2013, 5:19 pm
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--- Quote from: jmc link ---
> One of our authors has released the first two books in a
series of space adventure stories
HTML http://www.spaceadventurestories.com/
for kids aged 9-12...
--- End Quote ---
I just started a blog and gave a call-out/link to this in my
review of The Little Prince
HTML http://bookydip.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-little-prince-by-antoine-de-saint.html.<br
/>You're welcome :P
#Post#: 37--------------------------------------------------
Re: Space a "hard sell" for kids' books?
DIR By: angel
Date: February 26, 2014, 11:15 am
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Space travel seems too cut and dry sometimes. I like Trek and
other space shows, but the idea of reading about sitting in a
super-fueled roman rocket and seeing if you can get past all the
oxygen deprivation in space, land successfully without turning
into a fireball and splintering into space junk before you hit
solid ground, that is if you hit solid ground instead of winding
up in some sort of solar vortex or black hole, lost forever and
then experiencing oxygen deprivation just gives me the
heebie-jeebies.... then, again, I'm not a kid. ;)
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