There were many interesting responses to my last post. There was one in particular, however, for which I feel that my response merits its very own post, and not a comment in reply.
Rebecca wrote,
But anyway, I don’t think the books could be reprinted, not even if they were updated. It’s not the out of date references that are the problem, either, in my opinion. Young adult, and even middle grade, fiction these days is very… dramatic. It’s also pretty gritty. You have to be willing to really tackle tough issues and not balk at having characters talk the way real kids and teenagers talk, rather than using your characters to set positive examples. And AMM just didn’t do that with the BSC. They’re too squeaky clean and well rounded, with good, easy lives. It’s not the clothes or the lack of cell phones and email that date these books (although frankly, I don’t think such a club could exist now, in the age of online services), it’s the style of the writing. And that’s not a quick fix–that would necessitate a whole new series.
Now, granted, my only exposure to kids in middle school is high school is actually through the BSC fandom. Thus, I don’t have much of a handle on what is up with teens/preteens these days. But I do have two siblings currently enrolled in elementary school, so I know a fair amount about kids under ten and what they’re like and into. And this is why I disagree with Rebecca completely.
My first point is that the BSC is not intended for young adults, or even middle grade readers (which I’m assuming means middle schoolers). The BSC is written at a fourth-grade level, which means that many BSC readers are even younger than that. Nobody who has ever survived middle school would believe for a moment that the BSC is anything like real life. The BSC paints a fantasy of autonomy. In real life, middle schoolers in most places can’t or are not allowed to go anywhere without their parents driving them. Most parents also consider thirteen, let alone eleven, too young to baby-sit. Police departments usually don’t use middle schoolers as unpaid detectives. Awkward, shy girls don’t get to have hot boyfriends. Instead, boys make their lives hell. Nobody’s seventeen-year-old brother is very interested in driving around a bunch of middle school girls. They’re too busy trying to achieve their two main goals in life, getting beer and girls.
The other point I want to make is that entertainment aimed at or enjoyed by the age group that the BSC was written for is actually now LESS gritty and not at all irreverent than it was when I was in elementary school over a decade ago. Pete and Pete, Ren and Stimpy, the Simpsons–that’s what I was watching on TV. I liked grunge and alternative rock. That’s a far cry from the Hannah Montana-Magic Tree House-High School Musical stuff my sister likes, which is about as dangerous as dangerous as cotton candy. I would say that kids are even MORE sheltered today then they were a generation ago. And then when I was older, practically every YA book I read was about rape, drugs, or both, so I find it hard to believe that publishing trends have really gotten that much grittier.
