[LMB] The Spirit Ring, Chapters 13-15

[Ed Burkhead]

> But it's not a young-adult book, or at least it was not marketed 
> as such. Does the death, violence, withcraft/magic, and teenage 
> (implied) marriage take this book out of the current young-adult 
> genre?


As a SF reading teenager, I certainly encountered plenty of futuristic,
casual morality well before reaching adulthood.  SF writers seem less likely
to stay tightly bound to the homespun religion of our ancestors.  And I
certainly didn't restrict myself to books just written for kids!

I'd rather my now 11.8 year old daughter first learned abstract lessons
about death, violence and differing social roles from literature than from
the streets - or from direct experience.

Marriage at 16 is common in the Disney princes classics, Little Mermaid,
Snow White, etc.  It only took a few moments to talk about how much a person
had to learn, back then, to be an independent woman of the household versus
what it'll take when my daughter grows up.  And, the discussion included
life expectancies back then versus what my daughter should expect.

She seems comfortable with waiting till she's grown up for the adult life
experiences.

Right now, I'm guiding her into some age appropriate SF such as Heinlein
juveniles, Little Fuzzy, and some others as she grows out of the kid books.

But she did read the entire Harry Potter series and I watched for any ill
effects from the deaths and mayhem as read by a young reader.  We talked
about issues, morality, death, proper behavior and such using events in the
book as starting points. 

They were challenging books for her when she started reading the paper
copies independently, around, maybe, 3rd grade though she'd listened to the
first two or three volumes on tape as read by Jim Dale.

If I can find my copy of Spirit Ring (somewhere in this house!), I won't
have any worry about my daughter reading it.  It's pretty appropriate
reading for a young reader, I think.

Ed