This is a fascinating discussion of young adult fiction and its depictions of boys transforming into men by Sarah Mesle in the Los Angeles Review of Books:
WHEN I WAS PREGNANT the first time, I hoped I would have a girl. I know, obviously, that it’s hard to be a girl (the grim realities of Not Having it All, slut shaming, Todd Akin, etc.) but it seemed that parenting a girl, as a task, offered an appealing kind of clarity. You teach a daughter to be a strong, brave woman. But what, I wondered, do you teach a son? “Don’t get too full of yourself,” was about the best I could come up with.
I remember that quandary every time I read an essay about gender in Young Adult literature (which, since I teach it, is often). I see, in the ongoing conversation about Bella and Katniss, our culture pondering whether YA novels support the strong daughters we all want to raise. But as we debate ad nauseam whether, for example, Bella Swan is a dangerous role model for young women, we’ve neglected to ask the corresponding question: what does it tell young men when Edward Cullen and Jacob Black are the role models available to them? Are these barely-contained monsters really the best we can imagine?
The contemporary uncertainty towards young men snaps into focus when we compare recent texts to their literary ancestors — nineteenth-century novels for young readers. Hope Leslie, Jo’s Boys, Northwood, The Lamplighter: these novels heralded the end of boyhood as a happy ending, the beginning of a triumphant journey into a powerful manhood. But today’s YA boys approach their manhood with trepidation. And they should. The adult men who populate YA fictional worlds are often careless, corrupt, incompetent — sometimes even cruel — and only rarely kind.
Thanks to @withabang for the link.
I am always thinking about role models for boys in the context of my work (part of my work is with teenagers in high schools). I have said to a few of our male mentors (mostly average uni age, early 20s) that I really appreciate examples of quiet masculinity for the high school boys – I’m a great believer in strength through sensitivity.
going over to read it right now, because I worry about this a lot – as he outgrows Ezra Jack Keats and Beverly Cleary, the pickings are looking slim.
This is one of the reasons I really like Tamora Pierce’s work. I’ve just reread my collection and I really noticed it more this time around. The books are about girls and women doing great and ordinary things, they are full of strong role models. But they are also full of men, nice men, strong men, cheerfully supportive men. Men who go to great lengths to be good partners and fathers and rulers, to have healthy, happy relationships with their friends, male and female. Different kinds of men, and ways of being men and women. It’s utterly charming and beautiful and made me cry several times because it’s just so RARE.
Mark reads is just doing the first series, I think his first few entries give a good insight (if not a formally written one) into the themes that make these books great – friendship and strengths and weaknesses. http://markreads.net/reviews/category/tortall-2/