Y if for YA and Sci-Fi

Science fiction was always a very prevalent genre in my life from a young age. My parents gave me a very early appreciate for sci-fi films (I watched The Terminator for the first time when I was eight years old), and A Wrinkle in Time was one of the first chapter books I remember reading with my mother before bedtime. Furthermore, several novels and short stories from the genre were allocated as school reading. Here’s a quick breakdown of everything assigned to me from from the ages of 11 to 16:

6th Grade	The Giver by Lois Lowry, “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury
7th Grade	Anthem by Ayn Rand, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
8th Grade	Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Animal Farm by George Orwell
9th Grade	1984 by George Orwell, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
10th Grade	Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

It’s funny now, when I glance down the list I realize how many of these books are still my favorites  to this day – as evidence by the fact that I already wrote about many of them for this blog challenge. But I must admit, I didn’t like every single one of them at first. For example, I absolutely hated Fahrenheit 451 in the eighth grade. It wasn’t until I re-read it my junior year of high school that I finally appreciated it.

It surprises me sometimes that many of these are considered appropriate “Young Adult” reading. There are some really heavy themes contained in these works. Xenophobia, the effect of totalitarianism, the psychological consequences of propaganda, dehumanization and alienation via cloning technology, censorship and the destruction of knowledge in exchange for trivia, the trading of civil liberties for government protection – just no name a few.

Sometimes I wonder if children are really capable of comprehending and synthesizing these advanced thematics. I certainly wasn’t at times. But on the other hand, I firmly believe that we shouldn’t underestimate our youth. I appreciate authors who don’t baby their young audiences and trust them with profound concepts. It's something I'll strive to do in my own YA and Middle Grade writing. 

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This post is part of the Blogging A through Z Challenge 2012. My theme is (in case you didn’t already guess) science fiction. Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet, and if you’d like to check in on the rest of the participants, simply click here.

Dark YA Blogfest - Week 2

This week for the I Love Dark YA Blogfest I had to write a flash fiction piece of 500 words or less based on this picture:

Thankfully, I had more time to work on my post this week now that my edits are, for the time being, finished, and the second draft of my manuscript in my agents hands. I had some real fun with this one. Check it out . . .

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Fairy Scary Tales - Who Knew?

By S. L. Hennessy 

I hate running. Always did. I used to fake all sorts of medical conditions to get out of track during gym class. I’m sort of wishing I’d practiced a bit more, now that I’m running from the hellish monster intent on using me as the human sacrifice for some sort of dark, ominous spell. Unfortunately, hindsight isn’t as constructive as foresight. And so here I am, my white sacrificial dress irreparably torn, my dainty slippers – which are completely inappropriate when fleeing for one’s life – scuffed and destroyed, wondering where it all went wrong.

I guess I might have made a few mistakes here and there. Looking back, exploring the woods on my own, despite explicit instructions to the contrary . . . might not have been my best plan. Even if my evil stepmother was making my life miserable. It seemed harmless enough at the time. In the daylight. With birds chirping and all that other feel-good atmospheric crap designed to make unsuspecting, angst-ridden teenagers feel completely at ease amongst the dense trees. Guess I should have paid more attention to the meticulous design of it all. And where I was going. Woops.

Upon retrospective, when thick, black mist comes creeping through the branches and silences those sweet, put-you-at ease little birdies – well, maybe that was the time to kick in high gear and get the hell out of there. Live and learn.

It occurs to me now, as I’m being hunted by some indescribably dark creature, that my copy of The Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tales might have been more of a field guide than a set of silly stories my dad used to read me at bed time. I usually associate them with princesses and other such nonsense, but the depictions of wolves, cannibalistic witches and way more gore than little kids should be exposed to at young ages are starting to come back to me.

Fairy tales are real. And they’re dangerous. Who knew?

Dark YA Blogfest

It’s officially November, which means that it’s time for the I Love Dark YA Blogfest:

Rules:

1. Put the I LOVE DARK YA badge on your sidebar or at the top of each of the posts you do for the fest. Make sure you link it back to the YAtopia linky sign-up.

2. Visit blogs of your hosts and other participants if you can. Interact. Make some friends. It’ll be more fun!

3. Your blog post needs to be up on Wednesday. You can post early if you want, but people will be hopping on Wednesdays.

Themes:
WEEK ONE...
November 2nd: Blog about your favorite dark YA book(s).

WEEK TWO...
November 9th: Write a 500-word or less flash fiction piece inspired by this picture—

WEEK THREE...
November 16th: Music and Movie Fun—Take a dark YA book and build a soundtrack for it or cast characters for a movie version.

WEEK FOUR...
November 23rd: #YASAVES—Blog about how a dark YA book made an impact in your life.

WEEK FIVE...
November 30th: Waiting on Wednesday—What dark YA book are you most looking forward to?

So, here it is . . .

For the answer to week one's discussion, my favorite dark YA book (or in this case series) is The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. Inspired by one of my all-time favorite books – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – it depicts a darker, more sinister version of Wonderland, recovering from a civil war between the White and Black imagination. I won’t reveal too much of the plot for fear of spoiling it, but needless to say it is an amazing YA retelling of a classic childhood tale. If you have't read it, check it out!