Young Adult Authors Series: Presenting Young Adult Science Fiction (Twayne's United States Authors Series) [Hardcover]

Suzanne Elizabeth Reid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 1998 | ISBN-10: 080571653X | ISBN-13: 978-0805716535 | Edition: 1

Beginning with an introduction that examines the works and influence of the classical masters of science fiction and its development as an accepted literary genre, author Suzanne Reid in her new volume, Presenting Young Adult Science Fiction, explores in detail the lives and works of eight major figures of particular interest to teens. Written as an introduction to science fiction, especially as it relates to young adult readers, this book is aimed primarily at students and teachers who have not previously read the genre. Presenting Young Adult Science Fiction will serve as a valuable asset to any teacher of young people over the age of ten, and inspire thinking about a wide range of issues from practical management of physical resources to metaphysical queries into the very meaning of our existence. It is a must have for any young adult library.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 UpA comprehensive description of the genre and its subgenres. In her introduction, Reid defines science fiction and discusses its history, characteristics, and typical themes. There is one chapter on classical masters of the genre such as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Lester del Rey, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Ben Bova, and Robert Silverberg. She then goes on to present some of the newer writers such as Orson Scott Card, H. M. Hoover, Pamela Sargent, Pamela Service, Octavia Butler, Piers Anthony, and Douglas Adams. Science fiction on film is included as a subgenre, tracing its history from Le Voyage dans le Lune, made in 1902, to the modern-day Star Wars trilogy and the Star Trek series on film and television. This book will acquaint students unfamiliar with this genre to its writers as well as to its components. A filmography is included.Debbie Feulner, Northwest Middle School, Greensboro, NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Twayne Publishers; 1 edition (November 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080571653X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805716535
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,463,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eminently readable, excellent library reference resource., September 8, 2000

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Young Adult Authors Series: Presenting Young Adult Science Fiction (Twayne's United States Authors Series) (Hardcover)

Presenting Young Adult Science Fiction Suzanne Elizabeth ReidMacmillan Library Reference ISBN: 080571653X, 1998. vii + 230.

Presenting Young Adult Science Fiction is clearly intended for a younger critical audience, the young adult reader of SF. The book is eminently readable, especially for a less experienced audience of the genre, as is intended for the Twayne's Young Adult Authors Series. This series "enables young readers to research the world of their favorite authors," and "provides teachers and librarians with insights and background material for promoting and teaching young adult novels." (ix).

Reid succeeds with introducing the history of SF and of YA SF in that context. She contextualizes YA SF within the history of SF publishing in the West and in English. Her introductory essay is very useful to those unfamiliar with the field, hitting all the high points and missing little that the uninitiated need to know. It serves a reader best in pointing to by now familiar stages or periods for the development of the genre in general and in pointing to more detailed critical works for the details of these stages. She also makes largely defendable choices for seven major writers of YA science fiction, especially in the context of providing single-author studies of young readers.

Yet a defense of her choice to focus on Orson Scott Card, Douglas Hill, H.M. Hoover, Pamela Sargent, Octavia Butler, Pamela Service and Piers Anthony, and Douglas Adams, would have to address the fact that at least five of these writers, Card, Sargent, Butler, Anthony and Adams were known for their adult SF much more than for their YA SF. Only two of the focal authors, Hoover and Hill, wrote almost exclusively for younger readers. It seems more clear that the choices of author were made to allow her to pursue thematic issues, as in the Sands and Frank work, while sticking to the series format of focusing on a single author. These themes are: historical perspectives, classical authors, science fiction adventure, alien worlds, feminism, gender and racism, science fantasy, humor, Cyberpunk and SF film.

The one glaring exception to the single-author focus, entitled "Feminism and Science Fiction: Pamela Sargent," attends to a basic description of Sargent's fictional contributions but also includes a mini-history of women in science fiction that would have made at least as much, if not more, sense in the introduction. Perhaps this was done because of Sargent's significance as an editor of early anthologies of women SF writers, but it still seems out of place as Sargent is not known as a YA author.

The bibliography thankfully is the same for Sargent in this as in all the other essays. Again like Sands and Frank, discussed below, Reid offers introductory essays that are easily readable but the lacunae, those authors who are barely mentioned, are obvious to a seasoned reader. The reader asks why she leaves out or gives short-shrift to such major, popular YA SF writers as Engdahl, Hamilton, L'Engle, Lawrence, Lowry and McCaffrey, to name a few. Yet the very choice of these authors emphasizes the impossibility of identifying a work as either YA or Adult SF. She does not stick to marketing categories, to an idealized list of authors who are known exclusively in YA circles. She mentions standard bibliographies and reference works as her background, but obviously has made a much more restrictive selection.

Jan Bogstad, Reviewer END