Putting It Out There & RECKLESS

Image via WikipediaWednesdays seem to be busy around here.  Lots of visitors and comments.  I was feeling kind of ""Meh!" when I wrote about Taoism this week, so the post wasn't as "authoritative" as it could have been. Serendipitously, I found that when I don't collect my thoughts, you have more room to express your own.  So from now on, I think I'll just do my research, put it out there and let you run with it.

For today's ramble - I thought I'd vent about how Content-ed I am lately. Everybody makes such a big deal about content (sex, drugs, violence, suicide) in YA books. As if kids aren't seeing it everywhere around them... What does PG-13 mean anymore anyway?  (It means teens don't want our PG butts in the seat next to them, parents.) Kids are also always reading up to the next age group which leads me to my latest book on the nightstand: RECKLESS.

The book features a 24 year old male protagonist, but not as much content as you would expect. So I passed it on to my 11 year old. While he was reading it the other night, I asked him how old he thought the MC was.  His answer was 16. And I totally agree. Without the author telling us, there weren't that many clues to how old the MC should be. Jacob is looking for his father, trying to save his brother, and having some implied intimacy with a fairy.

What's so "24" about any of those things?  Aren't 17 year olds ditching their parents and doing the same thing in other YA books? I read someone else's review this week and the fact that Jacob is 24 bothered her a lot.  Why is that? Is it because he's not 17?  If he were 17, maybe readers would be more content-ed.... Isn't a 24 year old dealing with these problems more appropriate though?

Spoiler-free review: Gorgeous cover. No huge trust fall issues, and lots of very nice passages...but slightly predictable. Funke weaves in some dark fairy tales for an interesting world behind the mirror. I'm envious of the beautiful charcoal illustrations inside too.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Reckless, By Cornelia Funke, translation by Oliver Latsch (independent.co.uk)
• Teenreads.com (teenreads.com)
• Cornelia Funke extract (telegraph.co.uk)