Characteristics of Fiction?
What are some of the characteristics of juvenile fiction?
- venus
Tags: Juvenile Fiction
Category: Juvenile Fiction.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 11th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Fiction is defined as anything that follows a plot line (exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, resolution, etc.) Non- fiction is anything that does not follow the plot line. It’s not real and not real.
April 11th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
young protagonists (narrators, main characters, etc)
the other characteristics may depend on the genre…
for example fantasies for juvenile or young adults…typically feature young characters on a quest or journey
if it is romance…it features young people (teens) typically having dramas over boyfriends or girlfriends….first loves, lost loves, crushes, etc. Or it could be a book depicting friendships…the ups and downs of popularity…tales from the ‘outsider’ perspective…being bullied by the popular crowd…so themes might be high school drama situations like dances, proms, cheerleaders, popularity, dating, gossip, etc.
if it is realistic…it would feature teens facing ‘real’ issues like drugs, drinking, sex, eating disorders, or various abuses (physical, verbal, sexual, etc) at home. Coming of age stories would be another theme…young people transitioning into adulthood…facing hard choices…making and defining themselves.
Another characteristic would be that the one doing the problem-solving, the focus of the story is on the teen and rarely if ever on the adults (teachers, parents, grandparents). These adult roles are on the edges, it is rare to have them be well-developed and in the center of the action…parents are on the sidelines and barely worth a mention every chapter or two…everything is focused on the main character and her friends.
Here’s a quote that might help you:
“The second hardest thing to do in life is to change from a child into an adult. There are so many ways to mess up. So many ways to get lost. It’s like crossing the ocean in a rowboat.”–Brent Runyon
So young adult fiction would be fiction that depicts that journey whether it happens in a fantasy world where our hero might be fighting to survive or conquer evil and save the world….or whether it happens in the real world and the ’survival’ would be to get through another day in middle school or high school. How to deal with feelings of frustrations when it comes to life inside and outside the classroom…dealing with boyfriends/girlfriends, friends, parents, siblings, etc.
The YA novel that I feel is practically perfect in every way is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.