From time to time, I hear complaints that parents are too scarce in young-adult literature–especially loving, involved parents. What’s with all the dead and distant adults? people ask.
There are several reasons an author might choose to keep the parents in the background. A big one is that, in any novel, the main character should be the agent of change. In a YA novel, the main character is usually a young adult. That main character must make the important choices–whether they turn out to be wise or disastrous. An adult can’t come in and solve the problem for the character. Kids make dozens of independent decisions every day; it’s part of growing up. And people confide more often in their peers than in their parents. Just think: who were you more likely to tell when you had your first kiss, fought with the mean girl down the block, noticed a classmate cheating on a test, or first saw a friend using drugs–your parents or your best friend? Kids who go to school outside the home spend hours in a world with people and rules and customs and situations that aren’t a part of their parents’ lives. They deal not only with the rules of the home but the rules of the classroom, the lunchroom, the school bus, the after-school job, the youth group, the locker room, the beach, the friend’s house, etc., etc.
Another reason is that not every kid has two involved parents. I have at least two friends who lost their mothers at a young age; I had a close friend who rarely saw her divorced father. The real world contains parents who have to work longer hours than they’d like, parents who are struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction, parents who live far away. And therefore, the fictional world does, too.
Which isn’t to say that parents must leave the stage altogether, that they are or should be absent from YA literature. I especially welcomed the presence of Ava’s parents in I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME (Lisa Schroeder), Grady’s parents in PARROTFISH (Ellen Wittlinger), and Miranda’s mom in LIFE AS WE KNEW IT (Susan Beth Pfeffer), among others.
Comments
1 Margie Gelbwasser // Jan 10, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Great article! I sometimes leave out parents and/or siblings for more practical reasons–don’t know what to do with them or how they would impact the story.
It’s challenging to explore how a parent fits into the story, and I agree with you also on the point that in YA the MCs have to be the active in creating change. In MG novels, parents play a bigger role.
2 Jennifer Hubbard // Jan 10, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Thanks, Margie! Yes, it’s a delicate balance, because most teens don’t live entirely on their own, and yet a YA story will generally revolve around the teen.
3 FredTownWard // Jan 10, 2010 at 10:04 pm
There’s arguably another reason for parents to be absent in YA, especially in old juvenile series books like Tom Swift, Sr., and Nancy Drew: to make it more believable when the youthful main characters involve themselves in dangerous activities like solving crimes and investigating mysteries.
Not all such books had single parents by any means, but it was arguably more common than was single parenthood in real life at the time, and interestingly enough it was usually the father who was the surviving parent, perhaps on the theory that a widowed mother would be even more overly protective.
4 Angela // Jan 11, 2010 at 7:01 am
Stumbled across this blog this morning and wanted to chime in
I think it’s mostly nervous parents that get hung up about absent parents in YA lit – as a teenager I never had any problem with relatively absent parents, and I was someone who had a pretty good relationship with hers.
That being said, one of my favorite parental portrayals recently was in “Into the Wild Nerd Yonder” by Julie Halpern – the main character does go to her parents for advice occasionally (she’s wrestling with issues of who her friends really are and where she fits into the social hierarchy of high school), but what I thought was great were the small insights into the parents’ past that we got. The main character is considering playing Dungeons & Dragons on a Friday night and her dad starts going on about all of his college-era exploits of D&D. Both parents are goofy and slightly embarrassing in a way that isn’t portrayed very often.
5 Cynthea // Jan 11, 2010 at 11:47 am
I love this post, Jennifer. Inevitably when we sit down to write a YA novel- we almost all answer the question of distant parents, close parents, well-adjusted parents, crazy parents, NO parents? For me, as a writer of realistic fiction, I figure out what a well-adjusted or a less-than-perfect parent can do for the story. That’s the primary determinant for me. For many realistic contemporary YA books that are multi-dimensional in theme (friendships, romantic relationships, family), many readers observe that a parent or caregiver has something wrong with them. When we think about it, the teen years for most children are the years that a teen’s perspective about their own carefgivers is often negative… whether it’s true or not! So we do the best we can to reflect what is most realistic for our characters while at the same time developing a conflict that is necessary to create the best story. So, sorry, parents – if the book is addressing family issues – that usually mean you have to be at least one of the bad or dead guys!
When we think about high-fantasy/quest books – did anyone notice that those children are orphans? There’s a good reason for that. High stakes, dire circumstances. What could make someone root for a main character more to save the world when that child has no parents at all?
6 Jennifer Hubbard // Jan 11, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Fred: Good point! I certainly remember Nancy Drew as being incredibly independent, often traveling alone or just with friends (though they would stay with a conveniently placed relative at their destination!). And it was always Nancy who solved the case.
Angela: Right, parents as characters can have their own quirks and backstory. I think that’s become more common in recent years than the older story model of the parent as sitting in the background dispensing timely bits of wisdom.
Cynthea: Interesting about the stakes! And also a good reminder that we see a parent (or any character) through the main character’s lens, and that lens may be clouded or rippled by the MC’s own issues!
When I’m developing a YA character, I think about who that character is, and I inevitably come to those family questions, but I ask them this way: Who is this character’s family? Who are his parents; are they together or apart? How old are they; what do they do for a living? Are other caregivers in the picture? Is the home atmosphere strict or permissive, happy or sad? Are there siblings, and if so, how many and who are they?
7 Shari Maurer // Jan 11, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Great post, Jennifer. I think everyone has made some good points.
I gave a lot of thought to the parents when I was writing CHANGE OF HEART. I made a very conscious decision to have a two parent family, because I feel like I wasn’t seeing a lot of that in the books I was reading and wanted to show that. Emmi, my main character, hates her mother at the beginning but their relationship evolves as the story continues, which was another goal of mine.
I think that there are so many different types of realities when it comes to parents that its nice to see all of these things reflected in different books.
I do struggle sometimes with parents hindering my MCs, so my next book is set at sleepaway camp — away from all parental influences!
Thanks for starting this discussion.
8 C. Lee McKenzie // Jan 13, 2010 at 10:18 am
I love books where the parents are in need of the kids help. The most recent story I read with that situation was Shadowed Summer. I loved the boy who had to go home to count his sick mother’s pills. That small bit added so much to the character and the texture of the story.
9 WandaV // Jan 13, 2010 at 4:02 pm
My current WIP has the son of a deputy solving a murder when his dad’s boss says it was a suicide. Lots of tention at home. It’s not that father and son don’t get along — they do. But there’s a huge conflict of interest going on there that I like.
WandaV
10 Jennifer Hubbard // Jan 15, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I agree, Shari: “I think that there are so many different types of realities when it comes to parents that its nice to see all of these things reflected in different books.”
And Lee, yes, there are plenty of kids with responsibilities that we typically think of as adult. But family members depend on one another–sometimes parents need help, too!
Wanda: Right, there are so many layers in family relationships, that such conflicts are bound to be rich in possibility.
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