Okay, apologies if you actually remember a TV show by that name — and its undeniably annoying theme song. I only vaguely remember the show existing — and that I liked saying the words ‘square’ and ‘pegs’ together fast. Yes, I was annoying.
Anyway — via Ypulse’s Alli, I came across a conversation bouncing through the blogosphere. Dairi Burger queried, “Where are all the poor, ugly, awkward girls in YA lit?
That question kind of produced a “huh?!” from me, because I think… sheesh, just about every young adult has the ugly-awkwards in spades. But I take DB’s point — there are an awful lot of YA novels about models, über-rich girls and spoiled boarding school cliques. I won’t bother naming titles of the ones with obnoxious, vapid characters — we all know those. But it’s important to note that a.) not all rich characters are obnoxious, and b.) just because the characters are rich, doesn’t mean they aren’t awkward (Girl Overboard, anyone?).
Maybe the best question is, what are some recent young adult novels which portray the ‘square peg’ girl — nerdy or geeky, independent spirited and not popular but who cares?
For starters, Love, Stargirl tops the list — she’s probably still as geeky as she was in the original novel. Any other titles come to mind?
“When you put out a book with “adult” content under a YA label, you’re not a hero of artistic liberty, you’re a liar and a cheat. You want to keep getting the same income by pretending your writing belongs in a category that you have left behind.”
Orson Scott Card’s response to last week’s question @ SF Signal about whether or not YA SF/F has become too explicit. (Hmm. Do SF/F writers of YA get paid more?)