Choosing which book is your favorite must be a hard decision when you have a library of books to choose from. Polls and booklists go out every year to decide upon which books are the most looked for and are a must read.
Every year NPR, a media organization, hosts a Best YA (Young Adult) Fiction poll for their annual summer reading list. Books like Catcher In The Rye, Delirium, Fahrenheit 451, The Hunger Games, and, yours truly, Ender’s Game have been among the candidates for the list in past years. However, recently NPR announced that their judges are going to drop novels that are “too mature” or just not favored by the audience.
Among these dropped novels are Pride & Prejudice, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and sadly, Ender’s Game. Pride & Prejudice was dropped because of lack of favor. Though, Ender’s Game fell under the “too mature” block. This is what they have to say about it,
Though the language was relatively simple, the themes were entirely adult. The judges cut Ender’s Game for the same reason — Ender himself is young, but the book’s violence isn’t appropriate for young readers.
I might add that last year Ender’s Game placed third in the top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy booklist. Also, the story plot for Ender’s Game runs similar to some books that have made the cut on NPR’s list (The Hunger Games). But apparently NPR has deemed Ender’s Game inappropriate for this years readers.
How do you feel about this decision? Should young readers check out Ender’s Game? Let us know in the comments.
NPR has their poll on going, so if you would like to vote for the titles that made the cut click here.
It’s actually their YA poll, not their Top 100 SF/F list it got dropped from.
Yes, thank you for the correction. ^_^
But that’s the point. Orson Scott Card, being the brilliant author that he is, wanted to show people that kids are smarter than their ages. As a teenager, I felt that he captured war and innocence really well.
Yes, very true. OSC did write the book with that in mind. The problem is why object to Ender’s Game “maturity” when other novels run similarly to its plot or written behavior. It makes little sense but then again this debate has been on going for years and has never found a true end.
I read ender’s game in seventh grade. Actually, I read the entire series, and then I read Bean’s series in eighth grade. My English teacher’s were amazed that I was reading these books, as they were considered college level. I mean, OSC delves into the string theory at the end of Xenocide, but that didn’t matter to me as a young reader. I believe, they definitely should have kept it on, despite the violence and warfare. To me, Hunger Games (seeing as we are pointing that one out) is definitely more violent and more twisted. If not for this book in my life, especially at that point in my life, I wouldn’t have learned to love reading, and I wouldn’t have the level of education I do now.
Oh, and don’t forget Lord of the Flies. I found that book to be very violent and twisted, but it’s still on the List. It’s still a good book though, despite all the violence. Of course, Ender’s game is much better.
Definitely, Lord of the Flies is more gruesome then Ender’s Game. And its popularity isn’t as high as EG neither. Many fans of the books were introduced to the series at the teen age so it’s perplexing to understand the decision.
Wow. I hadn’t heard about the NPR news. Thanks for sharing.
I think part of the problem with “YA” is that the books are being read by kids who are not in the target age range, and a lot of parents/kids/media/whoever are not clear about what the YA label means. I regularly hear about 11-year-olds reading The Hunger Games. Not cool, IMHO.
And then there’s the confusion over the protagonist’s age being the prime indicator of appropriate reader’s age. Ender is younger than the intended YA audience, but I strongly feel that Ender’s Game is spot-on as a YA book. What makes the Ender situation even more complicated is that the Ender sequels seem more appropriate for an adult audience.
But, as for NPR’s action, I say “Bad move, NPR.” (And, as an NPR groupie, I don’t say that very often!)
You’re most welcome.
I, too, believe that part of the decision was that the YA label isn’t clearly set on one age group. NPR, if I correctly recall, set the line at 8 to 10 years old. So the books were depended upon this group.
Second, I agree as well that the sequels to Ender’s Game have an impact to the decision. They are more of a complex read and adult centered. Writing that includes complicated diction that, on NPR’s category, YA readers of today would have difficulty reading or would just not be interested in. I say this because of the change of study and reading ethics. What with many factors playing into the way youth study and read now-a-days (i.e. sports, technology, other extra curricular activities, work) it’s a much different way than 30 years ago where, I believe, it was much stricter.