The novel novel: a look at alternative formats in today's YA literature.

While the standard stylistic form for a YA novel--20 or so linear chapters that tell the story of boy X or girl Y from either the first person or third person perspective--has not disappeared from the canon of the genre, a new breed of novels has taken the YA world by storm. This new breed tests the boundaries of what constitutes a "novel." Given recent sales and reader feedback, alternative formats are here to stay. But why are they so popular? Is YA fiction better as a result of this trend? And just what has prompted this surge in creative formats?

Verse

While YA novels have often included a poem or two, until recently there haven't been whole novels entirely composed of poems. These new novels offer accessible verse and have been a big hit in the YA world, with teen readers as well as with parents, teachers, and librarians. Accessible is the key, though. This is more Robert Frost than TS. Eliot.?

Even with accessible poetry, at first some teen readers may be turned off because they don't think they'll be able to understand it. "Kids that read a lot are often open to different formats, but some kids will open up a book of poetry and think they won't be able to get it," says Amanda Hughes of the Children's Book Shop in Brookline, Mass. That said, Hughes also sees the opposite phenomenon--kids that gravitate to novels-in-verse, in part because "they see the words down the center of the page and it's not as daunting" as a traditional novel form.

"I think reluctant readers are drawn to novels in verse because of how few words are on each page," agrees Sonya Sones, author of two successful novels-in-verse, Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy and What My Mother Doesn't Know. "Novels-in-verse are less intimidating to these kids."

Even if readers are initially put off by the thought of poetry, they usually find a pleasant surprise when they start reading. A young reader from Greenville, South Carolina explains on Amazon.corn how she came to feel about Sones' book. What My Mother Doesn't Know. "When my mom handed it to me, I thought that I'd simply stuff it to the back of my bookshelf and read it when I was bored. When I finally got bored, I took it out and then to my surprise I found I couldn't put it down!"

This is just the kind of sentiment parents, teachers and librarians have been waiting to hear for ages. Many are hoping books like Sones' will open teens up to reading and writing poetry. Maya Haberland, a teacher from New York, tells on Amazon.com how she finds Sones' book to be "a great way to introduce poetry as a personal narrative to jump-start students to writing about their own trials and tribulations."

Books like Sones' or Sharon Creech's Love That Dog also appeal to readers because of the immediacy of the feelings that poetry offers that prose sometimes cannot. In the poem entitled "Maybe Dad Loves Me," in What My Mother Doesn't Know, Sones evokes the feeling of wanting love from one's parents so powerfully in only a few lines:

   When I was real little,
   he used to hold his long arm out straight
   and put his hand
   on my forehead

   Then he'd challenge me
   to try to reach his body
   with my short arms
   and of course I never could.

As this passage illustrates, poetry offers sharp and poignant images that touch readers in a unique way. "Poetry is such a visual medium, such an emotional medium, such a good way to get to the center and truth of things," explains Sones. "Poetry takes you right to the feelings. And that's where teenagers live!" Sones also suggests that readers of novels-inverse are challenged to bring themselves into the story perhaps in a way that differs from prose. She says, "The tales I've told so far have explored some pretty painful territory. I think telling the stories with so few words adds to their power because the people who read them are called upon to fill in the emotional blanks with their own personal experiences of pain and this makes them feel like they can relate to them. This makes even the most reluctant readers want to read on--because they have found themselves in the pages of a book, at last."

Like Sones' novels, Virginia Euwer Wolff's Make Lemonade trilogy also uses a version of free verse to pull the reader into the story. Both Make Lemonade and True Believer are told in "micro-chapters" from the point of view of LaVaughn, as her distinct voice entices readers into her story. One of the newest novels-in-verse is Girl Coming in for a Landing, by April Halprin Wayland, illustrated by Elaine Clayton.

Viewpoint

Giving readers access to foreign feelings and emotions is also achieved by adjusting the novel format and focusing on viewpoint. In both Chris Lynch's Freewill and A.M. Jenkins's Damage the authors use a second person narrative, a rare choice in YA fiction, and in any fiction, for that matter. Main characters Will in Freewill and Austin in Damage are disoriented from their worlds and the use of "you" instead of "he" or "I" in a sense encourages readers to become the characters, thereby experiencing their disorientation firsthand.

Although it is more traditional in terms of its third-person narrative voice, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series also employs a unique format; revolving around the stories of four girls, told in short chunks from the perspective of each girl. Again, the result is immediate access to four characters' feelings instead of just one character telling the others' stories.

Choosing to have multiple characters tell their stories with first person narrative dates back to 1973's A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich by Alice Childress, among other books. Hero tells the story of Benjie, a 13-year-old hooked on heroin, from Benjie's perspective as well as from the perspective of his mother, stepfather, best friend and dealer. Rob Thomas used a similar format with a less controversial topic in 1997's Slave Day, which relates a day in high school from the perspectives of different students.

Perspective can also change over time, which is why some authors choose to have their novels describe different time periods in a character's life. Thomas experimented with time in his first book, Rats Saw God, where the story alternates between Steve's life in the present--San Diego, senior year--and the past--Houston, sophomore year. E.R. Frank's most recent and extremely popular book, America, similarly alternates between "now" and "then."

Diary

When it hit the shelves in 1967, Go Ask Alice shocked the world with its unflinching confessions of a young girl on drugs. Since then many authors have jumped on the diary bandwagon. The editor of Go Ask Alice, Beatrice Sparks, has followed up with other confessional diary books about teens, including Annie's Baby, The Diary of an Anonymous Pregnant Teenager, It Happened to Nancy, and Jay's Journal.

Part of the allure of diary boors is that they offer an accessibility that third person narrative and even first person narrative cannot provide. Readers forget that they are reading a book available to the masses and instead feel as though they have come upon a diary left behind in a room. "Kids like the personal aspect of a journal. It's just like one of their friends talking," explains Hughes, who has witnessed a surge in diary and journal books at The Children's Book Shop. "There is a certain intimacy of voice in diary books that kids love."

Go Ask Alice and Sparks' books share an ability to open up unknown worlds to young readers in a way that perhaps some traditional format novels cannot. At the same time, diaries are compelling for their ability to mimic real life in mixing the serious with the lighthearted.

A rash of new diary books--including Louise Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series (Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God, Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas, and Dancing in My Nudie Pants) and Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series (Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings)--stick to more lighthearted subject matter. Although they may not be as popular with parents, librarians and educators, Georgia and Jessica are extremely popular with kids, judging from the enthusiastic reader responses on Amazon.com.

Their popularity is likely attributable to their humor and the fact that they deal with issues that every teen reader can relate to. But once again, the diary format adds an enticing dimension--voice. Voice is a strong component of any diary book but the unique "sound" of books like Rennison's and McCafferty's takes voice to a whole new level. Would anyone ever confuse this following Georgia excerpt from Rennison's first book with any other character?

"Oh-oh. What to do. Why is life so complicated? Do I like Mark? Why did I say yes? Why can't Robbie realize that Lindsay is a drippy git? Ohhhhhhh. Quel dommage!!! Merde. Poo."

Of course, Georgia's unique voice has the additional distinction of being British and therefore offers a whole new lingo to readers--such an extensive lingo that a glossary is included at the end of the book for terms like "prat," "po faced," "Borstal." and "agony aunt." Sloppy Firsts has its own dialect too, which includes, among many catch phrases. a host of level-three swears not usually seen in YA fiction, which is perhaps why it has had success crossing over into the adult trade market.

Both Rennison's and McCafferty's books also contain variations in spelling and punctuation usually disdained in traditional novel format that are more permissible in diary form as writers strive to capture realistic teen-speak. Exclamation marks--which are typically not even advisable in their single form--are often doubled and tripled. Words are elongated, as in Georgia's above sevenh "Ohhhhhhh," and words, sentences, and even whole paragraphs are sometimes all in capital letters, a technique that in e-mail correspondence is used to convey screaming.

Epistolary Novels

Stephen Chbosky's clever stylistic choice in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in which Charlie writes letters to a friend who is never named or described, stretches the intimacy of the diary form. The reader becomes not just someone who gets to share a person's deepest thoughts and secrets, but perhaps even feels as if s/he is the "friend" Charlie is writing to.

Chris Crutcher took a similar creative spin on the diary format in Ironman where Beau's story is told in part, through his unsent letters to talk show host Larry King. More recently, authors have tapped into the growing importance of the Internet in teen lives with novels-in-e-mails such as Michael Rosen's Chaser and Paula Danziger's Snail Mail No More--a follow-up to her novel-in-letters P.S. Longer Letter Later.

In the Australian bestseller Feeling Sorry For Celia, which has become a hit in the US as well, author Jacyln Moriarty takes the art of telling a story through letters to a new level. The reader is privy to letters between Elizabeth and her new pen pal, Christina, when the two girls from different schools are encouraged by their teachers to "rediscover the art of the envelope." There are also notes to and from Elizabeth and her best friend. Celia, and notes from Elizabeth's mother that are generally tacked onto the fridge, left on a nearby table, or pushed under Elizabeth's bedroom door. Finally, the book is peppered with imagined correspondences to Elizabeth from The Best Friends Club, The Cold Hard Truth Association, The Association of Teenagers, The Memory Trigger Society, etc.

Good or Bad?

Still the leader of the pack in terms of alternative format novels is Walter Dean Myers' Monster, which combines journal entries, scenes from a screenplay, and even photographs. Books like Monster, Make Lemonade, Feeling Sorry for Celia and many others that I have not mentioned here demonstrate that alternative forms are becoming a staple in today's YA fiction. Arguably the most appealing characteristic of these new formats is their authenticity of voice and access to intimacy.

There is no doubt that young readers are enjoying the new formats. But Hughes sometimes see formats that go a step too far "Sometimes formats can be a little bit too cutesy or too witty for their own good," she explains. "It's particular to the individual reader but a distinct format or voice can actually really turn off a reader too."

Another possible limitation of some of these books can also be found in the lack of character description and development in favor of action. The diary books in particular often eschew scene and dialogue altogether, and instead embrace the one-time cardinal sin of "telling, not showing."

Format also can never be a successful substitute for strong themes and plot, Typically, if a book does not reach any new ground in what it's about, the way it's told will not save it. That's why, any story--no matter how it's told--is best when, as in the case of Stop Pretending or Monster, it pulls readers into a world that is completely unlike their own. In the end, the best books would still be the best books using any given literary form.

Why Now?

In examining alternative forms, an interesting question arises--why now? Part of the reason more authors are choosing to deviate from the norm could easily be a case of monkey-see monkey-do. When I read a fresh, new format I often find myself brainstorming new formats of my own. But as I remind myself, the best writing doesn't come from trying to write something different just to write something different. When variety in format succeeds it does so because the author had a true, clear vision for his/her story and how to tell it.

In a YA market that is flooded with books that often seem similar or repetitive, alternative format is also a way for authors to distinguish themselves and their books. A book with an alternative format may get attention from reviewers, awards committees and bookstores just because it is different (although it still has to be good).

One thing is for sure, the success of a handful of books that experiment with form has cleared the way for others like them to continue to challenge the idea of what constitutes a novel. And that success is due in large part to the readers--today's teenagers.

Are today's teen readers radically different from those of the past? Is this another case of MTV-itis, where what's cool is what's new, what's different, what's now? Are dwindling attention spans to blame for kids just wanting something that will surprise them?

A look at media for adults shows that teens are not the only ones who are embracing new formats. In adult trade books we had the wild success of Bridget Jones. In films there were Memento and Mulholland Falls. And in television we have reality shows, sitcoms that incorporate fantasy, like NBC's Scrubs, and shows that play with time, like Fox's 24.

Perhaps on the whole America is challenging the norms and utilizing our creative force to expand our thinking now more than ever ... or perhaps our high-tech oriented society is immune to anything that isn't new, fast paced, or exciting,

Like everything in life, it is probably a little bit of both, Which means the traditional novel form will remain strong at the same time that authors bring us even more variety in format. Who knows what we'll see next!

Kim Ablon Whitney's first YA Novel, See You Down the Road (reviewed in this issue of KLIATT), will be published in February by Knopf. It won the 2001 SCBWI/Judy Blume Work-in-Progress Grant for a Contemporary Young Adult Novel and was also a 2002 PEN-New England Children's Book Caucus Discovery Award Winner.