Coming of age
Worldwide, readers of young adult (YA) fiction have never had it so good. That trend is now gathering steam in India.
Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, House of Night, Twilight, Princess Diaries — young adult (YA) readers have never had it so good. But while shelves overflow with YA books of every genre, if you go looking for home-grown fare, the view is rather more dismal.
Indian publishing boasts of a thriving children’s market, but it has remained limited in scope. Classics, folk tales and mythology have been rehashed and regurgitated innumerable times, suiting both publishers who are largely content to stick with the tried and tested, and parents who decide what children ought to read. And while there is a fair amount of original writing for younger children, it is slim pickings in the YA segment.
In fact, YA itself is a category difficult to pin down, more so since young people trying to find their place in the larger scheme of things are near impossible to slot into convenient “types”. One thing is clear: while the term might be “a snappy shorthand for a global phenomenon”, as Anita Roy of the YA publisher Young Zubaan puts it, there’s no doubt that pre-20 age group is hungry for good literature.
Globally, the crossover market to which YA belongs, comprising books that appeal to youngsters as well as adults, has taken off in a big way. The trend has not escaped the notice of Indian publishers. So far only a handful — Young Zubaan, Puffin, Hachette, Scholastic and HarperCollins, to name a few — are actively exploring it, but it is early days yet.
In India YA publishing has gotten the cold shoulder. A well-rounded exploration of adolescence hasn’t been a strength, says Vatsala Kaul Banerjee, editorial director (children’s and reference books) at Hachette India. Reaching out to this category of readers is not simple: “Ever tried being interesting to a 16-year-old?” she asks. Not easy, since young people are discerning readers.
Paro Anand, award-winning author of such books as Weed and No Guns at My Son’s Funeral, says that it is important to address young people in their own language. “Someone once said that writing for teens is like sitting on the edge of a blade — [teens are] deeply critical, easily put off by the slightest whiff of patronisation... My only taboo is that I never want to end on a hopeless note.”
Adolescents are aware and articulate, appreciate being told the truth, and agree on one thing — they want “good” and “interesting” books, whether or not they are classified as “young adult”. But being able to identify with the characters and the setting is important to YA readers, too.
Ask any group of young adults to list their recommended Indian authors, and you will draw a blank. This is sad. “I do feel let down by Indian authors writing for children and young adults,” one 14-year-old reader admits. This is not what publishers and authors want to hear.
Sohini Mitra of Puffin, Penguin’s children’s books imprint, admits that YA is not a well-defined classification in India yet, which is why, she says, there is a dearth of authors willing to write within it. “YA is high-risk, unless you’re publishing books directly keyed into the school curriculum,” says Anita Roy. “Young Zubaan started YA partly out of the conviction that this was where the gripping stories were being told, where the imagination was pushing the boundaries, where writers were tackling important subjects. There was simply not much out there for Indian kids — plenty of American vampires, Gothic cathedrals, war-torn European landscapes and dystopic futurekind, but precious little that reflected the mindscapes of young Indians. Young Zubaan sprang from the conviction that there simply had to be more out there than [Chetan] Bhagatian IIT-lit for boys and assorted chick-lit for girls.”
Among the factors that have discouraged YA literature in India is that our educational system pushes adolescents to focus on academics rather than leisure reading, says Jyoti Visvanath, regional adviser of the India chapter of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. After all, adults control the economics of book purchases. “We tend to be very careful and pedantic in the material we let our children read,” Visvanath says, “because we want it to be not just entertaining but developmental.”
Parents are concerned about the range of issues occupying the adolescent mind. Thus, some lament the absence of a realistic YA literature based in India. “Stories set in the Western mindset might create a pattern of thinking that doesn’t work [here],” says Vaishali Mathur, mother of two. Another parent, Preeti Singh, agrees, but adds that “kids are the best judges at any age to select their reading material”.
“When I was a teen, we read adult novels and are none the worse for it,” says Paro Anand — though this does not mean young readers do not crave good-quality, culturally relevant literature. There isn’t yet much Indian writing for this age group, but it is an area of burgeoning interest. “I am very confident it will take off in the next few years,” says Anita Roy. That is good news for young readers of all ages.
Payal Dhar is a freelance writer and editor, and author of the Shadow in Eternity trilogy
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