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«A Children’s Writer with Adult Topics» is the title of an article devoted
to Philip Pullman, but it could be applied equally well to many contemporary
children’s authors who no longer offer the traditional fare of children’s
books. 22 Tormod Haugen’s Vinterstedet (The Winter Place), published
in Norway in 1984, is a powerful novel about suicide. The award-winning
1994 novel Vallen (Falling), by the Flemish author Anne Provoost, addresses
xenophobia and racism. Boike You Better Believe It, by the South African
author Dianne Hofmeyr, deals with important issues, including terrorism,
without the least trace of «writing down» to her audience, claimed
the convener of the panel of judges when she won the Sanlam Gold
Award for Youth Literature in 1994. 23 The American Meg Rosoff’s bestseller
How I Live Now is a powerful story about young people caught up in
the horrors of war. The Australian author, John Marsden, addresses the
same topic in his hugely popular Tomorrow series, which opened in 1993
with Tomorrow, When the War Began. Although Britain’s third Children’s
Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, says he does not like the crossover tag, his
work nonetheless has adult appeal, due to the serious themes of novels
such as Kensuke’s Kingdom (1999), which deals with the aftermath of the
Nagasaki bombing. The horrors of the Holocaust are the subject of Robert
Cormier’s Tunes for Bears to Dance to (1992) and, more recently, Markus
Zusak’s The Book Thief (2006). The Dominican-American author Julia
Alvarez describes her children’s novel Before We Were Free (2002), set during
the repressive regime of El Jefe, Rafael Trujillo, as The Diary of Anne
Frank for the Latin American crowd. Although the author initially questioned
the appropriateness of writing about torture for a young audience,
she eventually decided that since it was part of life, it should be
written down. 24 It has been suggested that Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori
novels, which include sexuality, rape, violence, homosexuality, sadism,
and torture, break with the children’s literature model, but they are certainly
not the first to do so. Although these themes are treated in a
restrained manner, they give Hearn’s novels their adult feel. The same
can be said of the way in which the Quebecois author Dominique Demers
deals with attempted rape and cannibalism in Maïna, a novel published
simultaneously for both adolescents and adults in 1997. The fact that
there are very few, if any, taboo subjects in contemporary literature for
young readers blurs the distinction between children’s and adult fiction,
and facilitates the crossover in both directions. A similar situation existed
prior to the creation of a separate literature for children. Maurice
Sendak points out that the tales collected by the Grimm brothers appeal
to all ages because they are «about the pure essence of life – incest, murder,
insane mothers, love, sex». 25
The best fiction, regardless of the target audience, nourishes our desire
for a fulfilling narrative while simultaneously providing more profound
food for thought. Mike Bryan of Penguin International believes that the
most successful crossovers offer «corking good escapist fun», but he
insists that they also contain «serious messages about values». 26 Crossover
authors agree that writing for children allows them to address the fundamental
issues they feel strongly about and to engage in weighty psychological
and philosophical reflections. Whereas Myerson states categorically
that a children’s novel cannot provide «truths about human
life» or «psychological understanding», many crossover authors believe
that they are, in fact, the only books that can 27 . Pullman explains why he
writes for children: «Children’s books still deal with the huge themes
which have always been part of literature – love, loyalty, the place of religion
and science in life, what it really means to be human. Contemporary
adult fiction is too small and too sterile for what I’m trying to do.» 28
William Nicholson agrees: «Issues of God and heaven, life and death, are
central to our lives but [as adults] we’re shy of talking about them. When
you write for children, though, you can go roaring into these incredibly
important stories.» 29
The huge success of a few super crossover books raised the profile of children’s
literature and gave it an entirely new status. The significance of
J.K. Rowling’s achievement in the age of multimedia is formulated in the
following terms by Julia Eccleshare: «For the first time since the arrival of
other mass media, a series of children’s books is holding a cultural position
that is a match for [I would say more than a match for] a series such
as Friends or Neighbours, something that had seemed unimaginable in an
era in which reading, and children’s reading in particular, is not especially
highly valued beyond the level of a functional literacy.» 30 Children’s literature,
children’s authors, and the child reader have gained a new
respect in the literary world and are enjoying a much higher profile in
the media. Children’s authors have been acknowledged as some of the
world’s most influential people. In November 2006, the European edition
of Time magazine included Rowling, along with names like Mother
Theresa and Nelson Mandela, in their special issue «60 Years of Heroes»
because: «In a time when everything comes to us in bits and bytes,
Rowling has made storytelling cool again.» 31 Harry Potter turned millions
of children hooked on video games and television into avid readers, singlehandedly
lowering the illiteracy rate worldwide. Although Rowling’s
media superstar status has overshadowed other writers, she is not alone.
In 2005, after Dragon Rider became the longest-running New York Times
number one bestseller since Harry Potter, Time magazine put Cornelia
Funke on its «Time 100» list of «the world’s most influential people».
Children’s authors are finally being recognized, far beyond the children’s
book sphere, or even the literary world, for the significant role they play
in creating readers and citizens to understand the world.
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