Contemporary Realistic Fiction

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Contemporary Realistic Fiction

• By Kelly Harper Cynthia Howard

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What is Contemporary Realistic Fiction?

• Genre that mirrors life
• Books have characters, events, and plots that
  have not actually happened in real life, but
  could actually happen
• Characters deal with lifes ups and downs in
  realistic ways

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Genres Within

• Animals
• Humor
• Mystery
• Problem Novels
• Series Books
• Sports
• Survival and Adventure

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Major Themes

• Overcoming fears and accepting responsibilities
• Understanding families, divorce, and adoption
• Accomplishing goals in sports
• Developing and Maturing

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More Themes

• Finding Romance
• Finding friends Relationships, alienation, and a
  sense of belonging

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Themes Cont.

• Coping with violence, crime, alcohol, and drug
  abuse
• Living with physical and mental disabilities

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Themes Cont.

• Coping with death, disease, accidents, and
  suicide, and growing old
• Developing an understanding of sexual issues
• Living in global society politics, war,
  prejudice, conflicts, religion

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Choosing Quality Literature Within the Genre

• Realistic Setting
• Credible, non-stereotypical characters-
  multidimensional, change over time
• Believable problems, solved in culturally
  grounded and realistic ways
• Natural dialogue
• Theme applicable to childrens
• lives

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How the Genre Has Evolved Over Time
Time Period Description
Pre 1960s Many realities of human existence (pregnancy, crime, social injustice, etc) deemed unsuitable for children and not included in childrens literature
Mid 1960s American society changes (Vietnam War, civil rights movement, etc) Effects were too widespread to hide and young people began to be seen as full citizens. Darker subject matter was introduced into childrens books
1970s- Present Society continues to change and topics reflecting that change appear in childrens literature (AIDS, drugs in schools, inner-city survival, terrorism, etc.)
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Why Realistic Fiction?

• MY Life- shared problems and situations
• Allows children to identify with characters and
  deal with issues in a different way
• Judy Blume

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R.F. for Young Children

• Barbara Park Primary
• Paula Danzinger Primary/mid. school humor
• Beverly Cleary Primary/mid school humor
• Judy Blume Preteen

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Notable Pre-teen/Teen Authors

• Judy Blume  teen/pre-teen problem novels
• Betsy Byers  Pre teen problem novels
• Virginia Hamilton  African Am. Experience
• Lois Lowry  teen/pre-teen problem
• Phyllis R. Naylor  adolescent humor, animal
  stories
• Gary Paulsen  survival adventure fiction
• Jerry Spinelli  teen/ pre teen problem
• Laurie Halse Anerson YA problem
• Chris Crutcher  YA

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R.F. for Older Children

• Carolyn Coman (Many Stones)
• Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak)
• Alex Finn (Breathing Underwater)

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Favorites
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Notables

• Taboos of literature are tested
• Most popular genre
• Changed drastically over time
• Bibliotherapy

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Bibliography

• Bucher, K. Hinton, K. (2010). Young adult
  literature Exploration, evaluation, and
  appreciation. Boston, MA Allyn Bacon.
• Jacobs, J.S. Tunnell, M.O. (2008). Childrens
  literature, briefly. Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Pearson.