So, you know, I stop by the used bookstore whenever I figure I don't need to eat this week

[conuly]

And it's in this way that I've discovered and re-discovered several classic/vintage kid's books.

Is it just me, or have children's chapter books become more... um... well, for lack of a better term, more arc-based in recent years? I'm reading one that has its reading level neatly marked on the back (5th grade), published in 1975, and each chapter is a self-contained story. Nowadays, it seems like all the chapter books, even the ones for first graders, are one whole story, not several. But this is far from the only one where each chapter was self-contained, or nearly so. Compare Ramona to Clementine, or Pippi Longstocking to... well, you can't compare Pippi Longstocking to anybody, I guess, but find someone.

And of course there were chapter books of the other sort back then too - certainly there's a coherent plot in Half Magic (even if each chapter *is* about a separate adventure) or in The Secret Garden - but... oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm just making things up in my head? Or reading the wrong newer fiction?

Comments

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Maybe that trend is designed to combat shrinking attention spans?
That would be neat.

[conuly]

ARE attention spans shrinking? Arc-based storytelling is much more common in TV shows as well, after all. And for that matter, TV shows for little kids are more coherent, as a general rule.

Maybe it just reflects general trends.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

In teens and *ahem* tweens they are. Not sure exactly how young that starts though, or what the root causes are.

[conuly]

No, even the shows for little kids. Look at Sesame Street. Sure, today's Sesame Street sucks, but most of the changes they've made have been to accommodate a longer attention span. They originally styled the show with lots of short, quick segments on the theory that five year olds couldn't pay attention that long. Now they assume three year olds are watching - but they have longer segments and a lot of episode-to-episode repetition to improve their attention span for preschool!

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I hadn't noticed that in the Ramona books (while the individual chapters did each have their own themes, they also were part of an overarching plot or theme of the entire book).

I have, however, noticed that's true for the original Star Trek series vs. the Next Generation, and even more so, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Hardly the same thing, but that's what stands out more in my mind as an example of something having standalone "episodes" or "chapters" rather than a major story arc.

[conuly]

That's why I suggested a specific comparison :)

The Clementine books take place over a few days each. Each chapter is very tightly tied to the next.

The Ramona books do have an overarching theme for each book, but little is lost by reading a chapter separately and independently of the rest.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I wonder if books have become more structurally tight and uniform, now that authors have computers and revising is easier.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

A Little Princess? The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet? Seems there have always been some.

[conuly]

Yes, as I mentioned in my post. But what I'm saying is that I don't see very many (or any) books printed today that have the OTHER style, each chapter its own story.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I don't read enough modern stuff to know. But I suspect that for pot-boiler publishers, continuity and tightness is easier to get than the sort of ambiance/character/magic that held together the looser books.

Btw there's a clear contrast analyzed in a review of the book version of THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE vs the movie. The book was pretty loose/ambiance/theme. The movie added a tight plot of currently conventional family dynamic in front of that background. Long review but worth it.
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2006/01/lion-witch-and-wardrobe_08.html

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

urk... I just realized the most recently published children's book any of us have read is A Series of Unfortunate Events which of course has a story arc across the book and across the series.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I haven't read many recent children's books. Some of Nesbit's were very episodic; so were L.M. Montgomery's, though the minimal long arcs were very strong and the ... ambiance? ... could hold anything together (same with Oz).

Ransome was just the opposite: seamless arc in each book, continuity in the series. Narnia too.

These latter had a lot of variety within each book, but in general I prefer the looser structure of the older classics: more variety, more suspense because less predictable, more like jumbled real life rather than artificially tidy.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering if it's linked to the increasing cognitive demands made by modern television shows. It would make sense, if we're going to thrust kids into an environment where they are expected to follow more difficult storytelling that we train them up on that sort of thing. Or possibly just as that sort of storytelling has become more common, authors are influenced by it as well.

But I don't actually know if it is happening in children's books. It would just make sense if it were.

[conuly]

I don't know either. There's no possible way to read every children's book printed in any given year. It seems that there's a trend to me, but I could just be missing the ones that contradict my impression.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Maybe you're just not trying hard enough.

... I wonder how many do come out each year.

[conuly]

More than I'm likely to read.

I also have a general impression that books are getting thicker (not that there never were heavyweight books, just that more of them are long and in-depth), but if that's the case I blame/praise Harry Potter. Rowling could've used more editing, but she did open the door to 700 page children's/teen novels.

[leora.livejournal.com]

*nods* That makes sense. Show that kids will read them and it creates more willingness for people to give such stories a chance.