I've had a discussion recently with my boyfriend about homosexuality in children's and young adult literature. While we had varying views on homosexual protagonists in children's picture books, he was not surprised by my adoration of Julia Watt's Finding H.F. and my desire for my future children to read books like it.
To me, books are about being introduced to new ideas -- even ideas that may be far outside your worldview. My feeling as a future parent would be that I would like to run a household that open and frank about discussing issues that may be taboo in the South (such as race and sexuality). Young adult literature would be a great introduction for teenagers to understand what someone like H.F. experiences in her small, rural community as a lesbian.
So I would feel completely comfortable with teenagers reading such a book -- in Finding H.F. the most striking thing to me was the sincerity of the vulnerability and the realness of H.F.'s reactions. It makes it more approachable and you can relate to it -- no matter what your sexuality may be.
2 comments:
Kati,
I found your post really thought provoking. I completely agree with you when you wrote “To me, books are about being introduced to new ideas -- even ideas that may be far outside your worldview.” H.F. is a character that can introduce so many adolescents to new concepts and ideas, and they can really relate to her. I also applaud your desire to introduce your children to new concepts and ideas using books. I think you can help children become more open and accepting of others and I am thrilled that you intend to at least show your children the wider world through books. I really enjoyed reading your blog post!
Shea
I really like your comments on this book. I, too, would want my children to read a book like this just so that they could think about what it is like to be different and how different isn't so different from themselves.
- Mandy
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