Today, as part of my How Does YA Lit Inspire You? feature, Priscilla Uppal, Canadian poet, novelist, professor at York University, and member of the Youth Committee for the National Reading Campaign, has generously offered a guest post for my readers. She’s written a great piece about the inspiration behind the National Reading Campaign, what it means for teen readers, and what the committee plans to do to help foster reading for Canadian children, youth, and young adults. While the words she writes are specific to the Canadian reading campaign, the same problems – including a decreasing number of teen readers – happen in other countries as well. Perhaps this message will inspire you to get involved where you live, too. Now, without further ado, I give you Priscilla Uppal’s piece:

The National Reading Campaign has only just begun. Originally, a small group of writers, librarians, educators, publishers, and parents got together to discuss concerns about Canadian reading culture as a whole. Over the last couple of decades, many other countries have adopted national reading strategies and national reading programs to promote reading at all age levels, to build libraries in homes, schools, and other community spaces, and to improve access to books for all, regardless of where someone lives or how much money they have. The group decided that a National Reading Campaign, involving as many educators, policy-makers, librarians, writers, publishers, literary festival organizer, journalists, and, of course, readers, as possible in Canada, would give us all a better sense of where we are as a nation of readers, where we would like to be, and how to get there.

One of the main concerns that have emerged in the National Reading Campaign focuses on teenage readers. The Canadian Heritage Survey, Reading and Buying Books for Pleasure (2005), reports that the number of books read per Canadian per year is declining. And several studies have identified a significant decline of reading at age 13-14, particularly for boys.

Why have studies demonstrated a drop in reading habits during teenage years? Why are teenage boys reading less than teenage girls? Why do so many teenagers find the books taught in classrooms boring and uninspiring?

Those of us already in the National Reading Campaign think these are important questions to address and that we need to involve teenagers more in reading environments that enrich their day-to-day lives.

The main goal of the National Reading Campaign is to foster a nation of readers, to bring together and to cultivate readers from all sectors and walks of life across Canada, especially children, youth, and young adults. Other studies have shown that young people whose pleasure reading is embedded with social contexts (book clubs, online chat discussions, group reading challenges) identify themselves as enjoying reading more, and extra-curricular reading clubs have a positive effect on reading frequency and reading ability.

Teen readers are currently leaders in transporting books from the privacy of a living room chair or an individual classroom into larger, connected technological communities of readers. We want to ensure that the opportunities for discovering books, discussing books, and writing and publishing books in Canada, continue to grow, and to fulfill the needs of teen readers now and in the future.

Teen readers are an amazing and exciting reading community to their own right. They are also the adult readers of the future. Teen readers will define the books that they will read, debate, purchase, recommend to family and friends, and give to their own children. We believe this next generation of Canadian readers deserves as many resources and opportunities as possible to incorporate reading into their lives in meaningful ways.

Here are just some of the teen-centred initiatives advocated by members of the National Reading Campaign:

• More literary festival programming dedicated to teen readers
• More writers-in-the-schools of a variety of genres (young adult readers, graphic novels, poetry, plays) actively engaging with students in the school (and not just in English class)
• More reading and writing camps for teens
• More social reading networks for teen readers and for young adult fiction and non-fiction, including graphic novels, electronic novels, interactive literature
• More online book clubs, blogs, review sites, targeted to male and female teenage readers

At the National Reading Campaign, we believe that reading is a human right. We are actively working to support existing reading programs, social book networks, publishing ventures, literary festivals and more, and to help create new programs and educational and cultural policies that will eliminate barriers to the enjoyment of reading and access to all book-related resources.

We’d love to involve more teenage readers in our campaign itself. This is YOUR campaign too! It’s only just begun. Please contact us to let us know what you would like to see in YOUR vision of an ideal Reading Nation, and how you (or your school or book club) can become an active participant in the growth of reading in Canada.

I recently had the chance to read and reviewed the first two novels in Alexander Gordon Smith‘s Escape From Furnace series. If you haven’t read them yet and are looking for a fast-paced series, then I’d definitely recommend them to you, even though technically they’re directed to teen boys more than anyone else. No matter who they’re marketed to, I’m pretty sure that even those who aren’t teen boys will get into this five novel series.

My enthusiasm for Smith’s writing means that I’m really ecstatic to interview him today as part of the official Solitary blog tour.

Alexander Gordon Smith: Hi! Thanks so much for interviewing me on your blog: it’s fantastic to be here!

YA Book Shelf: It’s my pleasure to have you here! I know you don’t plot your novels in advance, but in a previous interview, you said that it’s really important to know your characters “inside out,” so they can be free to evolve. How do you get to know your characters so intimately?

AGS: Yes, for me, gettting to know your characters is so much more important than plotting. Working out every detail of your story in advance, especially when you don’t yet know your main characters, always seems a little too much like playing God. You’re working out your characters’ lives, their destiny, before they’ve had a chance to discover who they are and what kind of people they want to be. Each character’s history and personality will drive their actions, and if you don’t know what kind of life they have led, what their greatest achievements or tragedies are, what their personal relationships have been like — everything — then how can you know how they will react to the events of the story? I have attempted to plot before, but I find that my plan for the characters will always conflict with their plan for themselves! Forcing them to go against their instincts, to just do what they’re told, will make for a less believeable story.

So I spend quite a bit of time getting to know the characters before I start writing a book. I try to find out as much as I can about them. I’ll set questionnaires; I’ll keep scrapbooks of things they might wear, hairstyles they might like, places they’ve been. I might even write diaries from when they were younger, especially from pivotal moments in their life. I guess more than anything, though, I just talk to — when I’m at home alone, when I’m walking somewhere, when I’m supposed to be working, which I’m on the toilet…I chat to them like they were friends, we talk about all sorts of things. I’m not sure what it says about my state of mind, but it really helps me when I’m writing — the characters feel so real that they drive the story. All I have to do is write it down!

YABookShelf: As someone who writes boy books, what do you think the YA community needs to do to make male reader read teen rather than adult fiction more often. How could it improve upon what it’s already doing?

AGS: I think the YA community is doing a great job of getting boys to read — even in the four years since I was first published I’ve noticed an increased number of male readers. It’s brilliant! There’s a huge drive at the moment to make reading an ‘acceptable’ activity for boys, in other words one they’re not ashamed to admit to the way lots of boys are (I was teased at school for being an enthusiastic reader). What I seen now when I visit schools is that reading is getting the same kind of kudos as, say, playing video games. If it gets around that a particular book is exciting, or gruesome, then most boys will want to read it. It isn’t like this everywhere, of course, but it’s definitely getting better.

As for getting boys to read teen rather than adult fiction…I’m not sure if it matters, just so long as they’re reading something! I used to read adult horror when I was a young teenager; I loved it. Also, the boundaries of teen fiction are being pushed out all the time; the line between YA and adult fiction, especially horror, is blurring. I’ve read some pretty grueling and disgusting YA books recently that, I feel, are probably more disturbing than a lot of the adult horror out there! I think as long as teenage boys know that they can stop reading a book if it gets too much for them, then they should read whatever they like the look of — it’s just great that they’re reading!

YABookShelf: The UK and US covers of the Escape From Furnace series books differ a lot from one another. What do you like and dislike about each version and which ones do you prefer? Why?

AGS: It’s one of the things I love most about being an author — seeing the different covers from each country. I do really like the UK covers, even though they are often criticized for being too ‘clip art.’ I have a soft spot for them because they’re the first ones I saw for the series. They do the job, too, because they’re often compared to video game boxes and that makes boys take a closer look. The original US cover for Lockdown (a skull with Alex’s face inside) was very minimalist and creepy. But the new US covers are simply stunning. I was gobsmacked when I first saw them. There’s so much depth and texture to the images, they’re genuinely captivating and unnerving, and the whole jacket design works so well. You can’t help but pick them up and take a closer look. I think FSG and the designer, Christian Fuenfhausen, came up with the perfect covers for the series. I’m so grateful to them!

YABookShelf: Who was your favorite character to write for the Escape From Furnace series?

AGS: It has be to be Alex, the main character. As I mentioned before, he is me, or a version of me at least. I went through a bad phase when I was a teenager — hanging out in biker bars, getting into fights, even stealing things from the people I loved. It was terrible, and it could have been so much worse except my family pulled me out of it and got me back on the right track. Alex is the me, who didn’t get rescued, who became a criminal. It was fascinating listening to him tell his story, because in so many ways, it’s my story too.

Alex was my favorite character to write, but it wasn’t always easy — especially when things got tough for him. The parts of the book I most enjoyed writing were the parts with Alex and his friends inside Furnace, the dialogue between Alex and Zee and Donovan. It still makes me smile when I think about some of the conversations they had, the ones I’d just listen in on. They had hundres, and only a few of them actually made it into the book. They were cool guys to hang around with, even if it was just in my head!

YABookShelf: You made Alex ask this of your readers, so I wonder what was the scariest moment in your life as a teen?

AGS: Great question! I guess it has to be from the time that I was starting to do some bad things — not bad bad, as in drugs or breaking and entering, but drinking a lot and getting into trouble and staying out all night. I must have been about sixteen, I think. I remember the first fight I ever had, with a guy much older than me who was built like a brick outhouse. He knocked out my tooth and fractured my cheekbone and I never even knew what was happening! There was also a knife involved, and it crossed my mind that this might be the end for me, that I might not get to see another morning. I was terrified — in fact I lost half a stone in a single night from the shock.

But even more terrifying than that, in a different way, was when I realized what was happening to me and didn’t seem to be able to stop it. I remember stealing some things from my mum — anyone who’s read the opening chapter of Solitary will understand how I felt, although it wasn’t a locket that I took. It was a horrible situation, like there was something festering in my gut, poisoning me, but I just couldn’t turn my life around. It was really frightening, and I’m so grateful to my family, especially my mum, for being so supportive and forgiving, for getting me back on track.

YABookShelf: What is your favorite monster from a book? In a movie?

AGS: That’s tough — there are so many great monsters out there! I think the monster that has most creeped me out in a book has to be It from, well, It! There’s something terrifying about a monster that can take the shape of your worst fears, and although King didn’t invent the idea he uses it so well in this book. I also love the fact that this creature, this malevolent entity, is so ancient. It’s really well done. Ghosts and witches scare me more than monsters, though, and I’ve been left with cold sweats and sleepless nights by many a short story and novel.

From a movie, I think it has to be the Blob, because I used to lie awake as a kid imagining it oozing down the corridor and into my room — even though I’ve never actually seen the film. It gives me the shivers just thinking about it!

YABookShelf: How important was creating a character whose thoughts and emotions were so closely linked to your own dark time? Did the fictionalization of your rough time through Alex make it easier or more difficult to write the books in the Furnace series than your previous ones?

AGS: It was an amazing experience writing Lockdown at that point in my life. Shortly after starting the book, I went through a really bad time — anyone who’s read the dedication will have an idea of what it was. I threw myself into the writing to try and escape, to help get through it. It was about the point where Alex first arrives in Furnace, so here I was alongside this version of me, trapped inside a horrific nightmare from which there was no realistic possibility of escape. We were both lost, both locked in the darkness at the bottom of the world. And I knew that if Alex didn’t find a way out of Furnace, out of prison, then I’d never find a way out of this awful place in my life.

I definitely owe my sanity to Alex. I don’t know where I’d be now without him. He kept me strong, because I saw how resilient he was under these terrible conditions; I saw how he kept faith even when all looked lost. I knew he was me, or a version of me anyway, so I understood that if he could do it then so could I. But neither of us could escape alone, we needed each other. This bond made the book harder to write emotionally, because I felt everything that Alex did — his fear, his hopelessness, his pain. It made it easier to write in many ways too, because I could see it all so clearly. I really was down there with him. As amazing as it was, however, I hope I never experience it again.

YABookShelf: As books with darker themes continually make their way onto bookstore shelves, people in the publishing world have been debating why horrifically realistic violence occurs in YA novels so frequently. Why do you think dark narratives, like the Furnace series, appeal to teens?

AGS: I’m not sure. I think that what’s at the heart of it is that with pure horror comes pure humanity too. When things are at their worst, we often see people at their best. Alex is a criminal to start with, and in Furnace, he is forced to commit far worse crimes — including murder. But he’s never a better person than when he’s imprisoned. Still flawed, yes, still plagued by fear and at times cowardice and selfishness, but all the more heroic because of this.

Of course, we also empathize more with characters who face the greatest threat. The more horrific the danger, the more we root for them. Everybody like an underdog story, especially teenagers, I think, because that’s the time in your life when you truly feel like the world is against you. To be able to root for somebody in the same situation — albeit a fantastical one — is an amazing feeling; it really puts you there alongside the characters. Especially when those characters aren’t unrealistically pure or noble or good, because everybody has a dark side, everybody has weaknesses. The more nightmarish the story is, and the more realistic the horror and violence, the more we become those characters fighting to escape.

Thanks again for having me on your blog!

Thanks again for stopping by, Alexander Gordon Smith. Your insightful responses to my questions made this interview work out really well. Can’t wait to read Death Sentence when it comes out in North America!

Buy Solitary
Special $10.49 (Regular price: $15.99)
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Format: Hardcover
Reviewer: Melissa on January 18, 2011
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

In the stunning conclusion to Lockdown , Alex Sawyer, Zee, Toby, and Gary jump from the passage way they exploded into a raging river. Unfortunately, their means of escape and freedom ends them right back in the clutches of the Warden. Rather than send them back to live among the general population of Furnace Penitentiary, however, the Warden decides that solitary is where they’ll be spending their days for a little while. Solitary brings Alex face-to-face with another series of nightmares and struggles to not allow their new conditions to overwhelm them. If another escape will ever be possible, they must first survive their new nightmarish existence.

If you read my review of Lockdown, then you know that I really loved it. I’m happy to report that a lot of the interesting aspects of the first dystopian YA novel in the series show up again in the second. In fact, if you needed a reminder that Alex isn’t the typical good guy type of hero, then you wouldn’t have to look far: Alex speaks directly to the reader to this effect early on in Alexander Gordon Smith‘s novel. Moreover, the creepy feeling that he gets from the Warden and his terror of both the dogs, the wheezers and the blacksuits follow him as he (and the readers) embarks on his second journey.

However, if you were to take away from this review that Solitary is in many ways the same book as it’s predecessor, then I would have led you astray somehow. And we just can’t have that. Solitary confinement at Furnace – even with a buddy or two nearby – really limits the possibility of social interaction. While there are a lot of moments when Alex can talk with other inmates through coded messages or other means, it felt to me as though he was on his own a lot. While this is to be expected given the concept of the novel, it made me feel, in general, that this is less exciting than the first book was. At times, in fact, I felt that I was inside the mind of Alex receiving info dumps a little more than I would have liked. Still, when things do happen, Alex still finds himself put in danger just as often (if not more often) than his friends, so the author definitely didn’t make the second novel give the main character a break in any way.

Another thing that I loved about the second novel is that it builds from the knowledge that Alex and the readers learned the first time around. Whereas the characters in the first novel could only imagine the terrible things that could happen to inmates who were selected by the wheezers in the first novel, or infrequently see some of their handiwork come back as a monstrous entity, this novel will give Alex a much clearer understanding about the “other forms of existence” that the Warden is always mentioning and how they come about. At the same time, it makes the reader ask deep questions about the moral dilemma of human experimentation and how could the people running Furnace get away with such atrocities? In addition, questions like, should prisoners have the basic human rights of safety? And if we say no, then can we be certain that only guilty people will find themselves behind the prison walls?

While it wasn’t quite as exciting as the previous novel, I have to admit that I enjoyed Solitary a lot. Whether you are just considering this series for the first time or you previously enjoyed Lockdown, Alexander Gordon Smith’s Escape From Furnace series will imprison you in it’s underground passages and nightmarish landscape. Don’t expect to make it out of the first book or two without desperately wanting to check out the rest of the installments!

Buy Solitary today!