Gareth Hinds, Marissa Meyer, and Sean Michael Wilson were among the speakers participating on the “Classic Twists” panel during SLJ’s SummerTeen virtual conference on August 9, sharing their views on writing adaptations for young adults.

Hinds, a 2011 participant in SLJ’s Battle of the Books, uses graphic novels to retell classics such as Beowulf (2007) and The Odyssey (2010, both Candlewick), as well as adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. “Gods were the ancient Greeks’ superheroes,” says Hinds. “What better way to read about them than through the comic book medium?” His versions of the classics allow “the page to be a stage that characters walk around on.” During his presentation, Hinds shared a sneak peek of his next project: an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet with a multiracial cast.

Meyer shared the experience of her long road to finally getting published and how her fascination for anime and the popular ‘90s Japanese TV show, Sailor Moon, inspired her to write fanfiction that would later plant the seed for her debut, Cinder (Feiwel & Friends, 2012). The first book in her the “Lunar Chronicles” sci-fi/romance updates the classic rags-to-riches tale of Cinderella and is set in the future. Complete with spaceships and hover cars, the novel reinterprets the classic tale with a mechanic and cyborg as the main character.

Influenced by Jane Yolen’s and Anna Sheehan’s fairy tale reworkings, Meyer will follow up with Scarlet, based on Little Red Riding Hood, which is coming out in 2013. It will be followed by Crest, about Rapunzel, and Winter, about Snow White. Meyer says the theme of good conquering evil is one that attracts teens, and she sees a resurgence of teen interest in fairy tales as seen in the films Snow White and the Huntsman and Once Upon a Time.

Based in Scotland, but speaking from Japan, Wilson spoke about his range of graphic novels, from manga to American/British style comics, some bilingual and others in English and later translated to Japanese. Wilson’s “Classical Comics” series offers readers titles such as A Christmas Carol and Wuthering Heights in unabridged and “Quick Text” editions. His texts stay true to the originals and have been designed to be used in classrooms as a companion to the original text. Wilson has also adapted well-known Japanese stories, including The 47 Ronin, which follows the fate of former samurais wanting revenge for their master’s death. His dream adaptation? Franz Kafka’s short stories.

Although the three authors have distinct styles and approaches to their books, they did have one thing in common: they were all active storytellers long before they published their first books. Meyer spent years as a managing editor and then as a Seattle-based proofreader, while Hinds drew the characters and backgrounds for video games. Wilson stated simply: “Before becoming a writer, I was a reader.”

SLJ SummerTeen Interviews

• Gareth Hinds
• Earl Sewell
• A.S. King
• Johan Harstad
• Barry Lyga
• Sean Michael Wilson
• Peter Hautman
• Karen Healey
• Cecil Castellucci
• Julie Kagawa
• Katie Kacvinsky
• Marissa Meyer

Currently working on books for the Tokyo publisher Kodansha, SLJ caught up with Wilson, who is a guest speaker at SLJ‘s August 9 online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books. If you’ve signed up for SummerTeen, make sure to gather your teens to hear Wilson speak on the “Classic Twists” panel from 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Registration is still open.

Tell us about the kinds of comics and graphic novels you create?

SMW: I work in three or four genres within the general art form of the comic book or graphic novel. Adaptation of classics and historical work, manga, biography and documentary books are what most of my books have been. I can understand why librarians are more prone to classification, but in my mind I don’t make much distinction between the various types of books I write. The key elements of what leads me to write a specific book are two in all cases: what is interesting for me to create, and what will publishers want/ask me to do? (Unfortunately, those two are not also going in the same direction in this money-dominated system we have at present!)

How does it feel to have such a strong teen fan base?

SMW: Well, my books are not just for the YA audience, but for adults in general. In both types, what we are dealing with are human emotions, social situations and relationships, ideas that engage and motivate people-basically about the human condition. YA books are about the human condition at that particular age.
Of course, one of the basic aims is to increase YA’s interest in reading. We might take it a step further and say what is the point of reading, what advantages does it bring? I’ve been reflecting on [author and media theorist] Neil Postman’s point that reading helps encourage logical thinking, analysis, and a feeling that the world has some pattern, and that our current lives take place within a continuity. He contrasts that to television, which encourages a short-term memory type processing, the visual, the instantaneous, thinking that’s divorced from building patterns of connection. These are perhaps less desirable. So, graphic novels with the mixture of both visuals and text are one good way of bridging between these two ways of thinking.

How valuable are librarians at getting the word out about your work?

SMW: Very important, libraries and librarians are crucial, and getting even more so recently with graphic novels. In fact right now a good example of that is happening. My Wuthering Heights book has been shortlisted in the Stan Lee Excelsior Awards, which is an exciting new
award scheme where readers aged 11-16 choose the winner from eight shortlisted books held in their school library. In the process they, of course, read the eight books, and give some considered opinion on the merits of each—a good way for libraries to encourage reading and analytical thinking. This is organized by the libraries of around 170 schools in the UK.

What’s one of the most moving things you’ve heard about your work?

SMW: I was giving a lecture about my books in a college, and a teacher was there with her 14 year old daughter. She told me that so far she had not let her daughter read comics/graphic novels, as she had thought they would be detrimental to her reading development. But that after
listening to my talk, she had changed her mind and intended to buy my book for herself and her daughter. So, I managed to bring over both an adult reader and a younger reader-success!

Ever worry about your work being censored or challenged?

SMW: Censored no, challenged yes. I don’t think any publishers I’ve worked with so far have said ‘Don’t do that.’ The challenges often come from critics and often rather narrow minded and ill-informed ones at that. I do often get upset when a critic makes some point that seems totally inaccurate to me, and based on not having thought about the book enough or just mouthing off their own prejudices. People tell me I need to be more ‘thick skinned’ about it. But sometimes a point raised can make me reflect on how I write or what I write and lead me to try to do better next time.

What can you tell us about the books you’re working on now?

SMW: I’m working on a 150-page historical manga book with Kodansha, my first Japanese/English bilingual book. It’s exciting to have this bilingual version. Also a documentary-style comic book called ‘Parecomic’, with Seven Stories Press in NY. We’ve almost finished
that one now, a 200-page book with an introduction by Noam Chomsky. I’m also doing some library based use of comics to promote literacy with the ‘Upside Comics’ group in the UK:

Other SLJ SummerTeen Interviews:

Gareth Hinds

Earl Sewell

A.S. King

Johan Harstad

Barry Lyga