Coming of Age Books

Coming-of-Age

Try asking people for examples of coming-of-age novels.  Most readers agree that these stories follow the changes experienced as a character matures from youth or adolescence to adulthood.  Perhaps adulthood should not be measured in years, but in a character’s evolving and expanding view of the world.  Maybe it is when the character realizes that he/she is not the center of the world, but a participant.  Scarlett O’Hara took so long to reach that point that I was surprised to find Gone With the Wind on one coming-of-age list.  I think readers could argue if Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird should be replaced on coming-of-age lists by Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman.

Older lists of coming-of-age novels contain books such as Anne of Avonlea, David Copperfield, and The Secret Garden.  Slightly newer lists will contain Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Lord of the Flies, and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.  An even newer list will have Nick & Norah’s Playlist, Secret Life of Bees, Kite Runner, Perks of being a Wallflower, Eleanor & Park, About a Boy and Fangirl.  John Green has dominated the market with Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Fault in Our Stars.  J.K Rowling gave us the Harry Potter series and Suzanne Collins created Katnis Everdeen and the Hunger Games trilogy.  We have watched all of these characters mature whether we like or dislike the adults they became.

Although I have read and enjoyed many of the titles mentioned above, my coming-of-age list would include Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Banks, Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford and Montana 1948 by Larry Watson.  It is an eclectic mix, spanning from 17^th century Holland to the mid-century United States. Whatever your definition of coming-of-age novels may be, these books can be enjoyed long after adolescence.

-S. Bakos

Related lists:
Coming of Age books on Goodreads
11 Coming-of-Age Books from the Huffington Post

Flavia Comes of Age

Bildungsroman definition 
Great Coming of Age Novels on Pinterest

Harry Potter Comes of Age

Flavia de Luce series: where is it going?

The Dead in their Vaulted Arches, the 6th in Alan Bradley's 'Flavia de Luce' series seems to be a bridge between the series as it was and whatever it will become from now on. Flavia is an almost 12 year old girl living in a small village in England after WWII (1951 in this book). She lives in a crumbling old estate with her emotionally distant father, two older sisters who dislike her and a small household staff. She loves chemistry and solving crimes. In this book, the mystery of what happened to her mother, missing for ten years, is solved. Harriet de Luce's body is discovered in the Himalayas and shipped home to her family. The mysteries that remain unsolved are: what was Flavia's mother really doing in the Himalayas? Why is the family involved in British intelligence work and in what way? At the end, Flavia's father tells her that she will be sent to boarding school in Canada, so in addition to a change of venue, the series seems to be taking a turn toward Flavia as international spy in training, but we will have to wait for the next installment to find some answers and to find out if the series improves once it makes some major changes. I enjoyed the earlier books in this series and hopes it regains its footing now that this book has sent it into a new direction as Flavia matures.

Reviews of the Flavia de Luce series and similar mysteries on this blog can be found here.http://bhplnjbookgroup.blogspot.com/search?q=flavia

Interview with author Alan Bradley