Project MUSE - Crossover Fiction: Global and Historical Perspectives (review)
Susan Stan (bio)
Crossover Fiction: Global and Historical Perspectives. By Sandra L. Beckett. New York: Routledge, 2009.
In Sandra L. Beckett’s edited collection of essays, Transcending Boundaries (1999), the designation “crossover fiction” was demonstrated as applying to several situations, including but not limited to works published for children that find an adult audience or vice versa; works intended for a dual audience; works published for one audience and subsequently rewritten for another; and works by crosswriting authors. In her new book Beckett has provided a wide-ranging collection of book titles and authors to support the notion that crossover fiction as defined this way is neither [End Page 289] a new phenomenon nor a passing fad but a form of literature that has long existed. Her meticulous research goes beyond North America and Britain to include examples of past and present literary works published in Japan, South Africa, Latin America, Australia, and across Europe. In addition to the books themselves, she cites observations from authors about their own intentions and information from publishers about their publishing decisions. In short, she weaves myriad small bits of information into a coherent whole that is organized, for the most part, into chapters according to the situations enumerated above.
Children’s literature has often been seen as a lesser art, a theme Beckett returns to time and again, whether in the chapter looking at nineteenth-century novels such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Jules Verne’s Voyage books (“Child-to-Adult Crossover Fiction”), or in the chapter devoted to crossover fantasy. Although they are now receiving their due, Stevenson and Verne were not respected by the literary establishments of their times. Likewise, contemporary fantasy writers are too often summarily dismissed as genre writers by today’s literary establishment. Of course, as children’s fantasy, the Harry Potter books bore a double stigma. Publishers in the United Kingdom, Germany, and elsewhere were quick to identify the crossover market potential and accommodate it with different covers (and price points) directed to adult and child readers. Although the concept of the dual cover was not born with Harry Potter, as Beckett notes, publishers of fantasy series since have either issued simultaneous paperback editions targeting the two audiences or have repackaged existing children’s or young adult fantasy with covers appealing to the adult market, especially those adults who wouldn’t think to look in the children’s section for their reading matter. Readers of fantasy already know the children’s section is where much of the good fantasy resides; as British fantasy writer Terry Prachett states, “fantasy is . . . the great cross-over genre” (Beckett 135).
The recent proliferation of crossover fiction and its popularity have profoundly affected the attitude toward children’s literature in another way: for the first time, children’s books are in competition with adult books for recognition, prizes, and awards. In 1998 John Marsden’s fifth book in the Tomorrow series, Burning for Revenge, won the Australian Booksellers Association’s Book of the Year Award against strong competition from books in the adult market. In England, J. K. Rowling’s third Harry Potter book missed being chosen as the 1999 Whitbread Book of the Year by just one vote. The Whitbread Book of the Year (known after 2006 as the Costa Book Awards) is selected from a shortlist comprised of the winners in five categories (best novel, best first novel, best poetry, best biography, and best children’s novel). In 2001 Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass finally became the first children’s book to win this award. Rowling herself made history in 2000 by becoming the first children’s author to be named the British Book Awards Author of the Year. In the United States the results of Rowling’s successful series have also challenged [End Page 290] the domain of adult books. Because the first three Harry Potter books were taking up coveted spots on the New York Times bestsellers list, a special Children’s Bestsellers list was created. Although there was some fear at the time that children’s books were once again being shunted off to the side, the end result was positive, as it has kept attention focused on children’s books periodically throughout the year rather than only semi-annually with the appearance of the summer and holiday New York Times Book Review children’s books sections.
In a chapter that focuses on cross-writing authors, Beckett covers the usual territory—authors of adult fiction who have also written for children—but then offers up something unexpected. While everyone accepts that children’s books are written by adults, few consider the reverse: teenage writers who produce books for general readership. Several European bestsellers in the last decade were written by teenagers; these include works of literary fiction as well as fantasy. Yet Beckett reminds us that many authors of classics—Austin, Alcott, and Brontë, among others—were literary prodigies.
In the end, the lasting impression that the reader takes away from Crossover Fiction is not the array of books or writers that can be categorized as such but the great extent to which children’s literature has been raised from its subaltern position. Whether intending to or not, Beckett’s book makes a compelling case for the end of separate categories of literature for children and adults and an “all-ages” approach to writing and publishing fiction.