Siblings? We don’t need no stinkin’ siblings (Family in YA Lit)

It all began when I saw a Tweet from Jessica Day George challenging that notion that all siblings fight, which is the trend in ya lit as she sees it.  So we began chatting back and forth about family dynamics.  Where were the families with 3 or more siblings?  Why were siblings always engaged in such hostile relationships?  So I have spent some time these last few days thinking about diversity in ya lit and how that applies to things beyond just race and religion, but to family structures.

I am an odd bird, both a sibling and an only child.  Although I have a younger brother, my parents divorced when I was in the 5th grade and we were not always raised together.  Throughout all of high school I was a de facto only child, except in the summer.  I have also had step siblings come and go into my life.

For the past ten years, I have worked in a community with a high divorce, poverty, etc. rate.  My teens came to my after school program telling me stories about how they shared a father with that kid over there, but they didn’t really know them.  Several of my teens were being raised in foster homes or by grandparents.  The teens we tended to interact with were those that needed the most help academically, and they seemed to come from the most challenging home situations.

While engaging in this discussion I realized that I didn’t really notice the lack of intact families and siblings, because it wasn’t something that I was looking for.  It was not my personal experience, and so I didn’t recognize the lack of it.  Fast forward to my library today: I see a large number of teens coming in with parents.  It has been such an eye opening experience, and comforting.  It is nice to know that there are still parents involved with their teens.  It is nice to see families succeeding.  Not all of them do, but lots of them do and they are probably under represented in ya lit.

This sent me on a quest to dig up some facts about the modern day family structure.  I am, after all, a librarian, I can find this.  My investigation revealed some interesting facts.

The increase in the number of only children you think you see is not in your imagination.  The rate of onlies has doubled.  20% of children are now being raised as only children.

Further digging revealed that the US Census government report indicates that 56% of married households have no children in the home.  Less than 10% have 3 or more children under the age of 18 in the home.  These statistics vary based on age and various other demographics. {www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-14.pdf}

As for sibling relationships, 50% of teens report being a victim of sibling bullying. When we talk about bullying, it is important to remember to include these types of stories.

If you read enough YA lit, you know that the trend is to be an only child.  This is not necessarily surprising when you consider another popular ya trend, to get the parents out of the way.  YA lit has a tendency to focus on a finite group of characters and tell a tight story with a narrow, teen centric point of view.  That’s not a bad thing, it represents and works for the target audience.  But if part of our goal in reading is to expand our world view, then we definitely need to see more family dynamics represented.

Lindsey mentioned there was a tendency in ya lit to have older or younger siblings, which I do see a lot in blended families.  Couples come together later in life or second marriages and decide that they want to have a biological child between them.  Also, increasing rates of secondary infertility rates create greater spacing between children, even when they are from the same parents.  There are, in fact, 6 years of age difference between my two girls.  Interestingly enough, there are not a lot of stats that look at age spacing in children.

With a 50% divorce rate, you see an increase, too, in the number of blended families.  There are step siblings, half siblings.  I recall reading in several places that there is also an increase in the number of children and teens that are being raised by grandparents for various reasons.

When we talk about diversity in ya lit, we also need to be talking about the diversity in families represented in ya lit.  Yes, statistically there are a lot of blended and nontraditional families, but we also need to make sure that traditional families are represented.  And for Leavitt, that means including sibling groups of 3 or more.

As for the other part, well – sibling relationships can be complicated things.  That complexity should be reflected as well.  Complicated doesn’t always have to be caustic and unhealthy.

One of my most recent favorite reading experiences was reading 10 Rules for Living with My Sister by Ann Martin with my Tween.  After she was done, she went and got a piece of paper and created her own sister comparison chart (it’s in the book).  It was a great moment. But, of course, this is an MG title.

So I put out the call to the Twitterverse and asked for book recommendations with larger size families that depicted healthy sibling relationships.  The general agreement was that MG Lit does a better job at this then YA Lit.  However, here are a few of the recommendations:

Invincible Summer

Forbidden

Faking Faith

Sean Griswold’s Head

Going Vintage

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Curseworker Series

The Unbecoming of Maray Dyer

These Things I’ve Done by Gabriel Zevin

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater

The Mortal Instruments

Summer of Firsts and Last

When You Open Your Eyes

Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys

The Key to the Golden Firebird

Born Wicked

My Life Next Door

Personal Effects

Crash

Starters

Summer My Life Began

Lindsay Leavitt is the author of the soon to be released ya novel Going Vintage.

Jessica Day George is the author of several books for teens, including her newest title Princess of the Silver Woods

Shannon P. is a book blogger who blogs at stalkingthebookshelves.blogspot.com