YA Indie Carnival : The Best Fathers in YA Fiction & Great Reads For Dad

This topic makes me laugh. I mean, I sat down to write about fathers in YA Fiction and could barely come up with any that I’d call great. I mean parents in MG & YA Fiction are notoriously absentee, in one way or another. I found this article The Parent Problem in Young Adult Fiction pretty interesting. This is my favorite quote from the article where the essayist Julie Just, the book editor of the NYT at the time and now an agent at Janklow & Nesbit, discusses Neil Gaiman‘s CORALINE:

“Gaiman’s ultimate message is that parental perfection is an illusion. Real parents may ignore you and serve bad food, but at least they won’t rip out your eyes and leave you to rot behind a wall.”

LOLz, made me feel better about not being able to come up with more dads to recommend. Yeeesh! There’s some great YA books mentioned in Julie’s essay, so you might want to check them out. I’d love to know who you’d give BEST FATHER IN YA FICTION!

So who do I think of when I think of best YA Dad:

My first thought goes to Charlie, Bella’s dad in The Twilight Saga. You’ve heard of that series right? 🙂 I love Charlie. He’s super busy, like lots of dads, especially dads raising a teenage girl on his own. Charlie’s not really able to say what’s on his mind, like most busy dads. I mean he’s kind of perfect for me. In the end he loves Bella enough to let her go, which is basically the challenge moms and dads face in the teenage years. So, Charlie gets my vote. and I think the story is stronger for the relationships developed between Bella and her parents.

But, there are others….Some other great YA dads would be Mr. Bennet in PRIDE & PREJUDICE and Atticus Finch in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

I’d love to know yours….

Check out the other carnis and see their best YA Fathers here.

And, here’s what’s new at the carnival this week!