At Arm’s Length is a study of the ways that authors manipulate character in children’s and young adult literature in order to create more or less sympathy in the reader. Authors can push character representation and development into several directions: characters can be pushed along a continuum between the sympathetic and the awe-inspiring; characters can be pushed between the sympathetic and pitiful or the ridiculous; last, characters can also be pushed between the awe-inspiring and the pitiful. Authors manipulate character in order to elicit a change in emotional response from the reader tow ... More

At Arm’s Length is a study of the ways that authors manipulate character in children’s and young adult literature in order to create more or less sympathy in the reader. Authors can push character representation and development into several directions: characters can be pushed along a continuum between the sympathetic and the awe-inspiring; characters can be pushed between the sympathetic and pitiful or the ridiculous; last, characters can also be pushed between the awe-inspiring and the pitiful. Authors manipulate character in order to elicit a change in emotional response from the reader toward characters, both major and minor. The author’s manipulation of character is meant to either draw young readers toward characters and a sympathetic (even empathetic) relationship to character, creating vulnerability, or to push back or hold the young reader at arm’s length in order to create emotional distance between the character (and action) and the young reader. This manipulation of character has implications for the ways different types of characters can represent meanings for young readers. Issues of identification, representations of diversity, stereotyping, and more are caught up in the choices authors make about how close to character the reader can get.