handbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias: reference as bildungsroman

[deborah]

In some YA novels, the heroes have to decipher their journey through a literal guidebook they find.

Sometimes it's a manual provided by the PTB, as in So You Want To Be A Wizard by dduane.

Sometimes it's a guide left by the parents' generation, as in Jellicoe Road, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, or the Marauder's Map of the Harry Potter books. There's something similar in the Rebel Angels books, right?

In Walter Dean Meyers' Handbook for Boys, there's no literal book, but the title layers an implication of guidebook nature over the advice given by the prior generation.

Other examples? astern and I will thank you.

Comments

[synecdochic]

i've heard that the novel version of "the tough guide to fantasyland" does a bit of this, though i've only read the nonfiction guide of the same name :)

[deborah]

I guess it kind of does, yes! Blade has a guidebook he needs to follow as a Wizard Guide. He...does a poor job. :D

[synecdochic]

does a prophecy count if it's written down and everybody's running around to control it? if so, david eddings' belgariad.

[deborah]

Huh, hadn't even thought of that, but a sentient speaking book is its own kind of interesting.

[synecdochic]

I do love them. They're formulaic, but I *like* the formula, dammit!