After months of hard work—and overcoming several unforeseen obstacles—our first Owl's Nest Classics Edition has finally made it to launch day. Anne of Green Gables: Annotated for Teen and Middle Grade Readers is available now in paperback, hardcover, and on Kindle.
Why Owl's Nest Classics Editions?
When we dreamed up Owl's Nest, Katie and I knew we wanted to make space in the publishing industry not just for new books that capture the imagination of true adolescents in their in-between years, but we also wanted to reinvigorate a modern adolescent love of reading the classics. Not just any classics, though, classics that speak particularly to and for them—this in keeping with our mission at Owl's Nest.
There is a trend in modern traditional MG and YA publishing to move away from the classics and/or reinvent them in unrecognizable ways to make them less dry and dusty, more culturally relevant, and less problematic. Some even argue we shouldn't force young people to read the classics at all anymore, or give shelf space to them in bookstores or classrooms.
At Owl's Nest, we recognize the need for new books that speak the language of—and speak to the experiences of—adolescents today. Young people have to see themselves reflected in the stories they read in real, modern, and relevant ways. We also recognize that what we call the classics can sometimes be dry and dusty, sometimes problematic, and they can feel irrelevant to young people who may not understand what they are reading.
Reading the classics is, however, important to the development of the moral imagination of young people—but only if they read them with understanding and appreciation, through which they can develop a love for the texts. Our Owl's Nest Classics Editions are like reading the stories with an enthusiastic, expert tutor reading alongside you, explaining "the tricky bits" and offering fun and insightful anecdotes as you go.
It's important that adolescents today see themselves not just in the stories of today, but in the long scope of history, and that they are offered the chance to process and understand language they might otherwise have deemed too hard for them. Owl's Nest Classics are, in many ways, about helping young people to rightly see, rightly hear, and rightly love. What's "dry and dusty" can become vibrant, what's problematic should be wrestled with (not ignored or canceled), what feels irrelevant can be shown to be as relevant as any story published today.
And by ushering young readers into a love of the classics, we believe they will better understand themselves, their world, and the books they read and love today.
So we start our Classics List with Anne of Green Gables, edited with annotations and introduction by Katie Stewart. We encourage you to add it to your personal library and give it to the adolescent reader in your life!
~ Karin & Katie