I spent yesterday morning listening to the indefatigable Maureen Johnson. She was on the radio with a Wall Street Journal writer best known for decrying the state of young adult lit. You know the drill: “YA is too dark, too depressing, and is bad for the kidz!”
I am not here to argue against fact-free trend pieces, however. Maureen and the internet have already done that and done it well. And, you know, haters gonna hate, and shoddy journalists gonna shod. There’s no way to stop that. Here’s the problem I would like to address instead:
When these issues arise, we writers, librarians, booksellers, teachers, and editors know that the media is overblown and out of touch. We know that the huge boom in YA is helping young readers, because we see it in our in-boxes, our libraries, our stores, and our twitter feeds every day.
Sure, some books aren’t right for some kids. But it’s not like that challenge has recently grown insurmountable. In fact, connecting the right book with the right reader has never been easier. There are more specialist teen librarians than ever before, teenage readers are relentlessly networked, and book reviews from all perspectives are more plentiful than at any other time in human history. (Thank you, the internet.)
But someone has to think of the parents. Especially those who randomly turn on the radio or read the WSJ and are exposed to this alarmism. They may not know how to check out all those amazing stories tweeted on #YASaves. They probably don’t follow comment threads on blogs like this one, where bookish teens prove hourly how smart, supportive, and savvy they are. Many parents don’t know what “DFTBA” means, and thus may not realize how awesome their kids are not forgetting to be.
And the other side in this debate sounds perfectly reasonable. “We just want a conversation! We just want parents to be aware!” And they couch everything in that scary questioning tone: “These books MAY be turning your kids into cutters.” Like when local news promos ask, “Are your cleaning fluids making you hate America? Story at eleven!”
Here’s my problem with this brand of “reasonableness”: Conversations have contexts, and awareness is always flavored by its catalyst. Let’s take two examples . . .
A parent goes into a teenager’s room and says, “I just heard from the wise people at the Wall Street Journal that the books you kids read these days are mostly dark and horrible and will make you cut yourself and take drugs. Let me check your books so I can make sure this is not true!”
Seriously. How do you think that conversation’s going to go?
Eyes will be rolled, tempers will rise, and more than likely this parent will be made to feel dreadfully foolish. (Teenagers are good at this last bit.) Frankly, being easily manipulated by alarmists in the media is not a good look for anyone.
But let’s say a parent goes into that same kid’s room and says . . .
“Hey, I just heard that young adult lit sales have grown by double digits every year for the last decade. You teens read so much that it’s the only profitable part of publishing! And now Hollywood wants to make everything you read into movies, and more adults than ever before are reading YA! And I heard that huge crowds show up at bookstores and rented venues when popular YA writers are in town! And that many YA writers have tens of thousands of followers on the Twitter machine, if not hundreds of thousands! And that every November countless teenagers support each other in WRITING THEIR OWN NOVELS! Holy crap, we didn’t do that in my benighted day of juvenile sloth. It’s just awesome how dedicated you and your peers are to reading. Can you please lend me some of these great books?”
My guess is that this conversation will go rather better. And, unlike the Wall Street Journal, this opening gambit is full of verifiable facts!
Make no mistake, we writers want parents to talk to their kids about books. But don’t do it because some newspaper uses fear to generate web hits. Do it because reading is awesome and your kids are awesome.
There’s a problem here, though. The parents who are reading this post (on a YA writer’s blog) probably don’t need this advice. They can see through the malarky without my help. They’ve already noticed that the only “science” referred to in the WSJ‘s articles was a study of 1970s anti-drug public service announcements. (Because nothing is more relevant to 21st-century young adult literature than 40-year-old TV ads.)
But how do we reach those other parents, the ones whose innocent minds might be corrupted by these fact-missing anxiety-mechants? Parents can’t be expected to protect themselves these days. A recent study of hair cream ads from the 1920s proved that the media’s coverage of YA has gotten 37% darker in the last year alone!
Now, I’m not advocating banning the Wall Street Journal. It has many fine articles in it I’m sure, some of which no doubt cite actual facts instead of the vague impressions of random people wandering YA sections. There are always exceptions, after all, even in newspapers named after the street that recently stole $700 billion of our money.
All I’m asking is that teenagers take an active role in discussing young adult lit with their parents.
Kids, you don’t want your parents’ first exposure to YA to be in the dingy recesses of a fear-mongering financial newspaper. It’s your job to help them understand how twitter hashtags work, what NaNoWriMo stands for, and how to do the nerdfighter hand signal. It’s your duty to introduce them gently to the lighter sides of fan fic, before they stumble across a cache of Snape dub-con Mpreg epic poetry. (Um, maybe just wait till your parents are older before tackling fan fic.)
In many cases, of course, your gentle persuasion may not be enough. Some parents are too easily influenced by frightening images of teenage culture gone awry. Darkness sells, after all. For these, a simple call to the Wall Street Journal will cancel your subscription, saving both money and heartache for your beloved parent. Be sure not to leave an empty space in their lives, however. Ease them over to something more wholesome, like, say, the School Library Journal. They’ll hardly notice the difference.
My main point is this: you understand young adult lit. You get how much it’s grown, how much it means to you. Make sure that your parents understand that too, and they’ll be ear-plugged against the profiteering panic-peddlers wailing like sirens on the rocky shoals of our culture.
Thank you for listening.
Aaaannnnddd this is why I’m glad my parents don’t speak English ^_^
Oh a slightly more serious note, I guess I’m pretty much used to it by now. My parents are especially worried about violent video games (this applies to my brother though… I can’t play FPS games to save my life), but they’re fine with me watching violent anime or reading YA because they were exposed to it very early on. I can also tell you from experience that it’s really, REALLY hard to tell your parents about it – after all, are you going to listen to the “authority” on t.v or your “impressionable” kids? – but you HAVE to try. They STILL don’t believe a word I have to say about violent video games, but I like to think that one day – ONE DAY – they will be able to at least SEE my side of the argument.
Here’s hoping.
The parents want to protect their kids, but what they don’t realize is that we won’t be children forever. We’ll grow up and do grown up things like driving and working and marriage and other things. Sometimes, you have to let your kids grow. Don’t shield them from the world. The world is scary and nothing should be a secret. By learning about these things at a young age, we could be able to make a difference in the world.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the post, I am doing some research right now in grad school on adolescent lit and development. I am also interested in why so many adults, myself included, read YA lit. Do you think that the presence of a large adult audience influences themes in YA lit?
I’m all for a wide variety of books for teens. I believe literature has a way of speaking to all of us that is raw, real, and important. There is magic in introducing a friend to a book or a character you know they will love. Many adults forget what being a teen is like, or underestimate how dark life can be, or feel, at any age.
That being said, I do not think that booksellers or publishers (the relatively new ‘Harlequin Teen’ division springs to mind) are overly concerned with the messages and themes in their books, and what their impact might be. We are all of us impressionable, and social things. Messages, both intentional and unintentional, are received.
But as you pointed out, parents are the key here. Any book can provide a wonderful springboard for conversation. Everyone reads with their toddlers, why not with their teens as well?
This is a beautiful post, Scott-la. I am always impressed with how you always succeed in articulating your thoughts so clearly and coming right the heart of the issue. Also, I’ve just read through all the comments, and everyone’s personal thoughts are so interesting that I want to share some of mine.
My mom is a big reader like me, so when it comes to YA she fully supports my reading anything and everything. She trusts me, so she doesn’t usually bother with trying to censor me; she assumes I make good judgments. So I was quite surprised when she decided she wanted to read a certain YA series that another adult has suggested for me before I was allowed to read it. I was even more surprised when she announced her verdict: it was “too much” and “just yucky to read,” (I’m still not sure if she was referring to the language or the content), and she didn’t want me reading it. That being said, if I had really fought to read it she probably would have let me; I was just so surprised that she had decided to dictate what I read, and I felt a little guilty that a lot of the things I read, if she bothered to look through them, she would probably also decide to screen, if she used the same standards she did with this series.
That being said, I’ve recently introduced her to the entire Harry Potter fandom, as she and I are attending LeakyCon next week. I had her read all the books and am showing her my favorite wizard rock and talking her through a lot of other parts of the fandom that she didn’t even know existed. It really surprises me still when she doesn’t understand even the definition of some things that seem like basics to me, like podcasts and fanfic. She knows that I obsess over YA; she’s driven me to enough book signings to get that it’s highly important to me. But I hope that bringing her to LeakyCon will help her better understand some of the other parts of YA fandoms that make us YA readers who we are. So this helping parents understand thing might not be easy; but I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
DFTBA, everybody!
And I somehow forgot to mention that this is a great post, Scott-la.
Thanks for this. Funnily enough, I was a voracious reader when I was a teenager, and read everything I could get my hands on. Gary Jennings’ Aztec, Norman Mailer, Judy Blume’s ‘soft core’ stuff, james Clavell, Tolkien…my parents, seriously conservative, church-going types, never said a word. They let me read any and everything, and I turned out just fine. My issues had nothing to do with what I read in books.
And now, as a mother myself, I have made the same decision. My daughter knows what she likes, and reads it. She knows what she doesn’t like, and doesn’t. And she’s not a cutter, depressed, or suicidal. Does she dress like a goth princess? Some days, sure. But she dressed like that when she was still reading the Warrior series. Somehow, i don’t think feral cats who act like Native Americans turned her into a goth…
I love this post, Scott. I can’t say much of anything that hasn’t already been said but I will say that I think it’s good to let parents know what their kids are reading and for them to talk about what they don’t want their kids reading for whatever reason. My mom and I read the same books all the time when she gets the time to sit and read. Heaven forbid we corrupt each other. 😉
I will be sharing the link on facebook.
I mostly skimmed over this journal cuz it was kinda confusing but I got the point. I’m lucky because my parents are okay with pretty much whatever I’m reading even though they think I should at least read HISTORICAL fiction rather then the kind I normally read (gues what my answer is? “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!! LEVIATHAN IS HISTORICAL FICTION!!!!”) which is Harry Potter, blah, blah, blah. If other adults would ask me why I read YA, I would answer, “‘Cause this is better then most other crap. Like pure romance novels with the creepy covers.”
“Maybe you should-”
“I’LL READ WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT TOO, BITCHES!”
I completely agree. I thank God that I have a mother who understands what I read and trusts me to have discretion on what to read.
I think the same thing kind of applies to Harry Potter – maybe that’s why I really connected with this post. I adore HP, but I know a lot of people who think it’s ‘evil’, which drives me NUTS because they have no idea what they’re talking about and get their opinions from other people.
Thanks for writing this. 🙂
DFTBA!
~Hannah-la
When everyone was freaked out over Harry Potter being ‘evil’, my brother was in 2nd grade at a christian school, and I was in kindergarten, and set to got to the same school the next year, but then the teachers at the school told my brother he’d get in trouble if he brought his Harry Potter book to school again, so my parents (who both love Harry Potter as much as my brother and I do) took my brother out of the christian school and sent him to public school for 3-5 grade and sent me to the public school, too, for 1-5 grade. (and public school thereafter) . So, luckily, I don’t really have anything to worry about with my mum getting upset with my books, she’s almost as much of an avid reader as I am (I say almost because she also has to work, it slows her down some 🙂 ) and she’ll support my reading if ‘dark’ books start to get banned or something. She’s not a nerdfighter (yet…) but she likes John Green’s books, and if I really like a YA book, then I’ll recommend it to her to read. If I had a mum who refused to let me read YA books, then I would probably go insane. Or just read a million pounds of fanfiction of the books I did manage to read.
I like that people keep mentioning the good parents they have. 🙂 That’s how my parents were: they didn’t dictate, but they were involved in my life and taught me how to make good choices for myself.
Maybe we hear about the crummy parents so often because it’s much more dramatic.
I select the books I want, add them to cart, and have my mother input her credit information and I get my demon YA in 1 to 2 weeks. They generally look the other way when I get books. If my parents did care what I read and didn’t allow me to read the books that I do, well, I know where they keep their credit cards. 😉
This was a very good read that makes me feel lucky my mom trusts me to read whatever I want [well, with the exception of *ahem* adult novels,] without being easily influenced. Aside from that, a lot of novels that have these issues that parents may be concerned about [eg. cutting] are real-life problems of our everyday peers. Should we have to ignore these issues? How silly it is to think that not reading these books would prevent such problems. Society in general made us young adults this way, not novels. Heck, any of these dark novels typically tell me how terrible the lives of the people in the books are, and thus it has the opposite effect, making me thing “I don’t want to end up like this.”
Although I must say, I don’t think I will ever talk to my mom about fanfiction… hehe.
This is great! And I want to say that the only reason I’m a reader is because of a book my MOM picked out at the library years and years ago that was YA – and actually SHE was going to read it. 🙂 And now I read everything from old school literature to manga to YA novels.
And I still give summaries to my mom when I really like a book. It makes me smile when she says, “Doesn’t sound like my type of book,” and yet she’ll let me finish my long and overly dramatic rants. I will be reading YA novels until I’m dead. 🙂
I totally agree with your post, Scott-la! What parents and adults don’t always understand is that yes, kids do soak up what ever they hear, read and see, but they pay just as much (or more)attention to things they aren’t allowed to do. If a parent doesn’t explain things to their child or give then the resourses (books) to find out themselves, they’ll look for answers someplace else. Fortunatly, I am growing up in a wonderful home environment(I’m 14) were my parents trust me to make my own choices. I know what I’m going to do with my life already, which is a big diffrence from some of my classmates. And although books help me see what I want to do, they also let me see what NOT to do. I know what happens when you make bad choices without having to try it myself.
I also think that Rad Bradbury has a good point in Farenhiet 451, when he writes, “The same things could be in the ‘parlor families’ today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors but are not. No, no, it’s not books at all you’re looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself”(http://www.karenika.com/book/451.html). Thank goodness we aren’t there yet, but it is getting harder to find a show on TV that has the same elements as a book.
Parents and their kids should work together to find books that they both enjoy. Every summer, my mom reads aloud to my 19-year-old brother and me. We all love it. And, as a matter of fact, my DAD was the one who introduced me to Leviathan! Now it’s my favorite series EVER. Thank you for writing this post and for being a barking amazing author!
Parents need to have some trust in their children.
I just reread this. This really is a wonderful post, Mr. Westerfeld. Truely genius. A majestic accomplishment. Worthy of fame and glory, like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Well done. Just had a lot of Red Bull. Real pumped up. I’ll shut up.
HEY Y’ALL! I know i said that i wouldnt be commenting for the entire summer but this is a temporary exception, not like anyone noticed. I’m sooo angry I missed so much. But it is great to check in and see this amazin’ post from Scott. I am deeply moved sir, just thought you should know that.
@Joker-la: Similar things are happening to me but came to me in a form of a 2 liter of Mountain Dew.
Dude. That was deep, Scottmeister.
Loved this comment!
I love YA lit. I read it constantly. It has come such a long way tapping into so many teens’ needs. C.S. Lewis once said, “We read to know that we are not alone.” Teen lit does just that. Teens don’t feel like “freaks” or “outcasts” anymore.
Hurray for teen lit. Keep it coming.
I’m 28, and have been a teen librarian for six years! Can’t get enough!
Sometimes I wonder if adults forget what it was like to be teenagers. Seriously, ‘too dark and depressing’? What do they think, teenage life is all rainbows and unicorns? Goodness, escaping into books was the only way I survived high school!
Awesome post, I wish more parents would read your blog and try to understand YA!
@kaylen book ratings would be FABULOUS. it’s hard to tell by the description on the back or by word of mouth what kind of content it will have. i hate getting really into a story and then it gets extremely innapropriate so that i don’t even want to finish! knowing about language, violence, and sexual content BEFORE im in the middle of a story would be soooo helpful. i love reading new books but im so hesitant to start reading new authors because you never know what might be shelved in the teen or children’s section when it should be for adults
sometimes people can be exceedingly thick.
ok so there’s some crappy YA Lit out there, (I am getting tired of seeing nothing but vampire romance novels every flippin’ time I go to the book store ) but there’s also some really awesome books. Some parents are so paranoid about their kids getting into drug they only see the bad things and miss everything good. (not like I’m saying vampire romance novels are bad they just drive me insane, personally)
oh and I would just like to say me and my Ma read alot of the same books cause the YA fiction is almost always better then the adult fiction.
PS. VAMPIRES BURN IN THE SUN, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!
PPS. no offense to anyone <3
you know what that was a good post scott-la
anyways i completely agree with the fact that teens are smart. the thing is, i sort of almost WANT to agree with parents, i get where theyre comming from and what they think about everything. honestly, ive read practically everything scott-la wrote and i love it. but ive also read a lot of “dark” and “depressing” books. what the parents dont get is that theyre stereotyping all teens.
im actually getting my mom to read leviathan:D my older sister had convinced her to read hunger games, so i said “mom! if you read that you have to read leviathan!!!!!” so she is.
my mom actually thinks scott’la is cool. which is why i love her:D
This has nothing to do with the blog post, but no one has noticed this small detail in “Crashing a Bash” that may give us the answer as to whether or not it’s real. On all of the Goliath art we’ve seen except for that one, there has always been a small box with Keith Thompson’s initials, K.T., and the year the art was created, which was ’11 for “Crashing a Bash” and ’10 for everything else. We know it was made fairly recently. Has anyone else seen this? Does it mean anything?
After reading this post, I sort went through a mental list of all the YA books I’ve read. And they weren’t anything dark and sad or anything like that (actually, not fully true, since some of them WERE sad at the end). But I can see how if your kid doesn’t talk to you about what they read, then media feeding parental fears will hit you hard and make you worried. I found this blog post very…encouraging in having people teach their parents about their awesomeness and everything they do with YA lit
I’m going to be off the blog for the next week due to LeakyCon…I’m leaving in 5 hours for the airport….just wanted you to know, Scott-la, that I’ll be at all your panels, and I especially can’t wait for the special one with all the announcements! I’ll be the one freaking out in hopefully the front row, wearing a bowler hat and knee socks and with partially blue hair (sort of my signature look 😉 ). I’ve packed all your books to get them signed but I’m scared they’ll say my bag’s too heavy!!!
I completely agree. I know of some parents who shun me (I HAVE written a YA book also) because I read YA novels. I may ask one of my friends, “Hey, read Uglies, it has an amazing message.” But her parents swooped in and will not allow her to read it for fear of a “Darker message.” Ugh. Although my parents are the cool twiiter hashtag loving people, I know of other who aren’t. Like my mom for instance, she LOVED Scott on his Behemoth tour and found him really funny and nice. But other parents? They see Scott and other authors like Maureen as a threat to their children. Its ridiculous! We need to show adults who are against us why we love YA: not because of the werewolves, zombies, or vampires, but because of the postitive message underneath each novel. We love learning something by doing what we love, and if we’re shunned for it? So be it. This seems to be exactly how parents reacted to Harry Potter. I went to see it in theaters with my little brother who was eight (EIGHT!!!!) and parents were outside the theater telling us that we’d go to hell for reading and seeing it. I don’t know. Damage seems to be coming from the parents, not the books. If we can get them to understand, then we would start a reading revolution. Scott brings up valid points, and we need to fight book critisism by parents and adults who have never even read a YA novel! Book racism is horrible, and it needs to STOP.
P.S. I have read over 400 YA books and still don’t know what DFTBA means… Explain? Oh, and how on earth do you do the nerdfighter hand symbol thing? Thanks!!
I just took the time to read all the comments.I’m lazy.
@Kaylen: The book where the girl gets raped wouldnt happen to be that julia of the wolves book would it? Cuz I was required to read that in 4th grade. Scarred for life.
@Jetteh; COULDN’T AGREE MORE!!!!! XD Action/Adventure books w/ just a little splash of romance, basically YA. And them covers are really creepy.
Hi, Anyway i read YA books. If you read inside the cover of some of these books it reads: ages 14 and up. I my self am only 13. yes i will admit the books i read are about sex and drugs, but the kids(teens) who are influenced are usaly immature. you have to be able to handle the things you read. so even if your 17(and Immature) you shouldent read books like this. There is a comment above(27) (The Joker-la) that says that the people who rate movies rate them on sex and nudity not violence. the reason for this is because most people can handle violence only mature people can handle sex and nudity.
I rest my case.
I reopen my case PEOPLE WHO CUT
okay people who cut cut for fue reasons. here they are. One mental illness. they feel the need to cut because they need to feel something other than like they are weird or diffrent. Two pickedon/bullyed people. this is a real life example(I do Not cut). mostly girls. Girls like me start out thinking they are butiful, intellegent. most knowing they are not popular and never will be, but are happy with the friends they have. then one of there friends spreds a bad rumor. the girl soon luses her ego as more rumors spreed. then she is left with no friends and left to be cutters. They cut to relese there pain, to replace there pain. They want to feel good again. cutters are not influenced by books or movies. they are influenced by LIFE!
Ugh. Y’all have dragged me from my lovely couch in order to respond (I was going to wait…but I honestly have no life. So I’m doin this.)
First off, I applaud you, Scott-La. You just said what I’ve been telling people forEVER.
Now, I have no problem with reading books with what you might call “adult” level topics. Having read books such as Atlas Shrugged, Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird, it really doesn’t bother me. What DOES however, is all the people who get their pants in a twist because they believe that all teenage books are filled with smut. Yes, i just said SMUT. I mean, REALLY? Have you actually READ the _______ books?! (I’ll let you insert an adjective in their for that one.) My mom likes the Hunger Games, AND my whole family reads Harry Potter. Is there something wrong with that?
No?
Good. Now stop complaining, Anti-YAs, or I shall….do something. -_-
Now, back to sleep….
Not related to the update, but I saw a poster in Kings Cross Station and immediatly thought of Scott Westerfeld:Either you love him or haven’t read him yet.
okay. Even though i’m barley a teenager (13 a hair away from 12) i’ve the hunger games and even though they do get violent the girl telling the story hates all the violence and wants to make it stop. So the theme of the book is ANTI-violence. of course, my dad just read the back cover and freaked out, so he finished the last book on kindle before i was halfway through! >=(
that was supposed to say i’ve READ the hunger games
Thank you so much for posting this!!!
I am a teen, & I read almost everything I can get my hands on. A few years ago, I was banned for reading The Golden Compass. Neither of my parents had read it, but they were scared that I’d get “sacrilegious ideas” from the book. I went ahead & read the whole series, & experienced a wonderful story; although it displayed “sacrilegious ideas”, I needed to read & understand the whole book before I could make my own opinions about the content.
See, the problem is that people often judge a book before they even finish it or realize why the author used certain devices. Take The Giver by Lois Lowry, for example. As soon as many parent readers get to the part where the main character kills a baby, they exclaim, “This book is not appropriate for children or teens!” They then immediately shut the book & go to their library or child’s school & demand that the book be banned. They don’t ever see the love shown by the main characters; they don’t see that the Giver & Jonah are trying to spread some good in the world. They don’t ever see that the author is trying to show that there cannot be only goodness in the world, there will always be some bad as well.
I also read the WSJ, & although I didn’t come across this specific article, I remember reading another one about a year ago on the same subject. This one though was talking about how The Hunger Games & Wintergirls were incredible violent, inappropriate, disturbing, etc. What many adults do not understand is that although some teens cannot handle such material in books, some can handle it. Just because I read a book about a girl who is anorexic doesn’t mean that I’m going to become anorexic.
It instead makes me aware of the illness. & honestly it’s kind of hypocritical of adults. They freak out about there being swearing, sex, violence in teen books, & then they don’t freak out about how all those subjects are also covered in adult books. They also need to tust their children’s judgment. I was reading a book a few months ago that I became uncomfortable with. I put it down, went on the Internet to find out how the book ends, & resolved to read the book once, if ever, I became comfortable with some of the ideas in it.
i must say… if my parent asked to borrow some of my books, I would freak out (having already read this post, I now know what they are up to). I don’t lend books to people, in general. Especially not my parents. I also feel like if I already own the book, there’s no point in screening it because I’ve already read it. And honestly, if the reason I was reading books that may be deemed “too dark” was that they convinced me to cut myself or something, then I could just as easily absorb that information from the internet. So while I appreciate that Scott-la is trying to stop parents from screaming their heads off about inappropriate books, it seems like it’s kind of too little too late. Thanks though!
Long-time lurker posting here to add yet another “right on!” to this post. And 26 year old library assistant and YA fic lover also commenting that, yes, Ms. Gurdon is totally missing the point.
From the article “The argument in favor of such novels is that they validate the teen experience, giving voice to tortured adolescents who would otherwise be voiceless. If a teen has been abused, the logic follows, reading about another teen in the same straits will be comforting.”
This is not my only argument for such novels. I argue in favor of novels that deal with difficult experiences many teens (and adults!) endure, not just because sometimes there is a little bit of comfort in reading about someone else going through the same thing as you. I argue in favor of these novels because they are enlightening. I argue in favor of these novels because for every kid that struggles with the ramifications of rape, bullying, abuse, depression, homelessness, eating disorders, racism (and many more) who will find a small comfort in being able to relate to a fictional character with a story similar to their own, there are kids who have no idea what it’s like to have to deal with these kinds of things. There are plenty of kids who are privileged enough to remain ignorant to the effects of a number of “isms”, ignorant to the real life problems of rape survivors, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I should know, I was one of those lucky kids. These kids are not only ignorant to what happens, but they are ignorant to how it happens, why it happens, and why it’s a tragedy that these sorts of things continue in the 21st century. And they are not going to know, or more importantly, CARE, if no one tells them these stories. While these stories are comfort for some, they are also exposure to many others. Exposure is really really important for social issues. YA saves. Not just because it can bring comfort, but because it can bring sympathy, and eventually, understanding.
Medical research is performed because doctors learned a long time ago that if they don’t know what’s wrong with someone, we can’t fix them, except by chance. If kids are our future, we can’t expect them to deal with the problems of the world if we keep them in the dark about them, except by chance. And much as it often depresses me and frustrates me, quite frankly, I still like this world a little too much to take that chance.
Barking Spiders, as Deryn Sharp would say, if people aren’t meant to learn from books, what ARE we meant to learn from?
I know i said that i wouldnt be commenting for the entire summer but this is a temporary exception, not like anyone noticed.Maybe we hear about the crummy parents so often because it’s much more dramatic.
Just had a lot of Red Bull. Real pumped up.
book banners! >:(
hm… my mother doesn’t read the Wall Street Journal, but she still seems to think that everything I read will somehow influence me badly. When I first read Leviathan and was in awe of how amazing it was and had to tell someone about it, I made the mistake of telling her. Now she seems to think that I want to be like Deryn and cut off my hair and dress like a boy and run away to join the airforce. I read a book called ‘the book theif’ (awesome reads) she decides, without even asking what it was about, that I would become a klepto and start stealing things. THAT ISN’T EVEN WHAT IT WAS ABOUT! mostly.
I’m 17 and I’ve been reading for most of my life. Most of what I read now is YA, although there are some adult novels I pick up, too. Discworld, for example. I read just about anything I can get my hands on, really. As long as it interests me. Most of that happens to be YA, though.
If a book sounds interesting, I will read it. That’s pretty much the rule I use for finding books to read. It leaves me with large piles of books from the library to work through. Another, more minor one: If I liked a book from an author, I will find others from the same author, because they’re usually as good, if not better.
And if a book sounds boring, but someone tells me how good it is, I usually read it. Most of the time they’re right. That’s how I got into Redwall and Discworld.
My mum hasn’t read most of the books I read, but she doesn’t object to anything I decide to read. She’d a reader too. In fact, my whole family are readers. I’ve always been encouraged to read, and it’s always been one of my favourite things to do.
Although I probably won’t introduce her to fanfiction any time soon. ^^;
At my primary school, there was a YA section in the school library, but it was restricted to the older students (you had to be at least 12 years old iirc). Which makes sense, as there were 5 year olds at the school, too, and they probably wouldn’t understand what most of the words meant.
Not all YA books were in that section, though. Probably just the ones with more adult themes. Harry Potter was not restricted, except by availability (I remember not being able to find book 3 because someone else was always reading it). Even the last book was in the main part of the library.
The first high school I went to, which was also Christian, was more restrivtive on the books in the library. Even then, there were still good books. But I started relying on the public library around about then, anyway, where I started lurking in the YA section.
Now, I’m starting to move back to adult novels (which I first encountered through my parents when I was in primary school), although most of what I read is still YA.
Without books, I would be bored out of my mind and probably killing my brain with bad TV.
Books have never made me do anything other than laugh, cry or fangirl.
I didn’t understand some of the references you used, but Google was my friend. So now I know. DFTBA.
I like poptarts.. they are good… They are flaky and tasty.. And filled with goodness, They make people happy..after trying 2000 times, pop tart makers determined that 1.8 ounces is the most pop tarts could be and still pop up out of the toaster… Everyone LOVES poptarts.. There are currently thirty-two flavors of Pop-Tarts. The most popular flavors are frosted strawberry, frosted brown sugar cinnamon, and s’mores. Which i like the GingerBread poptarts, I rest my case MuthaFukkas
Scott- 10 I think you are a bad author.. I read ALL the books and i didnt find them interesting.. You are a disgrace.. (:D
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DR3W-la poptarts funny u no me Smores rule
Hey Scott and the other lovelies that follow comments.
I’m not sure if anyone will actually read this comment, but I wanted to say how great I thought it was and point out a fun thing my mother, sister, and I do.
My poor wonderful mother loves to read, but often gets swamped with requests from my sister and I and with the crazy world in general. She was also disappointed in our lack of reading the “classics” so she made this wonderful compromise.
She would read a book of ours if we read a book of hers. I read “The Scarlet Pimpernel” while she read “Howl’s Moving Castle” and my sister read “Kidnapped” while my mother read “Piratica.” I plan on offering Leviathan next!
Melie-wa ”Do ya like pancakes” 😛 LMAO
Thanks god i got it, as i am in need of autocomplete for one of my project and here it is nice collection of useful stuff.