Lately in the literary world, YA
fiction has been a raging topic. Outraged parents, librarians, and teachers
have been trying to convince people that the current literature has become to
dark for their audiences. And authors and kids have been disagreeing. And
according to my sources, their attempts have not been too convincing. Teens
should be able to read any books they choose because many of them go through
the same things as the characters, and it would just be pointless to take it
away.
Young adults appreciate YA fiction
greatly. In “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood”, an article written
by Sherman Alexie, author of the award winning novel “The Absolutely True Diary
of a Part Time Indian” explains just how much teen readers love his novel. He
says he gets letter daily thanking him for his frequently challenged book. He
even includes that he has still not gotten a single complaint concerning his
book coming from a teen. He says that when he was a child, he read a lot of YA
fiction himself, the types of books that might be considered “dark” now. And he
explains he read these books “because they taught me how to battle the real
monsters in life.” Right there, just shows how much kids appreciate these
stories. So, when I saw Meaghan Cox Gurdon, in the article “Darkness Too
Visible” trying to convince you that books like these just spread problems, I
knew it was ridiculous. She says that the “logic” is that when a reader reads
things like this, they can relate to the books and it will help them manage.
Which is exactly what it does. Telling from all the letters Alexie gets, it
seems like it does anyways.
Taking away teen beloved young
adult fiction would sere as beneficial to no one and just be pointless.
According to Sherman Alexies article, many children go through grim experiences
similar to those faced by the characters in these stories. He states that he’s
spoken to numerous schools where the kids are victims of sexual and physical
abuse, racism, poverty, depression etc. These are all “dark” topics that play a
big role in a lot of teen fiction today. Many of which are reasons behind
banning a lot of popular teen fiction. Seeing that kids are going through these
things themselves, what would be the point of banning these books? Sherman
Alexie includes a powerful quote about his own childhood. “They wanted to
protect me fro sex when I had already been raped. They wanted to protect me
from evil when a future serial killer had already abused me. They wanted me to
profess my love for god without considering that I was the child and grandchild
of men and women who had been sexually and physically abused by generations of
clergy.” This is coming from someone who has experienced darker things than any
one could imagine, and has watched as people try to take away the novels that
helped him and hundreds of other teens bear these experiences, for what he
knows is absolutely no reason. Alexie in Gurdon’s article says that kids can
find just as bad stuff online. Yet another reason for why taking away teen
fiction wouldn't help anyone. Since kids spend almost all their time on the
Internet now, I’m sure kids have found worse things surfing the web. Again,
this proves another one of Gurdon’s silly arguments to be invalid. She talks
about “Scars” by Cheryl Rainfield, and how the cover might make a victim of
self-mutation relapse. I’m sure this picture of a “horribly scarred forearm” is
nothing compared to what kids discover on various social networking sites like
twitter, tumblr, and instagram.
Even teenagers themselves agree
that YA fiction helps them. In Mary
Elizabeth Williams article “Has Young Adult Fiction Become Too Dark?” she
speaks about a reoccurring trend on twitter, #YAsaves. According to the
article, the hashtag has endless links to teen and adult blog posts. She
recalls one child’s heart-wrenching post on a reaction to Meaghan Cox Gurdon’s
article. She says,” Good literature opens up all the good parts of us, the
parts people like you have deemed too dark, inappropriate, grotesque or
abnormal for kids to be feeling- and try stitch is all back together before we
even realize they’re talking about us. This explains exactly how teenagers are
reacting to all these attempts at taking away their books, which is exactly
what Gurdon failed to do in “Darkness Too Visible”. She even tried to convince
you that children don't read YA fiction at all. This honestly just made me
laugh, because if she’s trying to tell me that, why did she just write a 4 page
article trying to get kids to stop reading these books. She explains that a
local bookstore owner visited a private school (which are typically very small
already), that only 18 kids actually admitted to reading teen fiction. However,
just one poll done by a random woman from a bookstore isn’t exactly a good
source. And again, if kids aren’t reading these books, why are you trying to
take them away?
Telling from several the articles I
read both and against YA fiction, and being a young adult myself, teen fiction
should not be banned or challenged. If YA fiction does anything at all, its
most definitely help us. There’s been various stories of kids benefiting from teen
fiction, but I haven’t heard a specific story of a child being harmed by it.
And again I have read several articles
against and for YA fiction. And Sherman Alexie, an award winning author, Mary Elizabeth
Williams, mom of teenagers, and thousands of other parents’ kids feel the exact
same way. Trying to limit what we read wouldn't help anyone and just upset
readers that depend on these stories just to get him or her through their difficult
adolescence.
