The purpose of this blog is to review and give my opinions on the latest Young Adult Novels but this week, something has happened in the YA world that I want to talk about.
This week, the American Library Association released it'slist of the top 10 YA and children's books that parents and adults feel should be banned. They feel that some of the books contain content that is far too racy or mature for young people to be reading.
Some of the books that are on the list have been extremely successful and it's surprising to me that the ALA would want to ban a book that has grossed an enormous amount of money.
For example, The Hunger Games is number three on the banned list because it's "anti family, satanic, and violent". I've read the books and seen the movie...in my opinion there is nothing anti family or satanic about it. Yes, it's violent but it's a book.
"What My Mother Doesn't Know" is ninth on the list, which surprised me. I read this book a few years ago and found truly nothing wrong with it. It's a coming of age novel, written in letter or verse form, and from what I remember, really has nothing explicit about it from what I remember.
The "Gossip Girl" series is 10th on the banned list, right before "To Kill a Mockingbird". I've read all the Gossip Girl books and yes, they are racy and explicit; there are drugs and alcohol but once again, these are young adult books. The people who read these books are looking for entertainment or escape, not to model their lives after the characters in the books.
The Number 1 book on the list?
It's a series written by Lauren Myracle called "The Internet Girl"- Series", "TTYL", "TTFN", "L8R, G8R".
I never read the series but I've heard of it and I was very shocked when I saw that these were the books that adults want to prevent kids from reading. The books revolve around three teenage girls and instead of a regular novel, they are written in text message form, depicting the text messages between the three girls.
According to the article, the reason it's banned is because of the way the author shows experiments with drug, sex, and alcohol.
The author, Lauren Myracle, did an interview with "The Daily Beast" and explained her viewpoint on the the ban.
She said, "I understand why parents worry about books—they’re worried about their kids. They want to keep their kids safe. But parents aren’t always realistic."
In the last year or so, critics have been very censorious of YA novels, saying that they have made a bad turn and are too dark.
An article for the Wall Street Journal written by Meghan Cox Gurdon said just that. "Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18."
All teenagers have their own problems; these authors are not writing about anything that isn't uncommon. A teenager somewhere in the world is dealing with sexuality issues, sexual, physical or emotional abuse, and bullying. These writers write these books to help kids, to give them a little hope, a little light at the end of the tunnel.
When you want to ban a book that could save someone's life or comfort someone in a time of desperate need, I think it's just plain wrong.
No book should ever be banned. Reading is for the world and everyone has a right to read and to write what they want. No one should be able to say "this is too racy, this is not appropriate for you to be reading".
Unless a six year old is reading something that is 100% way too racy or inappropriate, there is no need to tell a 17 year old girl she can't read The Hunger Games.
I will read what I want and I will be pissed if someone tells me otherwise.
Usually I never comment on blogs but your article is so convincing that I never stop
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