Some of you may be tired of me going on about young adult literature, but I think this recent news piece needs to be put forth, for both analysis and to give you a “heads up” as to what librarians may be facing in terms of challenges in the near future.
Essentially, this story, written by a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, has “reported” on a story of a woman walking into Barnes and Noble and not being able to find anything for her teen because all of the books were too dark. The contributor then continues to bash contemporary YA fiction and says that teens don’t really read YA fiction anyway.
I admit that there is a lot of contemporary YA literature that is dark but is dark necessarily bad? I’m also very disturbed by the lack of actual reporting in this case. I think the author talked to two people and neither were actual teens. The other thing that bothers me is that this woman had this experience in Barnes and Noble; if she had visited a library to even ask what they might recommend for her child based on his/her interests, I’m sure she would have walked away a much happier customer.
I noticed that Salon also picked up this story this week, so it has started a dialogue about how dark is too dark. What do you think?
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I agree that there are numerous YA novels that deal with "dark" topics. But who defines what is “dark?” Are vampires and werewolves dark? What about murder mysteries or the Diary of Anne Frank? How about Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, whose cover (girl swinging) and title could hardly be described as dark and yet deals with suicide? I think this is another example of people thinking they are helping protect today’s youth, but end up creating a censorship issue. Displays are meant to highlight books that the readership seeks. They are also usually theme based, so you probably are not going to see a variety of materials if you only glance at the display shelves.
ReplyDeleteAs a Teen Librarian I read many reviews for books that had no appeal to me and sometimes bothered me a bit that they were “J” or “YA” books. But, if the collection was full of books I preferred it would have been very limited indeed. Authors write what their audience demands. Right now we seem to have entered into a vampires and werewolves era. However, this will end and be replaced by something else soon enough. Plus, if you actually take the time to look through a library or book store stacks you will discover numerous other genre texts that deal with a variety of topics. I know many people like to read one type of book. Personally I get bored if I don’t mix it up every now and then. Do we want our children to always read “happy” books? I’m sure my definition of happy is much different from yours. I usually don’t read animal books because inevitable they end up dying, this is not happy for me, but for others these are nice gentle reads.
I read the Twilight series, not because they appealed to me at all but because I wanted to know what the hype was about so I could competently discuss them with parents and teens. As a parent I will say that I’m not going to keep my daughter from reading them; however, I will not let her read them at a very young age or before I (as her parent) think she is mature enough to handle some of the content. Once again, it is the parent’s responsibility to be aware and help their children make choices.
Adults like to say that they use books as an escape. I’ve heard many adults say that they read books that have nothing to do with what they like in “real” life because it is exciting and different. Are these so called “dark” books hurting our youth or giving them the same opportunity for escape that adults use to defend/explain their own reading habits.
Sorry for the repeat posting! After grading blogs this week, I found that Annie, Robbi, and Casey also wrote about this topic. Nice catch you three!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great topic for a whole new Blog that can go on and on and never will be completed. Because as outworn this quotation may seem - it is true:”Literature is mirror of life”. So there it is - the life gets darker, the literature gets darker. It’s that simple. In my opinion the issue is not who defines what’s dark. The real issue is that it does exist and the sooner our kids learn about it – the better. They will be ready to face the “down” moments in their lives and they will handle them with courage, pride and dignity not by going and shooting their peers at school. Have you ever asked yourselves why the percentage of depression is so high among teens? In my opinion overprotection can bring more damage. I personally, had a very happy childhood and I survived just fine with listening to and reading the Andersen’s fairy tales. The sorrowful ones, where the little mermaid bears enormous pain and then turns into foam. Do I have to mention that Andersen’s mermaid became the symbol of selfless and true love not her Disney’s happily married inheritress.
ReplyDeleteI like how you point out that if the woman had gone into a library she would have been able to find something that wasn't "dark" and was more in line with her teen’s interests. I had a similar discussion with a friend who used to work at a book store and how she would have customers come to her and want readers advisory help, but she was unable to help them because she didn't have knowledge in certain subjects or genre. I think a lot of people expect a similar library experience when they go into a book store and they don't realize that we are entirely different institutions and just because we both have a focus on books doesn’t mean you will get the same experience.
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