Young Adult Fiction; Is it Too Much for Teens?
I love children's literature. It's one thing that I look back on with fondest during the time my children were growing up. I loved revisiting old childhood favorites of mine and was so thrilled with all the new literature out there. (I remember when I worked at All for Kids Books and Music and the buyer handed me a book without a cover - a publishers' copy - and said "This is the next big thing." I read it and was enthralled. It was Harry Potter.)
But since my boys are young adults, I haven't kept up as much. But there's a new debate over how much realism should be in young adult books. The Times had a story from the Scripps Howard news service about this issue.
This debate was first sparked by the 1967 publication of "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton, which is considered the first book truly aimed at teens. Many parents were horrified by Hinton's picture of violent, disillusioned young adults, but teen readers loved the book — and still do.
Now, the debate has flared up again with the June 4 publication of an essay, "Darkness Too Visible," in The Wall Street Journal. In the essay, Meghan Cox Gurdon, the Journal's reviewer of children's and teen books, contends that contemporary fiction for teens is "rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity.
Cox Gurdon's examples include the "hyper-violent" "Hunger Games" dystopian trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and
But since my boys are young adults, I haven't kept up as much. But there's a new debate over how much realism should be in young adult books. The Times had a story from the Scripps Howard news service about this issue.
This debate was first sparked by the 1967 publication of "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton, which is considered the first book truly aimed at teens. Many parents were horrified by Hinton's picture of violent, disillusioned young adults, but teen readers loved the book — and still do.
Now, the debate has flared up again with the June 4 publication of an essay, "Darkness Too Visible," in The Wall Street Journal. In the essay, Meghan Cox Gurdon, the Journal's reviewer of children's and teen books, contends that contemporary fiction for teens is "rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity.
Cox Gurdon's examples include the "hyper-violent" "Hunger Games" dystopian trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and
