I'm sure by now you all know about Wall Street Journal's article on Young Adult books...So I won't get into it!What I will say is this: The YA community has rocked my world these past two days. The outpouring of stories and connections between teens, and all of these wonderful people just coming together for one cause, has been such a cool thing to see. We are teens. We deserve to read stories about the dark and the depressing, because that's a part of growing up. It's a part of life. We deserve our stories about anorexia, suicide, loneliness, and longing. We NEED to hear these things. Addiction. Sex. Drugs. Alcohol. This is the time in our lives when we become affected by these things.
Parents can't stop them from happening in life. They can't shield us forever.
So why not let us experience them through YA? Why not let us learn the easy, safe way, instead of diving out into the real world and trying all of those things out for ourselves? YA saves. It really does.
I'm proud to be a YA reader.
I'm proud to be a YA author.
And I'm proud to be a part of this YA community.
LONG LIVE YA!
We couldn't agree more!
ReplyDeleteI really, honestly can't believe she couldn't find something suitable for her daughter. The article felt like it was almost written to start a debate and gain publicity.
ReplyDeleteI love the variety available in the YA genre!
I'm another proud reader (even thou I am in my twenties) :)
Hear, Hear. Couldn't have put it better myself.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm now 22, I am still a proud reader of YA fiction and I write some too. We have no shame about what we do.
Thanks for the great post. :D
So agree with you! I'm way past my teens but you are absolutely right, it is much better for teenagers to experience the dark side of life through YA which can actually save them form experiencing it in reality.
ReplyDeletethe YA author, James Dashner, tweeted something like, "the writer of that article must be Matilda's mother!" I couldn't agree more.
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