Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Is everything O.K. if it's in a book?

The Twilight series of books is hard to escape these days, and the recent movie will no doubt increase their sales. Some librarians are questioning the messages being sent in the series, but there's no way of keeping them out of girls' hands. A recent post on the YALSA blog gives an excellent critique of the way abusive behavior is glorified in the series. The poster notes that one way for skeptical adults to influence the teenagers' reactions to Edward and Bella's relationship is to educate girls about what stalking is and what an abusive relationship can be like. There are materials available for teens on healthy relationships and how to avoid falling into an unhealthy one. Why shouldn't a librarian organize educational sessions of this topic? We know that teens are struggling with how to relate to others; the more we can help them to tell the difference between good and bad relationships the better. Sounds like a no-brainer for an alert librarian.

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