Everything old is new again

Have adults ever approved of the books written for young adults? And how many parents and other adults railed at librarians who insist on making edgy books available to kids? The latest furor was a column written in the Wall Street Journal which led to a storm of tweets on twitter.com. Take a look at this account of the storm which appeared in the UK's Guardian.The original column deplored the books covering topics like vampires, incest, cutting, drugs, homophobia, and other those that include profane language. Many YA authors and their supporters started a twitter storm using the hashtag #yasaves. Take a look at the stream of comments, most of which defend books and stress the importance of allowing young people to read books that let them see how misunderstood and tormented many teens are. This scenario has played out year after year in discussions of fiction for teens. There's no question that the subject matter and language have grown more extreme over the years. Is that because teens are more frequently encountering bizarre situations or is it because the growing violence in movies and TV have spilled over into literature. It's hard to catch the attention of young people who have been raised on a diet of crime shows and violent fantasy games. No wonder books try to use some of the same elements to make the point that people can overcome obstacles and face dangers without giving up. Perhaps the key to deciding whether the books are good or bad for young people is to listen to the teens. Maybe if we made our libraries and classrooms more interactive and encouraged kids to write blogs, make videos, review books, and comment about them on social media, we might have a better idea of what they think of the subject matter. Perhaps it's time we adults stopped writing opinion pieces about what kids ought to read and listened more to kids telling us what they want--and need--to read.