I continue to rant over that WSJ article...

Here's a follow-up by Publisher's Weekly in response to the Wall Street Journal write-up on the darkness of current YA books. Although I'm sure the author felt attacked by the massive response to her essay, which she clarifies in the article was an opinion piece and not meant as a news article, she doesn't seem to show compassion or interest in why so many were upset by what she wrote.

Meghan Cox Gurdon, the author of the article, mentioned to PW in the link above that her own kids read books by YA authors like Meg Cabot, who are well-known for contemporary-themed YA lit. Why not meantion this in the article? Gurdon then says her piece was not meant to be representative of all YA, but only on the disturbing trend in "dark" subjects. I personally think one sentence stating that would have cleared up some of the hurt people felt.

She is also baffled by criticizers who jumped to accusations of censorship and banning books. I don't think the leap is that far. She is lamenting the idea of books on dark topics, for example self-harm, and goes so far to suggest that it can lead to more teens trying out those behaviors because they are exposed to them in books. It's an old argument. Don't teach kids about safe sex because they'll want to have sex. Don't tell them about cutting and suicide because they'll want to cut or kill themselves. She gives absolutely no support for this argument, but I suppose if her piece is classified as a personal essay, even though printed for millions of readers in a high-profile publication, then she can freely not provide any data all she wants.

I still think this writer missed the mark. Maybe she meant to focus on one aspect of YA, but by the inclusion of her opening lines about a mom who couldn't find a single book for her adolescent daughter in all of Barnes & Noble's YA section, that kind of points to representation of the entire genre.

Here's a big fat WHATEVER to that WSJ piece. I could hope the potential part 2 might have some saving grace, but after reading Gurdon's response in this PW article, I'm not thinking it will show YA in any better light. I think what Gurdon really missed here, is opinions can hurt. I would hate for anyone to assume the YA genre is ONLY full of depressing, controversial books, when the reality is far from it.

Twitter done blew up, ya'll

Today I witnessed the implosion on twitter in response to a rather bizarre Wall Street Journal article on the supposed decline in appropriateness of young adult fiction. I saw the article linked from Publisher's Weekly on my twitter feed this morning (confession: I scan twitter as to get my mind going when I first get out of bed). I was weirded out by it, and once I clicked back to my twitter feed, I saw a few of the YA authors I follow were more than weirded out - they were angry.

Author Maureen Johnson reportedly started the #yasaves hashtag, and the topic trended immediately, like in 30 minutes. If this is too much twitter-speak, let me translate: you tell a coworker at lunch about Jane getting dumped by her boyfriend, and by the time you get back to your desk, your entire row of cubicles is discussing who to set Jane up with next. Twitter is that fast, but on a global scale.

The jist of the article is the author thinks YA lit has taken a turn too dark, that it's all vampires, suicide and self-mutilation. From my past 6 months of reading mostly YA, I have not read a single book about a vampire, suicide or self-mutilation. Instead, I read about a girl weighed down with grief over her father's death (The Truth About Goodbye, Sarah Dessen), a teen boy whose job it is to find trends and make them happen, then solves a crime (So Yesterday, Scott Westerfeld), a psychicly-gifted socialite in 1880s Baltimore (The Vespertine, Saundra Mitchell), a boy who finds himself while in search of his mysterious girl-next-door-neighbor who disappears during the last days of high school (Paper Towns, John Green). I could go on, but you get the point.

True, I am a bit over the vampire craze, so I sought out other books. I also read a ton of book review blogs and follow authors on twitter. Still, all of their books were easy to find at Borders and my public library. Just sayin'.

Beyond the fact there ARE books in the YA genre that aren't "dark," as the article suggests, the other issue is why are those "dark" books written, and who is reading them? I'm not saying every book about teen suicide or whatever is a good book, but having been trained in and taught suicide prevention education post-college, I see the need for literature to deal with this for teens. It was sad when I saw first hand some school districts did not want suicide prevention ed in their classrooms, either out of fear or they did not think it worth the cost.  Those conversations need to start before a tragedy happens. YA lit can't solve everything, in the same way preventative education can't catch every kid at risk, but shunning it out of fear isn't the answer either.



Look, I don't have kids, and I would never tell anyone what they should or should not let their kid read. I think it's a rather easy issue to solve. Read what your kids read. Recommend books that you think are appropriate. Ask them about what they read. Ask a librarian for suggestions. Go to a bookstore where employees know about books and can help you find them. I don't feel like this is brain surgery - go figure, it has nothing to do with surgery! I don't recall ever being told I couldn't read a book, but I usually  had to report back a little bit about it. And for that I'm grateful.