Controversial Topics in YA Literature

[AbielleRose]

I was just curious to hear your thoughts on whether certian topics in young adult fiction should be avoided, such as abortion, evolution, gay/lesbian, etc.

 

An author I follow on Twitter, Maureen Johnson http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/index1.html has had quite a lot of negative feedback with a YA book she wrote called The Bermudez Triangle because it involves a teen lesbian romance. The book has been taken out of several libraries and there have been many protests by parents regarding the subject matter of the book. Also, in reading about Johnson's particular case it reminded me of when J.K. Rowling made public the fact that Dumbledore was gay and the shock and negativity that some people reacted with regarding that particular case.

 

Do you think there is a certian age where teens should be allowed to access books with sensitive/ controversial topics such as these?

Edited May 31, 2010 by CaliLily

[chesilbeach]

I think any topic can be covered in YA books as long as they are well researched, but honest and balanced.

 

As a teen, I think you're at that point of your life where you can understand the concepts and arguments of all the things that life can throw at you, and it's the time when you will start to make up your own mind about your ideas on life and society.

 

There will always be topics that society will think "unsuitable" for children or teens, but I think it's important for them to be able to find balanced discussion and coverage of these subjects. I remember that there were concerns over Judy Blume books when I was a teen, but Forever ... was a really important book for me to read what felt like an honest, truthful look at a teen losing her virginity, but I suspect it is probably still on banned book lists in some areas of the world.

[Weave]

I think a lot of YA out there are more than aware than people give them credit for, as Chesil said as long as a subject is shown in honest and balanced manner, I don't see a problem, I think books like this should help more than hinder, and there are questions that some YA can't ask or are too embarrassed to ask, so reading about it may help.

 

And the whole caper over Dumbledore, I can imagine there would be concerns by parents but it was never mentioned in the book because I think what JK Rowling showed that being gay is not a issue.

[AbielleRose]

Many of the most well known and respected books today have been banned some point throughout history. One of the books that affected me most as a teen was Night by Elie Wiesel. We did a very intense unit on WWII when I was 14 years old and my mom was very shocked and appalled that they were teaching us about it at such a young age. Though the book itself wasn't very controversial, there was one part in it that my mom was particularly upset about,

when a young Jewish girl was raped by the guards.

 

 

I agree with both of you, teens should be exposed to topics like that because, IMO, its a very influential time in their lives. They are starting to choose what they want to believe in and what they consider to be right and wrong. If they are able to read about topics from a non bias perspective it is a good thing because, again IMO, it helps form who they are chosing to become.

[Chrissy]

No subject should be off limits if a book is written with genuine integrity, but a book must also be appealing as most readers will detect when an author is only writing on a subject to be controversial, not because they had a story they needed to write.

 

I always read ahead of my age, and possibly some of it would have horrified my parents, but I learned so much and became a more discerning thinker and reader as a result of those early texts.

[chesilbeach]

I'm just going to add a caveat - reading novels is only one way to obtain information and views on life but teens should not be preached at. It's almost guaranteed to make them choose the opposite side of the argument! Balance, considered and honest.

[Weave]

I'm just going to add a caveat - reading novels is only one way to obtain information and views on life but teens should not be preached at. It's almost guaranteed to make them choose the opposite side of the argument! Balance, considered and honest.

 

Great point chesil, its the last thing that teens needs is being preached to, I would have been the same as your Mom about 'Night', but it was part of the story, if you don't mind me asking, how did you feel about it? (you don't have to answer)

[AbielleRose]

Great point chesil, its the last thing that teens needs is being preached to, I would have been the same as your Mom about 'Night', but it was part of the story, if you don't mind me asking, how did you feel about it? (you don't have to answer)

 

As a teen I was very shocked. I never got a sex talk and had to figure out all sorts of girly stuff on my own, that was the first time I had ever been exposed to sex in a book, let alone something of that nature. For me it raised a lot of questions that I felt unable to find answer for because my mom refused to talk about sex.

 

That being said, Night remains one of the most powerful books I've ever read and I do plan to have my own children read it someday if it isn't part of their school reading lists.

 

Then you have books like The Bermudez Triangle which is about 3 female friends and two of them fall in love with each other. Back when I was starting high school 10 years ago (oh gosh...feeling old now!) Being 'out' wasn't something people made known. For those few who were in my school, they really didn't have anywhere to turn or any sort of refrence (I know that's a terrible word, but I can't think of the right way to put it right now). Books like that may be good for those who are curious and want to sort of experience a world with feelings like that, if that makes any sense. People shouldn't fear these topics as they do, especially not in today's ever progressing world.

 

Books are probably the best way to expose kids to those topics because it doesn't just list a description like you would find in the dictionary, it puts the topic in a story so that there is an example and something for the individual to remember rather than just facts and figures.

Edited May 31, 2010 by CaliLily

[Weave]

You are right CaliLily, I think there still some stigma attached to certain subjects, and I have always felt that books help to stop various myths if you will from being believed, if that makes sense? Thanks for answering my question

[Echo]

It's better when things are out in the open. Denying information on sex, etc. to teens will just result in them becoming confused.

[CornflowerBlue]

I've asked a few people about this lately, because my diss is in LGBT teen fiction.

 

I read vastly ahead of my age, and my parents never bothered to censor me. I think they were well aware that I would turn away from anything I really wasn't ready for, and I did. I can remember their German best friend reading one of my books and being a bit horrified that I was reading it at my age, but I never read anything that disturbed or upset me.

 

For me it was really important to find books that 'spoke' to me. I was aware very early of sexuality in general: attraction, desire, physical needs. I was also aware that I was somehow other, or different: I remember seeing a Channel 4 show about coming out when I was about six, and feeling that maybe I was a lesbian, but then realising I couldn't be, because I liked boys. Bisexual isn't a word you use much around six year olds

 

Finding characters and situations that resonated with me was hugely important, and I treasured any little hint of someone who was different, or other. It often would have been considered inappropriate subject matter, but it helped define me and give me confidence.

 

I do still have concerns about children's and YA fiction, but mostly that I don't want to see it censored. I am hugely against age banding, which I feel will stigmatise slower readers and make more ambitious readers the victim of over-attentive parents, librarians and teachers.

 

Barry Cunningham now runs ChickenHouse publishing house, but he's most famous as the man who discovered Harry Potter. I asked him this question, in relation to LGBT literature, and he effectively said he wouldn't publish anything with queer themes or characters, 'because you shouldn't terrify children'. He said that he couldn't publish books with a lot of swearing because of the American market, but that there was effectively no limit on the amount of violence a teen book could contain, especially for the US market.

[BookJumper]

I think there's no topic that should be avoided on principle. If the teen's interested in something, they're going to talk about it and investigate of their own accord, so they might as well have books to help them form a more balanced judgment. One thing I know for sure is that books don't brainwash young people; a book's going to have an emotional impact on you and steer you in a certain direction only if you're already predisposed towards heading in that direction. A book about LGBT characters for instance is not going to 'turn' any kid gay, the most it's going to do is give a kid who already is a probably much-needed sense of belonging and being understood.

 

A lot of young people aren't told a lot about relationships and the issues that can arise from them, which leads to an utter naivete about such matters which can be really harmful - an honest sex talk from a book is better than no sex talk at all, I think.

 

As for wars and the other bad things human beings can do to one another, I'd only object to them being included in a YA book if they were being glamorised for something that they are not. I read tons of fictional books full of dead bodies when I was younger, most of them school assignments, but because nowhere I read it said that killing was just or fun or right, I never became desensitised to violence; if anything, I became even more sensitive - books affect me far more than films or television, so reading about the horrors of war is what has made me realise just how horrific it is, better than any history lesson ever could've.

[Kell]

I've read quite a few young adult books with adult themes and many of them cause controversy.

 

Judy Blume comes under fire every now and then. Anyyone else remember the first time they read Forever? Certain pages from that one were photocopied and read by just about every girl I knew. When I went on to read the whole book, I was surprised to find that Ralph wasn't the name of Kathryn's boyfriend, rather the name they used for a certain part of his anatomy!

 

Other books by Judy bloom handle things like girls starting their periods (Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret); voyeurism and shoplifting (Then Again, Maybe I Won't); racism (Iggie's House); divorce (It's Not the End Of the World); death of a parent due to violent crime (Tiger Eyes); sibling rivalry (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing / Superfudge); bullying (Blubber), and potentially life-changing medical conditions (Deenie).

 

I read all of Judy Bloom's books when I was around 12 / 13 years old and they're all handled in a very accessible way. I'd be happy for my kids to read them at any time their reading ability and understanding would allow them to do so.

 

YA books with hard-hitting themes can be an excellent way to open up dialogue with your kids. My Mam read all the Judy Blume books too just so she could discuss the content with me and let me know that if I had any questions or anything I wanted to talk about, she was there.

[Nienna]

Judy Blume comes under fire every now and then. Anyyone else remember the first time they read Forever? Certain pages from that one were photocopied and read by just about every girl I knew. When I went on to read the whole book, I was surprised to find that Ralph wasn't the name of Kathryn's boyfriend, rather the name they used for a certain part of his anatomy!

 

I was just going to mention Forever! I think I must've been about 14 when I read it, and I did so because all the girls in my year at school kept going on about it having (omg) SEX in it. It was something I think at that time that we a lot of us were starting to think about and explore, so a book that so blatently referenced it was exciting, I guess. However, as a 14 year old I didn't really read books to search for their meaning. I don't know about the rest of you, but mostly I read books for escapism and excitement. Forever didn't teach me any lessons, it was just a story of someone elses experience of sex. Perhaps if I read it now I'd see quite clearly what Judy was trying to do, but at the time - nothing. If anything, it probably affected me negatively because I probably thought that people must be doing this kind of thing and perhaps I should be doing it to. I was a stupid 14 year old, though, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one. For this reason I'm not sure what I think of such explicit material in YA books. I like the idea of keeping kids kids, and I think that at 14 (contrary to what most 14 year olds believe) you ARE still a kid, and I think that themes like this encourage people to explore themes they shouldn't really need to be exploring at that age. Then again, I'm aware that that is a very idealistic view and young teens probably mostly know about things like sex and drugs from other sources anyway nowadays, so perhaps the need for its exploration through literature is more important.

 

... God, it's like I'm 50.

[CornflowerBlue]

I have to disagree with the idea books cause you to try out things you've read. I almost never bit my friends in their deep south plantation houses. Most children, if they're not ready to read/discuss/examine a subject, will not read it. They'll skip the page, put the book down, go 'lalalala' through the bits they don't want to read. The first time I actually read the phrase 'I might even have sex with him', I put the book down, it just wasn't for me yet.

 

If a book about sex makes you think you should be doing it, how can you survive the peer pressure that says the same? There are plenty of books at that ages that are sheer escapism, should that be what you're looking for.

 

I'm 24 now and can look back on my teens with a bit of amusement, but at the time I was even more intense than I am now, and I still never felt I had to try something because I'd read it (though if you'd have offered me Lestat, I probably wouldn't have said no).

 

It's not like having sex at 14/15 is a new thing, I did it and so did a lot of my friends, and I went to a nice grammar school and came from a nice family. The culture around me was all about sex, as it usually is with teens.

 

I think I've rambled a bit, but what I mean is that, when you're 13, 14, 15, sex and violence and drugs are everywhere. If you watch Hollyoaks every night after school, if you've got older friends or siblings, you go to a high school, you watch the big movies movies of the day, then books are still some of the tamest visions you'll be exposed to.

 

One of the fantastic things about books at that age is that they might offer you a different world: instead of the plastic-coated heterosexual clubbing-and-lipgloss-and-alcopops way of life, they let teenagers see that life can be totally different, and that you can be different and successful.

 

Has anyone here read Tender Morsels? Anne Fine criticised in strongly at the Hay festival, then had to admit she hadn't read it. She criticised its content, which includes incest, forced abortions and a gang rape. I've read it, and thought it was beautifully written. It handles the subjects with a compassion and detachment that allows you to watch, as a reader, without being involved. Once she'd read it, Anne Fine said similar. It deals with subjects that are part of our society, and that teenage readers will be discussing with their friends, but there was massive outrage that it was in a book, because books are somehow supposed to be gentler, or nicer, than that.

 

Funnily enough, I've also just read Beautiful Malice. Apparently it's not out 'til February 2011, but I think that's probably going to kick up the same fuss. It centres around the sibling who survives when two of them are drugged and raped. Yes, it's an awful subject, and it was a hard read, but if girls are regularly drinking at 14 and 15, then they're at risk of being spiked, and equally of being raped or assaulted. It was a regular subject of discussion when I was at school, I don't imagine that's changed.

 

If teen and YA books were censored, tamed, made fluffy and sweet, teenagers would stop reading them, and wouldn't that be a catastrophe?

[Dimitra]

As a teenager myself, I find the idea of censoring books because of such subjects ridiculous. To begin with, as it has been mentioned above, sex, drugs and violence are everywhere, therefore being a teenager of a west civilization is a bit rare. These protests come from narrow-minded people who don't know what's going on around them most of the time, f.e. parents afraid of discussing sexuality when their kid may have already had sex. (this sentence may be a little disorganized, I hope it makes sense) Besides, personally I do some research and if a book I'm interested in contains themes I don't feel comfortable with, I'm not going to read it. F.e., I'm interested in reading The Lovely Bones, but I don't think I'm yet ready to read a graphic scene of rape.

[CornflowerBlue]

I don't think I'd call everyone who was concerned about those subjects narrow-minded. I'm liberal and have a strong stomach and an insatiable interest in pretty much everything, but some people are just more sensitive.

 

I have to say I started The Lovely Bones and hated it. I found it very wishy-washy.

[Dimitra]

I didn't mean people who are sensitive. I get that. I'm talking about the kind of people who protest over a book like The Bermudez Triangle. I'm well aware of the fact that some people can't handle graphic drug use etc. but you can't stop everyone from reading something that makes you feel uncomfortable. That's my point.

[Echo]

What I don't like is when people are uncomfortable with the themes in a book (especially in YA books), i.e. sex, drugs, suicide, murder, etc., and they decide that NO ONE should be allowed to read it. I hate censorship, people believing that their version of morality is the only right one.

[Kreader]

I don't think any topic should be banned for adolescents. Yes it would be best if it is handled in a balanced way. I recall watching a program discussing this. Someone made a comment that a lot of teens are dealing with some of these so called sensored topics like sex, death, violence, drugs, alcohol, all sorts of abuse etc either directly or indirectly. To have books reflect a totally sanitized world is unrealistic even in fiction.

 

As a teen I got shocked when one of my mother's books was knocked of the book shelf and opened on to a page giving graphic details of a sex act. Being curious I read the book. It was about a young woman trying to survive in a concentration camp during the holocaust by giving sexual favours. My peers (aged 13/14 at that time) were suprised and talked about The Colour Purple because of the sexual abuse and the part where another woman teaches Celie about arousal and orgasms by showing her how to masturbate, taboo for us in all ways. Taboo because it was not expected for girls to know about self sexual exploration and because this could be considered to be lesbianism. No this book was not on our school book list. A lot of us were avid readers.

[chesilbeach]

Following on from what Cornflower said earlier, it's also important to tell the truth about the various topics, because let's face it, how many teenagers are 100% honest when talking to each other about things like sex, drink, drugs? At least by reading about it in a book, they can see the story from all angles, not just their friends and peers.

[Kylie]

What I don't like is when people are uncomfortable with the themes in a book (especially in YA books), i.e. sex, drugs, suicide, murder, etc., and they decide that NO ONE should be allowed to read it. I hate censorship, people believing that their version of morality is the only right one.

 

I fully agree Echo. It annoys me even more when they haven't even read the book themselves. They hear about the themes and assume it must be bad so they jump on the censorship bandwagon.

[Katrina1968]

Most of you who know my views know I'm more conservative than not. Because of my beliefs I tend to think that too much too soon can desensitize a child/teen, no matter how mature they seem. From living with 4 young adults/adults and having a very good communications with, I've been told when they felt that they have seen or read something they thought they were mature enough to handle but in actuality they werent. They put up a front. Now these are just my opinions and are in no way judgmental l:smile2:

 

I also work in a bookshoppe.

 

What I've noticed is how certain authors are now aiming for teenage girls. There are a few goth/erot authors who are now writing these novels and I have to wonder why?

 

There have been times when I had to actually check the publishers to determine if a book was YA or goth/adult. I feel a little apprehensive because these authors went straight from one adult genre into YA, no fiction no mainstreaming, just feet first.

 

I personally think that in these instances its not about the integrity of the work but the desire to corner the market on teens and grown up goth.

[Kidsmum]

I think any topic can be covered in YA books as long as they are well researched, but honest and balanced.

 

As a teen, I think you're at that point of your life where you can understand the concepts and arguments of all the things that life can throw at you, and it's the time when you will start to make up your own mind about your ideas on life and society.

 

There will always be topics that society will think "unsuitable" for children or teens, but I think it's important for them to be able to find balanced discussion and coverage of these subjects. I remember that there were concerns over Judy Blume books when I was a teen, but Forever ... was a really important book for me to read what felt like an honest, truthful look at a teen losing her virginity, but I suspect it is probably still on banned book lists in some areas of the world.

 

Well put:)

When i was in my teens i read & enjoyed a lot of adult literature none of which made me want to jump in bed with the nearest boy , become a drug smuggler or has scarred me for life. I think it's quite patronising to teenagers to say that certain subjects are not suitable for them & my own children are free to choose what ever they wish to read without me casting a censorial eye over it.

[Ooshie]

I read a lot from being a small child and had quite an advanced reading age, and my Dad took me to join the adult section of the library before I left primary school aged 12. There was never any stricture put on what I could read. Like Kidsmum, I leave my son to decide what he wants to read and don't interfere at all.