From: Nancegar at aol.com <Nancegar>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 21:04:07 EDT

In a message dated 5/19/03 9:51:25 AM, Emmaattic at aol.com writes:

<< We are talking about books that line their pages with messages for the younger generation with drugs and oral sex, because the fear is that the books won't be bought/read if they don't. The excuse will always be we need to give them credit, that they know all about this, why not read about it. >>

Wow. I don't know any YA authors who "line their pages" this way or for that reason, and I certanly don't do that, despite having sometimes written about both sex and drugs! And I don't think that the reason for sex and drugs in YAs is "we need to give them credit, that they know all about this, why not read about it." Instead, I think the reason is that writers of realistic fiction reflect the worlds in which their characters live. The characters in YA fiction are teens, and the world in which today's teens live contains a good deal of

drugs and sex. Some of us actually believe that sometimes reading honest books that truthfully reflect the real world and its problems can help kids who are faced with those things cope with them.

As to Cassie's statement: "My point is that, for my taste and that of a number of teens around me,YA literature is too concerned with bleak, cold, pain and the weird and awful" --I agree that there are an awful lot of bleak books out there right now, and it would be nice if there were more cheerful, humorous ones. Kids need both, I think, and so does a balanced literary canon.

Nancy Garden

__________________________________________ Please visit my website at www.nancygarden.com Number 1 of Budding Writers is up!
Received on Tue 20 May 2003 08:04:07 PM CDT