Teen lit: edgy or over the edge?
Featured in the February 2010 NJEA Review
by Patricia Bruder, EIRC
There are few topics that generate more controversy in America than censorship. And when it comes to banning books, the most susceptible genre is young adult (YA) literature.
Free Speech Groups Criticize Dismissal of Wisconsin Library Board Members, a May 2009 article by Lynn Andriani in Publishers Weekly (PW), discusses the case of four library board members in West Bend, Wisconsin who were dismissed for allowing controversial books to remain in the library’s young adult section. Among the disputed books were Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club , Stephan Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Esther Drill’s Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain and Life as a gURL.
Or, as blogger Deborah Davis writes in AS IF! Authors Support Intellectual Freedom, “I wish the PW writer had put it like this: ‘Four members of a library board in West Bend, were dismissed for doing their jobs responsibly and acting in accordance with constitutional principles and laws regarding free speech.’ ”
Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools are concerned with the books the children in Blue Valley High School, Kansas, are reading. On its website, these concerned parents have compiled a list of the books they feel are inappropriate along with annotations of the objectionable material. Books on their list are Beloved and Song of Solomon by Tony Morrison, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, among others. More importantly, they have looked at readability scores and found that every book scored below high school reading levels. They recommend substitute books or alternatives taken from classic literature such as the Harvard Classics. A comprehensive list of additional book challenges is compiled by the Parents Against Bad Books In Schools (PABBIS).
C.J. Bott, author of The Bully in the Book and in the Classroom, writes in Why We Must Read Young Adult Books that Deal with Sexual Content, that students will self- select: some teens read sad books, some only happy endings, and others will read books full of blood and gore. But when it comes to books that can help teens define themselves, they should be read by adults first. That way, teachers or librarians can guide students to titles appropriate to their unique situations.
On Bott’s list of books are Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Target by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson, Inexcusable by Chris Lynch, and Jailbait by Leslea Newman. She provides a synopsis of each book, and the reasons she feels they would be useful to open up conversation and awareness.
Vampires, witches and sex, oh my!
In Does edgy YA fiction go too far? author Julie McGuire comments, “Peruse the YA section in a bookstore and you’ll see that almost no topic is off limits. You’ll find books on sex, suicide, anorexia, homosexuality, divorce, mental illness, relationships, drug use, pregnancy, abuse, rape, and much more.”
Jennifer McDaniel writes in Teacher Magazine in Living Through Lit: Why Dark Young-Adult Books Shouldn’t be Banned, “Such books allow the reader an intimate yet safe look down a road they will hopefully never travel.” She says that Cut, by Patricia McCormick, and Crank by Ellen Hopkins have been criticized for glamorization of cutting and drug use (respectively). According to McDaniel, Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is an intense study of self-mutilation. But McDaniel adds that an interpretation of “glamorization” is so subjective that “Forcing teachers and librarians to filter out any book that might have a negative influence on their teenage charges might lead to some sparsely filled bookshelves.”
In Controversial Novel Wins World Fantasy Award, Tender Morsels author Margo Lanagan is quoted, “"There's this assumption that all children have the luxury of a childhood where their innocence is always respected and their main occupation is pleasant play – at the age of 18, or 21, they are then thrust into the real world and shown its uglier side, but not before," she said.”How on earth do people imagine we equip children for life, if we never show them the sorts of issues other people encounter, if we never talk through with them how they might deal with difficulty, or violence, or unexpected shocks and surprises?"
Grace Enriquez took a different approach in The Reader Speaks Out: Adolescent Reflections about Controversial Young Adult Literature by getting student reactions. She asked about books already on their school’s approved book list: Lois Lowry's The Giver, Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War, and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Enriquez found that students “readily identified on their own and agreed upon which topics evoke controversy: drug use, profanity, racism, violence, religion, and sexual content.” One student said, “We also probably can't read about murder, suicide, or blood and gore. We don't want to get any ideas. We also can't read about guns or weapons because of shootings and killings that happen at school.”
Many students mentioned that they are already aware of (forbidden) topics, and the author acknowledges that students will self-censor, based on their own values. An interesting way to determine this is to try the author’s experiment. Enriquez read Amazon.com summaries of Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War, Chris Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Bette Greene's Summer of My German Soldier, S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders, Lois Lowry's The Giver, Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Sonya Sones' What My Mother Doesn't Know, and Terry Trueman's Stuck in Neutral. According to Enriquez, seven of those novels are among the most frequently challenged books since 1990. She then asked students if they would read those books if controversial topics were included. Seventy percent responded that if the book sounded interesting enough, “they would read it regardless of the amount of profanity, violence, sexual content.”
Controversial books and booklists
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron is a Newberry Award Winner, banned in some libraries because of the use of the word “scrotum” (referring to a dog).
From an urban teacher’s point of view comes Walking the Line: Young Adult Fiction in the Middle School. This Word document divides lists into annotated sections: “The Relatively Safe List, Really Good, Potentially Controversial Books that I KEPT in the Library and Very Good Titles that I Chose NOT to Shelve in Middle School.”
500 Great Books for Teens is the 2006 publication by Anita Silvey that is still among the most recommended directories. One review states, “If your teen likes controversial books -- and you approve of this -- Silvey lists the best of the best. Parents who want to avoid edgy topics will know which books to skip. The books are divided into 21 sections that represent different reading tastes and genres. The guidebook covers old favorites, such as the ’60s classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and new literature such as the award-winning A Step from Heaven. Short descriptions offer the major focus of each title.
Chris Crutcher, an author and therapist who is perennially on the banned books lists, has been vilified so often, his website has a page for CC Answers the Censors, and CC Sounds Off (including Gay Characters in YA Fiction, The Politics of War, Not in My &%$#*ing Media Center ["selective" censorship] and Harper Lee's Legacy). See also Chris Crutcher: I Don't Give a Damn 'Bout My Reputation and Chris Crutcher continues to write controversial novels and champion the young adult mind. He’s also written a book, A Guide to Teaching Challenged and Banned Books (featuring the novels of Chris Crutcher).
According to Emma Pearce, in Younger Readers Face New Adventures in Censorship detailing Judy Blume and the “coming of age” of YA novels, “Female teens are also gobbling up the so-called crossover novels: books written for adults but being read by--and marketed to--young women. These include Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, Jodi Picault's My Sister's Keeper, and Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, all of which describe sexual and physical violence in graphic detail.”
New Jersey librarians speak out
We asked various librarians via the N.J. Regional Library Cooperatives and N.J Association of School Librarians listservs:
- How do you select your YA books?
- How do you promote your YA books?
- Your thoughts and caveats?
Here’s how New Jersey librarians responded:
Dee Venuto, Rancocas Valley High School media center coordinator: Indeed there are librarians who censor—I have always struggled with the conflict of providing students with what they want to read, view, and hear, and the fact that I have always worked in public schools, which are, in my opinion, pretty conservative institutions. Interestingly in my 18 years of experience, they’ve become even more so. In the beginning of my career I inter-library loaned the Anarchist’s Cookbook for a high school student—not so sure I would do that today. After a discussion I had at the fall [SJRLC] membership meeting, I will most likely put Eric Jerome Dickey back on the shelves, but would be wary of buying a book by Zane. Dickey came off the shelves, by the way, because of a discussion I had with one of our student media assistants who often reads urban lit and who I depend on for openly discussing the books that I just can’t read. She shared some of the sexually explicit parts with me, which were lengthy, vivid descriptions of a ménage a trois. Professionally, I truly believe it is discriminating to keep materials from young people who want to read, but do not always have access to the public library or the purchase of books. I’d love to buy everything the students want; I’m toying with the idea of a parent permission form/phone call or inter-library loaning books for students who want titles that are mature.
Mary Moyer, Delsea Regional High School: I also have books that might be objectionable to some parents in my high school collection. In fact, one book was written by one of our English teachers. When I have books that have a more mature subject manner, I talk with students about what is acceptable for them to read according to their family values. I let them know that a book has mature subject matter and if that is objectionable to their family they should reconsider checking out the book. I never say "no" but allow them the option of considering whether it might be a problem for their family. I do not feel that it is my place to determine which books can be read by which students. Students know their family values and can choose accordingly. I remember being a teenager and reading books that I thought my parents might find objectionable. I think we need to consider our goal as a school librarian. Do we want students to read what is important to them or do we want to decide what they should be reading?
Sophie Brookover, founder and co-author, Pop Goes the Library: I do not believe that any student should be in the business of de-selecting materials. I would, and do, welcome student suggestions, and if they've read a book and have concerns about it, I absolutely want to hear about those concerns and encourage students to voice their opinions whether they agree with mine or not.
But a student is not a librarian, and probably does not have the understanding of a given book's place in world literature and/or our culture. One example is a book like Lolita, a seminal work of the 20th century (which was on the Modern Library's list of top 100 novels of the century), where the author is not endorsing child pornography or pedophilia at all. How are we to understand Nabokov without reading Lolita?
Regarding the selection and promotion of YA books, I use a variety of sources, including review periodicals SLJ (School Library Journal), VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates), Booklist, Kirkus (RIP), the Adbooks listserv (Association for Library Services to Children), and book review blogs such as:
I also use the Young Adult Library Services Association's year-end lists (Quick Picks, BBYA, Alex, etc.), student and teacher suggestions, and my own explorations at the bookstore.
My school has a very active Independent Reading program -- each marking period, most sections of junior and senior English visit the Library Media Center to choose books to read. The choice is entirely up to the students, but I provide guidance in the form of booktalks, and one-on-one reader's advisories. We are building a culture of free choice reading and I've been particularly excited about and gratified by the exchanges I see among students -- they are each other's reading advisors, and many students return to me outside of class, looking for another reading suggestion.
If you have questions or would like more information regarding the use of banned/controversial books, consult your Regional Library Cooperative, the N.J. Association of School Librarians, N.J. Library Association, or the American Library Association.
Located in the South Jersey Tech Park at Rowan University, Mullica Hill, the Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC) is a public agency specializing in education-related programs and services for teachers, parents, schools, communities, and non-profit organizations throughout New Jersey. Learn more about EIRC at www.eirc.org or call 856-582-7000. Contact Patricia Bruder at patbruder@yahoo.com.
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