Young Adult Lit.

In the past decade the edge between young adult literature and adult literature has blurred more than ever. I think this can have a lot to do with Harry Potter as these kids books were taken up by as many adults, and as those kids grew into adults themselves. Add to that other successful series like Twilight, The Hunger Games, Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries and series done by the likes of Tom Clancy and it is hard to know just what is and isn't Young Adult fiction.

I have always liked this blurred line. As a teenager, I had read advance for my age and by the time I hit grades 8 and 9 teen literature bored me and I was off into the world of Sidney Sheldon and Dean Koontz and the odd Amanda Quick novel if my parents didn't find it. I found young adult literature juvenile, with the exception of my guilty pleasure for Sweet Valley University and the odd R.L Stine (The Beach was great!). But today the topics that young adults are reading about in their literature appear to be deeper and darker than most topics I recall reading about back then. Many books about sex, drug use, suicide, rape, and other heavy topics seem to be all the rage in YA fiction. And it isn't escaping the eyes of parents and journalists.

Wall Street Journal has recently attacked this trend in young adult fiction. And while I see her point I think that it is important to have this literature available to start these conversations with teens. However, it should be a two way conversation. I feel this way about Harry Potter even. It is my opinion that everyone should have access to whatever literature they want, but I do think parents need to play a role in when and what their child is reading. I am still appalled at the number of little 10 year old girls who have read or are reading the Twilight series. Who wants their daughters reading that it is a good idea to drop out of high school, get married just so you can have bed breaking sex by the time you're 18? Hmmm, not the pro-feminist image I plan on raising QT with, that's for sure. People say well, but they preach abstinence until marriage throughout the series. Yah, well, I would still rather my daughter having sex before marriage safely while still getting her education and not rushing into marriage than the alternative. But now you know how I feel about Twilight...

Anyway. This Wall Street Journal article gave me a place to start with my summer challenge. I have quite a few teen or junior books. I find you can get a lot of simplicity and still a great story out of some of the stuff written today. So I grabbed the stack of teen lit I bought while working at a school when I had first moved to Estevan but never got around to reading. Cut and Speak would be two books that I am sure would be on Wall Street Journal's hit list. However, I think there is a lot to be learned from these stories. Even more juvenile literature like RULES handles a heavy subject that I think more people should read about- living with family members who have disabilities and learning to accept and accommodate. I have also read a few others and while none of them are as moving as Go Ask Alice which would have been as dark as teen lit got "back in my day," Speak is definitely worth your time to read which was awarded the Prinz Honor Book award in 2000.

Lastly, if you are looking for some great teen books who have made the cross over into successful adult reads check out:

The Harry Potter series (of course)
Little Women (of course)
The Twilight series (if you must, but I think its a colossal waste of your time)
Hunger Games series Suzanne Collins
the Flowers in the Attic series by VC Andrews
The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
The Princess Diaries series (Meg Cabot)
and many many more.