This is taken from an online interview I gave about YA Lit:
Q: What do you say to a parent who thinks that reading YA lit will corrupt their kids?
Then the parents need to read more YA.
But they have to step into their own teenage shoes first. Books don’t corrupt teens, adults do. I mean, let’s take a phenomenal book like SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson, which critics wrongly said is “about date rape.” (It’s not, it is about depression.) No teen is going to read that book and go, “Hey, I should date-rape people!” No one will read THE OUTSIDERS and say, “Gangs are cool! I should stab someone!” YA authors and editors are fierce defenders of teenagers—with our time, our words, our money, everything. That’s more than many parents can say, I’m afraid.
Q: What advice would you give to parents of a 12 or 13-year-old about YA books (and video re-imaginings)? Should parents get involved? If so, at what point –selection, screening, pre-reading, vetoing, post-reading discussion?
Let them read anything, eventually. Censoring our kids’ reading isn’t helping them, but only each family can determine what’s appropriate and what’s not. But this idea of keeping books away from kids is unforgivable utter nonsense. Why would a parent waste this golden opportunity to read a book with (or before) their kid and see what conversations come out of it?
There have been reading groups at schools and libraries where one kid won’t participate for months, even years . . . then suddenly one day, that kid will start talking about she really feels for Melinda in SPEAK, or Morrigan in PARTY, or Tyler in manicpixiedreamgirl. Why the sudden talking? Because that book hit a chord in that kid’s life, and now the kid has a way to talk about it without giving herself away. As a parent, why toss away one single tool in your parenting toolkit?
Take them to bookstores! Ask them which ones look like they’d be interesting reads. Talk to the booksellers, they know their stuff.
Video is another thing entirely, because video—anything on a screen—impacts us differently than the written word. Anything happening to us from kindergarten through high school is going to be in our heads for the rest of our lives. Every time a grownup says “You can’t,” or “You’re stupid,” or “You suck,” or “You’re a bad boy/girl,” that stuff sticks for a very long time.
I gave a TEDx talk about this: Can you name your first grade teacher? Who you went to prom with? What your first car was? Yes, yes, and yes, because our brains are built to do that, to hold onto information as it develops. Ergo, I do tend to think that policing our kids’ screen time is important, as well as what is on those screens. Instead, cram those brains full of books. No child was ever harmed by the not-watching of a video.
Q: YA lit covers lots of territory in terms of genre and maturity level. Is there good and bad YA, or just a lot of variety?
There is “bad” YA in terms of quality of writing perhaps, but that is so, so, so objective as to be rendered a meaningless discussion. Some of my books are viscerally hated by some readers, and some readers have re-read those same books until the pages fell out. There’s simply no accounting for taste and opinion. We’ve all read a best-seller or award-winner and thought, “Really? Really, though? This?”
In terms of good and bad for kids? I don’t think so; there really is just that much variety. Dr. James Blasingame at Arizona State University, the Yoda of YA literature, says there is a book for every teenager, and I believe that. This is why we need trained librarians (and, you know, libraries) in our schools and communities. They make a huge, positive difference in the lives of teens.
It’s also important to understand the author’s intent when choosing a book. One of my author friends writes, shall we say, “fluffy” romances, where there will be a kiss at the end between a male and female. Is that wrong? Bad? Nope, it’s what they write, and I love many of those books because they are well written, well plotted, and a lot of fun to read. They are just different from a book like ZERO or RANDOM, where my style is to not pull any punches when it comes to what some teens are going through.
I’m after a different theme than my friend, and our styles reflect that. Neither of us is better or worse than the other, and both have their place in the development of teens into adults. Sometimes you need a fluffy romance, sometimes you need zombies invading your high school.
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