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YA Saves: How do you feel about the "dark" books
filling the YA shelves today?
As a high school English teacher who strongly promotes reading, I think YA that touches dark issues are important and can be beneficial. I teach the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson in my tenth grade class because I think it is important for young girls to know about this situtation in case (god forbid) they ever find themselves in that situation. Most of my students enjoy this book and we have a lot of positive conversations about it. But hopefully they know what to do and to seek help. Its a great avenue for me to approach th situation and maybe help them.
My point? Reading "dark" literature is a good thing IF students know the difference between reality and ficition and have someone to talk about it with. So when I know a student has picked up a piece like this I MAKE a point to talk to them. It's what the article fails to mention the repsonsibility adults have to teenagers and students when it comes to reading.
As a middle school teacher, when I noticed some of the books on our high school book award list were really dark, it made me think back to when I was that age. I think that teens read this stuff because it either relates to what they're going through, or gives them a view of they should be aware of. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI SO wish you would have been my HS ENG teacher!
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