Start Reading Early

A article in the The Wall Street Journal this weekend about young adult (YA) fiction caused quite a stir. The tagline goes like this:

Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?

And the article went downhill from there.

I totally agree that parents should know what their kids are reading. It is a parent's responsibility, not a library or a school board, to help guide their kids' reading choices. But I disagree with almost everything else in this article. See, to me the love of reading is the best gift I ever received from my mom. Books have always been a huge part of my life, even before I started writing. My mom read to me while I was in the womb. While I was growing up, I watched her buy books for herself, for others and for me. Even now she has a library that is packed floor to ceiling with books.

Never in all those times she was buying me books did she try to censor what I read. I didn't read romance then, but I read a lot of horror that scared the crap out of me. I ran through the classics then powed through mysteries and thrillers all while skipping many of the YA books then available. I thought those YA books were too childish, so I always read well above my grade. I would have wept with joy to have the YA reading choices young readers have today.

My mom bought me every single Judy Blume book even though her books were so controversial back then, a fact that now seems ridiculous. The point is I knew if I wanted to read something, I could. There were no restrictions. Mom bought the books and dad never balked at the cost. In fact, when I was a teen he bought me a collection of hardcover classics, 100 in all and delivered one book per month, just because I asked.

My open access to books didn't harm me. On the contrary, it opened my world. I grew up mostly in Lancaster County, PA. It was a good place to live but my experiences were limited and my life was somewhat sheltered. I used books to escape, to inform, to understand, to not feel alone and to figure out that I would somehow survive my teen years just fine. Junior High sucked and books made it better.

So, I would ask those parents who read comments like the one above and agree, or read the article and get scared so they limit their kids' reading choices, to reconsider. Books don't make kids go out and have sex or drink or cut themselves or anything else. Books inform and save. The subjects of today's YA novels may be dark, but life can be pretty dark. I'm sorry, but its true. Having realistic voices delivered on the pages of a book can give hope to lives that feel hopeless. That's the gift.