The Sioux City Journal reports on those darn kids today, and all that trash they’re reading.
Gone are the days of “Nancy Drew,” “Sweet Valley High” and the “Babysitters Club.” Provocative teen novels are flying off the shelves and into the book bags of teen and tween girls, the biggest consumers of the publishing industry’s fastest-growing segment.
Most books for kids ages 12 and up sell fewer than 20,000 copies, but some controversial teen fiction titles have sold more than a million copies.
Why the surprise?
I’ve got teenage patrons, mainly teen girls, who come in all the time and check out a few young adult books, maybe a non-fiction for school, and a decent sized handful of the Harlequin Romances. You know, the one’s with the red covers. Kinda like a red light district I guess.
And who can blame them? I remember my teenage years very well. I was surrounded by people who insisted I “act like an adult.” Yet these same people steadfastly refused to treat me like an adult. When I entered high school and attended the orientation, they gave some spiel about how we’re to comport ourselves like adults, oh and by the way, you’d better have a note from your parents if you get sick. The high school librarian looked down on me for reading books that were “too old for me.” The only few teachers I had on my side were some English teachers who were convinced, quite rightly in my mind, that as long as the teen is reading something and enjoying it, then life is good.
We all know how difficult teens can be. They sure as hell aren’t children and they’re just not quite adults. They can see adulthood from where they stand, but they’re just not there yet. Then we, and by we I mean Americans, throw the most conflicting messages and thoughts at them that we can. We tell them to be happy and love themselves and then force them to read Romeo and Juliet. We tell them to enjoy the innocence and free spirited nature of youth only to force Lord of the Flies down their throats. We expect them to abstain from sex completely, to not even think lustful thoughts about that pretty blonde two desks to the right. And back we go to Romeo and Juliet which features teen sex because the two teens are truely in love with each other.
No wonder America’s youth is so screwed up. We can’t even get our messages straight. So you know something, what’s the damn difference if the 15 year old girl checks out some softcore romance novel? Most of the characters in those novels seem to use protection before getting busy in the bedroom, or the kitchen, or in some cases, the castle. Authors almost seem to go out of their way to mention the guy fishing for a condom and putting it on. Let’s face it, teens are wired for sex. At least they can get a message from some of their books because the message they’re getting from 99% of the adults is confusing at best.
nothing new either
It’s been a good two decades since Junior High, and though I remember many trips to the school library I can’t remember a single thing I checked out there for pleasure reading. What I do remember is my friends and I passing around V.C. Andrews, The Thorn Birds, Carny, Forever, and other paperbacks with the “good parts” all dog eared. Easy to hide in a backpack or another big boring textbook we were forced to read for some unknown reason. That’s actually one of the better memories of Junior High (a purgatory you couldn’t pay me enough to go through again).
Literature & Sex
I thought it was a going to be a chore when my high school english teacher made demanded I read JP Donleavy rather than trashy sci-fi.
Wrong.
Sex to keep me interested. Literature to educate me.
Good sized novels with critical acclaim – even better your whinging moralists have probably never heard of it. Has he it made it to their banned lists?
Teens reading about sex! Golly!
Gone are the days of “Nancy Drew,” “Sweet Valley High” and the “Babysitters Club.”
Well, yeah. All of these titles are usually found in the children’s area – NOT the young adult area ( the section in question here.)
Intentional Simpsons reference?
Lisa: Bart, it’s naive to think you can change a person… except maybe that boy who works in the library…
[flashback to library]
Ralph: Do you have, “Go, Dog, Go”?
Boy: [scoffs] That’s in Juvenile. This is Young Adult.
[back to present]
Lisa: Well-read, and just a little wild. Ooh, if only someone could tame him…