The players: A female student of above average grades, and myself
Me- "Hey kiddo, can I see that book you're reading?"
Student-"It's about the Holocaust Mr. B."
Me-"No kiddo Fifty Shades of Grey, isn't about the Holocaust. Do your parents know you're reading this?"
Student- "I'm borrowing it from ________. Their parents know about it and they said it was ok."
The players: A female student of above average grades, and myself
Student- "Hey Mr. B. I'm sorry about yesterday."
Me- "What happened yesterday?"
Student- "My parents thought Fifty Shades of Grey was about the Holocaust. The book I really wanted to read was Shades Of Grey. My friend's parent's sent her to school with the wrong book
Me- "Mmmmmmhhmmmm. I was wondering, but if you're parents were cool with it, I can't argue."
In my last post, I talked about kids who read needing books shoveled at them like coal into a steam engine. This of course comes with some discretion of course. And, as the above scene shows, sometimes some trial and error. I know my parents let me watch movies well beyond my understanding, and more than a few..not many...books passed before my eyes that I really didn't need to be reading BUT, here again, I was reading.
I also talked about us "adults" not shoveling books in that we think kids "should" be reading. And for a while, that might have been the case. Until recently, more on this in a minute, the YA sections of libraries and bookstores were paltry. For boys, you had Hatchet, The Outsiders, and Caldecott Medalist. If they were older, Narnia, Lord Of The Rings, and maybe something like Animal Farm if they were advanced. For girls, the buffet was a little more appealing. Of course Caldecott Medalists, Judy B Jones, Narnia, and the Babysitter's Club were all options. Advanced readers could jump into other series that were geared towards them, even dabble with some Danielle Steel or something their mom might let them read.
The main point is YA authorism and books, have developed and developed well for lots of groups long forgotten in bookland. In looking at sites like TEEN SERVICES UNDERGROUND, you'll see a veritable cornucopia of reader's advisory for teens in just about every category you can think of, and plenty you haven't. As with "adult" bookland, new and emerging voices are being heard. And this is long overdue. Though there will be sticks in the mud that say The Hate You Give is not going to go down in the annals of time as a great book, but I don't think it has to. It's a great book for our times, and it's opening doors for other great books. If they powers behind the literary throne are going to snub these new authors, just remember; To Kill A Mockingbird was derided as YA in its' own time and now it's literature.
If you have a young reader on your hands in 2021, you will have plenty of books to heap upon them. Dragons, drama, surrealism, history, wizards, LGBTQ+, minority voices, wilderness adventures, heartbreakers, and westerns are ready to be picked up. And before I go, YA isn't just for YA readers. A lot can be picked up by just about anyone. Don't be like a library director who once asked me if I, as an adult services librarian, was taking over the YA section when I told them we were starting a Graphic Novel Book Club. That mentality is my next post
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