Moira Griffin
808
Dear Ms. Berner,
I
do understand that the school is receiving a lot of emails from parents stating
that some of the books held in our library are not appropriate or ideal for
their children for different reasons and that they would be happy to see those
books taken off the shelves. Some parents may feel that some books may give
their children wrong ideas. Even if this might be true, I think it should be up
to the students to decide if he or she can handle reading the book.
Books can have a huge influence on
you and some books can change the view on things. This can be good or bad. For
many reasons, especially books geared toward teens tend to have a lot of sex,
drugs and other form of abuse in them. Even though most young adult books deal
with these kinds of topics they also include messages or lessons that not all
movies, TV shows or even parents can teach them. For most readers the character
comes to life and the reader then connects and often identifies with the
character. The reader feels as if he or she is going though this experience
just like the character. This offers the young reader to go through this
experience in their imagination without the actual danger. The article by David
Levithan “Teen fiction plots are darker and starker” says “Teens can explore
this fearful things and it makes it approachable to these themes and use them
to deal with daily issues.” This quote supports the idea that books let the
teen reader explore an issue in a safe and reasonable way without having to go
through the real life experience.
Books
can also be helpful because it shows that other people (characters) experience
these problems. “Yes, teen fiction can be dark but I shows teenagers that they
are not alone.”
“From war on TV and pornography on
the Internet the (Judith) Blume brouhaha seems almost quaint,” the article
says. I do agree with Levithan, as most books seem harmless compared to the
pictures teenagers can easily access on the Internet and on the TV. There is so
much more violence, sex, drugs and other unhealthy things on TV or the Internet
than in books. I do understand that some parents feel that certain books will
influence their children for the worst but taking away a book will not take
away the issue in the book. Parents need to understand that it is not their
choice but it is up to the students on what they feel they can handle.
On
the other hand, some people might argue that parents do have the right to
choose what books their children should read. One might say that parents do
have a better understanding of what their children are able to handle. One
reason why parents may feel they have a better perspective they may have gone
though some of the experiences or they know how dangerous or painful some of
these topics are.
Levithan
say. “Darkness in YA literature is inappropriate and denotes a slipping of
moral standards. This quote supports
that some young adult books have turned away from fairytales but now tell more
gruesome stories about violence, sex and drugs.
I
believe that students in middle school should be able to read what they feel
they can handle. Our library should not be affected by what parents think about
the books. Parents need to understand that any book is valuable no matter what
the topic is. Parents also need to understand that students will not be influenced
by the topics that some of the books write about. Connecting to a character in
a book is a lot safer than watching TV shows or looking at some inappropriate pictures
on the Internet.
I
also believe that teachers usually make a good choice in ordering books for the
library. They know what students can handle because we talk about books in
class.
In
conclusion, I think parents should not decide what kind of books we can read.
Students are able to make their own choices.
