Band Books

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.