There are many people who would argue that young adult fiction should be banned. But why should these books be banned if they can give kids a chance to reflect off of similar issues that they many be reading in the book? If you think about it, how much damage can these books do to the minds of children? The books that will be banned consists of classics, favorites, and other well known books like the Hunger Games, Catcher in the Rye, and Harry Potter. These books shouldn’t be banned based on the minuscule amounts of profanity and crude images. The books also may be banned if it has subliminal message that may be too horrendous and terrifying for a child to read
When the children read young adult books some parents believe that they will disturb the child's mind, but when they get a chance to read a wide variety they can be introspective. One example is an article written by an author of one of the banned books "The Diary of a Part-Time Indian" Sherman Alexie. He writes his article against criticism recently written in "Darkness too visible" by Meghan Cox Gurdon which says that his book “Hideously distorted portrayals.” He disagrees with the statement by saying “I can’t speak for other writers, but I think I wrote my YA novel as a way of speaking to my younger, irredeemable self.” From this we can realize that when he was younger he had a hard time, and if he was able to have (as a child) something that could help him, or make him see that someone else was going through the same exact issues, then he would have been more confident. Another example is an article that is against Meghan Cox Gurdon’s main idea that young adult books should be banned because the content has grotesque images. But Mary Elizabeth Williams (who wrote the article "Has Young Adult Fiction Become too Dark?") doesn’t agree with this when she says "We can't shut them off from the outlet of experiencing difficult events and feelings." She’s telling us that if we take these books off the shelves, children will lose the experience of being able to read about reality, even though authors may manipulate the view of reality in some books. If children only read the “age appropriate and happy” books then how will they be able to express their feelings and issues, if they can’t read about how other people manage their feelings. Reading is an important way that a child gets the chance to read about the reality of our gory world and can reflect on their own personal problems. Reading can help make sure their mind will not be congested and confused.
It is believed that when children read books it can manipulate a child’s life. But how badly can it actually affect the child? In the article by Sherman Alexie he disagrees with a statement made by Meghan Cox Gurdon that children can change their morals just from reading a book. “Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother? Does she believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow shock a teenager whose life has been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?” He's making an important point that just from reading one book, or a few, no matter how many, it can’t hurt a child. Someone can't get scared just from reading a book, the only negative thing that can actually hurt them are actual life events. There are some children that don’t go through the same problems as the children that get raped, beaten, or bullied, but if they read the books about these situations then they can get a sense of what happens to that kid on a daily basis, and they can try their hardest to prevent these things from happening those. Another example is from "Has Young Adult Fiction Become too Dark?" by Mary Elizabeth Williams she writes to counter all of the points made by Ms.Gurdon. "She fails to acknowledge the coarseness and misery already inherent in adolescents." Williams is telling us that children already have problems, irrelevant if they are big or small, children already know that this world isn't perfect and that it had flaws. When Meghan Cox Gurdon writes she makes it seem as though initially children or anyone don’t have problems and then when reading young adult fiction they can get rid all of their problems. We can learn that reading young adult fiction can't hurt a child and it also can't change the way a child will think.
There are some books that do have very grotesque content, but that doesn't mean they should be banned. There could be a level of agreement in which there's an age rating. The article “The 'sick-lit' books aimed at children: It's a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…” by Tanith Carey, is about kids most favorite books are actually all the same and cliche, and also that kids of younger ages shouldn’t be reading the books. “It's not just the fact that these books feature terminally ill teenagers that makes them so questionable - they're also aimed at children as young as 12.” They want us to know that the content in these books are too much for a 12 year old, but if they gave an age limit that would say “Don’t read until 14 years of age, may contain: very little profanity, sexual scenes, and depressing topics.” If there was a warning like this and the child couldn’t buy it without the consent of the parent. Another example in the same article is when Children’s Book expert Amanda Craig shares her thought on the reading and writing of young adult fiction. “‘When you write for children, you have a moral and social responsibility,' says Amanda. 'I think there is a cavalier attitude towards this in the publishing industry, especially as children as young as 11 are likely to be reading these books.’” She’s telling us that when people write books they should realize that they have to be aware of who’s going to be reading. If they stick a label that tells what age group should be reading the book the author won’t have any moral limitations because they are writing for the age group that they specified to. Having this label could eliminate the need to ban books because people will realize that the amount of horrific detail is pertained to that age group that would be written on the label.
Banning books isn’t right, they can’t harm children. When you think about banning books you should remember a few things. How much harm can books do to a child, versus how much it could actually help a child. Also consider the book’s content, could a restricted label somewhere in the book help solve the issue? These questions don’t only apply when reading young adult fiction, but in real life as well. For example if you have an argument try to think about both sides. You should also think, is there a simple solution? If these controversial YA books get banned then what will our lives be like without all the exciting, action packed ideas that might be gained from reading? If books get banned then we are handing children an excuse to go and watch television, and that’s a whole other argument.
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