So I woke up and made myself a nice long list of all the things I need to do today. Then I promptly grabbed a new book off my leftover vacation stash and crashed on the couch. See what I mean? Total holic.
Here’s the thing. I bought this book, Marked, at Walmart because it was only $5.49 and looked like promising teen literature (translastion: it was a teen book about vampires. Hello?). I like to do regular research on what teenagers are reading in today’s world, just to stay on top of the current trends (did I mention it had vampires?).
Now, in high school I read plenty of the classics (and will admit to some lame-0 high school romances like Caitlin books and Scarlet which I still love), but if these books were tame and relatively safe vehicles of summer entertainment.
It took about two hours for me to put the stupid book down today and get back to my list, and not because I’m a responsible adult. What has happened to teen literature? Is nothing clean anymore? Why must there be the token gay kid and unmentionable acts of fornication? I don’t care what the media says, there are plenty of girls that would know very little about that kind of stuff were it not for teenage authors throwing that kind of information around and making it sound normal.
There is very little I can do about this, but I will do this: In case you missed my post a while back about Becca Wilhite’s darling teen novel, Bright Blue Miracle, let me take a moment to push that kind of literature on you and your daughter(s). If we don’t promote good, entertaining books that have some actual meat in the message (not blood), our kids will buy and read crap like the House of Night series.
We need to take up the torch, if you have a blog and you find a good clean book that appeals to teenagers, list it! The best way to challenge that kind of crap is to offer up something better, and we all know it’s out there. It’s one thing
Ummm, thank you, dearest Annie. Yes, everyone, please go right out and buy Bright Blue Miracle, or steal it from the bookstore, or borrow it from the library, or snatch it out of your neighbor’s purse.
Okay, maybe don’t steal it.
But if I make a few more (thousand) sales, Mr. Publisher is more likely to print the next one next year, know-what-I-mean?
And Annie, your check is in the mail.
XO
Fornication? Where can I find this book?
Are there vampires in “Miracle”? I have been looking for it and not found it out here in the sticks. I don’t get to the city very much you know.
Try Janette Rallison. She often feels like the lone wolf in the national YA market, publishing clean, fun stories about real teenagers.
If you like fantasy, there’s a ton of clean stuff, but if you’re looking for realism, Janette’s the person to look for. She’s awesome.
I second Bright Blue Miracle and also Janette Rallison. Love her!
I know what you mean about teen fiction now. I read the first book in The Mortal Instruments series on Sunday and I was like, “What the what?” I would NEVER have handed that to any of my eighth grade students. yikes.
Hmmmmm, when I was a teenager I loved Chris Heimerdinger’s ‘Tennis Shoes among the Nephites’ (actually, I’ll still read it if another book comes out, hey, I need to finish the series, it would be WRONG not to!), and I also really liked the Anne of Green Gables book and Little House on the Prairie. Do you think I was sheltered? Still they are good books. 🙂
sorry, I meant Anne of Green Gables book(S), and same for Little House on the Prairie. Duh.
So you’re saying I shouldn’t head to my local Wal-Mart and pick up that book?
Ha! I totally second the teenager-media-thrown-crap! Good books to read and read again…already said: Anne of Green Gables (never gets old) and Little House on the Prairie. (Finished both of these series AGAIN last summer). The Love Comes Softly Series by Janette Oke is fabulous and sweet and CLEAN (she’s a Christian writer). Those are the series in my bathroom.
Everything I knew about sex at age 18 came from young adult novels. And I knew more than I probably should have. . .
I will join your campaign. Maybe one day I’ll have some good luck.
Everyone knows that teenagers are impulsive and have no self control. Come on! Oh wait….that is society’s view. UMMM…..hello!!! Parent alert!!! Time to plug in!
Hang on, you weren’t reading the Twilight book were you?
That one is like the cleanest teen novel EVER!
I don’t know, I think that sex is a fact of life and by not letting teenagers read/see/know about it you’re just going to get more problems in the long run.
It was never hidden from me, I read all the same stuff as my friends etc and I didn’t lose my virginity till I was 18.
Agreed. Thanks for the recommendation for “Bright Blue Miracle,” I LOVED it.
Amen. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for recommending. 🙂
No no no, Miss M, Twilight is great and clean and totally entertaining. This is a knock off series called The House of Night, and it’s just very…dark. In more ways than one.
I’m all for freaky fantasy and sci-fi, but I can do without all the oral sex for sixteen year olds.
Oh good! I was thinking that the Twilight series is one of the cleanest books I have EVER read! In fact started to annoy me after a bit 😉
Hmmm … I’ve never heard of it but will avoid it!
Good Point Annie—what’s fornication??
You forgot to mention how every sentence contains at least 5 ‘F words’ in The House of Night books (as in the BAD ‘f word’.) And the fornication is filtered around that.
AMEN! I’ve been catching up on my YA lately and finding myself disgusted. This is what young kids are reading? This is what they’re peddling to kids who are finding themselves?
Kudos to you for encouraging people to step up and offer better.
My SIL gave me this book for my teen –and then let me know about the oral sex in it– I was flabbergasted that she would even suggest that my 13 year should read crap like that. I thanked her, and promptly threw it away.
I REALLY need a list of good teen books for my no 14 year old daughter to read…