Argument Essay

Young Adult novels should be available for all teens to read in schools and libraries. YA novels validate the problems in teens’ lives, and can help them begin to overcome their problems by showing them that they are not alone. These novels help teens make informed choices about what to do when they are in a predicament. Banning YA books is pointless, because teens’ lives are as bad, or even worse than the ‘grim’ topics in these books. Students should have access to Young Adult novels because they help teens overcome the problems in their everyday lives. 

 YA books give teens experiencing the same or similar problems as the characters in the books a sense of hope, and help them feel less alone. For example, a book about self-mutilation will help a teen going through the same thing. Not only that, but it will help the reader feel less alone in what they are going through, because they will understand that their problems happen to many other people. Tanith Carey, author of “The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children”, quotes Phil Earle, who states that isolation causes teens to feel like it is impossible to overcome their problems, and when they read stories about the same subject, it gives them a sense of hope and assures them that other people are experiencing the same things as them. YA fiction helps teens who feel completely hopeless, and shows them that they are not alone.

Teens have a capacity to not want to do everything they read about or see in other multimedia. If a teen reads about suicide, they are not going to want to kill themselves. However, many adults do not give teens credit for being capable enough to make their own decisions. In the article “Teen Fiction Plots are Darker and Starker” by William Porter, he quotes Jill Adams, who says, “I think sometimes adults shortchange teens and their ability to grasp complex material and make deeper connections. They’re not going to go out and do the dark stuff they’re reading about.” Often, teens are not given the benefit of the doubt to make informed choices. Letting teens read YA books, gives them the opportunity to show that they can be responsible.

Megan Cox Gurdon, author of “Darkness Too Visible” says that publishers try to “bulldoze coarseness or misery into children’s lives”. Gurdon’s statement is ignorant, and also false. Her use of the word ‘bulldoze’ makes it seem as though YA books are forced into teen’s lives, which is not the case. Teens are more than capable to make their own choices for what books they want to read. Also, Gurdon says “children’s lives”, which creates an image of a young child reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, for example, which is ridiculous. According to Mary Elizabeth William’s “Has Young Adult Fiction become too dark?” Gurdon does not acknowledge the fact that coarseness and misery is natural in the everyday lives of teens.

Young Adult fiction is an essential part of growing up, and going through hard times. These books give teens a sense of hope, especially when they feel alone. Also, they give teens a chance to make smart ideas about how to lead their lives. Lastly, the dark topics in YA fiction, are the same, or very similar to what teens go through, and reading about things they have already experience cannot hurt or shock them any more than their real lives. Teens should have total freedom to read YA fiction, because it helps them through life. According to Sherman Alexie in “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood”, “I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life”.