Hot Topic: Censorship
Originally published at biblio + chic {infatuated with books}. Please leave any comments there.
Teri Lesesne over at the YALSA blog just recently posted a great article on censorship in the YA market. This is a topic especially near and dear to my heart, as I know I’ll come to face with it someday as a YA librarian. I agree with her main point immensely: can’t we give our teens credit that they have the brains to know when something in a novel is fiction? As a teen, I read a variety of novels, from Go Ask Alice to the Harry Potter books - and I never attempted being a drug addict or a witch.
I think this would be a great topic for study (perhaps I’ll take up research on it someday as a grad student), to take examples of the “extreme” ends of YA fiction and hold them up to real life, show who is reading these books, and how their behaviors may or may not mirror the stories. I don’t think the results would be thought-shattering, or even change the beliefs of many individuals, but it would be a huge topic of interest.
What do you think about censorship? Are teens gullible, prone to believe and “become” anything they read? Or are they capable of separating themselves from the books they read? You know what I think, share your thoughts!
For More: The ALA’s Banned Books Week is September 26 through October 3. Go here to read about the events and the most frequently challenged books.
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