YA Books Essay

Dear Ms Berner

It has come to my attention that you would like to ban “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins, “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “The Absolute Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman” Alexie, and “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, from sixth grade libraries because of pressure from parents and outside groups. I strongly believe in not banning young-adult books because it may help young adults through problems. like rape, sex, drugs, child abuse, parent absence and alcohol problems. It may also help understand problems that young adults are going through.

A lot of YA authors agree with my claim. One example of this is in Sherman Alexie's article, “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood.” He tells the story of a teen mother and how his book changed her life around so that now she is soon going to college even though she has a three year old son. Another example of how YA books help young adults: In the same article, Sherman Alexie meets the son of a millionaire and they talked about how his book helped him cope with his troubles. The kid wanted to be a writer, but his dad wanted him to go to military school. Alexie thought it was outrageous that the kid was old enough to fight for his country but may not be old enough to read YA books. These two examples prove YA books help young adults.

Even though I disagree with the idea of banning books, I understand that some YA books can be scary for young children. An example of this is when Amy Freeman, who is the subject of “Darkness Too Visible,” claims that all the YA books she saw were about vampires and suicide and self-mutilation and she didn't want to give them to her 13-year-old daughter which I understand. Another point Freedman made which I agree with is that not all YA books help young adults. Even though I agree, I don't think that we should ban books because YA books help most young adults with their problems. And maybe they could help Amy Freedman's 13-year-old daughter understand them too.

I gave you my point of view, the choice is up to you whether or not to ban books in sixth grade but I believe that if we take these books from sixth grade libraries we would be taking away the sixth graders knowledge on this area and these books might help them or might help them help their friends.

Sincerely yours,

Nicholas Astor