Welcome to CuriousParents.com

Next Chapter

You’re Reading What?
By Marie Lamba

Your child is growing up and loves reading more than ever. Before you know it, she’ll be branching out from easy readers and middle reader novels about time travel and horses to those young adult novels in that cool grown-up section of the library or bookstore. She’ll be 11 years old and eager to picture herself as someone who is older and more sophisticated. This is all good. But what, exactly, will she be reading?

As an author, I am against censorship of any book. Let me say that upfront. And I personally believe that by age 13, your child should be picking out his or her own books without restrictions. But when tweens read books labeled for ages 12 and up that turn out to be rife with sex, drugs and alcohol, I can’t help but cringe.

When I was a tween back in the day (as my own kids put it), the most shocking book out there was, Are you There God? Its Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. We secretly passed it to each other and read it under our blankets with a flashlight. Here was a book about how our bodies were changing. We couldn’t believe it!

But today, everything’s changed. Kids are devouring paperbacks with lurid sex scenes and the glorified use of drugs and alcohol. I know that teens will toy with this sort of delicious rebellion, and I’d certainly rather have them reading about it than have them even consider doing any of this themselves. To me, the issue here is how seamier books are marketed toward younger readers. Let’s face it: sex sells. So what happens to an unsexy book?

My own first young adult novel, What I Meant, has just come out through Random House Books for Young Readers. It features a 15-year-old girl, a mysterious cute guy, an Indian dad, an American mom, an evil aunt and lots of drama and laughs. The book is getting great reviews, yet from the start it has been in trouble because chain bookstores largely passed on stocking the novel. This means that most folks browsing through the chain stores will never see it. Could these bookstores have passed on it because it was a clean novel?

While I can’t know this for sure, I do know that the worlds of publishing and bookselling both certainly see the wild profits associated with titillating teen fiction and are eager to have a piece of that pie. Most bookstores have a middle reader section and a separate teen section. There is no in between. So where does the clean novel go? The truth is there’s a limited amount of shelf space in that teen section and lots of books to choose from. If sex sells, and you were a dollars and cents businessperson, what sort of young adult book would you stock there?

What can we parents do? Do we prohibit our tweens from the young adult section of the library or the bookstore? If we do, we don’t allow them to mature in their reading, and they will miss out on wonderful books such as Nothing but the Truth (and a Few White Lies) by Justina Chen Headley, and titles by the very funny Sue Limb. Clean titles are out there.

Instead, I think the solution is two-fold. First, pre-read books that your kids are looking at. If there is an element of sleaze, it’ll be right there on the cover or jacket flaps. Also, ask your librarian or bookseller for recommendations. They know books and can guide you in selecting ones that are at once exciting and challenging, yet appropriate. Just remember that if your child really wants to read a book you are uncomfortable with, chances are that you will find him under his blanket with a flashlight reading that very same book. In this case, I suggest you read the book in question first yourself, then after he reads it, have a meaningful discussion about what went on in the story.

The second part of the solution is to remember the power that we consumers hold. When you find an author who writes wonderful, clean fiction suitable for your tween, support that person. Write reviews of their books on www.Amazon.com  or www.barnesandnoble.com.  Recommend this author’s books to your librarian and to friends. Buy their books for birthday and Christmas presents. Believe it or not, this can turn the tide. If everyone reading this article would take these simple steps, perhaps soon we’ll be finding books labeled as tween-worthy, and publishers and booksellers eagerly promoting these titles, maybe even carving out a separate section for them in their shops. The end result? A wider choice of books and better reading for all.

Marie Lamba resides in Doylestown, Pa. and is author of “What I Meant,” a clean, young adult novel from Random House Books for Young Readers. To learn more about her, visit www.marielamba.com.