I was really excited about Stephanie Perry Moore's series for young men. My 16 year old son is very picky about his reading selections and he absolutely loved this series, devoured each book in a day or two.
Let's talk about Young Adult Fiction.
1. Do you monitor or censure what your teens read?
2. What are your teens favorite books and do you think the values of the characters in those novels are aligned with yours?
3. What is a subject or social issue you'd like to see addressed in YA fiction?
4. What were you're favorite books to read as a teen?
I'll begin with my answers.
1. Yes, I do monitor what my son reads, but that's extremely easy, because he doesn't read very much outside of required material for school, which is a lot of material in Honors and AP classes. Most of the recreational fiction he reads is either checked out of the library or purchased by me. Makes it easy.
2. Stephanie Perry Moore's series for Perry Skky Jr. First book is Prime Choice, then Pressing Hard, etc. For part two of the question refer to #1. I make sure it does.
3. I would love to see more books for African American males that subtly mentor those that don't have fathers in the home. I'd also like to see a book where the main character is interested in something other than sports, maybe a car fanatic who wants to be an engineer or a computer geek who creates a video game.
4. My absolute favorite were Judy Blume. I enjoyed the required reading in high school, so the classics were my favorites. I sure wish the explosion in YA fiction happened in the early eighties. I would have spent all my babysitting money on books.
3 comments:
I'll skip the first two questions because I don't have any kids. As far as what I'd like to see in teen fiction...Other than abstinence and a sense of identity which is seems like so many authors cover very well, I'd like to see stuff on destiny. It's such a critical thing at that age for a teen to understand who they are and why God put them here. It's always seemed kinda crazy to me that we require a teenager to make their most critical life decision at age 18. What's your major and your future career? So many get it wrong and either spend their life unhappy, or start later in life on the actual career they were called to. Perhaps if teens in fiction were challenged to discover their destiny, they'd make these choices based on God's will for their lives.
My favorite was absolutely Judy Blume when I was a teenager. I always had my head in a book but I remember her being my favorite.
I'm a bookaholic and no one monitored what I read in high school. Kind of wish they would've. In my opinion there's some very iffy things in a high school library, not to mention the public.
Don't get me wrong, though. I disagree with (oh, no I can't remember the word!!!). You know, where you try to keep certain books out of the library?
Anyway, I'm glad you monitor your kids. I will someday with mine.
Thanks for posting Jessica. I should add that my son is almost 17 and any real monitoring by me is truly a discussion between the two of us. If I don't like something I tell him why and in the end I allow him to make his own choices. Fortunately this has worked because the values we taught him are really a part of who he is, but I do have friends and relatives who have no idea what their kids are reading and when I tell them about what's in some of the books they are shocked, so monitoring is also about being aware so you can parent.
Thanks for stopping by.
Blessings,
Rhonda
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