Freep Essay on Dangerous Reading Material and Youth. Funny as hell.

[elehhhhna]

This is SO poorly written I laughed out loud whle reading it. The author's a Freeper type who's shilling her book , which is evidently about the dangers of reading...


"In many cases the very liberal American Library Association exerts great influence over what reading materials teachers assign their students. But that material may be highly inappropriate for your child. Don’t let the following scenario unfold in your home:

Mrs. Jones hands out a book report assignment that includes several books for her class to choose from. Mom dutifully drives Suzi to the local library and browses while Suzi selects her book. Within half an hour, book in hand, everyone is feeling rather satisfied that they have been so responsible in starting on the project early. Mom and Suzi arrive home, and while mom begins making dinner, the conscientious and responsible Suzi heads to her room and begins to consume what turns out to be highly sexualized, vulgar garbage, filled with four-letter words and enough verbal porn to embarrass even an ole’ salt.

Mom doesn’t have a clue that her daughter’s innocence has just been molested in the privacy of her own bedroom. She won’t ever know because Suzi, a bit stymied by the fact that Mom took her to get a book that her teacher assigned, will be too embarrassed and confused to ever tell. Yet, she’s just had sexuality, relationships and acceptable behavior defined for her by some perverted author most folks have never heard of. And the kid was simply trying to get her homework done.

While researching my book, Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That’s Gone Stark Raving Mad, I took an ALA-recommended reading list for 13- and 14-year-olds to my local library and headed to the “Young Adult” section (code for “pre-teen” and “teen”). I found some books from the list; others were already checked out. One book, the librarian told me, had just been returned but hadn’t been re-shelved, so I patiently waited while she went into the back room to retrieve it.

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed081605a.cfm

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. This doesn't make sense!

When I was a kid and had book reports, Mom (who was a single parent btw) looked over the reading list BEFORE we went to the library and suggested which books I might like. Any parent with a lick of sense would do the same.

[arcane1]

2. funny that she mentions not ONE title

:silly:

[elehhhhna]

8. she's LYING. that's why no title.

[mzteris]

3. you'd think

she'd at least give the names of some of these horrors. Methinks she is just getting free publicity for her "book".

[LisaM]

4. Wow, she makes the library sound like the Playboy Mansion

I am, of course, going to immediately forward this to everyone I know who is a librarian!

[mzteris]

5. Here's the list......

http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/05bbya.htm#bbya

[elehhhhna]

9. How old is a"young adult" anyway? Not 12, imho. More like late teens.

[A Simple Game]

12. Some interesting sounding books on that list. N/T

[ET Awful]

6. Hmmm, I don't buy it. She won't say what the book is which leaves me

doubting that her description is accurate.

[mzteris]

7. some contenders?

Doing It
Melvin Burgess, author of Smack, has written what is potentially the most controversial young adult novel ever. Doing It is an honest and funny book about three teenage British boys learning about themselves and life through their sexual experiences. But here's the catch: the story is told from the point of view of the hormone-sodden young males, naughty bits and all.

Gorgeous Dino thinks that equally gorgeous Allie should realize that they belong together and is puzzled and frustrated when their passionate lovemaking always ends with her refusing him. Jonathan fancies sensible, sexy Deborah but can't admit it to his friends, even after several steamy grope sessions, because she is…well…plump. And Ben is living every teenage boy's dream, an affair with a lusty teacher--but somehow it's getting to be too much of a good thing.

Nearly all YA novels about love and sexuality are told by and for girls, like Judy Blume's groundbreaking classic, Forever. The contrast here is striking--as Burgess said in an interview, "I wrote Doing It because I do believe that we have let young men down very badly in terms of the kinds of books written for them. This book is my go at trying to bring young male sexual culture into writing." The result is surprising but educational for female readers. Wisely, the publisher has kept the British slang terms for sexual acts and body parts, rather than using the American four-letter words, a factor that will make the book less of a hot potato for librarians and teachers, but not diminish the reading pleasure for the inevitable hordes of young male readers. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell

From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–Three teenaged boys enjoy talking about, thinking about, and joking about sex.

(OH - Grade 10! NOT 13/14 yos.......)


********

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
A witty, sensitive boy observes the darkly humorous goings-on in his Orthodox Jewish family in 1970s New Jersey. Jacob Green idolizes his older brother, Asher, and misses his withdrawn mother, Claire, but his father, the charismatic, tyrannical Abram, dominates the family. . . .At 13, Jacob lives in a state of anxiety—his learning disability and his father's resulting disappointment erode his confidence; Asher withdraws into adolescence; his mother flees the house to pursue a Ph.D. and another man. Jacob would love to rebel (he's got "a father so far up my ass you can see him performing in my pupils"), but mostly he mentally rewrites his bar mitzvah thank-yous as rants and fantasizes about his live-in babysitter, Megan. When Claire and Abram divorce and Megan moves out, Jacob conveys his angst through a series of letters addressed to Megan. By the time he's 15, Jacob is painfully lonely, as he shuttles between his father's oppressiveness and his mother's honeymooning obliviousness. . . Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Jacob's unthinkable thoughts are typical of many adolescents, and some might even be considered unprintable. They are also extremely funny and poignant. . . Jacob's thoughts progress from the relatively innocent desire to skip Hebrew school to the erotic when he watches television curled up with the au pair.

[elehhhhna]

11. Catcher In The Rye & The Bell Jar would make her head explode!

hopefully.

[mzteris]

13. I remember

reading Catcher in the Rye in highschool - I didn't like it - I think I remember thinking something to the effect of "what is the POINT of this book????"

I've never read The Bell Jar - but I did read "Lisa: Bright and Dark" in hs as well.

I also remember sneaking to read "Pride and Prejudice" because my mom had hid it from my brother - to this day I don't know why she'd hidden it from him.



In re: the two books I listed - I certainly would have to think twice about letting a 13-14 yo read them. Maybe 14. It would depend on the kid, of course, though.

BTW - I bet this lady HATES Harry Potter! :rofl:

[knitter4democracy]

17. She hid it so you'd read it.

I've heard of parents doing that, and it worked for one of my students once. I went on and on about how I really didn't want to teach Beowulf, and one student who never read anything went out and read it, bragging to me in my face a few days later. :evilgrin: Cracked me up. :)

[LittleClarkie]

10. We're to take her word for it that her judgement is correct

without finding out what books she means.

Watch it be "Huck Finn" or something.

[TechBear_Seattle]

14. Why make guesses about the reading list?

I (unlike the neo-con anti-intellectuals that the Heritage Foundation panders to) know how to use the Internet. So, I visited the American Library Association's website and looked at their Reading Lists page. Scanning the "Booklist Editors' Choice '04 - Adult Books for Young Adults" list, I did find a few that conservative parents would, no doubt, find highly inappropriate. I have taken the liberty of adding a few editorial rationals after the summaries:

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. Tr. by Anjali Singh. Pantheon, $17.95 (0-375-42288-9).
Satrapi continues her memoir-in-comics about growing up in revolutionary Iran. Once again, the bold-lined artwork illustrates one of the most noteworthy youth memoirs of recent years.
Only atheist liberals would think the repression of women in a fundamentalist society was a bad thing.

Shen, Fan. Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard. Univ. of Nebraska, $24.95 (0-8032-4308-1).
In this irony-laden memoir, a former Red Guard grows up swimming against the tides of the Cultural Revolution. Teens will strongly identify with Shen’s maneuverings around repressive regulations.
It's about commies. And challenging authority. Both bad, very bad.

Traig, Jennifer. Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood. Little, Brown, $22.95 (0-316-15877-1).
When Traig hit puberty, she developed a form of hyper-religious, obsessive-compulsive disorder. She describes her affliction and her alienation from her family in a raw, funny, self-deprecating voice.
It describes extreme devotion to God as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, therefore it must be anti-Christian. And the title... obviously the book endorses Satanism!

Fischer, Jackie Moyer. An Egg on Three Sticks. St. Martin’s/Griffin, paper, $12.95 (0-312-31775-1).
In this unforgettable debut, 13-year-old Abby recounts her mother’s heartbreaking descent into mental illness. With acutely observed detail, Fischer describes a young adult’s pull between the universal struggles of adolescence and the surreal anguish of losing a parent to disease.
If we let children read about mental illness, they will become mentally ill, in the same way that teaching about contraception will make them all go out and have S - E - X.

Marillier, Juliet. Foxmask. Tor, $27.95 (0-765-30674-3).
This sweeping Dark Ages fantasy, a sequel to the rousing Wolfskin (2003), follows 18-year-old Thorvald to remote northern British isles in a suspenseful, romantic page-turner steeped in Norse lore.
A blatant attempt to teach children about paganism.

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper. Atria, $25 (0-7434-5452-9).
Teen Anna sues her parents for the rights to her own body when she is asked to donate a kidney to her sister. This spellbinding story will draw a wide range of readers with its strong characters and provocative questions.
Suing one's own parents, refusing to help a child... this has liberal hatred for the family written all over it!

Oh, the horrors! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!

[sakabatou]

15. For all we know the child could be reading the Bible!

Did the author think about that? HUH?!

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. I just wrote to her

Subject:
To Rebecca Hagelin--Your duty to responsibility is severely lacking

Please cite the books that are "rot" for young teens. In your article, you did not offer any supportive evidence beyond your claim that these are bad books.

From your article:
I only had to get to page four before the first of many uses of the term “motherf-----” showed up. Several scenes described, in graphic detail, sexual acts between teenagers.

If you are so keen on warning people about the "rot" to be found in lists from classroom teachers, the least you could do is to offer a few of the book titles.

Of course, more than likely, you are simply using your poorly written article to "invite" people to purchase and read your book; Puff pieces hold no merit.

Sincerely,
A Retired Educator

[knitter4democracy]

18. Thank you!

As a former English teacher, I can think of a couple of books she might be referring to, but they're not as bad as the music the kids listen to (especially when their parents aren't around). She's crazy to be blaming teachers and librarians for this.

[elehhhhna]

20. PLease add that children in libraries everywhere are now checking

the fourth pasg of every single book, looking for the juicy parts.
Thx.

PS--Is she not the worst writer ever? I'm inclined to print her article and take a red pen to it. Might be cathartic.

[fighttheevilempire]

19. Freepers protecting their children from reality

is the main cause of the screwed up south to begin with. They raise their kids in a shoebox, protected from all the 'evils and sins and vices' of the world for 18-21 years. Then these people get out in the real world and expect it to work like their parents told them. *Ehhhhhhhhh....* Wrong! These children grow up detached from reality and then support totally irrational beliefs and opinions because they were brainwashed to do so. Now these irrational people are responsible for helping run this nation straight into the ground, and they can't see it because it doesn't fit with the reality they're supposed to be seeing in their own mind. So if it's wrong it must be the fault of the liberals. grrrrr!!!