Adolescent Reflections about Controversial Young Adult Literature

نویسندگان

  • Lori Goodson
  • Jim Blasingame
  • Grace Enriquez
چکیده

“Are we going to read aloud today?” Kevin 1 asks immediately upon entering the classroom. “Of course,” I answer, but his impish grin warrants suspicion. Kevin’s outward enthusiasm for reading has been a recent development since we began the book. I’ve even seen him with the book outside of class, flipping pages to read ahead of the class. Then it dawns on me. Quickly, I recall what occurs in today’s chapter: the teenage protagonist describes his first kiss. Many adults would think that Kevin’s interest in reading aloud stems from this risqué description. However, while the passage piques curiosity because it uses the word breast, it doesn’t offer much sensual description beyond one foursentence paragraph. In fact, it is the only paragraph in the entire 220-page novel detailing any physical intimacy between characters. Kevin’s class merely blushes and giggles at the word, then continues on with the story. The passage is from Robert Cormier’s (1977) I am the Cheese, a young adult (YA) novel that has won multiple awards, including a New York Times Out­ standing Book of the Year and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Cormier won the 1982 ALAN award for his contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Students herald the book for its suspenseful, plot-twisting account of a fourteen-year old boy’s search for his father, his past, and his true identity. The account of the kiss is a fleeting memory that leads the main character to unearth a major clue about these mysteries. Yet despite its nominal presence and the book’s high interest level among adolescent readers, the novel is banned in school districts across America because it speculates about government corruption and has a depressing ending rather than because it describes a first kiss (Karolides, 2005; Young Adult Library Services Association, 1996). Virtually silent in the debates about controversial YA literature are the voices of those for whom these books are intended. It is not difficult to find arguments written by educators and writers of YA literature concerning the use of controversial texts in schools (e.g., Broz, 2002; Cormier, 1992; Crutcher, 1999; Glanzer, 2004; Swiderek, 1996). Some of those educators and writers offer their reflections on the controversial books they read when they were younger (e.g., Cart, 1995; Peck, 1990; Stoehr, 1997). Yet, few studies have considered adolescents as critical evalua­ tors of their own learning and the information they gain from YA novels (e.g., Freedman & Johnson, 2000/ 2001; Keeling, 1999; Mertzman, 2002). Instead, adult powers, whether national governments or individual parents, have taken evaluative stances on children’s literature. In Canada, Estonia, South Africa, and Australia, for example, adults have continued to examine controversy in children’s literature through­ out the past decade (Marsden, 1994; Monpetit, 1992; Naidoo, 1995; Tungal, 1997). In fact, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) reports that overwhelmingly, adults—primarily parents—initiate challenges to children’s literature (American Library Association [ALA], 2005b; ALA, 2000). Thus, in many countries producing literature for younger audiences, adolescent views about the controversies surrounding such texts are hardly reported.

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تاریخ انتشار 2006