YA Book Blog Post

YA Book Blog Post

                In the book “Ali’s Pretty Little Lies” by Sara Shepard, Courtney pretends to be Ali for a year. Throughout the book, we learn that she has been deprived of a normal life. Her twin started torturing her in third grade and it ended with her in a mental house. She came back to visit her family one day and ended up switching places with her twin. I think she did this because she missed her old life.

                One reason I think she misses her life is because when she goes on her dates with Nick. On her dates, there is always something that reminds her of her old life. For example, when they are on the merry go round, the text says “Ali’s heart beat along with the bass drum that accompanied the carousel’s old timey song.” When it says old timey, this shows that it reminds her of old times. Also before that, it says that she used to go on the carousels with her sister, before things went wrong. Also, Nick reminds her of old times because he used to know Ali, and this is a direct connection with her once loved sister. This shows that she could have admitted to being somebody else for a year, but she loved her life in Rosewood so much that she decided to stay.

                Another reason she switched places with Ali because she misses her life is because all the things that happened to her when she was as the preserve and Radley. For example, when she was talking to Nick, she said that at Radley, she had a pet hamster. She said that he was her only friend. When things her normal with her and her sister, her sister was her best friend. She wanted to feel like she had a friend again. Also, in the prologue the text says “Off Courtney went, away from her family, away from everything she knew.” I think that when she came back to Rosewood to be Ali because she missed her family, and the only way she was able to be with them was being somebody else. For her it was worth it because she missed them so much and long for a normal life. Being somebody else, was the closest thing to it. She was not used to being locked up and her parents never visited her.

                The final reason I think “Ali” switched places with Ali because she missed her life is because she was depressed in Radley and the preserve. For example, the text says that the first few months she was in Radley, she just sat in bed and didn’t do anything. It said that the workers at Radley tried to get her to participate in activities with the other kids, but she didn’t. This shows that she didn’t want to do anything. That she instead of trying to do something that might make her happy, she decided to stay sad. Also, I think “Ali” was depressed at Radley because she got a pet hamster. Although this is a good thing, and the text says that she was one of the most behaved kids at Radley, there had to be another reason for her to get a pet. I think the workers at Radley gave her a pet because they felt bad for her. I think this because you don’t just give someone a pet. They probably gave her the hamster because they thought she needed a friend.

                Poor “Ali” had been deprived of her family for years, and didn’t have a normal one since she was in third grade. Her only option was to switch places with her perfect twin when she had the chance. She only had a year to live the perfect life she dreamed for years until she dies. If you were longing for a perfect or even just normal life, would you do something so horrible?

argument essay about ya fiction

Why Young Adult Fiction Should have warnings

“…It was all… suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff” says Amy Freeman, a highly

concerned mother of three in the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Megan Cox Gurdon. In young

 adult

 fiction these days, extreme violence such as rape, murder, and other awful things are normal. This is concern for many parents, and to others, not so much. This is why teens should not be limited to YA fiction, but there should be an age rating or a warning of some kind for sensitive readers.

                One reason YA fiction should have age ratings is because past suffering kids might want to divert themselves from dark YA fiction to avoid getting apprehensive about frightening topics covered in these novels. For example, in the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Megan Cox Gurdon, it says that a library in Kentucky challenged a gruesome book called “Scars”, because it could cause a previous self-mutilator to harm themselves again. An age rating could help solve this problem, because a person who cut themselves before would know not to read this tempting book because they would get sensitive. Also, not everybody would have to suffer. Comparatively, another example of age ratings working for this cause would be in the previous article, it says “books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people.” This shows that not only kids with previous problems, just kids in general can be affected by these scarring novels. For example, characters in book that found joy or relief in hurting themselves, might encourage kids or give them new ways to commit self-harm.

                Not only kids, but also parents should be considered in the decision of why shady YA fiction should have age ratings is because if kids want to read it, but their parents are uneasy about letting them, the parents can decide what is admissible for them to read. Also, since some parents are a little looser about what their kids read, they will have a different standard. Take relaxed author of the article “Has Young Adult Fiction Become Too Dark?” and mother, Mary Elizabeth Williams, takes her kids to the library very frequently and has yet to find a book she wouldn’t let them read. This shows a kind of parent that would ignore ratings. And then there’s the concerned Amy Freeman. A poor mother of three who couldn’t find a seemly book for her daughter. “Nothing, not a thing I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires, suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff.” She says in the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Megan Cox Gurdon. This shows a parent that would probably need an age rating on books to know what is tolerable for her kid to read. These two very different parents show two very different types of child situations as well. It could be possible, that a kid wants to read something, but the parent knows what is right for them to read and what is not. In another example from, “Darkness Too Visible” it says “’We like to have the adult perspective, but we try to target teens because that’s who’s reading it’ the book stayed on the shelves.” This is a bad idea because they are basically putting a less experienced child’s opinion first instead of an adult, who is responsible for the child in the first place. This could result in many dreadful things for the child such as self-harm or grotesque images in the child’s mind imprinted forever.

                Although many people say an age rating will not cover all the topics and reasons why parents would not let their kids read a book. They may say that an age rating is only going to determine what is appropriate for kids. This is counterfactual. Like a movie, an age rating would include why this book is challenged or rated the way it is. Parents or even kids have many different reasons why they would like a book to be banned. For example, the video “Book Under Fire” which took place in Conrow, Texas, told the story of a girl named Diana who was upset a book she had to read for school. The main reason she was upset was it degraded christians. This is an example of only someone from this religion getting upset. If someone from this religion sees a warning, they will know to ignore it because it won’t offend them. Correspondingly, like the library in Kentucky from the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Megan Cox Gurdon, banning the novel “Scars” might only benefit the people who self-harmers. And for the readers who never self-harmed, nor have ever thought of it, would only be deprived of a novel that they might have wanted to read. That wouldn’t be fair. An age rating would help fix this problem because someone who used to self-harm and thinks that this book might cause them to relapse, wouldn’t read this book based on the rating. Someone who know that it won’t affect them negatively, would ignore the rating.

                Overall, a warning of any kind would help people who have a problem with some books and people who don’t. It will help people that do, because they will know what and what not to read. Age ratings will make it fair for everyone. Taking a book away from a small group that has a problem with it isn’t fair to the people who wanted to read it. YA fiction can teach lessons, and taking those lessons away from the people who want read these books, won’t get to connect to characters, and learn about life. Yes, people think they are too young and should save their innocence, but they need to find out what it’s like in a book, before it happens to them in person so they can prepare for life. And if they feel that they  don’t want to read this book, then they don’t have to based on the rating. But it is not fair to take it away from everybody else by just strait up banning it.

Non fiction critical analysis

Non-Fiction critical analysis

                In the article “Should Young Adult Books Have Age Ratings?” by Husna Haq, Haq wants us to know that G.P. Taylor and Patrick Ness had an idea to not ban books, but to make them have age ratings. In Haq’s eyes, this is a great idea because books will not be limited to kids, but they can make the decision for themselves whether or not they wanted to read these books or not based on the age rating. One example Haq uses is the quote “This is the most frightening thing that has ever been written for kids.” By G.P. Taylor. To show that even an author can write scary things for kids unknowingly and that is why books should be rated by an expert. She also tells the story of how Disney channel is supposed to be for kids, but it shows kids disrespecting their parents, whereas YA fiction teaches lessons. Some, some parents might not approve of. She also compares the internet, which does not have ratings and has a lot more worse things than YA fiction, to YA fiction, which with age ratings, is a lot better than the internet.

                Haq hopes to persuade readers that if YA fiction had age ratings, everybody would be happy. The people who don’t want their children reading this kind of literature will not read the books that are for their age and the people who just don’t care, their kids can just read anything. One way she does this is by using quotes from real writers that are a little bit exaggerated as well. This helps her argument because to most people, authors are a reliable source. This is because they are the ones who write the books, being the experts. She uses the quote: “This is the most frightening thing that has ever been written for kids.” This is probably not the most frightening thing for kids, but this language helps scare the readers into believing her claim. She also says in the article that Taylor went to scholastic to propose the idea of age ratings on YA fiction after that she says “Given the less-than-warm response…” this shows that scholastic was less than warm to giving age ratings and that shows a negative rate to scholastic.

                At first, I thought that age ratings on YA fiction was a stupid idea because kids would ignor them, but now I think that they would be good because it depends on what kind of kid is reading the book. For example, when Taylor says “This is the most frightening thing that has ever been written for children” that was his opinion. Another child may have this opinion as well. Whereas another kid might have a completely different opinion. That is where age ratings come in. if a child sees an age rating that they don’t think will affect them, then they will just go along and read the book. But, if someone who thinks that this book will scare them or affect them in a negative way.