In this blog post I found on JSTOR, Chris Crowe begins his thesis with stating that objections over YA literature usually stem from one of two reasons:
- They aren’t the Classics.
- They corrupt the young.
He states in a quote from a Harry Potter critic that children’s (YA) books can be great literature, but only if they’re well-written, stretch the reader’s imagination, and open virgin minds to the magical power of words. I think that this is a really great way to put it, especially in comparison to the new law in Maine that’s trying to pass with ‘obscene content’. This is contrasting to where it’s stated in the law that if a piece of literature has content that is not deemed educational, political, etc., it can still be a crucial part of a child’s curriculum.
In another paragraph, Crowe states that there are some YA “classics”, but the genre hasn’t been around long enough for there to really be classics. There aren’t really any YA books that fit into the requirements of true literary classics, like Beowulf, Pride and Prejudice, etc.
A lot of adults are worried that YA books would “corrupt” the young, based on how “woke” the novels are nowadays, addressing topics like sexual assault, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, mental health, suicide, and more. The negative press coming from this has actually managed to change minds of some people who had previously admired the YA genre.
Crowe states that while not all of the YA books are addressing concerning topics like stated above, the ones that are showing content like that cover the media for the ones that don’t. The books that parents will get worried over, the books that are challenged in the media, the books that students relate to the most… those are the books that make trouble for the rest of the YA genre. And, of course, those are my favorite kinds of books.