Junk Vs. Classics-Where's the value?

The debate goes on. Do we allow our children to read junk books, especially those children who are struggling to find their place as a reader? Or do we insist that they only read books that have become classics? Books that we feel are better for their minds?

Teen readers come in various forms. There are those who have already developed a love of reading. These teens don’t care what they read, they just need to read. You’ll find them with a classic one day and maybe a book that we consider “junk” another day. We’re not concerned about these readers because they read well and they comprehend what they are reading. They will be ready for the reading demands of their future. The middle of the road readers know they need to read to complete assignments and they manage to accomplish their reading tasks. They may not exactly like reading but they appreciate their responsibilities and just do what they have to do. You won’t find them doing too much outside reading for pleasure. Then there are the reluctant readers who just don’t like reading at all. They can’t see much value in reading and are not motivated to do any reading in their leisure time. This latter group is the one who would benefit most from a free rein when it comes to reading choices. But if they get hooked on junk, will they ever cross over to the classics. There’s no guarantee. But there are benefits from reading that teens will receive no matter what type of book they are reading. They will improve their vocabulary and become aware of the world they live in. Reading causes teens to use their brains by absorbing different viewpoints, remembering facts and details, and creative thinking by evaluating the details. These are the benefits along the way. The final goal is to develop a love of reading. When this happens, teens won’t stop at junk books and will want to explore other authors and other sources of new ideas ways of thinking. So let them read.

My picks this week have all been recommended by teens as they browsed in the Young Adult room at my public library. I asked what the last book was that they read and these have become my picks of the week:


ttyl by Lauren Myracle. 2004. Grades 8-10.
This book is a series of internet dialogues between three teenage girls, thus the title, ttyl which is instant messaging lingo for “talk to you later”. The three protagonists are best friends in high school and are identified throughout the book by their screen names: Angela is "SnowAngel," Zoe is "zoegirl," and Madigan is "mad maddie". Their conversations from September to November are typical of high school girls who are dealing with issues ranging from boys and clothes to drinking and sex. These are totally written in instant messaging lingo.
Teens love the language and the topics. Adults on the other hand may find the topics a bit too honest and the language too difficult to decipher.



Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. 2010. Young Adult.
Anna is an about to be senior in high school who is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta. She loves her job, she loves her boyfriend and her best friend. She has just found out that she has to go to boarding school in Paris. This all changes when she meets Etienne St. Clair. She develops a crush but still has feelings for her old boyfriend back in Atlanta and she learns that he has a serious girlfriend. They remain good friends throughout the book. Anna is quirky and full of teenage emotions. She hopes that she’ll finally get her long-awaited French kiss. This book is romantic, funny, and dramatic.
The teen who recommended this told me that this was the most popular book among her group of friends.



Doing It by Melvin Burgess. 2004. Grades 10 and up.
Three teenage high school boys, Dino, Jonathan, and Ben, deal with sex. The story begins as they are fantasizing about having sex with teachers, classmates, and even the Queen of England. Then begins the dialogue about their actual experiences. Dino’s girlfriend, Jackie, is the prettiest girl in school. She puts out but he tries to use another girl for sex while keeping his relationship with Jackie. He witnesses his mother with a man who is not his father, and watches his parents’ marriage end. Jonathan is keeping secret his feelings for Deborah, an overweight girl whom everyone likes as a friend. He either follows his heart or risks the ridicule of his friends. Ben has an affair with his drama teacher. At first he enjoys it but soon tries to get out of the relationship.
Burgess admits to writing this book because books about sexuality are usually from the female viewpoint and he wanted to change that. The sexual content is pretty strong but the male characters change into more sympathetic characters with their experiences. This book will probably appeal more to boys than to girls. The recommendation came from a boy.

Nutritious books-Yum! Food for the Brain

So if there were a “Book Pyramid”, as there is one for food, which books would find themselves on the bottom and which on top? Which books are the ones that are the best for us? Some nourish our minds, some our hearts, and some our very souls. Readers find information on any subject, ideas and opinions that provoke discussion, pure and simple escape, and instructions on how to do just about anything. Let’s face it. Reading is good for all of us, no matter what we expect to gain from it. My picks of the week are:



Life of Pi by Yann Martel. 2002.

Sixteen-year-old Pi Patel, the son of a zookeeper, is being raised in Pondicherry, India, alongside a menagerie of wild beasts. This allows him to gain much knowledge of the animal world. His curiosity also makes him change from his native Hinduism to Christianity and Islam, all three of which he practices. One day, his father packs up the family and their beasts and they board a freighter for a relocation to Canada. Halfway to Midway Island, the ship sinks into the Pacific, and Pi finds himself stranded on a life raft with a hyena, an orangutan, an injured zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. In a series of descriptive interactions, the tiger picks off the animals one by one and soon Pi is left to survive alone with the tiger for 227 days while fighting hunger and the elements, and using his knowledge, cleverness, and faith to keep himself alive. He supplies Richard Parker with fish, turtles, and water in an attempt to keep himself from becoming the tiger’s next meal.

I chose this book after reading a review and seeing that the book had won Canada’s 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. I think that teens will enjoy this unbelievable fable-like story narrated by Pi that is full of adventure, faith, and survival and topped with wit and wisdom.



Freewill by Chris Lynch. 2001.

This is the story of a seventeen-year-old teen named Will who has lost his father and stepmother in what may be a murder suicide and is having trouble dealing with the loss. The story is told in second person narrative by a voice inside of Will’s mind which constantly admonishes, challenges, and questions reality with Will occasionally answering back. This all gives the reader a true sense of just how disturbed and lonely Will is. Enrolled in a therapeutic woodworking class, Will creates totem poles. Soon these monuments begin to appear at the sites of a series of potential suicides.
I chose this book from the list of Printz honor books. I think that teens will enjoy this dark story with its distinctive second person narrative coming from the mind of a teenager who finds himself an outsider from his peers and who struggles with the typical adolescent concerns of autonomy and choice.



Godless by Pete Hautman. 2004

Sixteen-year-old Jason Bock was raised in a Roman Catholic family but struggles with his belief in God, leaning towards agnosticism and possibly atheism. Jason decides to invent a religion of his own which he calls Chutengodianism, sanctifying water, the source of all life, as manifested by the “Ten-Legged God”, the town’s million-gallon water tower. He soon gets a few others to join his religion and one night they decide to climb the water tower to celebrate midnight mass by swimming in the water reserve. One member winds up in the hospital, one in the psychiatric ward, and Jason goes to prison along with a sentence of 210 community hours. Jason is left to wonder about a religion with only one member and though nothing gets resolved, there is discussion of questioning one’s faith and the attached conflicting feelings.

I chose this book because it was recommended to me by a teen reader in the YA room at the public library and also because it won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. I think that teens will like this book because there aren’t too many books that deal with faith and agnosticism while remaining neither pro-religion nor anti-religion. The characters are well developed and the thought-provoking story has both humor and a serious side.



Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. 1997

Set during the Civil War, this novel tells the story of W.D. Inman, a Confederate soldier from North Carolina, who is wounded in the Battle of Petersburg and disheartened by the fighting, walks home to see Ada, the woman he loves. On his journey across the war-torn South, he meets a variety of characters, slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, some help and others deter him along the way. In the meantime, Ada is struggling to save her father’s failing farm and must learn to change from her socialite way of life to that of a working farmer to survive. Frazier based his story on a true life one of a Civil War soldier who left combat and walked home.

I chose this book because it was on my son’s high school reading list and because of its fabulous historical fiction. Cold Mountain made publishing history by staying at the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and sold over three million copies. I think teens would like this book for its poignant storyline and intriguing plot, based on an important era in our country’s history.