I have recently been doing an online course in Writing for young readers in which I had to do "peer reviews" of other students work. One of the stories was about a miserable girl staring at a gun and trying to decide whether or not to kill herself. This was labelled by the author "suitable for 13 to 17 year-old readers". This made me notice how many books full of gloom are to be found on the Young Adult shelves. All the stories seem to deal with subjects like dysfunctional families, anorexia, drug addiction, and suicidal depression. Is this because teenagers like this kind of stuff or because publishers think this is the kind of book teenagers should read? What happened to the exciting adventure stories I used to love? What happened to school stories full of midnight feasts and tricks played on teachers? I have read that teenage suicide has become more of a problem lately and I wonder whether the depressing literature that is dished out to them could not be a factor. Reading that story certainly made me feel depressed.
When you are young it is easy to be influenced by what you read and what you see on the screen. If it is true that young people are mostly sad and depressed, then shouldn't they be given stories with a positive spin on life, even, dare I say it, stories that are just fun to read and don't carry any serious message. Of course, you may say, most young people read very little. so what they do read ought to carry a serious message. Then their reading time is not wasted. But I think differently about reading. Occasionally I read something because I feel I ought to read it, but mostly I read simply for enjoyment. More than anything I want to share the joy of reading and I want to pass on this tremendous source of fun to the next generation.
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