"Darkness Too Visible" Response

The article "Darkness Too Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon talks about how some young adult books contain very dark stories. Topics that are covered in these stories include murder, drug use, and self-mutilation. Some people believe that teenagers should be allowed to read books like these, while other people are trying to prevent teens from reading them. The large controversy about this topic shows just how strongly people feel about it. Likewise, the author of this article feels that teens should not be allowed to read young adult fiction.

In this article, the author used strong imagery to show readers how disturbing some books can be. She mentions the book "Scars", and goes on to say that the cover depicts a horribly scarred forearm. Also, at the beginning of the article, she states a narrative from Amy Freeman. The narrative is used to give an example of one person's experience with these darker stories. The author only includes one opinion from a parent, which is the narrative in the beginning. This is most likely because a fair number of parents would say that kids need to be exposed to young adult books.

I disagree with Megan Cox Gurdon about whether or not young adult books are appropriate for children. The article says "teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is". In reality however, the "dark" things that young adult novels talk about are things that can happen to children, and reading about them can help expose kids to these issues. By learning about these things, children can try to avoid these things, and also defend themselves. Also, like the author says, reading about things like drugs and murder won't necessarily make kids do things like these.