It's crucial for kids to read good stuff, but there's also a place for fluff

I can't tell you how many high school students come to my library to check out Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (Little, Brown, 1929) the day before their assignments are due. What's it going to take for teachers to realize that assigning teens classic literature that they have a hard time relating to won't instill an appreciation for literature and a love for reading?

Even as an exemplary high school student and a fantastic reader, I found myself forced to use Cliff's Notes to decipher the language in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. I vividly remember dissecting The Red Badge of Courage and doing my best to understand the supposed symbolism behind Stephen Crane's description of the sun as a wafer in the sky. Just recently, in an interview with L.A. Weekly, Ray Bradbury insisted that Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine, 1953) was really a commentary on the negative impact of television on reading and not a rally cry against government censorship. I felt a little vindicated after reading the article.

Not all classics were lost on me, however. I adored Holden Caulfield's distaste for phonies and reflected on the brutish chaos of Lord of the Flies (Faber, 1954). Looking back, those were the kinds of classics that were more suited for teens like me because the characters were young and the sentiment echoed what I was experiencing in a language that I fully understood.

If we're going to teach literature in the classroom or create summer reading lists, we need to pay more attention to the classics of teen literature. With the exploding teen publishing market, the Young Adult Library Services Association's Printz Award, and Best Books for Young Adults, it would take little effort for librarians to find meaningful literature for students to analyze and enjoy. Take for example, M. T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party (Candlewick, 2006) or Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief (Knopf, 2006), both meaty historical stories told from a unique perspective and with characters with which teens can relate to. There is also Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese (First Second, 2006), a brilliant commentary on racism in the form of a graphic novel. Basically, there's something for every teen.

I can't emphasize how important it is to give kids the opportunity to choose their own books. That way, there's a greater chance that they'll find a book that matches their personal taste. We need to stop insisting that teens read what's good for them. Don't get me wrong. I completely understand the value of literature and don't think we should stop introducing the classics in the classroom or literary analysis or criticism. But I'm tired of adults being obsessed with giving kids “good” books and censoring those that are more popular and controversial, like the much-maligned Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar.

We need to give our teens some credit. Most recognize that these series are total brain candy. But the commercialism and over-the-top lifestyle in these novels are all over the TV and the Internet. Use this as an opportunity to educate kids and to engage them in discussion. Stopping teens from reading “fluffy” books that we deem offensive and harmful is merely a Band-Aid solution.

Whenever I see a bunch of holds placed on the latest Gossip Girl or manga, I applaud those teens for getting pure pleasure out of turning the pages and inhaling the words. Their enjoyment doesn't negate the fact that they're reading. Maybe that love will turn that teen into an English major, or perhaps not. But who are we to judge? Let's just focus on continuing to raise a new generation of readers.