Think back to middle school and high school. What books were assigned to you in your English class? The list may or may not consist of books such as: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Scarlet Letter,” or “Hamlet” – all unarguably classics.
Most of these books are also ones I have studied in my university experience in upper division courses — literature that has proven to be much more complicated than young readers may think. These books also show in list form after asking Google what books are typically taught to high school students.
I read the same books and wrote book reports on the same themes in high school. I am taking a course this semester in college which focuses on the genre of young adult literature. This genre of literature has several purposes; a lot of the time it is written about young adults’ lives. The novels are enjoyable to read, and I do think YA authors are writing to speak directly to the young adult crowd most of the time.
In my college course, we recently finished a young adult novel published in 2013, titled “Eleanor & Park.” The book won a Michael L. Printz Award and has had a lot of complications after previously being assigned to a summer reading program in a Minnesota school district.
Parents in this school district were upset when children brought the book home to find that it had vulgar, inappropriate and graphic language several times in the pages their children were reading as a public-school assignment. This incident happened several years ago, but dealing with what literature to assign in schools is still a debated issue.
On the official American Library Association website, the book’s description states, “Unlikely love blossoms on the bus when two unique, exceptional souls find strength in each other’s differences in Rowell’s emotionally charged and hopeful novel.”
This novel by Rainbow Rowell pulled at my heart strings...I really did cry. In the book, Eleanor is a spunky girl who recently moved to the area. She is bullied at school and is horribly neglected and abused at home. Park loves music and comic books. He is also somewhat bullied at school, but he has a good home life with parents who love each other.
I won’t give away any spoilers about the book, because I highly recommend the fast read for anyone willing to read it. It takes place in the 1980s, and it truly is a great book. There are some complications, though, in teaching it and books like it to teenagers.
Yes, the book has language and scenes that could worry parents. It is about 16-year-olds figuring themselves out and finding themselves – so ultimately, the book tells the truth. I think it would have been beneficial for the parents in that school district to understand that the language in the book may have been shocking, but their child hears it every day among the students in school, whether it is in a book or not.
The benefit of reading it in a classroom setting is that the teacher has the opportunity to teach respect and appropriate language. All at the same time, their child most likely will relate to the book and feel understood at some capacity. They should still learn stories such as “Romeo and Juliet,” but reading a YA book such as “Eleanor & Park” with this classics can enhance the classic and provide something for the students to relate to.
“Catcher in the Rye” deals with class issues and suicide at times. “To Kill a Mockingbird” deals with racial prejudice issues. “Romeo and Juliet” ends in tragic suicide. “Hamlet” deals with death. “The Great Gatsby” deals with class issues, drunkenness and love affairs. “Of Mice and Men” deals with mental disabilities. “The Scarlet Letter” deals with adultery and class status, among other things.
These books are without a doubt, classics, and they are wonderful. They deal with real and harsh things of the world that we need to learn about as readers and learners. These aren’t the main topics of most of these books, but neither are the issues pointed out by the parents who found a problem with “Eleanor & Park.”
Just because some YA books like “Eleanor & Park” have a plot that follows 16-year-olds in a high school environment, the main characters deal with real-life issues, and the author writes in language that most 16-year-olds use anyway, doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. Books such as “Eleanor & Park” should be accepted and talked about in the same mature way that young adults can talk about the classics.
It is up to the teacher to provide a responsible, appropriate and monitored environment in which to discuss and read both the classics and the new YA literature. Youth relate to books like this. This doesn’t mean the classics should be replaced, I don’t think they should.
I do think that we should allow the two to be taught together in classrooms and embraced as works of art. It is proven that students retain more information when they can relate to what they are learning about and make connections. These YA books are what they can relate to. The good news is, is that a lot of them can be read together, with the classics. It is possible to get students excited about reading again.