Stephanie Lawton: Part II on Clean Reads for Kids

Today Stephanie continues her discussion about Young Adult lit and resources for parents/grandparents to find information about current books. I have taken the liberty of repeating a paragraph or two from last week to “ground” you in the subject.

Amid all the recent arguments that Young Adult lit is too “dark,” there’s an issue going unaddressed: Readers and parents/grandparents of readers who want “clean” titles don’t know where to find them.

If you prefer a less corporate approach, the book blog Reading Teen has a special section dedicated to “clean” reads. (http://www.readingteen.net/p/reading-clean-spotlight.html)Unlike some sites, Reading Teen seems to keep up with newer releases and I agree with their choices.

If you’re in the market for Christian YA fiction, you’ve got a tougher road ahead of you. That segment of YA isn’t doing nearly as well as the rest, and some even argue that because Christian fiction in general is pretty tame, it does away with the need to publish separate YA lines.

You can find lists on Amazon of Christian YA,( http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Teen-YA-Books/lm/RAJFUEDKZ2W8K) (http://www.amazon.com/TEEN-Christian-Fiction-Books-Amazon/lm/R2QIHGB1EOKTR/ref=cm_lmt_fvlm_f_5_rlrsrs0) but know that much of it is either self-published or put out by small presses. I’m definitely not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but just know that there are fewer quality gatekeepers.

One final resource—many of today’s most popular YA writers belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church). Their books are usually very clean and totally enjoyable without pushing any religion/denomination. Examples (other than Stephenie Meyer) include Shannon Hale, Kiersten White, Ally Condie, James Dashner and Brandon Mull.

Although I don’t support censorship—blanket decisions about what others can and can’t read—I fully support parents’ rights to monitor what their own children read. No one knows a child better than his or her parent/grandparent. I hope the above sources prove helpful to those in charge of shaping young minds.

(If readers want to contact me about this, I can be reached on Twitter at @Steph_Lawton, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/StephanieLawtonWriter or at www.StephanieLawton.com.)

Thank you, Stephanie, for the good information and the references. Finding appropriate reading material for tweens and young teens is challenging in today's climate of "anything goes." Best of luck with your new book.

Mahala

Books for Young Readers: Stephanie Lawton

Stephanie Lawton is our guest blogger today. Stephanie's YA novel, Want was just published, and we welcome her to Lyrical Pens. Stephanie is the Vice President of Mobile Writers Guild. Below is the first of her two part series to assist parents/grandparents choose appropriate reading material for their children.

Amid all the recent arguments that Young Adult lit is too “dark,” there’s an issue going unaddressed: Readers and parents/grandparents of readers who want “clean” titles don’t know where to find them.

No matter where you stand on the issue, every reader deserves access to books with which they’re comfortable. Publishers label titles with age ranges, but often, children read above their age or grade level. (Didn’t we all read Flowers in the Attic way before we should have?!) In order to keep them interested in reading and help expand their repertoire, they need further information about book content.
Thanks to the plethora of book blogs and rating/review websites, there’s no need to Muppet flail in the bookstore.

I’m extremely partial to www.NovelNovice.com, the top education-based book blog. (Full disclosure—I’m a contributor.) Although it focuses on YA lit, there’s a good bit of Middle Grade content, as well. In fact, we just finished Middle Grade March, (http://novelnovice.com/books/book-of-the-month/middle-grade-march-2012/) which featured the best new titles hitting store shelves, and their digital equivalents.

The reviews usually give a synopsis, a few subjective comments and a note about what audience the book would appeal to. Further MG reviews can be found here. (http://novelnovice.com/books/middle-grade-book-reviews/)

Although there’s been a bit of controversy surrounding this next group’s reviews, Common Sense Media is known for being a thorough source of content reviews, not just for books, but movies, video games, TV shows, etc. (http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews) Books are judged on age-appropriateness, learning ratings (whether or not it’s educational), as well as its message, role models, violence, sex, language, consumerism and drugs/drinking/smoking.

While the author part of me thinks this is very subjective and should be taken with a grain of salt, the mom in me appreciates the heads up. At the very least, it tells me whether or not I need to take a look before deciding if my child is ready for the content.

Although I don’t support censorship—blanket decisions about what others can and can’t read—I fully support parents’ rights to monitor what their own children read. No one knows a child better than his or her parent/grandparent. I hope the above sources prove helpful to those in charge of shaping young minds.

(If readers want to contact me about this, I can be reached on Twitter at @Steph_Lawton, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/StephanieLawtonWriter or at www.StephanieLawton.com.)

Thanks to Stephanie for sharing her insights and these helpful resources.

Mahala