"My 'Reprehensible' Take on Teen Literature" Response

In "My 'Reprehensible' Take on Teen Literature" by Meghan Fox Gurdon, she describes the disagreement people had over her previous article: "Darkness Too Visible." In "Darkness Too Visible" she describes how mother Amy Freeman was horrified by the darkness of YAL (young adult literature). And from the mood of that article, it seems as if Gurdon agrees with Freeman. This is what people were angry about. Authors such as Judy Blume and Libba Bray called her "idiotic," "narrow-minded," "brittle," "ignorant," "shrewish," "irresponsible" and "reprehensible."

However, Gurdon did produce a very strong article. She started off with what other people negatively commented on her article. She then summarized the article, and explained why she is correct and others were being silly. And although I have to disagree with her, her craft of the article was very persuasive.

I completely disagree with Gurdon's point: that YAL is inappropriate. I think the opposite because first of all, children should be allowed to read what they want. Second of all, it's not inappropriate; plus, most children these days are already exposed to this kind of material. And lastly, most of these YA books teach an important lesson: the main character usually gives up smoking or drinking or drugs, proving the point that those things are wrong.