![]() When parents and guardians worry about books, they tend to worry about sex rather than violence. This is particularly the case for YA fiction, read by a wide audience but associated with teenage girls – a group whose consumption of literature has been fretted over for centuries (see Jane Austen’s book-addled heroine in Northanger Abbey). ![]() Thomas is quite right to note teen sex as a ban-worthy “issue” – just as many fear that sex education will encourage underage shenanigans, many worry that the depiction of something in fiction means endorsing it. (There are, of course, parallels here to the kind of over-policing of black youth that Thomas writes about.) And sometimes there’s a clear skewing of priorities. ![]() Sometimes it’s easier to zero in on a “bad word” – whether swear or slur – rather than engage with the content or context. ![]() Most challenges to young adult literature – whether in the form of an online mob denouncing an author or a campaign to remove a title from a particular library – are highly selective when it comes to what is deemed unsuitable for young readers. ![]()
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