YA author Chris Crutcher wrote an essay in response to Meghan Cox Gurdon’s controversial Wall Street Journal article about dark novels, calling it “ill-thought out and self-serving ‘reporting'”. Read his response on the Huffington Post site Huffpost Books.
Personally, I believe that Crutcher’s final paragraph is the most impactful statement made so far in this whole “discussion”:
“I have a solution for Amy Freeman, 46-year-old mother of three. Next time you want to get a book for your thirteen-year-old, send her to Barnes and Noble with a few bucks to buy what she wants. Take a look at it. Read it with her. Talk about what you like and don’t like, and learn what she likes and doesn’t like. Don’t make her read it; the freedom to read includes the freedom not to read. Put yourself into that enviable spot of being someone to turn to when your daughter’s life, from her point of view, matches up with some book, because as much as you think — or hope — it won’t, trust me, it will. When it does, if she thinks she will be diminished in your eyes, she’ll go elsewhere for help.”
Truer words have never been written.