Confession: I joined Twitter a while ago because it was such a weird and awesome concept when it first started. I followed some friends and local people, but it was kind of boring after a while. While searching for new, interesting people to follow, I found a bunch of authors - specifically, young adult literature authors. Authors like Laurie Halse Anderson and Scott Westerfeld, both of whom I’d heard of before. I also came across Maureen Johnson, who is easily the most entertaining person I’ve ever followed on Twitter. EASILY. She’s funny, quirky, unpredictable, and has moved followers to raise THOUSANDS of dollars for Shelterbox, which provides shelters for people who have survived natural disasters (Japan earthquake and tsunami, Joplin tornadoes, etc.).

Basically, these three, and a few others who I’ve gotten to know via Twitter, really piqued my interest in YA literature and I couldn’t be more grateful. YA books today are amazing. There were very few books aimed at teens when I was a teenager, which is why I rarely read anything not assigned to me by my English teachers. It sounds crazy since I’m an English teacher and bookworm now, but I went through a looooong period of never reading for fun because there were no books that interested me (or so I thought, really there was just no one to show me books I might like).

Anyway. Yesterday, these and other authors and tons of YA readers lashed out on Twitter in response to this AWFUL book review by a writer at the Wall Street Journal. The article called “Darkness Too Visible” criticizes current YA books for being too gory, too dark, with no happy endings. The “writer” (I use that term loosely) says the descriptions of self-injury glorify the act and that the language in YA books is vulgar.  Obviously this writer has no idea that many teens don’t get happy endings for their adolescent years. They have filthy mouths because they’re trying to gain their independence and define themselves. Many teens ARE abused, molested, neglected, contemplate suicide, self-injure, and have NO OUTLET. No one to listen. No one who understands. Maybe not even a friend who listens.

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The more time I spend in the classroom, the more I realize that teens today are fun, yet sophisticated. Fortunately for them, the current young adult authors know that, and write books accordingly. One of my favorite YA authors is Scott Westerfeld, and he recently wrote a bit about why he thinks teens love a good dystopian story. He joined a few other authors in the discussion, and the New York Times published it here.

Scott Westerfeld believes teens have to answer to many demands, but aren’t given much freedom in return:

Schools are places where teens are subject to dress codes, have few free speech rights, and are constantly surveilled, where they rise and sit at the sound of a bell. Is it any wonder that dystopian novels speak to them?

Scott Westerfeld

Westerfeld wrote an interesting sci-fi series that starts with Uglies, and he just completed another trilogy that starts with Leviathan. I read Uglies in college and loved it, and I just read Leviathan and can’t wait to read Bohemoth (the next one in the series).

One of the other authors in the discussion is Paolo Bacigalupi who wrote The Windup Girl. I haven’t read it, but I loved what he had to say in his part of the discussion.

I suspect that young adults crave stories of broken futures because they themselves are uneasily aware that their world is falling apart.

Paolo Bacigalupi

It’s a great discussion - check it out!