A few weeks ago, I read two interesting reviews of two different Young Adult novels. One reviewer praised the author for how he kept scenes in which characters abused drugs and alcohol to a minimum. The second reviewer applauded the writer for staying within the bounds of good taste despite edgy subject matter.  These critics were concerned with the emotional safety of the teenagers who would read these books. If an author indulges too much naughtiness, in the reviewers’ seeming opinion, he or she might interfere with the message that all parents want to provide their children—that they should behave well and not participate in self-destructive, excessive, or gratuitous ways.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago at SCWBI in Los Angeles, the author Sherman Alexie took the podium and spoke to an appreciative and wildly applauding audience about his experience of writing for teens. His own book, The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian has won multiple awards and stands out as a future classic in American Literature.

Yet, the novel has scenes which could be considered excessive, including the main character’s Junior’s description of his love of masturbation. Offensive? Could be. It’s funny too.

Teaching Part Time Indian to a 10^th grade Language Arts class means an instructor might have to listen to serious snickering. It would cross my mind that I would be better off presenting a novel like To Kill a Mockingbird—also a classic, but from a different more “polite” era. The racial lessons of Mockingbird are clear and don’t get boys making gestures or drawing anatomical pictures. The obvious ‘rights’ are much easier to discuss without the complication of masturbation and the boners Junior’s friends describe all good books give him.

But I think choosing propriety over “clear messages” is a mistake even in the classroom. Future literature like Alexie’s depends on its ability to challenge the status quo. Part Time Indian would be different without the questionable material. It would be flatter, less personal, less immediate to teens. Good books for adolescents relate to the strangers that teenagers are to themselves—ie, excessively concerned with sex, angry, depressed, confused, embarrassed, and sometimes socially inappropriate. If they wanted to know more about how they were “supposed” to be they would stick with television and advertizing, which, let’s face it, can make anyone feel like a mutant and an outsider.

Alexie speaks to Junior’s identity as a Native American in a white school but he also acknowledges that Junior’s onrush of hormones means he has weird fascinations. A youthful preoccupation with “the parent disapproved” might be the first step he takes in the eventual separation that allows him to think for himself. Most teens, like Junior, already know someone who smokes, drinks, or has sex. We don’t protect children by sheltering them from reading material which contains edgy subject matter; we give them one less way to objectively understand their complex world.

Edgy novels for Young Adults are more than just a trend. They may well be a new chapter in American writing which explores a previously ignored, underestimated, or overly idealized segment of society. Just as the nineties saw a rise in books that depicted the lives of hyphenated or marginalized Americans, the beginning of this century has seen an increase in the number of texts in search of the truths that redefine what it means to be young. YA Writers should not observe not from a perch of authority and unintentional superiority, but from the trenches where the heart and soul of the matter are most immediate. In this pursuit, I profoundly agree—a writer’s duty is not to be polite, but to do as Alexie does, tell the whole tale, and tell it true.

About The Author

J. T. Dutton was raised on a horse farm in Northwest Connecticut until attending Skidmore College. After receiving a BA in English and spending a little time not knowing what she wanted to do with her life, she later attended the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She received an MFA in Fiction and wrote the first drafts of Freaked. I really enjoy writing YA because teens are so potential as characters--they are all about transformation. They feel "young" but seek "age" and they, by nature, think outside the box. I may have an adult novel in me somewhere, but for now, this is what I do.  Read more about J. T. Dutton.

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