Sorry if I haven't been able to check my email or do blog posts. I have been at the James River Church Camp and they don't allow electronics and I wouldn't have even had time to read anyway. It was very fun and I got to meet someone AWESOME people that share my interests. I would love to share pictures of my trip with you guys, but I forgot my camera, so you can go to the James River official site to learn more.
The games were amazing and the Team Competitions were intense. I have some new friends and I even got to talk to a camp leader about my blog. She thought it was very cool that someone my age can keep up with the standards and stress of having a blog. When I told her that I only reviewed clean teen/ya, she asked what YA meant. She thought YA stood for Youth Appropriate. Don't you guys agree that YA should be "Youth Appropriate"? That mean no sex(unless it's fade to black) and few to no cuss words. Do you guys think that YA books now are too close to New Adult books.
Contact me with your opinions, because I love to hear from you guys. You guys are a big reason that my blog is as successful as it is. I wouldn't be where I am today without you guys. Love ya all! :)
I think part of the issues we have with our society today is the pop culture. There's a lot of negative influences, especially with the internet and all. YA books are called Young Adult books for a reason. Not to say that it's not a terrible thing to throw in a few (minor) curse words here and there and have the love interests kiss (passionately). However, I really hate how much teens these days are pressured into sex. Its no wonder everybody feels like they have to do it, because I've hardly read any YA books with a romance that doesn't involve sex at some point unless its a Christian novel. It really shouldn't be this way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hate books that curse frequently, particularly if it's the F-word, S-word, etc. Its distracting if used too much and really takes away from the quality of the book.
YA books don't have to be completely innocent because it would give it too much of a goody-goody feel, but pre-martial sex and heavy cursing bothers me, as well as a heavy impliance on any other adult content. There's a fair amount of younger kids around 10-12 that might end up reading this stuff. I know at 12 years old I wanted to read Twilight and my mom was so bad at me for reading it.
This is all just my opinion, but I think YA shouldn't go any higher than a PG-13 with content. I think its okay to have some adult themes as long as they're not heavily descriptive or frequent.
As a writer myself (looking into publishing my novel), my stuff is mostly clean. Some minor swearing (damn and hell), but absolutely no sexual themes or stuff like that.
You have some very valid points and we share the same thoughts. I will go into more detail in a post next week.
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