H is for...Hate Crimes

Controversial Song of the Day: "Hate Everything About You" by Three Days Grace

For the entire month of April, we'll be participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Our theme for the month? CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS IN YA. Check out the link above for other awesome blogs participating.

Picture taken from crimesafety365.com

With the recent murder of Trayvon Martin, the fact that hate crimes is a problem in our country has become even more apparent (even though WE are not saying this was necessarily a hate crime). Unfortunately, hate crimes are part of American culture, so much so that several states have laws that protect individuals from being discriminated against or violated due to their gender, race, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. 


I deal with teens on a daily basis who make comments that they don't realize could be considered a hate crime--saying things like what another kid is wearing "looks gay" or asking if someone is black just because they have a name that sounds ethnic. I try my best to educate these students, but I think if they read a few novels, they might learn a little bit more.


There are several YA novels that they can turn to:


Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwan


The Hate Crime by Phyllis Karas


Shine by Lauren Myracle


What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum Ucci


I haven't outright heard anyone complain about the discussion  of hate crimes in YA novels. However, I am sure that are several parents who would not want their children to read books about gay teens being bashed by fellow classmates. It's too negative, too harsh, too...real.


What do you all think-- should YA writers keep creating novels focused on teens and hate crimes? Is your novel centered around this topic?

G is for...Guns

Controversial Song of the Day: "21 Guns" by Greenday


For the entire month of April, we'll be participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Our theme for the month? CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS IN YA. Check out the link above for other awesome blogs participating.

Taken from Trialx.com

Guns have always been a hot button issue among Americans. Guns and teens became a bigger problem  in 1999, after the school shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. Unfortunately, the news of school shootings did not end there. This goes to show that teens are getting their hands on guns much easier.


Did you know...?


*Nearly half of African American teens know someone who has been shot


*34% of teens say they can get a handgun if they really wanted to


*More than one in three teens say they fear being shot someday


*42.6% of teens fear that gun violence might happen at their school


Statistics taken from ucanchicago.org


Gun violence is prevalent in teen's lives. Just this year, there have been two instances of teens bringing guns to school and opening fire: Chardon, OH on March 28th (the student opened fire, killing three classmates and seriously wounding two others) and Oakland,CA on April 2nd (at a Christian school--the suspect is a man in his 40's, but this still occurred at a school).  


I think it's all too obvious that school shootings are happening, and instead of sheltering out children and never making them aware, we should welcome YA novels about this violence. Maybe one teen who reads a book about school shootings can prevent another one from happening.


Since YA writers tend to create stories based on teen issues, there are numerous novels that discuss school shootings. Here are a few of those novels:


*Shooter by Walter Dean Myers


*Hate List  by Jennifer Brown


*Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult


*Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser


*Project X by Jim Shepard


Do you all know of any other important books about school shootings that we've left off? What about your own writing--have any school violence or guns in them??

F is for...F*^K! & Other "Shameful" Words: Cursing in YA

Controversial Song of the Day: "F*^K You" by Cee-Lo Green


For the entire month of April, we'll be participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Our theme for the month? CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS IN YA. Check out the link above for other awesome blogs participating.

Taken from byu.edu

Curse words. So many of us use them. Yet, when they are written in a book for teens, people complain. 


I hear my students curse all the time. Most of them don't think that I can hear them; however, some of them are fully aware that they are cursing in front of adults and they just don't care. 


Swear words have become a normal part of teenage vernacular. So, why should we not use them in our novels? Of course having the "F" word in every sentence is a little unnecessary, but dropping the "F" bomb every now and then in a YA novel is not the end of the world--at least it shouldn't be.


Pam and I don't shy away from using foul language. I even have a couple curse words in my historical novel--hey, people swore in the early 1900s, believe me. 


This topic has come up on several blogs before and it is still considered to be controversial. Here are a few older blog posts where you can read about this topic and gauge just how long it's been going on:


Kidlit.com (from 2010)
Literaticat.blogspot.com (from 2011)
YAtopia.blogspot.com (from 2011)


For those of you that are completely against cursing in YA and you only want to read "clean" novels, here are a few popular YA novels that have NO curse words (according to the Interwebz) in them:


*The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan


*Chime by Franny Billingsley


*Divergent by Veronica Roth


*The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson


*The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


You tell us: do you write a lot of swear words in your YA novels? Do you think YA novels should be free of curse words? Finally, can you think of any realistic contemporary YA that is completely swear-free??

E is for...Eating Disorders

Controversial Song of the Day: "Eet" by Regina Spektor


For the entire month of April, we'll be participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Our theme for the month? CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS IN YA. Check out the link above for other awesome blogs participating.



We all have to eat. Some of us enjoy doing it so much that we create our daily schedules based on our meals *coughs* Pam and Quita *coughs*. But believe it or not, there are several people who don't partake in the pleasures and joy of food and eating like others. These are the people that we identify as having an eating disorder. There are various types of eating disorders; however, Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa, and Binge-eating disorder are the most common. (taken from a Bing article sponsored by MayoClinic.com)



Did you know...?


*Anorexia nervosa is estimated to affect 1 in 100 adolescent girls


*The approximate age when young girls become anorexic is 13.75, and the range is 10 to 25 years old


*About 6% of girls between 13-19 are thought to have Bulimia nervosa


*76% of people with eating disorders began their disorder between 11 to 20 years of age.


Statistics taken from: teeneatingdisorders.us and teenhelp.com

The numbers may not be as shocking as some of the other stats we've given you this week, but in my opinion even 1% of the population being afflicted with an eating disorder is more than enough. These stats show that eating disorders exist and there are people who suffer from it--which means authors should not be afraid to write about it.

In Pam's novel, Wants, one of her characters suffers from a slight eating disorder. Her teen character is a dancer, with pressure from her mother to be the perfect size. As educators, we are all to aware of teen girls feeling pressure to look like the "perfect" women they see on TV and in magazines. We need writers, like Pam, to put a face to eating disorders, make teens aware that there are people who suffer just like them, and give them possible solutions to this growing problem.

So, while we wait to thumb through Wants, what other novels can you read that shine a light on eating disorders?

*Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

*More Than You Can Chew by Marnelle Tokio

*Skinny by Ibi Kaslik

*Perfect by Natasha Friend

*Kim: Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager by Beatrice Sparks

What do you all think about eating disorders in YA--is it something that definitely should continue to be discussed? Did we miss a book that we should have on this list?

D is for...Drinking

Controversial Song of the Day: "Drank in my Cup" by Kirko Bangz


For the entire month of April, we'll be participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Our theme for the month? CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS IN YA. Check out the link above for other awesome blogs participating.




DRINKING. Something that most of us probably indulged in before we were 21--yet, we act surprised to hear that today's teens are guzzling alcohol like it's soda.


Did you know...?


*Nearly 72% of students have consumed alcohol by the end of high school; 37% have done so by eighth grade


*56.2% of underage drinkers report that they drank in someone else's home; 29.6% reported that it occurred in their own home.


*During the past month 26.4 % of teenagers drank alcohol and among them 17.4 % participated in binge drinking


Statistics taken from: http://www.sadd.org/stats.htm

As Pam mentioned in Sunday's post about addiction, the bad rap that YA gets from critics is largely based on drug use and alcohol consumption. However, YA writers create worlds that teen readers will relate to. Contemporary writers have to produce material that is accurate and reflects the culture that we live in. Unfortunately, as demonstrated by the statistics above, alcohol consumption among teens is normal.

We both work with pre-teens and teenagers and we hear rumors about parties where alcohol was the star. In schools across America, students are getting suspended from bringing alcohol TO the building! It's happening, people!

So, as writers we keep it real. In our novels, there is drinking. In Pam's novel Wants, a character's band plays at a club with a bar where a friendly bartender gives him a break. In her second novel, Project J, her main character gets associated with beer through an awkward keg stand. It's sad to say...these things happen!

There are several novels where drinking happens (probably most contemporary YA novels to be frank), but here are a few where drinking plays a central role:

*Recovery Road by Blake Nelson

*Party by Tom Leveen

*So, Save Me by Kim Mitchell

*Freaked by J.T. Dutton

What do you all think about drinking in YA? Is it necessary or is it something that can be left out? Speaking of being "left out"...got any books to add to our list?

C is for...Cutting

Controversial Song of the Day: "Scars" by Papa Roach

For the entire month of April, we'll be participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Our theme for the month? CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS IN YA. Check out the link above for other awesome blogs participating.


Cutting--just one form of self-injury that some teens use. There are many misconceptions about self-injury. Some people assume that when a teen cuts, he/she is trying to commit suicide; others think it's just a cry for attention. However, when someone resorts to cutting, or any form of self-mutilation, the reasons why aren't so black and white.


Did You Know...?

*Between 2-3 million Americans display some kind of self-abusive behavior (this includes eating disorders, which we'll discuss later in the week)

*1 in every 200 girls between 13-19 years old cut themselves regularly

*The number of teen cutting cases are on the rise

*If not treated, teens will continue cutting themselves into their adult years
*Statistics taken from teenhelp.com

The numbers above are only a small sample of what's out there. Shame is usually attached to self-injury, so those who engage in it usually remain quiet.

As a school counselor, I've noticed that girls tend to cut in groups--meaning when word gets out that one friend is cutting, a few of their friends may "try it out" in hopes that they can relieve some of their own pain. While there are male cutters out there, I've personally witnessed boys punching walls or burning their knuckles with pencil erasers as a way to cope.

Since the numbers are not significant, some people like to pretend that cutting only exists on teen dramas. These are the same people who get prickly about the mention of self-injury in YA books. Though Quita and I haven't tackled cutting in our own writing, neither of us would be afraid to address when we see fit. Here are some authors that are taking on this taboo:

• Cut by Patricia McCormick


• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson


• Specials by Scott Westerfeld


• Impulse by Ellen Hopkins


• Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

Have any of you mentioned cutting in your own writing? Any good books that we left out?

B is for...Bullying

Controversial Song of the Day: "Bully" by Three Days Grace


For the entire month of April, we'll be participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Our theme for the month? CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS IN YA. Check out the link above for other awesome blogs participating.


So, bullying. I've experienced it. You've probably experienced it. But bullying seems to be a far, far more serious issue since when I was a kid. When I was younger, I'd get teased, go home, and feel safe.

But kids aren't safe at home anymore.

At least once a week, I have to hold some kind of mediation in my counseling office for some kind of disagreement that spawned from text messages, Facebook, or Twitter. Not only do kids and teens have to deal with bullying in the hallways, but it's invading their homes now.

Did You Know...?

*1/3 of teens report being bullied at school
*18% of teens had a rumor spread about them
*11% were physically bullied
*6% were threatened
*44% of middle school students report being bullied, compared to about 20% of elementary and high school students
*About 8% of students report being cyber-bullied
*Statistics were taken from bullyingstatistics.org

These numbers were collected in 2009--who knows where we stand three years later (I believe more than 8% of my middle school students have experienced cyber-bullying).

The question is--should we write about bullying in our YA novels? Well, if we want our novels to be realistic, then yes. True, many people like to read to escape from their everyday problems--but we also read to find a way to cope when life gets too tough. Here are some of the YA novels that truly bring bullying to light:

• By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Ann Peters


• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher


• Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers


• The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney


• Cracked by KM Walton

What are your thoughts on bullying in YA? Any other books you'd like to share?