Non-fiction Response to: Darkness Too Visible

In ELA class we read and annotated the article "Darkness Too Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon. In this article, Gurdon is trying to convince readers that young adult literature should not be accessible to teenagers. It is far too dark and inappropriate. Gurdon provides examples of young adult books with gruesome and lurid scenes that are "obviously" too awful for teens to read.

Megan Cox Gurdon provides many examples and quotes to prove her point. Gurdon shows the perspective of a mother, by the name of Amy Freeman, that has three kids and who believes that YA literature is just too intense for her 13 year old. Unfortunately Gurdon does not show the perpspective of the group she is speaking for, namely teenagers. This is pretty strange considering this article is about them and what they should and shouldn't read. She also includes many quotes from highly inappropriate books like 'The Marbury Lens' and 'Rage'. She uses many loaded words to get her point across like "horrendous", "unimaginable", and "ghastly".

I personally disagree with Megan Cox Gurdon. I think that you can not ban books for any age group. All people have different mental stabilities. What may be traumatizing to some teens may be okay for others and the same goes for adults. Also I don't think that one person or group of people can decide for thousands of people. If a book is or isn't inappropriate for a teen can be decided by them or their parents. Just because a few parents want to keep their children in little protective bubbles doesn't mean they can influence the other people around them to do the same.