What else could you ever need?
I've read quite a few books lately that deal with rather difficult issues for teens, and this week's book is no exception. I read Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess, which deals with a fifteen-year-old girl named Meredith who was sexually abused by her father. She testified against him and he was sent to prison, but he is being released early for "good behavior," and her mother wants him home. This is where the book begins.
The book certainly confronts the horror of incest and pedophilia head on. Weiss does a good job of detailing the terror and helplessness victims feel when confronted by their attacker. She has two characters who have suffered at the hands of the same man, and each one deals with the trauma in different ways. It is entirely possible that this book might appeal to a student either affected by such a traumatic event or interested in studying the effects of trauma on adolescents. However, I can't say that I would use it for my classroom or recommend that anyone else use it either. In some ways, this reminded me of the book Scars which I talked about a few weeks ago, but between the two, I believe that Scars would be the better option. Honestly, Wiess' book is not very well-written, and I feel very strongly that if we are going to introduce Young Adult literature to our classrooms, we should only use books of at least fairly high quality. We want students to be immersed in what they're reading and see it as a model of how they should write. If we show them stories that are not up to a certain standard, we're not doing much to expand their minds. There is so much YA lit that deals with difficult issues well and is also well-written, and we should be directing our students toward these types of books rather than showing them ones that don't meet a certain standard.
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AngelicaLaughter and literature are two of my favorite things, and I consider them to be crucial parts of my life. This blog is designed to spread life, laughter, and literature to anyone and everyone who needs them most. Photo by Tim Geers
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April 2015
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