Censorship & Young Adult Literature

To assert that young adult literature exists merely as a transition from children’s books to “real” adult books is to undermine young readers’ astuteness. A young reader should never be made to feel that what he/she is reading is simply fodder for them to devour until they are apt enough to handle “true literature.” This could be disastrous, discouraging the reader from reading entirely.

To begin with, young adult literature possesses the same literary elements that are present in adult novels. For example, Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust carries throughout it the theme of rising out of the nothingness and fury of the dust. This is evident in the literal plot events as well as in Billie Joe’s metaphorical rise from the hardships she endures as a child of the depression in the Dust Bowl. In Lois Lowry’s The Giver, readers are exposed to as poignant an allegory as in any adult science fiction novel. Lowry’s portrayal of a dystopian society raises questions about our own. It is certainly not a sugarcoated, soft push toward more serious literature. There is nothing transitional about the literary quality of these novels. With regard to the writing, some young adult novels, such as The Giver and Gary Paulsen’s novels Dogsong and Winterdance contain much more complex structure than adult novels. Reading one of these alongside an adult novel, one may not even be able to discern which was intended for young readers. In fact, I sailed smoothly from Lowry right into Kate Chopin as a young adult, without ever noticing the difference until I was told that the former was intended for young adults. If young adult literature serves only a transitional purpose, when is the transition complete?