Is Urban Fiction Appropriate for African American Teenagers?

African American teenagers, who are commonly reluctant readers and who do not read on their grade level in school, are found more frequently reading urban fiction or "ghetto" books. Urban fiction writings are complete with urban settings and lifestyles of African American characters. These books also include explicit violence, sex scenes and profanity. The target audience for these books is generally African American adults. The authors of urban fiction books are commonly young African Americans themselves.

People can relate to book characters that seem to be in similar situations. Teens' attraction to these books could be based primarily on the fact that they have similar experiences or they simply understand urban fiction characters. In addition, these books are more contemporary and different from the literature books they are frequently required to read in school.

My High School Experience with Zane

During my first year of teaching English, I received my induction into the world of teenagers reading urban fiction. One of my most hard working students in the class was also a special education student, labeled as reading on the second grade level. I was impressed by this student because anytime she completed an assignment; she would begin reading a book. What eventually occurred is that she would be so entertained by the book that she would almost refuse to put it away when it was time to begin a class assignment. There were even times when she would put the book inside of the classroom textbook in order to continue her leisurely reading. After one week of the student's repetitious habits, I finally asked her if I could see the book.

I was almost appalled to find that the cover of the book displayed a woman taking off her shirt. The title, Addicted, did not seem appropriate for my student. After asking a series of questions to the student about how many books she read and how often, I thumbed through the pages of the book. What I found was explicit profanity, several pages of graphic sex scenes and typos.