So I’m sitting on the train the other morning, minding my own business, my nose in a copy of Ellen Hopkins’ latest, Tricks. If you don’t know who the best-selling author Hopkins is, it’s because you don’t have a teenager in the house. Her utterly captivating books take on controversial and painful subject matter — abuse, drug use, family tragedy — in a most unusual form: They’re written in blank verse. I know you’re thinking, Yeah, right, what self-respecting teenager is going to read a novel written in free verse? The answer is: lots of them. I witnessed it first hand when my oldest daughter, then 13 or so, fell in love with Sonya Sones’ What My Mother Doesn’t Know, also written in free verse, and now I’m seeing it again with Hopkins, whose unadorned, unfettered narratives are very, very powerful.
But back to the train the other morning. I was lost in a copy of Tricks — which tackles teen prostitution — when I was startled back into reality by a woman from my town I know by sight, not by name. “I would never let my daughters read that,” she practically spat. “Do you know what she writes about?” I regarded her for a moment and said mildly, “You know, I don’t believe in censoring books.” “That’s your choice, of course, but I personally wouldn’t want my girls knowing any of this,” she replied. Honey, I thought to myself, I bet they already know most of it. But — and feel free to call me a coward — I didn’t say any of this her. (It’s just not worth it with some people.) I simply let myself get lost in the book’s lyricism again.
“As For My Body
It’s battered, scraped, bruised. The Tears
of Zion shift looks about a hundred years old.
I did spend a few bucks at the Salvation Army.
Bought a used skirt, two tank tops. Underwear.
I hate to think who used them, why they gave
them away. But they only cost a dime apiece.
I stink, too. I’ve managed four or five showers,
when the man of the hour wanted to spring for
a motel room. More often, it’s the seat of his car.
Quick and easy, five minutes or less. No emotion.
No pain. And the weirdest thing is, I’m not
the least bit embarrassed about doing it any more.
That’s the worst part. That, and when my brain
insists on remembering Andrew. Thinking
about how he held me, rained his love down
all around me, brings devouring pain.
So I’ll think instead about the coming night, where
I might peddle the remaining tatters of my soul.”
Okay: Literature it’s not. But I completely understand why teens would want to read it. Books are a way to get information. I’ve written about this topic before, right after I found a Gossip Girl paperback tumbling out of my daughter Maddie’s backpack. That was years ago: She was in middle school when that column came out, and she’ll be leaving for college next summer. She and her sister are practically grown. But in the intervening years, my take on teens and books hasn’t changed. Yes, kids might — in the case of Gossip Girl — be spending way too much time reading about the shopping habits of morally challenged New Yorkers. Or they might be reading about crack addicts or domestic abuse or teen pregnancy, maybe all in the same book. One of my girls recently finished Amy Efaw’s After, about a straight-A student and soccer star who doesn’t realize she’s pregnant until she delivers (and then she stuffs the baby in the trash). But what of it? God knows I learned a lot of things from books, starting with Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret when I was 8 or 9 and moving into my mother’s Literary Guild Main Selections (principally Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side of Midnight) and then into Jaws and The Godfather. When I was 16 or 17 I found my parents’ “secret” stash (The Happy Hooker, The Joy of Sex). And who remembers Jean Auel’s prehistoric porn, Clan of the Cave Bear?
What about you? Did you do the same thing? Do you have rules for your teenagers and the books they read?
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Jackie Collins
Ditto! In JHS I was reading the Sweet Valley series. In HS, I was reading every Jackie Collins novel that existed. My mom never protested and I learned a lot from those books! LOL
I don’t care what my kids are ready as long as they are reading….It never bothered me when they found comic books moved to harry potter or on to Twilight it is the fact that they are READING and not sitting in front of a TV screen that makes me happy
Agree, any time a child or teenager is reading, be happy they can read when so many kids today are graduating high school and can’t read. I never censored what my son read as a teenager, it was better than vegging in front of a video game or computer screen. I have read a lot of the series out there for teens and I really don’t find anything more than what they actually see in school and on the streets not to mention on TV. If they want to read be glad they can read.
I hate to be pedantic, but Hopkins’ books are written in FREE verse, not blank verse. Blank verse is unrhymed lines of poetry with a regular metre (usually iambic pentameter)- think Shakespeare.
Anyway, I teach at an alternative high school full of non-readers, and the students can’t get enough of Ellen Hopkins’ books. Both the boys and girls love them. Keep in mind, these are teens who have never read a book before reading 600 pages!
You’re right. I stand corrected.
Tina, you rock. Both for this column and for this post.
My complete support of teens reading aside,I am REALLY irritated by the Hopkins book. She stole the idea from Karen Hesse’s far-superior (Newbery award winning) novel “Dust”, and uses it as a cheap trick to grind out have a dozen shocktastic, schlocky variations on “teen girl in trouble” theme. She’s a hack.
But yeah, as a teen, I would have eaten it up.
Karen Hesse’s novel (which is titled “Out of the Dust” not “Dust”) was originally published in 1997. It was not the first “novel in verse” to be published, and Ellen Hopkins is not the only author to use this format since Hesse’s book was published.
Mel Glenn published a novel in verse titled “Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems” that same year.
Australian author Steven Herricks published a novel in verse called “Love, Ghosts and Facial Hair” in 1996.
Virginia Euwer Wolff’s “Make Lemonade” was published in 1993.
Novels in verse are very popular amongst young adults, and many have been published in the years since “Out of the Dust” was released. The books written by Hopkins are arguably the most popular. A list of Young Adult Novels in Verse can be found here: bloggingya.blogspot.com/2009/09/books-novels-in-verse.html
Criticize Ellen Hopkin’s writing all you want – that is your right. However, her books are very popular and get a lot of non-readers reading. That is awesome IMO.
I was always a big reader..The Godfather was a big one for me..I read that when I was a young teenager. But I learned alot about like from books, they took me to worlds that I would never go to on my own,taught me lessons without me having to have those bad experiences. I can remember passing books between my girlfriends and then having discussions about these new situations. Books could make me worldly without ever having to leave my small hometown!
Man that lady on the train was delusional. If her kids have ever read a newspaper or watched tv, then they’re probably familiar with the ugly parts of life. I always encourage kids to read; if they choose to read about things like teen pregnancy, drug addiction, abuse, etc….more power to them. If we start censoring what our children read, we may as well burn the inappropriate ones like the Nazis used to.
That woman was strange indeed. Why did she automaticly assume that because you were reading it, your child would read it?
Because it’s a young adult novel, and she probably knew about it, even if she hadn’t read it.
There are many narrow-minded people out there. How is reading a book with controversial content any different from watching some of the crud movies out there?? At least the kids are reading. When I was a kid, I got tired of re-reading Little House on the Praire and Anne of Green Gables and started picking up my mom’s books. What a difference! I let my kids read what ever they want. All I ask of them is if there is something they don’t like, or understand, come ask me questions so we can dicuss it. There is no way to stop a teenager from reading what they want if they really want to read it.
I hated those books!! too, I started reading other kinds of books-one landed me in the principals office!! JAWS! Hey as long as you read and enjoy!
@ ks really? now-a-days my school is just happy to see you read than text
When I started picking up my Mom’s books, she was into Stephen King. She never said anything against it and I still like King today.
As a teenager, I read what I could get my hands on. What I read took me out of my small town and introduced me to a larger world. I learned a ton from books.
Thats exactly how I felt growing up! People used to look at me strange when I read in the lunchroom of my small town High school!!
When I was about 14, my best friend’s mom told me that, because my parents let me read whatever I wanted, they must not really care about me. Even then, I knew how backwards that was. I cannot thank my parents enough for not only allowing but encouraging me to read anything I could get my hands on.
I ran into a similar situation as a teen! An adult once remarked that I must be pretty lonely because I read all the time. In truth, I was far from it – some of those book characters were better friends than the people I met in real life, and they taught me important lessons.
are not real friends. Maybe you have a perfectly normal social life now, but your comment made me sad and seemed a bit unhinged. Books DO teach a lot, but they don’t truly reflect the reality of human interaction or allow you to practise it. It’s a shame you had to withdraw into fantasy to have good’friends’. Few people in life can measure up to fictional creations.
I don’t think Melissa’s comment was “unhinged” at all. I don’t know her, so I don’t know what her experience was, but when I was a kid I also preferred my “book friends”, because the people I met in books were generally better than the kids who beat me up, stole my personal belongings, and spread lies about me. Sometimes the “reality of human interaction” sucks.
Oh, and to respond to the actual article, I read got in trouble for reading “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” at school.
I can remember going to the library during summer break with my mom when I was twelve and thirteen (‘87+’88) and checking out back copies of Cosmo, Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon and Judith Krantz novels, not to mentio the classic Clan of the Cave Bear. My mom was happy I was reading. I seem to have turned out okay so the explicit topics did not ruin me for society. I’d rather have my kid read racy novels than watch any Saw film.
My teen has read all of Hopkins’ books, and it hasn’t bothered me in the least. I love that she reads, and I try to read everything she loves so that we have just that much more to talk about. We are very close.
I was and have always been a big reader. However, my mom always knew what I was reading and was always there if I had questions about what I read. I think that might be what is getting some parents/kids into trouble. Kids reading information and having questions but not having anyone to ask that won’t chastise them for reading soemthing they deem innapropriate.
So true.
Judith Krantz’s “Scruples” at age 11 or 12. Mind. Boggled.
I too read Scruples and got a significant education! (I was a little older though, maybe 15). Don’t laugh, it was a long time ago1
Princess Daisy, also by Krantz, was my preteen primer. To this day (many years later!) I still remember scenes and lines from that book. Would anyone happen to have any Paco Rabanne jewelry to go with my silver paper minidress?
I learned so much from reading. I loved the Judy Blume books and used to sneak my mom’s Cosmos and Glamours when she wasn’t home. I also loved slasher novels- Christopher Pike, and the Fear Street Series. I read what was truly interesting to me at the time and it gave me a lifelong passion for reading.
I remember in 4th grade I was reading Are you there God,it’s me Margaret and my teacher took the book away from me and called my mom. My mom had to come into the schoold to get the book because he wouldn’t give it to me because it was filth. I was so proud when my mom told the teacher that I could read anything I was interested in reading (within limits I’m sure) and she would appreciate it if she were to be the “book monitor” and not him. Score 1 for mom. And to this day I am an avid reader and will read almost anything and never suffered any ill effects from reading a book.
I like your mum!
I don’t see the comparison between Ellen Hopkins and Gossip Girl. Teenagers don’t read Ellen Hopkins for information or for any morbid curiosity about rape, drugs, or cutting. They read those books and connect with them because they’re REAL. The writing is really gorgeous, and these books really strive to get people aware about the difficult problems facing teenagers. But Gossip Girl? It’s pure cotton candy. There’s no POINT to the vulgarity in those books other than to spin a fantasy world where teens can do whatever they want without consequences. What draws girls to Gossip Girl is not the same thing going on with Ellen Hopkins, I assure you.
But does there have to be a “point” to that sort of book? When I was 13, my book of choice was the Harlequin Presents romance. They’re about as close to empty calories as you can get, but they appealed to me. After reading dozens, I never once went to Italy and had a torrid affair with a mysterious count at his villa. There is nothing wrong with reading for the sake of escapism.
My daughter read GG and The Clique in middle school. Now she’s reading Hopkins’ books and loving them. She told me she’s tired of reading teen fiction.
As for myself, I remember reading The Happy Hooker when I was at school!! I remember thinking how shocking it was.
I HATE it when people try to censor books. I remember reading Speak and I was just shocked by the material in it, because it was completely different from any of the books I’d read before.
my mom let me read whatever i want in school. i didn’t even want to read anything that was too explicit and talked a lot about sex. i chose that on my own. my parents have always encouraged me to read. i thought speak was really great as well! read it in high school. i also wondered how anyone could ban the adventures of huckleberry finn. there’s nothing wrong with it. people were racist during that time and used those words. it’s a great classic.
by that time, i mean the novel’s time period if that makes sense, lol.
That is NOTHING compared to the completely dirty V.C. Andrews I read in junior high. I remember reading Flowers in the Attic in 7th grade—and all of my friends were reading them too. Nothing like reading about incest at 13.
Ha! I remember those books – freaky! Glad my mom had no clue.
I call your 7th grade, and raise you a 5th grade. I loved Christopher and Carrie back then. I also read Clan of the Cave Bear in 7th grade. Loved that one too.
I read the VC Andrews books when I was young too, they were all the rage in middle school, but they had some intense sex scenes and yeah the whole incest thing..
I am like you. I started reading them in gr 7 then read everything else by VC Andrews, and progressed to Sidney Sheldon’s Princess Daisy and Danielle Steele over the next few years. Way lots of sex, violence in those, can’t be worse than what they are reading now
Yes…. VC Andrews. I remember reading Flowers in the Attic when I was a teen. And of course, Judy Blume.
The first slightly racy book that I remember reading was Judy Blume’s Forever. It was the first sex scene I ever read; I had to have been pretty young at the time because it really stands out to me. Later, when I was in high school, I went back and read it again and it was pretty mild but the first time I read it, it really left an impression.
LOL, That was the first “racy” book I read too…what an eye opener (I was 11 or 12) and was terrified that I’d get in trouble for reading but I didn’t. My mom was cool and just told me if I had questions to ask her. When I was in middle school and high school I read anything I could get my hands. Loved Fear Street–still have them all in a box in my attic with my babysitter’s club books and Nancy Drew Series. I used to read Danielle Steele too (once my mom was done with them of course!)
That was my introduction into “racy” books, as well.
Ok, somewhat dissenting opinion here. There is a big difference between censorship and not allowing your own kids to read books that are age-inappropriate. Also, I take umbrage with the idea that the content of a book doesn’t matter as long as a kid is reading something. Just as middle schoolers are not allowed into R rated movies, they should not be reading books full of explicit sex, violence and F bombs – porn on a page – that give a very warped impression of love and relationships.
Thats why its important that parents at least know what the kids are reading and be open about talking about uncomfortable topics. The Young Adult section of the bookstore is full of different “levels” of appropriatness (in terms of the books themselves), and so is the library for that matter. The access to kids is there therefore parents should be involved (like a previous poster who said she reads the books along with her daughter)and be willing to talk about sex, drugs and violence etc that are in the books and in the real world itself. That avoids the whole warped impression (I think anyways)
I totally agree, Minerva. And I’m shocked that no one else seems to agree.
Minerva, I agree, too. You made every point I was going to. What a person–of any age–puts into their mind through various media affects their character. I’m not one bit surprised that those posters who say “let the kids read anything” are the same ones who are saying, “I read it, and I turned out fine.” I disagree! You turned out to have a warped sense of what kind of information/entertainment is appropriate for children to ingest. Hold yourselves to a higher moral standard, people!
Wow – you gals need to get laid.
Higher moral standard? Surely you are joking. They are just books. Ignorance is a bigger danger to kids than books that may be too advanced for them.
If they aren’t ready for the books, they won’t bother to finish them.
Jean Genie, and what purpose does that comment serve? Why does every kid only have the option of reading either a dirty novel or nothing at all?
There are other options and the reason why society becomes increasingly immoral is because eventually everything that used to be wrong is now right and even encouraged.
One thing is to keep your children ignorant and it’s another thing to allow them to do whatever they want because you just want to be your child’s friend instead of a parent.
Del, they are not “just books.” Ignorance about explicit sex is not a bad thing at 11 or 12, or even later in teen years.
And it’s not true that “if they aren’t ready for the books, they won’t bother to finish them.” I read a number of books which I really wish I hadn’t during my early teen years. I finished them because it’s like watching a train wreck–you can’t tear yourself away.
In the back of my head, I knew that it wasn’t appropriate, and I certainly wasn’t ready for it then (and I’m still not now), but I couldn’t put those books down. I was truly addicted to those books.
Adolescents are highly impressionable, and until there is more wholesome, age appropriate reading published for adolescents, I am not even going to bother sorting through the YA section looking for something fit to read.
Just wanted to say that I think it depends on the person whether or not certain books give people a warped impression of love and relationships. I have yet to be in a relationship (and I’m a freshman in college!), and even after reading tons of romance novels, etc., I definitely don’t think relationships will be the way they’re portrayed in [most] books. But that doesn’t make the books bad for people to read.
A couple of advantages that reading has over viewing R rated movies and the like, is that it allows the reader to “self-censor” and it allows time for reflection. I think you’d be surprised how often the self-censorship thing happens. The reflection is the biggest difference, I think.
Of course you can close your eyes at the movies, but…
Minerva, I agree that all subject matter is not appropriate for all readers, but as a mother, a former librarian, AND the wife of a conservative Christian pastor, I have to say that I plan to let my daughter read whatever she gets her hands on. I did, and so did my husband, and despite the snarky comment of another poster, it’s simply the truth that we DID turn out fine… and with pretty darn high moral standards. For the same reason that reading Harry Potter isn’t going to turn my daughter into a Satan worshipper, or whatever the most recent claim is, reading about teen prostitution will not turn her into a prostitute. I DO think it’s very important to know what she’s reading and in many cases to read it too. I think it’s important to talk about these things (i.e. teen pregnancy, abortion, drug use, abuse, and the many other much more minor trials and tribulations of life, like not feeling one’s jeans are cool), and if a book is what brings up the subject, so be it. I think Tina’s making a good point here.
Kids in middle school and high school are dealing with sex and violence and “f-bombs” in their real lives. Should the books they read pretend that’s not happening?
Also, these books don’t teach that any of these things are right and normal. In fact, most of them show situations like drug use, prostitution, etc. as terrible things and instead warn teenagers to stay away from them.
Middle schoolers are allowed into R-rated movies with a parent. Same as a parent allowing his/her kid to read mature books.
“Okay: Literature it’s not.”
Why? What makes his not literature? It is just because it’s YA? You posted a very short excerpt, which is wonderfully written and in a few lines, with few words, expresses some powerful stuff and evoked a reaction from me. I don’t know what else you could expect from literature… (unless you want it to be dry and boring. Then yes, you’re right. That, it’s not.)
My folks allowed me to have an unrestricted library card when I was a child. As a 10 year old, I read everything from ‘Peanuts” collections to Stephen King to ‘The Book of Lists’ to (yes!) Jackie Collins. I was encouraged to be the voracious reader I am today. And I’m thrilled my sister allows my 9 year old niece to make her own choices at the library.
Personally, I find the Twilight series of books to be completely useless, but if I had a girl who wanted to read them, no way I would discourage her from doing so. I read Judy Blume and VC Andrews voraciously as a kid, so I understand the draw of certain books for kids. I think as long as you relay to your kids that they can always come to you with questions or comments about what they’re reading, then the sky’s the limit. I’d much rather see kids with book than sitting in front of the TV or computer hours on end.
I agree with Criss above. I love your unspoken argument to the woman on your train, but I have to disagree with your statement that TRICKS is not literature.
As a literary agent specializing in Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction, I sell books that not only tell amazing stories with compelling characters, but I also fully support young readers’ choices in what they read. I was like you — picking up Jackie Collins and Sidney Sheldon books at a young age because, at that time, there were no YA books as there are today.
Books like TRICKS, or TENDER MORSELS by Margo Lanagan, present difficult situations that many teens do find themselves in — and they show a way out.
I can’t support anyone who would want to restrict a teen’s access to hope, and a way out of their own crisis.
That’s what the Bible is for.
I consider the Bible to be a great work of fiction, too – ** tee hee **
Um, yeah, Laura. If one is christian. Which more than SIXTY PERCENT OF THE WORLD POPULATION IS **NOT**. So I guess I fail to see your point.
I’m from Montreal, which is a pretty free-wheelin’ place, so my high school library had titles like Evelyn Lau’s non-fiction ‘Diary of a Prostitute’, and Melvin Burgess’ ‘Junk’ was grade 10 summer reading. Did I really learn anything I needed to know at the time by reading every last graphic, horrific, quasi-cautionary detail of ‘Diary of a Prostitute’ at 13? In hindsight, no, but ironically ‘Junk’ (a graphic ‘n gritty fiction about teenage runaways) gave me some timely, much-needed reflection on the nature and purposes – and plausible consequences that must be lived with – of teenage rebellion. I still have my copy ten years later. Most of the explicit stuff I read as a YA was books that were made into movies – my mom had the weird idea that idea that books are always wholesome and innocent. So for example, I wasn’t allowed to see Jurassic Park, but mom bought me a copy of the book. The movie was PG-13. The book was R and then some. I had fantastic nightmares, and a very interesting new vocabulary from that one. You can bet I never told mum.
But looking back, as someone who still loves to read (and still loves a good horror flick), reading graphic stuff at an age when the graphic content was my whole excitement – i.e. I didn’t/couldn’t appreciate the story – didn’t do me any good, and I actually wish mum had done stuff like skim those books before giving me the go-ahead.
My daugher’s summer reading this year was Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
and nothing to be proud of, unless you like illiterates, bad smells, panhandlers, squeegee punx and talentless hippy/ hipster slumming constantly high trust-fund kids with overentitlement issues trying to whack you with their u-locks as they careen through pedestrians on a crowded sidewalk on their fixies. and if you do like those things, you also suck.
Wow. Way to generalize and stereotype an entire city. Clearly you’ve only ever walked down one street, or maybe you’ve never even been to Montreal.
I was reading The Witching Hour in high school, and anyone who has read Anne Rice knows that she is extremely explicit! My mom had read that book, and never said anything to me. Wouldn’t you rather have your kids learn through a literary experience than through a badly made movie? Or through their friends, who might encourage behavior that you would not want your children to be participating in?
I started reading romance novels when I was in 7th grade – and not the cleaner ones, either. All my aunts told my mom not to let me read them, that they would rot my brain and I was too young to be reading about sex – well, I’m glad that my mom let me – and I proved how wrong they were about brainrot when I scored an almost perfect grade on the verbal section of the SAT.
My grandmother gave me the Thornbirds when I was in sixth grade and then started handing down all her steamy romance novels when she was finished with them. My old guard feminist mother just ignored it because it was just one aspect of a rather voracious reading habit (in middle school, I read, on average, a book a day). I turned out just fine…I actually did score a perfect 800 on the verbal SAT, was perfectly content with reading about sex rather than having it throughout high school, and am respectably third-wave feminist enough to at least spiritedly debate with my second wave feminist mother. Oh, and I still read romance novels, in honor of my grandmother.
that’s funny, I started reading romance novels around that age (tons of them), and I scored a perfect on the verbal SAT as well.
to Heather:
I agree! I read [and continue to read] almost everything I can get my hands on, and regularly go through around twenty books a month. My mother always encouraged my being an avid reader, and as a consequence, I was always in honors and college level English, and scored near perfect on the verbal section of my SATs.
as a sidenote: when I was in second grade, my teacher once had to tell my mom that I was reading at inappropriate times during class, but didn’t know what to do because she didn’t want to discourage me hahaha.
“my teacher once had to tell my mom that I was reading at inappropriate times during class, ”
@Alissa – That brought back memories. My third grade teacher wrote that my grades would be better (they were probably the equivalent of Bs), if I wouldn’t always rush through the assignments on the board so I could read!
I have teenaged boys who play football so therefore they don[t read. But I wouldn’t censor them – I read “The Happy Hooker” when I was a teenager and it was fine. In fact, it was the only connection my father & I ever had (he dies a few years back).
I have two teenage boys as well. They play soccer, football, and lacrosse, and they are voracious readers. No romance novels or pg porn, but they love sci-fi with lots of blood, guts, and language that would make me blush. I don’t discourage them and love that they read the way they do.