To Read, or Not to Read. That is the Question.

I've often heard it said that young adult literature needs to probe the questions and problems that young adults face in their day to day lives. This includes swearing, drugs, eating disorders, depression, boy/girl relationships (however deeply involved they are). This is all true. And there are many books out there that do consider these very problems, and there are many good things to be said about those kinds of books.

However, while a teenager, I often wanted my books to be an escape. I wanted a book to take me somewhere I had never been before (not back to the hallways of my High School that I so desperately wanted to escape). I was aware of all the issues mentioned above that teenagers face. I was surrounded by it every day. Tell me, why would I surround myself in it outside of school? Even more I wondered, why couldn't there be books out there that didn't talk about the darkest side of the teenage life? There are many teenagers who don't face the problems adults are convinced teenagers obsess over.

This is when I discovered fantasy. Fantasy has its pros and cons, don't get me wrong. But it has a remarkable ability to jump outside of the present world and create a completely new one. It is often much cleaner than novels set in the present day, as the author has more leeway, such as deciding what a swear word is (and which most often isn't offensive). Fantasy makes me giddy. 

 How I love, however, those books of other genres that look beyond the grouchy teenager and can still set up real, believable characters. That takes a true stroke of genius and imagination. Books that look at the greater concept of what mankind is made of, with compelling words and breathtaking imagery--those are the books most worth reading. Those are the books from which a true reader thrives.