Trust Me….Your Kids Are Doing More Than Having Oral Sex!

Cover via Amazon

A YA novel is causing quite a controversy in some schools in Tennessee. No it’s not the 50 Shades of Gray joint although I’ve heard it’s being banned in several spots too. This novel is called Looking For Alaska and it’s about a boarding school in Alabama. Parents have demanded that the book be stripped from the school’s curriculum due to a two page oral sex scene. Here’s just a snippet of the scene,

We didn’t have sex. We never got naked. I never touched her bare breast and her hands never got lower than my hips. It didn’t matter. As she slept I whispered, “I love you Alaska Young.”

Do anything in that passage indicate oral sex play? You know it always amazes me when parents get the case of amnesia when they have kids. I don’t know how many times I had the discussion on sex and teens with other parents. The majority of them has conniptions if sex education is taught in schools or if condoms are given out in the nurses office, now novels? Let me say this parents just because you don’ say it doesn’t mean it don’t exist and if condoms are available it doesn’t mean it will make your child want to have sex. If your child is easily swayed like that then you need to look at yourself not a bowl of condoms, real talk. Get offended but it is what it is.

I’ve never wrote a YA novel and really do not plan to mainly for this reason; however I wanted to see if there are guidelines to writing that genre. I came upon a blog that gave me a brief def of the rules to YA novel writing and I must admit I’m surprised it is as loose as it is:

• the age is 12 and above for the genre
• any genre is fine and subject matter
• the ‘edgy YA’ genre has more sexuality, abuse, mental illness, etc in it

She goes on to say that the sex act in itself should not be the focal point but a realistic plot so the story is more believable. I learned this from erotica Queen herself Zane recently that most people who write erotica make the whole book about the act itself instead of the character’s or the situations these character’s have to go thru. Sex is just the icing on the cake. That can be applied to any genre.

But back to banning this novel, this should be the last thing you’re worried about. Smartphones, tv networks (especially CW), and movies is what you need to be monitoring on top of friends of your kids. You should have taken this as a learning opportunity to talk to your kids about the subject, find out how much they know and if they have any questions. I’ve talked to my kids since a very young age and they are 13 and 8 right now. I would rather equip my kids with info on sex, contraceptives, emotions involved, STDs, pregnancy, self esteem etc so if they do decide to have sex they can’t say ‘well mama didn’t warn me that this could happen’. Of course I tell them I expect them to wait until marriage to have sex but I’m a realist; kids are having sex these days. So to all of the uptight, bougie parents get over yourself and open your mouths to your children before it’s too late.

Peace and luv!

Banned Books

Cover via Amazon

This week the State of America’s Libraries Report for 2012 was released. Well what the hell is that you ask? It’s pretty much a really long document explaining the effects of literacy in the school systems, what can be done about the literacy problem as well as banned books which leads me to this list. These books were challenged based on the content however thanks to a lot of librarians, teachers, and booksellers they prevented it from happening. I’ve included the reasons why parents, etc wanted each one banned.

1. ttyl; ttfn; 18y, g8r written by Lauren Myracle. It’s said to have offensive language, religious viewpoints, sexually explicit and is unsuited for the age group it was intended for.
2. The Color of Earth written by Kim Dong Hwa. It has nudity, sex education, sexually explicit and is unsuited to age group assigned to.
3. The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins said to have anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitive subjects, offensive language, occult/satanic behavior and violent.
4. My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-to-Month Guide To Pregnancy written by Dori Hillestad Butler has nudity, sex education, sexually explicit content and u nsuited for age group.
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie and it has offensive language, racism, religious viewpoints, sexually explicit content and unsuited to age group intended for.
6. Alice written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and it has nudity, offensive language with religious viewpoints.
7. Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley has insensitive topics, nudity, racism, religious viewpoints and sexually explicit situations.
8. What My Mother Doesn’t Know written by Sonya Sones has nudity, offensive language and sexually explicit content.
9. Gossip Girl(now I do agree with this one) written by Cecily Von Ziegesar has drugs, offensive language and racism.
10. To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee and it has offensive language and racism.

Now Banned Books Week (yes there is such a thing) is hosted by ALA to celebrate the freedom to read and the First Amendment. It is usually held on the last week of September. This year will be the first year BBW will go virtual as well.

Peace and luv!

Related articles

• Celebrate National Library Week 2012 (landbar.wordpress.com)

What?! Toni Morrison Banned From High School?

Do any of you ever pay attention to your child’s literary book list that they hand out at the beginning of the school year? Have you came across a book you thought wasn’t suitable for his/her grade level? What did you do about it? And should schools update the reading lists to fit with the times?

Well somebody’s parents paid attention to the reading list. Parents of Salem High School students became outraged when they saw their kid reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved and now they want it banned from the school district asap!

In a public meeting 100 students and parents spoke on how they felt about the book. Ms. Barb Dame fixed her lips to say Beloved contained ‘gratuitous language, violence and sex acts’. Matt Dame (I’m assuming is her husband) added that ‘…in the first 2 chapters there are 5 references to sex with cows and other sex’. Wow!

The AP English teacher has taught this book for 10 years and he said not once has anyone complained until now. He admits that the novel meets the standards given in order for books to be considered on the reading list so what’s the problem again?

Oh, I forgot to mention one little thing – the students are specially selected to take this class and when the reading list are given at the beginning of the school year the student and parents meet with teacher to determine if the novels are age appropriate for their children so it wasn’t like they were not warned about what books were going to be studied. And if they didn’t like that their child was reading that they had the option of picking something else that is more appropriate.

So why the change of heart if they already knew?

When I read this on GalleyCat’s website it didn’t say what grade these students were in. I assumed it was like third graders or something then I dug deeper and found out it was high school students. After picking my lip up off the floor I thought to myself how I would have loved to been in that meeting just to ask those parents opposing this fictional book what do they think their precious little angels do when they are not around? What do they think the kids watch on tv or say at home behind closed doors or say over their friend’s house? Go check their phones and read some of the texts, hop on their Facebook pages and flip thru the photos. Not all high schoolers are bad or into something illegal but I bet what parents find on those FB pages or texts makes Beloved look like the Bible. Why would you complain about one book (which is a literary classic by the way) that is not even mandatory? They could have chosen another fiction novel to do the essay on. A gun was not put to their heads when it came down to deciding what book to read. It amazes me that a fictitious story stirs up controversy when each year schools teach about slavery and the degrading conditions blacks lived in and ish they went thru for an ounce of respect and freedom. Do they not feel that this subject matter is appropriate? I remember speaking on that in school and although that is apart of ‘our’ history the brutality these warriors, visionaries, inventors, educators, thinkers is 100 times worse than a little ol fiction story. I wonder how Toni Morrison feel about this anyway? I mean she has established a reputable amount of fans and continues to get more with the younger generation under me so she probably won’t think too much of it.

If these students cannot be challenged in schools in all subjects than why send your child to school? It is about critical thinking, expanding ones’ mind, getting the skills needed for real life but if parents cop a hissy fit at every little thing what will that teach their spoiled little brats once they graduate? I swear I wonder sometimes about these modern parents. Anyway a decision will be made early next week if Beloved will be banned from the school district or not.

What do you think about the possible banning? Have you been iffy about a book on your child’s reading list?

Peace and luv!

Cover of Beloved