Hey you. I see you’re writing a young adult or middle grades book. I want to tell you something.
Your book will be tremendously important for a young person someday.
It’s been a few years since I was considered a young adult (I’m considered new adult now *shudders*) but every day I work with middle school students at an inner-city public school. Books are so important to their development, and good books can literally change their lives.
Book are a privilege.
My school is considered a low-income school, and for that reason it is significantly under-resourced. There’s no librarian, and therefore no access to books. There’s no budget to buy novels for teachers, so if a teacher can’t afford forty copies out of their personal budget, there will be no reading time. Many of my students tell me they don’t have any books at home. If their parents don’t take them to the local library, they may never read a book.
Can you imagine?
There is a special program that the school district uses to measure students’ reading levels, which my students take once every few weeks. Less than 25% of my sixth grade class is at a sixth grade reading level or above. Others are stuck at third or fourth grade levels of reading. Some are undiagnosed special ed or ELL students who just can’t read at all. They are given sixth grade textbooks and told to “work harder.”
Literacy is something a lot of us take for granted as we get older. I know I did. I was surrounded by books growing up. Literally--my parents have bookshelves all over their house. My parents never once took me to the library--they took me to Barnes and Noble to purchase my own books. My elementary school sent us to the school library once a week to check out books. They would have book fairs, reading goals, and other incentives for us to read. If all else failed, our school provided us with books like The Outsiders and To Kill a Mockingbird that we would read as a class. I read three books every summer and at least four during the course of the school year, not to mention the dozens of books I read for my own pleasure.
I fell in love with young adult books when I was in sixth grade. My first love was Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, but I also really loved Twilight. Books like these developed in me a passion for reading that I still continue to this day. I read these young adult books intended for teens when I was just eleven, and come high school I began to read more mature adult books. I was able to read and analyze Shakespeare with ease. I got a 4 on my AP literature exam.
So why am I telling you all this?
I’m telling you, writer of MG or YA books, how significant your book could be not just for students like me, but for students like the ones I’m serving this year at an under-funded, inner-city public school. They are just as deserving of good books as I was at their age. I can’t tell you how much these kids want to read, but just don’t have access. When they do get a book, it could make or break their attitude towards reading. It breaks my heart when they finally get their hands on a book and a few pages in throw it down and say “This is boring.”
But it makes my heart swell when they love a book.
I work with a student whom I’ll call Joe for the purpose of this blog post. I work with Joe on his social-emotional learning skills, since a complicated home life means he rarely comes to school prepared and ready to work. He sleeps all day and hasn’t turned in homework all year. During their class reading period, he never had a book. So, I took him into my office and showed him the bookshelf.
He picked a golden-cover copy of The Hunger Games.
Joe’s reading level is around fourth grade. Like I said, he never participates in class or does work. But I saw him lug that book around and read it during free time. To be honest, I wondered if he just pulled it out so his teacher would stop yelling at him. It felt like a success just to have him stop falling asleep on his desk. A month later, he handed it back to me and asked, “Miss, do you have the next one?”
I lent him Catching Fire, and he devoured that too. One day we were playing a game at lunch and a question came up: “Who is your favorite author?” All of my students thought about it, but couldn’t come up with an answer. Like I said, many haven’t read full books since the chapter books of elementary school. But Joe turns to me with bright eyes and proclaims, “Katniss is my favorite author!”
I have so many stories about how one book changed a kid from totally averse to reading to avid reader. They don’t want to read stuffy textbooks--they want stories. They want to read about heroes and romance and mystery. They want to laugh. They want to see young people who look like them and go through the same life experiences--and come out triumphant.
I want you to know, as a MG or YA writer, that your book is going to change a kid’s life. Seriously. We all know books have power, but we take for granted how much power a children’s book can have. You have a responsibility as an author for young readers to give my students books that will enrapture them. Give them characters they can see themselves in. Give them life lessons that will make them better people.
Most of all, you have the responsibility to cultivate in my students a passion for reading. I believe in you, writer for young people. So please, don’t give up on your book. Your book will change lives. Your book will have much more impact than you will ever know.
So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for writing.
Peace out,
Grace K.