Twilight Hatred

Shannon Hale, an author I follow on Twitter, posted a thought provoking post on her blog.  She posed a few questions to her followers about the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  The responses resulted in the following post:

http://oinks.squeetus.com/2012/11/does-twilight-damage-young-readers.html

It is a discussion about whether or not Twilight actually damages young readers.  Specially, it is pointing to Edward and Bella’s relationship and whether it is healthy or not.  Does the unhealthy relationship between them have a negative impact on readers?

Hales asks a lot of great questions.  A couple of my favorites -   

“Will reading Harry Potter encourage children to engage in witchcraft?


Will reading Romeo & Juliet encourage teens to commit suicide over love?”

The discussion sounded very similar to a censorship or banned book talk.  Do young people need to be protected from specific books, because they cannot handle it?  Will reading the books lead them to act in similar ways?  The argument against Twilight is really absurd, like young people do not have minds of their own.

I read Twilight before there were sequels, movies, and the crazy phenomenon.  When I read it, my reaction was – wow, kids are going to love this book! I knew that it would be popular.  As its popularity grew, it was awesome to see so many young people excited about reading.  Teenagers that NEVER picked up a book were rushing to get the sequel.  What is not to love about that??

With anything that is incredibly popular, there will be people that try to tear it down.  It comes with the territory.  However, I could not have anticipated the hatred towards Twilight.  Hale mentions in another post about watching a fellow YA author say to a group she wishes that Twilight had never been written.  WHAT??!

The entire situation makes me sad.  My sadness is not because I love the series.  It is the librarian in me that has to watch a book that is loved by so many young people, be torn apart by so many. 

Twilight is not the first book to experience this kind of hatred.  What is a youth librarian to do in these types of situation?  Stand up for the book?  Even if the book is not a book the librarian would recommend?  Or is it our job to stay quiet? 

Professional Blog Posts

These are the links to the comments I made on professional blogs:

School Library Journal:

The League of Extraordinary Librarians: SLJ’s latest tech survey shows that media specialists are leading the way

School Library Monthly:

Print Books vs. E-Books (Joan Ganz Cooney Center)

Bullying

I loved the post on the YALSA Blog on October 30 on bullying.  One sentence that jumped out at me: 

"What may seem like harmless name-calling during a library program may be a small part of something bigger, and stepping in to put a stop to it can show a teen who is the subject of bullying that there are adults looking out for them."

This is a great point!  The school library is different from a classroom.  It does not typically have the same students day after day.  A school librarian does not have the luxury of observing the same students and their behavior.  It may not be obvious that teasing is part of a larger problem.  School librarians do not necessarily have the same bonds with students as classroom teachers.  However, that does not mean they cannot be supportive to students.  

My hope is one day to work in a school library.  In addition to the regular library expectations, my goal is to make it a space with a zero tolerance policy on bullying.  It is important to make it clear to student how the library and staff view bullying.  Make it clear to students that it is a safe space and one that will support any student that feels he/she is a victim of bullying.  

I mentioned in a previous blog post that being in a school library can sometimes feel like a counselor's office.  I would imagine walking into a counselor's office could be intimidating to some students.  Why if someone sees them?  What would others think?  Especially, if it is a student that has been attacked by others.  The library could be a safe haven for them.  Somewhere that is not obviously a place for those types of issues.  I do not suggest a librarian take on the role of a counselor, but be another adult for students to turn to for help - no matter what kind.