YA is as Dark as it Needs to Be, and Librarians are Superheroes

At my high school, the library came in two sections. Because the middle school–grades 7 and 8– was on the second floor of the high school, the library had a middle school section and a high school section. High school kids could choose from either, but middle school kids had to stay out of the high school section.

Are you guessing where this is going? By November of the 8th grade, I’d read everything I wanted to read in the middle school section, and meek rule-follower that I once was, I was going back through it, rereading those I’d liked and picking up some of the ones I’d passed over before. One of the last books I picked up from that section was The Hobbit (or perhaps it was slipped to me by an awesome librarian. I can never recall. I remember the cover was just a painting of a forest. Unremarkable to me, since I lived in one.)

OMG, The Hobbit. I read that book eight times in a row. I’ve never done that with any book, before or since. I must have read my favorite chapter, Of Flies and Spiders, about twenty times aside from reading the book through. And then–then I learned that this writer had MORE BOOKS. (Please realize this was before the internet, and I did not talk to people. I bless the librarians at my school because books I never would have picked up found their way mysteriously into my checked out books and they were awesome–but I never ASKED the librarians what I should read.)

Those more books, though–The Lord of the Rings was in the high school section. I’d seen my classmates chased politely out of there. I did not want to risk the righteous anger of a librarian! Books were my escape, my safety, and I dreaded having them taken away.

A little background–

Librarians saved my life though I never talked to them. I never talked to anyone. Everything was fine, though I wore one pair of sweat pants to school for a year because I had nothing else, and I alternated high heels and winter boots that made my feet stink for yards around because that’s what I had. I skipped a day of school a week because I thought any more and they’d send the police. I never told anyone anything but I read books. I ditched class to go to the library and the librarians never reported me but books found me–books I needed, friends I needed, magically appeared in the pile of books I’d picked out and those books took me away to dangerous places and dangerous thoughts and people who persevered and won the day and dear God how I needed that.

So that’s where I was when I read and loved The Hobbit, and pined for The Lord of the Rings held just beyond my reach.†

Is LOTR too adult for a 14yo living pretty much out of adult supervision? Why don’t you let the 14yo decide?

Why does this subject keep coming up?

Here’s a hint–when I was in the sixth grade, my reading was things like the Black Stallion, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins and Donna Parker. Trixie Belden. Laura Ingalls Wilder. When my mom was alive and my life was wonderful, I had no need for darker, bigger, deeper books.

If your teen is invariably reading dark books maybe you should look into why they need those books.

Just a suggestion. And here’s another: Thank A Librarian Today.

† I think it was about the third time that I renewed The Hobbit that The Fellowship of the Ring mysteriously appeared in my pile of checked-out books. Librarians? Superheroes. For real.