1st Draft- Argument Essay

             Do you ever realize what exactly the youth of America is reading? There are hundreds of books written about death and violence, and the majority of them are best sellers. For example, World War Z by Max Brooks, a book about, you guessed it, a war. As any war, it tells a story about one that is very gruesome. World War Z is a fictional story about a Zombie war, it is one man traveling the world after it’s over, listening to different peoples stories of their experiences. All of them either very tragic, or very gruesome, and all of which very detailed. I believe there certain books like World War Z should be banned from children in elementary school.

            Children are children; at least they’re supposed to be. So many of their minds are spoiled with inappropriate thoughts or full of things they really aren’t supposed to worry about like economy or what everyone else thinks about them. I think many parents try really hard to censor their children’s minds but because they don’t always monitor what they are reading they seem to grow up so fast BECAUSE of what they are reading in school, like World War Z, “…we all her skull crack…” how many thoughts can that provoke? What will that cause a child to do? Considering how easy it is to access, they could probably look up what a skull cracking sounds like. Or what it looks like. Or even in some cases find out that it could actually happen.

            Some may say that banning children’s books could restrict them from what they actually need to know. For example, in “The Banned Books We Have Loved,” by Jen Doll, she says that in the very famous book, “Bridge to Terabithia,” “…we learned the importance of friendships…” and in the book, “Go ask Alice,” “…we learned that a life can go off the rails all too quickly…” But, in all honesty that doesn’t relieve the authors from the spotlight because some of them take it too far when writing about such maybe meaningful, but accelerated topics.

            Many children are impressionable, for some, it is monkey see- monkey do, or very gullible. For example, in an article named, “The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children: It’s a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…” by Tanith Carey writes about a children’s book expert named Amanda Craig who was concerned about the children’s ‘best sellers’. She says that one book spread like “wild fire” in a twelve year old girl’s class and many began to harm themselves as it was done in the book. There is also another book Carey wrote about a book that included the most effective ways to commit suicide. This all seems to be very frightening for me considering as I said before, how gullible and impressionable children are.

            I believe authors and parents need to take into consideration that though it is “regular “ or “normal” nowadays, certain themes, main ideas, or topics of books are becoming more and more realistic by the letter. Parents need to regularly check what books are in the hands of their children because it may be too advanced for their minds and they may not understand the concept yet. I think we should all think about what we’re reading or about to read because even now when I’m thirteen years old I still feel a bit discomfort reading about war, and terrorism, and self harm. Because now more than ever that’s what the world is about right now. And in the rare times that I do read when I’m not forced to, and I begin a book with those topics, it’s a little all too real for me. I believe authors should take a very large step back and observe the entire picture of what they writing about, but not of what is selling but what  will be read comfortably.