'School is when we should really be making kids read, because there are so many great books out there with brilliant stories and profound messages behind them'
If there is anywhere that young adult literature should be read, it's schools. But more and more it seems that curriculums have to be followed, and books that could be relevant to teenagers (and, in a lot of cases, books altogether) are getting left behind.
In primary school we are encouraged to read as much as possible and as widely as possible, but once we get to secondary school and the exam workload kicks in, reading takes a back seat. And secondary school is the time when we should really be making kids read, because there are so many great books out there for teenagers and young adults with brilliant stories and profound messages behind them. So many of them can be applied to things that happen on a day to day basis in secondary schools but, in my experience, these opportunites have been missed at every turn.
Reading books that are relevant to lessons, for example, is one missed opportunity. Why aren't books like Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and Once by Morris Gleitzman being taught alongside history lessons on the Second World War? Why isn't David Levithan's Every Day being used as a prime example of the issues surrounding gender and sexual identity in PSHE lessons for sixteen year olds? These stories could be so beneficial to students, while at the same time potentially opening them up to a broader reading base and helping them discover something in themselves that they didn't know about before.
Perhaps one explanation is the current pressure on school library budgets. If you are in secondary school right now, go to your school library and have a look at the fiction section and have a rough guess at how many of the books on the shelves were published in the last five years. Looking at my own school library I'd say it was maybe fifty books. And that is a problem. It's all very well pushing the classics but that isn't necessarily what children want to be reading. If schools can provide more modern books and have a varied range to appeal to all readers then they're going to have a larger readership and more reason to keep buying new books to accommodate for their readership.
This is not to say there aren't positives. Schemes like Reading Matters mean that children in secondary school who need support with their reading are given it by other students further up in the school. This not only gives young students more support, but schemes like this can also help to give children the motivation to read - especially if they're reading books they enjoy. Older children can recommend books they liked at a similar age, and nothing can replace genuine enthusiasm. I think that Reading Matters and similar schemes should be offered to all schools across the country as a way to make reading more relevant in the digital age.
All in all, I think young adult literature has great potential and I wish schools could recognise this, instead of writing it off in favour of more established authors. YA fiction is specifically aimed at teens and contains really strong messages targeted to them, covering topics and issues that teenagers deal with on a daily basis. Schools need to do more to get these books to kids, and not only get them reading but also thinking critically about the problems these books discuss.
Do you think YA fiction should be taught more in schools? Does it compare to 'the classics'? Or should reading for education and reading for pleasure just be kept separate? Send us your thoughts - childrens.books@theguardian.com - or join the discussion on Facebook
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