Why The Best Kids Books Are Written In Blood by Sherman Alexie

     Sherman Alexie is the author of the book "The Absolutely True Diary Of a Part Time Indian" which is about a young teenage boy living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Arnold, the main character, suffers from cerebrospinal fluid in his skull which causes him to have physical disabilities like a large head and a stutter. His family is poor, and he lives among violence. The book follows Arnold, or Junior, going to an all white school outside of his town, and the struggles that he endures. This book has often been on banned book lists.

      In response to Meghan Cox Gurdons's piece "Darkness Too Visible" in the Wall Street Journal, in which she discusses the unsuitable content for young readers in young adult fiction nowadays, Sherman Alexie wrote his own article, "Why The Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood", Alexie states that the reason violence, abuse, depression and other upsetting topics are so important in young adult fiction is because they are real issues that many teenagers are going through. 

      Staying away from reading about troubling subjects does not protect the reader from them  happening in real life, says Alexie. Kids who have been raped, abused, self harmed, suffered illness, loss or depression have already been exposed to terrible things. Reading about them in fiction helps them understand what they are going through, or can even just provide a distraction to the world around them. Writers like Meghan Cox Gurdon ignore the thousands of teenagers who need young adult fiction that deals with real life issues, and instead focus on priveleged teenagers who "need protection". However, Alexie writes that teenagers who haven't had to face the horrors that are written about are sure to experience them later on in life, or see them being experienced by a loved one. Reading helps them build empathy for future issues that others might have. 

      Alexie himself writes that he expresses his feelings about his childhood through his writing, and loved writing his book because it gave him a huge opportunity to connect to readers going through similar problems. At the end of the article, he says "...I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed."

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Ella Walsh 806

                                                            The Side Effect of Dying

         "Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying." -Hazel Grace Lancaster, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

         The book The Fault in Our Stars revolves around Hazel, a 16 year old girl with Stage 4 thyroid cancer and metastasis in her lungs. John Green describes Hazel's emotional problems as a result of her facing the prospect of death, rather than her actual cancer. In many ways, The Fault in Our Stars is less a cancer book and more a book about dealing with death.

          I've found that often in movies or books that discuss cancer, the cancer patient acquires a sense of higher knowledge before the time of their death. They realize the importance of life and family, and spread their intelligence to other people, a heroic final gesture to the living world. Children battling cancer are also often shown as strong and brave. But really, death is very personal. It comes with feelings of worthlessness or being targeted by the universe.

          This is exactly how dying is depicted in The Fault in Our Stars. {SPOILER} When Augustus' condition hits a critical point towards the end of the book, he becomes selfish and angry. Although Augustus was selfless and kind hearted, he lost himself in the face of death. This connects to how Augustus describes his ex-girlfriend, Caroline, who also had cancer, and how she tended to be rude and ignorant. Gus wonders if Caroline was that way because of her cancer, or because of her existing personality. I think that dealing with the possibility of your own death can change a person- for better or for worse. 

          Because of the approach that John Green took in writing "The Fault in Our Stars", it is easier for readers to connect to. Because you can read about someone with cancer and pity them, but reading about feelings that someone has of being unimportant, fearing oblivion or facing death can relate to a much larger group.