"The THAT of teenagers' reading is vastly more important than the WHAT."
All I could think was THANK YOU after reading the above quote. Finally, someone sees it the way I do. Over the past few years Urban Fiction has littered our classrooms, and teachers have trashed this genre left and right, and some of it rightly so. But some of this literature is worthy of being read. I feel when adults insult what teens are reading, the chances of that teen becoming an adult reader disappears. Instead of focusing on what these children are reading, I feel as educators we should use this as a springboard. It's like introducing vegetables to children. You start of with some broccoli, introduce some peas, and before you know it you have a vegan on your hands!
I understand some of the skepticism and criticism of these books are sparked by the racy content contained int eh pages, but I personally don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to read this genre; unless they will be barred from watching movies, television programs and walking through their neighborhoods where the same situations that appear in Street Fiction recur multiple times a day. The only thing I fear about children reading some of these books are perhaps them limiting their vocabulary and comprehension by reading some of the poorly written and edited ones, but you can find bad books in all genres.
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