In Middle Schools everywhere kids are being exposed to inappropriate things, and are being peer pressured. Looking for Alaska by John Green is a very mature book, with lots of heavy issues. Looking For Alaska should be banned from middle school libraries because it contains adult content.
One example is from Looking For Alaska. Lara Pudge’s girlfriend is talking to Pudge about taking their relationship to the next level: “Have you ever gotten a blow job?’..’No.’...We;; I’ve never given one.’” (Green, 126) Because it contains sexual content middle schoolers might feel uncomfortable reading it because they aren’t used to hearing or dealing with it. Middle school is the age where children are being exposed to inappropriate material and start relationships, so this quotation makes kids feel uncomfortable because it is a situation they don’t know how to deal with.
Another example is the characters do lots of illegal things. it says “We’re all gonna puke if we don’t slow down [the drinking]!’....’Let’s slow it down with a drinking game!”(Green 114) This shows how this could influence pre-teens and teens that drinking is ok. Or drinking is fun. Pudge gets peer pressured to start drinking, and middle schools. Also the article Sick-Lit talks about how books will influence kids to do what the characters do. A girl was reading a book about a girl who harms herself to cope with pressure. This girl says: “I finished reading, and immediately reached for my blade.” (Carey 2) This book will set the wrong example for lots of kids.
Some may say that middle schools are at the age where they are learning about everything and that they are mature enough to read about it. Looking For Alaska deals with smoking, drinking, suicide, bad language, porn, stealing, failing school, eating fast foods. Many Middle Schools say that they are mature enough but since that is the age where they start learning about and handling situations like these, it could set them on the wrong track, or even teach them about things before they are ready or mature enough to know about them.
Looking For Alaska is a very good book but it is aimed at a much higher audience then middle schoolers. Kids nowadays are learning about things before they are ready and it can have a negative effect or make them think something is ok when it isn’t. Many Kids don’t know personally whether they are mature enough to handle certain issues, although they say they are. Thats why these books should be banned from middle school libraries.
Works Cited
Carey, Tanith. "Sick Lit." MailOnline. N.p., 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.
Green, John. Looking for Alaska. New York: Dutton Children's, 2005. Print.
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