Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels is a young adult novel that was written by Walter Dean Myers in 1988. This coming of age novel is set in the trenches of the Vietnam War during the late 1960’s. Myers wrote this novel based on his own experiences of fighting in the war. However, this novel is not purely autobiographical consider much of it is fiction in nature. In the decade after its’ publication, Fallen Angels held a place in the top twenty books on the American Library Association’s list of top one hundred most challenged books. This was due to the realistic depiction of the war and the language displayed in the novel. This book was nominated for the 1989 Coretta Scott King award. Fallen Angels tells the powerful story of a desperate seventeen year old boy, Richie, from Harlem who joined the armed forced as a way to escape the questions and to support his family. Richie’s dad left the family several years before the book’s timeline, and his mother was a non-progressive alcoholic. However, Richie’s little brother Kenny was his light at the end of the tunnel and served as his motivation when he could not find any reason to continue. Richie’s plans for after high school was to go to college and pursue his dreams of being a writer, but his family’s financial situation had other plans which lead to his enrollment in the United States armed forces.

After graduating from basic training, Richie was stationed in Vietnam. With an unclear view on war and its’ terrors he went in with the hope of avoiding field time due to a knee injury. Richie met two new guys from his squad Pewee and Jenkins who collectively decides that they are in this together. However, after only this first patrol Jenkins is killed. This immediately sends Richie into a state of fear and uncertainty. He communicates with Kenny and his mom through letters, but he never fully opens up to how he feels and what is going on. As time passes, Richie realizes war is very different from what he expected. Being the whole-hearted person he is pushes him to question many of the things going on around him like the reasons for the war and the line between good and bad sides of things. After Lieutenant Carroll, Richie’s patrol leader, he is killed it pushed him to the point of having to get to the bottom of what the war was all about. His Captain had only one goal at mind and that was a promotion rather than his soldiers. Richie became disgusted with the reality of war.

As time progresses, Richie is faced with the question of why he took this path in the first place. Was it to support his family or was it just to get out of Harlem? He also wondered what things would be like if/when he returned back home. Richie had nothing to look forward to back home, but he could not find what was so great about his current situation either. In the coming weeks, Richie wound up getting injured in duty. This gave him time to relax, but also made him think about how awful his time in the field has been. Against his better judgement, he returns in due time. Upon his arrival, he meet his new Sergeant Mr. Dongan who happens to be very racist against blacks. This flourishes racism from some of the squad members and often times resulted in physical altercations among the men. With time and bonding, the men of the platoon grew closer together and overcame their racist tendencies. It also was not long before the new sergeant was killed in duty.

One of the soldiers stationed in Vietnam gets a promotion which leads to him become the new leader. Corporal Brunner leads Richie and Pewee on what they did not know would be their last tour of duty. Due to a ripple effect of miscalculations the squad falls victim to a firefight. Both guy are badly wounded which result in them being sent home. Although they understand the harsh reality of the war they attempt to keep it together for the new recruits.

There are several key themes Myers addresses in his novel which specifically relate to the young adolescent community. Two very important themes presented in novel are youth and innocence and identity. Throughout the novel, the reader encounters many young soldiers who do not even understand what they are fighting for or why they are there. Everyone wants to be the hero and seen as doing their country a great duty when in reality most young soldiers are nothing but collateral damage. The title of the novel, Fallen Angels, refers to the young men who fall victim to a fight much bigger than they ever imagined. The war changed many of the young men who participated it. If they did not end up dead, there were certainly scared and changed for life. One’s adolescent years is a naïve time. Often time’s adolescents do not know what they are getting into or how their decisions today make have a lasting effect on their lives from here on out. To go along with their youth and innocence, adolescents are constantly trying to figure out who they are and develop a sense of identity. In the novel, Lobel is participating in the fight in hopes of convincing his dad that he is not a homosexual. On the hand, Richie views himself now as a monster and killer. However, when he thinks of his time served as providing for his family he feels like a hero. Many of the men who went off to the war struggle to understand themselves and their purpose in the world. The adolescent years of one’s life serves as a time of figuring out who you are and what you believe. It is sometimes a huge struggle trying to be or find yourself when everyone is trying to make you into something you are not. This is something that starts at a young age but carries out through much of your adult life.

As mentioned earlier, race is a problem in this novel. Many young adolescent experience or witness race issue many times in their lives. This novel provides an example on how fighting or violence is not the answer. It is when people band together to fight the good fight that great things come as a result. The way the platoon fought together against Sergeant Dongan racist tendencies was a powerful move.

Fallen Angels defines the adolescent years of one’s life as a time of trouble, uncertainty and finding yourself. As seen through the main character, Richie, all he knows is that he wants to live a good life. Adolescents are looking for where they fit in and what their future holds. Often times, they encounter obstacle and problems that pushes them to question the world around them. For Richie, this was his time in Vietnam when he was forced to face the reality of war. This novel shows how adolescent are kind of at the bottom of the food chain. They get pushed around or easily persuaded by the expectation of a situation. However, in the end they are faced with the truth which usually teach them an ultimate lesson.

The two main things that forced this novel into the banned category is the amount of profanity and the harsh truth about war. Myers mentions how without the profanity he could not quite make clear points of how things are during the fight. The language is what brought the text to life and helped readers gain a clear understanding. Along with the profanity, there is some descriptive explanation of battle. It is acceptable for parents not to want their children to be expose to violent language and images. The way Myers describes combat and different situations in the novel causes fuels different levels of concern, and he doesn’t hold back on how things are which gives the reader a lot of insight. I believe allowing students to grasp the complete idea of how things are is nothing less of a great thing.

“Censorship Watch.” American Libraries 31.10 (2000): 17. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Salvadore, Maria B. “Fallen Angels (Book Review).” School Library Journal 34.10 (1988): 118. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Crank

Labeled one of the New York Times bestsellers, Ellen Hopkin’s Crank is a novel that is both praised and rebuked for its bold confrontation with drug addiction along with many other motifs of adolescents. Crank was published in 2004 as a personal reflection to Hopkin’s personal experience with her own daughter and was, perhaps, a little too real for its intended audience. Due to its explicit content, this book has been banned, yet it seems to have no difficulty being a popular and well circulated text that has passed through the hands of teens and adults alike.

Kristina Georgia Snow is a sixteen year old junior in high with excellent grades and stays out of trouble; however from the very beginning readers see Kristina rebuke this ideal personality. Instead, readers are introduced to Bree, Kristina’s alter ego. Bree is the dark side of Kristina, the explorer, experimenter and troublemaker. This story follows a good girl gone bad, but also the struggle of finding and saving that good girl again.

Running from a mother she doesn’t connect with, a strict stepfather, a homomsexual older sister, and an anoying little brother, Kristina tries to find solace in her father. Much to her dismay, Kristina’s dad was not the “Prince of Albuquerque” that she believed him to be when she was younger. Despite this, it is in Albuquerque that she meets her first love, Adam, boyfriend of her father’s neighbor, who introduces her to the “monster”, aka crack, or crank. Kristina quickly finds out her mother was right about her dad, about his “bad habits” that she divorced him for. Unfortunately, her dad’s addiction left with lack of judgement and allowed Kristina, or more precisely Bree,  to tango with the monster.

Ensnared by her lust of the drug, Kristina struggles to control herself but to no avail with the added complications of falling for Adam. They exchange proclamation of love but never make it past the kissing phase, due to his official girlfriend, Lince, becoming hospitalized and Kristina having to return home with her mother and siblings. Kristina’s family notices the change in her, though not knowing it was a change brought on by drug addiction. After her return home, she continues to associate with the wrong crowd, choosing to get involved with two boys romantically. Good girl Kristina held strong, though and convinced her co-personality to keep from losing the big “v”.

The first boy, Brendan, was a lifeguard who immediately received the stamp of approval from Kristina’s mother and who had enough charm and crank to keep the teen girl interested. Chase Wagner, however, was the bad boy type no mother wanted her daughter to date. Appealing more to Kristina than Bree, Chase proved to be more than expected. Torn between her lingering love for Alex, fun and charming Brendan, and dark and suave Chase, Kristina was faced with a serious love addiction, the worst and most dangerous of all being the love of the monster. Kristina discovered looks were not as they seem.  Kristina is raped by Brendan and she falls deeper into the trap of drugs, rebellion, and sexual desire for Chase. Chase the bad boy expresses his love for Kristina, and readers are meant to believe in his sincerity.

Every episode of this novel is dowsed with Kristina’s drug addiction, love conflicts, and a broken relationship with her mother. Her mother realized that the Kristina she knew was gone, replaced by a rebellious character fed by bad habits. Kristina is constantly grounded, yet love and concern is given from both her mother and stepfather. As Kristina’s life began to teeter on the fence of control and chaos, she becomes sick; Kristina is pregnant and the baby’s father is not Chase, the love of her life who, after finding out she was pregnant, proposed to her. Instead, the baby’s father is  none other than her rapist, Brendan.

Kristina contemplates having an abortion as well as giving her baby up for adoption, but chooses to tell her mother instead and keep the baby. At the end of the novel, Kristina states that she can not give her readers a happy ending, for she is still caught up in her addiction as well as adapting to being a teenage mom. However, readers are given hope that there is some happiness to be found over the head of the monster.

Hopkins brings the topic of drug addiction and teenage sexuality front and center in Crank. Issues deemed too dark to bring to light, sex and drugs often become factors that would call for red tape and warning signs. Fear of exposing negative behavior to adolescents is what keeps books like Crank in the banned section, away from school libraries and curriculum, but attracts even more the curious eyes of teeangers. Why is that? Crank is a novel full of teenage angst. Unlike some novels taught to condition high school in academia or popular, non-explicit fiction to keep them entertained, Crank is structured to connect to its audience on a immediate, realistic level. It acknowledges the truth of real life scenarios and warns against ignorance, even on the adult’s part. Readers are meant to share in the frustration of Kristina’s struggle with her alter ego, to cheer her on when she resists the crank and also to offer understanding when she gives into temptations.

The book characterizes a type adolescent who seeks personal stability and love. When love is not found at home, teenagers may take love from strangers or dangerous pleasures. Kristina represents a vulnerable girl who yearns to be strong, yet does not want to fully relent the care of her parents. Hopkins, a mother herself, puts partial blame on Kristina’s mother for how Kristina turned out, in order to retell the lesson she herself had to learn about her teenage daughter. The world of adult horrors is very real and may sneak into the life of adolescents. Teens do face drugs, set, and violence, no matter how ignorant adults are to this fact. Crank portrays adolescence as a time of not-so-innocent adventures and cruelties of life but also alternatives.

Chase, the bad boy, defied expectations of the drug and sex scene. Treating Kristina with the love he claimed to have towards her, Chase refused to take advantage of her, insisting that they wait before having sex, and even expressing his limitations when it came to doing drugs. Kristina’s own objections to sex, contrasting Bree’s agreements, shows that although teens are surrounding by many things they do have a want for self control and boundaries.

As adolescence is a time where teens are discovering boundaries, it is important that adults set and enforce examples, giving teens a foundation to stand on and carry through for the adult years. Perhaps Kristina’s father’s lack of boundaries caused her delve deeper into Bree’s world than Kristina had originally intended, and perhaps Kristina’s mother’s tougher love and support allowed Kristina some sort of balance to keep her from falling deeper down the wrong path and drowning in her addiction.

Although Crank gives realistic insight into topics that are very relevant to teenagers, it still creates controversy due to its detailed account about drugs–an issue that never goes away– sex and even rape. Perhaps it is unsettling to see a promising sixteen year old girl caught up in such an explicit world, only for her story to end with her dating the bad boy, having her rapist’s baby, and still struggling with drug addiction. However, despite how unsettling it all is, it is very much real, and this is a story in which many teens can relate to in some way.

This book may be banned but it is still high in demand and continues to connect to young readers. Instead of excluding Crank from school libraries, perhaps it should instead be taught in order to enlighten, caution, and support teens to help them find boundaries and teach them how to encounter whatever hardships life brings. Crank offers a reflection on a topic that is often underrepresented in the proper way, and thus, presenting teens with meaningful material to help them cope and understand their own situations.

Hopkins, Ellen. Crank. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2004. Print.

Chinese Handcuffs

Chris Crutcher’s novel, Chinese Handcuffs, was first published in 1989 and received numerous awards including the ALA Best Book for Young Adults, ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults, and the South Dakota YARP Best Books list for 1991. But even though the book has received rave reviews and multiple awards, due to its subject matter it has been frequently challenged or banned.

The novel is set in northern Washington state. The main character Dillon Hemingway is a junior at Chief Joseph High School. He competes in triathlons with aspirations of one day competing in the Ironman competition in Hawaii. Dillon’s brother Preston has committed suicide and Dillon decides to begin writing letters to Preston to help cope with the trauma. Dillon is an athletic trainer for the women’s basketball team. He has grown very close with the team’s star player Jennifer Lawless. Dillon is torn between this new attraction to Jennifer or Jen as she is most often referred to and his brother’s old girlfriend Stacy. Dillon describes a time when he and his older brother Preston brutally beat his neighbor’s cat to death after the cat attacked their dog. Both of the boys regret their actions but do still somewhat agree the cat deserved it.

Dillon’s brother Preston saves up enough money after high school to purchase a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He then tried to join a biker gang called the Warlocks. He had a terrible accident during an initiation stunt and lost both of his legs. He became a drug addict which causes all kinds of problems for him and his family. His mom and sister end up leaving him, his dad, and Dillon. Preston ends up committing suicide. Dillon describes witnessing his brother’s suicide in great detail because he was there when it occurred. Dillon and Preston went target shooting after Preston had pulled an all night binder. Everything seems okay until Preston tells Dillon that he is tired of always looking at Dillon and seeing what he would have been like if he was “big and strong and so god damn cool”(80). Preston always tells Dillon that he feels guilty because he encouraged the and tried to partake in the gang rape of a girl hanging out at the biker bar Preston was at. He references the time Dillon and Preston killed their neighbor’s cat and says that if he ever sank that low again he would end it. Dillon tries to talk him out of it but ends up pulling the trigger anyways.

Jennifer Lawless is the best player in the district and the best athlete in the school girl or boy. She is a great student but has a secret. Her secret is revealed when  Jen gets a concussion in her most recent basketball game. She has to stay at the hospital over night but she intitially refuses because she doesn’t want her sister Dawn staying at home without her. Jen begins to remember her childhood while in the hospital.She remembers how after her grandpa’s death she began being  molested by her father. She reports  her father when she grows older after watching a good touch bad touch video at school. She tells  her mother but her mother refuses to believe her. She then reports him to a teacher and her father  is arrested and Jennifer is removed from her home until she went through counseling sessions and child protective services deemed her mother fit to care for her.  Her mother later remarried a rich attorney that she only refers to as T.B. T.B. befriends Jen but then begins to rape her frequently. Jen feels trapped because in the past she tried to report him but he got away with it and made Jen seem like a confused child due to her past trauma. T.B. has also threatened to kill Jen’s mom or sister if she tells again.

Dillon ends up getting suspended from school for back talking the principal who constantly harasses Dillon about wasting his athletic talents and will just end up like his brother. Dillon hangs out with Preston’s old girlfriend  Stacy. Stacy has an adopted brother she helps take care of. The brother was adopted from a cousin that Stacy has from North Dakota. Stacy went there for around 6 months after Preston committed suicide.  Dillon gets a strange feeling of deja vu after watching Stacy’s brother eat ice cream at a restaurant they were at. Later on Dillon learns that Stacy’s little brother is actually his nephew. Stacy told Preston and then Preston committed suicide the next day. This helps Dillon release some of the guilt he had carried the past couple of years.

Jen and Dillon decide to try to become more than just friends and go on a date. The date goes horribly because they both act extremely awkward towards each other. Later on Jen finally admits to Dillon what has happened to her and what her step-dad is doing to her. She promises Dillon to not tell anyone because no one will be able to help. Dillon reluctantly agrees. At Jen’s next game she has a meltdown and runs out of the gym towards a bridge. Dillon luckily catches up with her when he realizes she is trying to jump. Dillon grabs her but she fights back knocking out one of his front teeth. He finally gets her to stop and she reveals that T.B. has impregnated her mom. Dillon says he will help her somehow.

Dillon finally comes up with a plan after much deliberation. He contacts Wayne Wisnett a, reporter, from earlier in the novel. He gets a spy camera from him and sets it up in Jen’s room. He ends up catching T.B. raping Jen on camera and threatens to release the video to the public if T.B. doesn’t leave and never contact Jen and the rest of her family again. T.B. agrees and is never heard from again. Jen later tells Dillon that the tape should be made public because T.B. should never be allowed to do this to anyone else. Dillon realizes that him and Jen can never be together after him having to have watched the tape to ensure the evidence was there. He also understands from researching that Jen will have to go through years of therapy before she can be in an intimate relationship. Dillon later pulls up to his neighbor’s old house and goes in and apologizes for killing her cat. The lady is too old and senile to remember but her daughter thanks him and Dillon realizes that somethings just can’t be fixed. The novel then ends when an undercover officer catches and arrests T.B. in Orlando, Florida.

This novel not only delves into sexual abuse and drug addiction. The parts where it depicts Preston’s suicide and drug usage are quite graphic and detailed and it would be easy to see why many adults may take issue with these issues being in this novel. From watching my younger brother deal with his drug addiction I can tell you that this novel helps depict drug addiction in the correct light. The things I have witnessed a drug addict do while intoxicated is shocking and vile which is how the novel depicts it. It doesn’t try to make it cool or seem like the thing that all teenagers do. The sexual violence that is laid out in this novel is graphic and honestly turned my stomach but that is how it would be in real life. The novel could have easily went into more detail but the author chose not to. The point the author was trying to make was that sexual violence is horrific but very real but can also be something that can be treated.

One of the themes of the book is given by using Chinese handcuffs as an example. . No matter how much you struggle you can’t escape its grasp but as soon as you do the opposite you can get out. Dillon then says that this is how some relationships are. Sometimes you have to do the opposite of how you feel and let things go. He applies this to his relationship with Jen and the baggage he still carries from his brother’s suicide. The theme of responsibility is also described throughout the novel. Dillon confides to the women’s head coach, Coach Sherman. He asks from some advice and she describes responsibility as “responding to the world, owning your responses. It isn’t about taking blame or finding out if something’s your fault”(163-164). These lessons are important to adolescents who may be searching for some answers to important problems they may be facing. There are many more within the novel but only if you can look past the parts that are extreme in nature.

Chinese Handcuffs has been challenged or banned due to the graphic violence towards animals, suicide, molestation, gang rape, and language. It has also been challenged due to the disrespectful nature that the main character has towards his principal. Even with these viable reasons for this novel being banned or challenged it still offers an adolescent reader great insight into some of the tragedies that can occur in life. Like it or not terrible things like rape and suicide happen to adolescents and these are graphic and horrible experiences. Having an outlet to help cope with these traumas could be a valuable tool to an adolescent. This novel also contains many other useful themes for adolescents like friendship, questioning what is right and wrong, responsibility, what makes up a normal relationship, and how to overcome tragedy.

Chinese Handcuffs is a powerful book that depicts events in an extremely realistic manner. The tragedies discussed are almost too real for some which has drawn critics but is a novel that adolescents could relate with and grow from.

Crutcher, Chris. Chinese Handcuffs. New York: HarpersCollins Publishers, 1989.          Print.

An Abundance of Katherines

                                                         Title: An Abundance of Katherines

Author: John Green

Year of Publication: 2006

Genre: Young-Adult Fiction

            An Abundance of Katherines is a 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor Book, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and a Book of the Year by three professional book reviews. “The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year. In addition, the Printz Committee names up to four honor books, which also represent the best writing in young adult literature.” (YALSA)

          An Abundance of Katherines is a young adult fiction novel, written in the third-person, which follows a depressed prodigy child named Colin Singleton. Colin is a lonely child who loves to anagram everything and chooses to study hours upon hours a day to learn all that he can. His father thought this would make him a genius but Colin did not become a genius, he stayed a prodigy child.

The story starts the day after high school graduation when he recently is dumped by Katherine 19. His best friend Hassan Harbish (who is Muslim and no he is not a terrorist, which he makes clear multiple times throughout the story) and Colin (part Jewish) decide they need to get away. They go on a road trip and end up in Gutshot, Tennessee. They stop here to see the supposed burial ground of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was shot in the gut and was later turned famous by being the one to start WWI. (“While in power, [Archduke Franz Ferdinand] attempted to restore Austro-Russian relations while maintaining an alliance with Germany. In 1914, a Serb nationalist assassinated him. One month later, Austria declared war on Serbia and World War I began.”(Bio)) Here they meet Lindsey Lee Wells who ironically is dating another guy named Colin (here on after will be called “TOC,” aka The Other Colin). Upon meeting Lindsey’s mother, Hollis, Colin is instantly recognized from when he was on a game show as a child called “KranialKidz.” She then proceeds to offer Colin and Hassan a job, interviewing present and past employees from her family factory, which makes tampon strings. Hollis even invited the boys to stay with her and Lindsey while they are in town. Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey become great friends during their time together. The trio spends every day together either working or hanging out with Lindsey’s friends. Hassan even develops a relationship with a girl named Katrina. However, the relationship with Katrina does not last long. Hassan and Colin find Katrina having sex with TOC at the cemetery. Colin decides to tell Lindsey even though TOC warns him against it, which ends TOC and Lindsey’s relationship and earns Colin and Hassan a butt kicking from TOC. Later Lindsey and Colin start dating breaking his Katherine’s streak and mending his heart. It is during his time here in Gutshot that Colin reflects back to his past relationships with the 19 Katherine’s and decides to create a Theorem that can predict who will break up with whom. He thinks he has succeeded creating his Theorem and works it out on all his past relationships and sees that all the Katherine’s except one were destined to end it with him. He completely forgot that he actually broke up with Katherine 3 and not the other way around. So thinking his Theorem works, he uses it to see how long his relationship with Lindsey will last. However, he comes to realize nobody can predict the future.

The main theme and issue of this story is love. Colin tries to find his one true love that will not leave him and will love him. He started dating at a young age and her name happened to be Katherine, it only lasted for a couple of minutes but he thought he loved her. After dating a couple of times and their name coincidentally being Katherine, he then intentionally only goes out with girls named Katherine, until the end. He becomes too attached too fast to these Katherine’s; his emotions are too high where they are concerned. The Katherine’s eventually pull away from him and dump him repeatedly.  He thought he had found that significant other with Katherine 19, who also happens to be Katherine 1, but it was not to be. He came full circle before he realized his true love would not be a girl named Katherine. Maybe it will be a girl named Lindsey instead. Time will only tell.

Another theme and issue of this story is friendship. Colin could not make any friends when he was younger. He was thought of as weird nerd and uncool, because he knew practically everything. Nobody likes a know it all and he was not afraid to show it. He took being a child prodigy as something to tell everyone. It was not until Hassan moved to his school that he finally found a friend.  Hassan found Colin funny that first day at school and decided to befriend him. They continued to be friends throughout their childhood and into their adulthood. Hassan understands Colin and does not begrudge him for how he is. Friendships make life sweeter and more enjoyable.

This book portrays and defines adolescence as the typical teenager everyone knows and loves: hormonal, dramatic, self-absorbed, and classified into social groups.  The protagonist, adolescent Colin, looks for love, and expresses his feelings and desire towards his significant other. Colin feels like his whole world is ending and that he cannot continue living when he is dumped. He is so self-absorbed about his own feelings and trying to find out how to live without his current Katherine that he does not acknowledge how his friend Hassan is doing or what he is up to. Colin seems unfriendly and a little put out when he finds out Hassan decides to date someone. It takes him being confronted by Hassan to realizes how self-absorbed he has been that makes confront himself and become a better friend. Another portrayal of adolescence is how everyone is put into social groups in high school either by themselves or by someone else depending on the how they act or know. There are many social groups in high school. Colin is considered a nerd and is put in the nerd group by his peers. This novel can relate to any adolescent.

By reading this book, a reader may view this as controversial by the sexual content; there is a sex scene between Katrina and TOC. On the other hand, maybe it is the language, they use “fug” a lot, which represents the f word. Upon research, this book was “suspended from the Highland Park, Tex., Independent School District’s approved book list (2014) by the school superintendent. The decision sparked a backlash and drew national attention. The superintendent then reinstated the book. In February 2015, the school district trustees approved policy changes on how the district selects books and handles parents’ objections.” (ILA) It was in fact banned for its “sexual situations,” according to The Daily Dot, in Texas by parents who did not think it appropriate for their children to read in class. John Green is no stranger for his books being banned.  A few of his YA novels have been challenged and banned in schools for multiple reasons: An Abundance of Katherines for sexual content, Paper Town for sexual content and language, Looking for Alaska for being too racy and The Fault in our Stars for teens dying, language and sexual content.

John Green “was born on August 24, 1977 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a YouTube video-blogger, or “vlogger”, with his brother, Hank Green. Their YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers, has over 2,500,000 subscribers as of May 2015. Perhaps more notably, John is also an author…Alongside his brother, Hank Green, John started an annual YouTube conference called “Vidcon” in 2010.” (IMDB) John Green’s novel An Abundance of Katherienes is a great book that relates to all adolescents and should be allowed to be read in all middle level and secondary level schools.

Works Cited

“An Abundance of Katherines.” John Green RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Biography.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Books Challenged or Banned in 2014-2015, by Robert P. Doyle.” Illinois Library Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Dallas School District Bans John Green, 6 Other Authors.” The Daily Dot. N.p., 23 Sept. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Franz Ferdinand.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

Green, John. An Abundance of Katherines. New York, NY: Dutton, 2006. Print.

“The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.” Young          Adult Library Services Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.