My mother cared more about about what the men in her life felt about her than the safety of her children. By the time I was 7 I was the head of the household out of safety for myself and my sister. The paycheck came in I paid the bills. This labeled me as spoiled, but after having seen my sister beaten to the point she should have been in the hospital. After me being raped and beaten to the point of scarring, I didn't care. I did care that rent wasn't paid, food wasn't on the table, etc.
I still have a slight phobia of men, but one thing my mother did right was instill a love of reading. When my mother decided the guy I most consider to be my father entered my life at age 8. A man who thought women and children should be seen and not heard and had no problem with using force in order to enforce this, I was hiding within books.
This man did realize it was better for all if he didn't live with us. So luckily I could keep him pretty peripherally, but nowhere was safe. Not home, not school where endless bullying accompanied my every move.
Books were the only place I could be completely safe. At school, I didn't need the bullies to leave me alone, mom's boyfriend wouldn't mess with me as I was being silent, and the fact that Mom loved men more than me wasn't right there in front of me.
Books literally saved me, so to say that it's too dark inside books is niave. How about we work on making the world safer for children and then books wouldn't have to reflect the dark?
Thank you so much for being honest and sharing your story with us. I couldn't believe that article, but there are people out there who think it's better to make fiction really truly fiction instead of something based on what some people really go through!
ReplyDeleteNot the best post to make this comment, but I picked your blog for the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award! Check it out here! :o)
Mickey @ imabookshark
I think that's the best thing to tell those people who believe YA books are too dark. Books mirror reality so why not spend all their energies into ensuring a safer place for young people, instead of targeting those books that provide solace to broken teens.
ReplyDeleteBesides, there are a lot of YA books and I'm not buying into the whole, 'I can't find anything appropriate to read' thing they were talking about. There's a whole shelf of Harry Potter books out there if all else fails! :D