Parents of young teenagers: what literary themes are too dark?

Cafe Society
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In this thread and a few others, I’ve been discussing a children’s novel I’m writing, aimed at readers aged 12-15. I don’t especially wish to discuss specific plot points here (though I will if necessary), but I have a question.

One of my co-workers helps me by proofreading works I write freelance. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have had any occasion to look over this manuscript (it’s only 1/3 finished), but Friday, when she’d just finished redlining some actual paying work, she asked to take a look. She’s a friend as well as a colleague, so I said sure.

When Sarah was done, she said, “What age is this meant for?” When I told her, she went on, “I’m not sure I’d want my child reading this. In fact I’m sure it would make me uncomfortable.” It seemed very dark in her view for a story for that age range. The two main characters are best friends, aged 9-13 during the story.

At the beginning of the story, the younger protagonist, a 9-year-old girl, is implicitly the victim of both physical and sexual child abuse by her parents that no one does anything about. The older protagonist, a boy of 10, is meanwhile mourning the death of his father and his mother’s emotional collapse, which forces his older sister (four years his senior) to become the parent figure in their household.

Two and a half years later, the girl protagonist has gotten tarred as sexually loose (“fast”) in their neighborhood because of a bathroom make-out session an older boy persuaded her to into joining and then boasted about. Meanwhile, the male protagonist’s mother remarries, and he begins to suspect that his older sister may be having an affair with their new stepfather. Moreover, a violent attack described in the thread referened above also ocurs.

(Sighing…it always takes me a billion words to get to a question. No wonder USA Today wouldn’t hire me. :dubious: )

So, parents–how uncomfortable would the above referenced themes make you, if you knew your 12-15-year-old son or daughter was reading them? I should say that the abuse and violence are only hinted at, not shown.

Thanks in advance for answering.

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I think the issue that she would have with it is that the kids (in the book) are so young.

The books that we get assigned for school are this dark, if not worse. However, the situations usually involve adults or older teens.

I wouldn’t consider 12-15 a “children’s novel”, probably more “young adult”.

Of course, i’m not a parent…but children get exposed to a lot, just counting books for school.

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I’m not a parent, but I was a 12-15 year old fairly recently (I’m 17). I will say that when I was 12, I was still very sensitive to disturbing things, and the sexual abuse in particular would have troubled me. I was always more sensitive to horrible things people did to each other, like abuse, rather than terrible things that just happened, like the deah of a parent.

Also, I don’t know if this is a concern, but precocious 9-11 year olds look at books aimed at young teens. I know that when I was 9 and 10, books written for my age group bored me, but books aimed at older kids often focused on themes that troubled me.

Anyway, I would think that themes like that are better geared at older teens.

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My parents never censored any of my reading, at any age. I think that this is more than likely a good policy, as long as parents are willing to discuss and answer questions that might arise.

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Have you read Lynne Reid Banks’ Melusine? It deals with some heavy issues like that, you might want to look at it as a reference.

I think it would depend on how the books handles it, and sexual abuse is generally considered a darker, ‘older’ theme than physical abuse. It is important to keep in mind that kids like to read books they think are aimed at older kids (12-yo’s read Seventeen, books about 10-yo’s are actually read by 8-yo’s and the 10-yo’s are reading stuff about 12-yo’s, etc), and that people usually assume that the protagonists’ ages are about the age aimed at. A book about a 9-yo won’t necessarily attract a 14-yo, and people will read it as if it were for the younger set.

As for the actual question, I’d probably be less than happy about my hypothetical 12-yo daughter reading about it, but 15 would be acceptable.

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Reading about graphic violence would disturb me personally, and I would think it might be disturbing to my daughter as well. But you say that the violence and abuse is only hinted at, and that makes me feel better about it.

I never censor my kids’ reading anyway. When my daughter was twelve, she read The Exorcist, and she’s okay. If a book disturbs me, I stop reading it and I think my kids would have enough sense to do the same.