The Best Kids Books Are Written In Blood Analysis

Humans strive to improve and discover themselves, and, for the most part, people want an ideal society of peace and harmony. To have this ideal society, it should embrace love, freedom, and surround itself with empathetic and compassionate people. People have used many methods to regulate society such as religion, culture, and law to achieve an ideal society. Despite the many ways humans try to govern themselves, one if the most influential and greatest tools to reform humankind is literature. Although there are many direct methods to strengthen humanity, Literature brings readers much closer to their empathetic roots giving readers more empathy, critical thinking, and independence. Of the many benefits literature brings, the first way literature

Sherman Alexie, the author of the article “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood,” argues that young adult literature should not be hidden from teenagers because teens have already had a taste of the world’s cruelty, and cultural conservatives should understand that teenagers are not innocent (Alexie 2). Shamefully, hiding teens from young adult books deprives them of the opportunity to relate to or empathize with the story’s characters, and the ability to empathize would help them become strong minded and independent. Just like the majority of the young adult audience, Alexie is a victim of a troubled childhood, and he talks about the importance of young adult books like his could have had on him at the time. Adults gave Alexie many meaningless advice for a majority of his life. For example, they claimed that the certain music he listened to, such as Black Sabbath and KISS, would impact his morals, and they assumed that they were protecting him from evil when he had already encountered it in various forms (Alexie 3). Like he argues throughout the article, there is no purpose in censoring young adult literature because he believes that the time to protect the teenagers, who read her books, has long past. Towards the end of the article, Alexie explains why books and young adult literature were so important to him and his readers. Regarding this importance of books, he recalls, “as a child, I read because books - violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not - were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life” (Alexie 4). Alexie reveals the importance books had on him during her life because he loved the experience of living in the story, and he appreciated the will power it gave him in life. Literature, as well as young adult literature, are vital for not