Sparknotes and Censorship

“Did you read the book? It’s so much better than the movie!” This is my life. In high school, I read almost every YA book in the school, including the girly ones (which may shock those of you that are in my book club). Reading has always been one of the most important things in my life so it is always hard for me to understand why other people don’t read every book assigned or any book in front of them.

Like I have explained before, I am a nerd. I read every book, every page, even the footnotes on assignments. So watching the Penny Kittle video Why Students Don’t Read What is Assigned in Class broke my heart. I want the students to enjoy themselves when they are reading, it shouldn’t feel like a punishment. Almost

CC Kevin Dooley

every student admitted to using Sparknotes or faking it in a discussion rather than reading the books.  I would say they took more time and put more effort into avoiding than if they had actually done the work.

While Sparktnotes can be handy for a quick review or to gain more knowledge about the works, it can also be detrimental to learning. Sparknotes doesn’t give us the details of a book. It doesn’t convey the emotions running through characters during a fight or during a date. It gives students the bare minimum to get by, to just pass an easy test. Don’t get me wrong, I have used Sparknotes or Shmoop on many occasions, when I read last week and need a run through before discussions or when I want to research a character list.

Now for the reading I did this week. One article I found was Fear of the Other: Exploring the Ties between Gender, Sexuality, and Self-Censorship in the Classroom. I found this article interesting because just read a book that had the plot of developing sexuality in teenagers. In this book Forever by Judy Bloom, the characters are discovering sex and relationships in the 70’s. In the article, the author continually challenges the idea of “normal” in YA literature.  Why are books showing LGBTQ sexualities frowned upon while books like Forever are left open to teens? The argument for this is that these new books are offensive or scandalous to young readers. “Inappropriate” is a word commonly used by those on the censorship side.

The second article I read was Embracing the Difficult Truths of Adolescence through Young Adult Literature. This article was also focused on the

CC Antoon Kuper

challenges with censorship in YA literature. Why do we belittle teenagers by assuming they are incapable of handling problems that pertain to them? Personally, I think anyone should be allowed to read whatever they choose, as long as it doesn’t hurt them or those around them. Giving a middle schooler a book on homemade weapons is probably not a good idea, obviously, but allowing teens to choose for themselves gives them a whole new perspective on reading.