Classics or Series?

Posted by Laura L. Johnson May 29, 2008

As I was writing my article, Teens Reading the Classics, I found myself in the midst of semi-hypocrisy. I looked down in my lap to find my current read: Scott Westerfeld's Pretties (the second in the Uglies series). As important (and entertaining) as I think the classics of literature are for teens to read - I know I dearly enjoyed reading Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway as a high schooler - I wonder if there is even any competition when they have shelves upon shelves of series written about their generation sitting at their fingertips.

I have nothing against the current YA fiction - like all genres in all times, there are good books and bad books. In fact, I am actually a big fan of the Westerfeld series, as well as the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. What concerns me is that the generations of teens who found themselves so bored on a summer day, they picked up their father's old copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is no longer around.

Perhaps we won't know until far into the future what affect this may have on teens. Sounds to me like a great sequel to Fahrenheit 451 to me...