Independent reading

Today, about 20 minutes of each English class was independent reading. My students mostly love this time and use it well.  I decided to join them since it was not the entire class period. Since the book I'm reading was at home, I borrowed a book from a boy in my first period called Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini. I've never been overly enthusiastic about young adult literature, but there are some entertaining books out there, and for the most part, if students are reading, I think that's a good thing. This book has an intriguing cover and one of the blurbs was "Imagine Holden Caulfield with Internet access." Not sure why that attracted me; I thought Holden Caulfield was a jerk when I read The Catcher in the Rye in high school. The book was entertaining, but disturbing at the same time. I know, and have known for some time, what subject is uppermost in the mind of most (all?) teenage boys. But this book was so in your face with the "guys just gotta get in" theme that it was disconcerting. The concept of the story: the nerdly boy buys a squib, a computer-in-the-head life coach, who teaches him how to be cool. But the depictions of the girls in the story, the off-hand way they talked about sex, the whacking off, etc., made me so sad for kids today.  There sure isn't much mystery left.  And if girls internalize the message of this book, they'll feel like meat.

I read the book--okay I skimmed a couple of chapters in order to give it back to a student during sixth period, and I won't object to kids reading it. But I think I might say straight out that it distorts something very beautiful--more valuable than any 16 year old can know.