Giveaway and Discussion: Parents in Young Adult Lit

As Karin the Librarian notes, parents (and other adults) in YA Lit are often absent, irresponsible, and/or undependable. This is a basic truth in YA lit because the main characters tend to be teens and tweens who need to find their own answers and become independent. If there were parents and teachers and awesome adults in the lives of the main characters, there would be no plot. All would be good and YA lit would not be worth reading.

In celebration of a YA habit of just getting rid of parents altogether, Karin at The Book Jacket is hosting an awesome giveaway. She's offering up a copy of Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu to a randomly selected entrant.

Here are Karen's instructions:

1. Create a post on your blog about parents in young adult literature highlighting the book you choose. You don't have to give away the method the author uses to get rid of the parents since it might spoil the book for people, so...we'll just assume it is creative since you've chosen it.

2. Come back here and use the Thumbnail Linky to link your post to this blog.

3. Post your entry by Friday, May 7th

So, my choice for a great book where parents **miraculously** disappear is Gone by Michael Grant. In this book, parents, teachers, and just plain everyone over the age of 13 disappears in a second. One instant people 14 and over are there, the next instant they're gone. Gone.

What's interesting about this book (which is the first in a series; I have yet started Hunger, the second book but will soon) is how quickly the kids both organize and self-destruct. It reminds me of William Golding's Lord of the Flies in that there are some characters who are innately good people who seek to either follow or lead and there are some crazy bad people who want nothing more than to take over and are just plain corrupt.

I read this book this past fall and have honestly not picked up the second in the series because it's haunting me. There's something irksome about a few of the characters and scenes in this book. I'm not easily disturbed, but I think that there are a few nuggets of truth exposed in this book that aren't quite sitting comfortably with me.

Not that this is a bad read. It's wildly entertaining and suspenseful. And I will pick up the second in the series. There's just that one awful scene toward the end that I need to purge from my memory!