Harry Potter and Twilight

With the article “But Is It Good Enough To Teach?” in mind, I would label the three works that we have read so far as worthy. Between the three books Copper Sun, Harry Potter, and Twilight, an adolescent literature class would be exposed to different genres, writing styles, and authors if the books were taught. I would predict that fighting to include the book Copper Sun would be the easiest of the three battles. It’s true that the author Sharon Draper is not on the famous 5-foot-shelf. She isn’t a name that an intellectual would drop at a cocktail party either, but she is highly knowledgeable about African American literature and I think that she does the genre justice. Copper Sun fulfills the cross-cultural awareness necessity in a curriculum, but would not be included for that reason only. I think that Draper’s novel belongs in the classroom because it creates historical awareness written from a different point of view. Also, her work cannot be denied on the basis of merit because Copper Sun won the Coretta Scott King Award for spreading non-violent social change.

In adolescent literature, it is most important that students are interested enough in the reading to actually do it. One of my professors told a story last week that relates: he was a moody and angry eighth grader who didn’t have the least interest in doing his school work. His English teacher acknowledged that he was a smart kid who was simply rebelling, and so she took a special interest in helping him out. She assigned him a separate book from the rest of her class – he promised her that he would read the first chapter of Catcher in the Rye while the other students read Gatsby. My professor said that he finished the book the same day that he began it. He identified with the main character Holden and was intrigued by the unusual story. In my professor’s case, he would have never read a book like Gatsby or another ‘great work’ because it bored him, and, while Catcher is a famous work as well, he only took an interest in it because of the subject matter. With this same argument, a teacher could fight for the inclusion of books like Harry Potter and Twilight, even though they are less well-known for their literary merit. Their subject matter interests adolescents, hence the current national phenomenon of witches, wizards, and vampires on television, in books, and in movies. In order for an adolescent to become a lifelong reader, he needs to be lured in by literature that he likes.