My YA MCs are Joy, an conservative Christian 16yo and Polly, an atheist 15yo. They time travel to an alternate reality 1526 Denmark, and interact with the characters from Hamlet. Polly's brother Will comes after them.
The limit of Joy's exclamatory words are "Oh My Gosh," but Polly does swear. Much to my own 15yo (atheist) daughter's chagrin, I've limited Polly's profane vocabulary to what you could hear on network TV. My daughter says that if she got her period in 1526 Denmark, as Polly does, she would say a much stronger word than "crap."
I know that current YA literature DOES use stronger language than that, but I want the book to be accessible to Christian kids too. I'm really making an effort to portray all sides fairly and positively.
That said, I've come across an occasion where a stronger profanity really does seem to fit.
The question is -- do you read, and would you allow your teens to read books with profanity? Where do you draw the line? If a book had the F word in it (uttered by a non-Christian character in a non-offhand manner) would that make it off limits? What about the more minor profanity (the kind you would hear on TV?)
Here is the passage in question, with the word in question blanked out:
“So much heartache,” Polly whispered. “Are there any happily-ever-afters here?”
“Not in Hamlet,” Will said. “Pretty much everybody dies.”
“Even Ophelia?”
He nodded.
“This has to stop. We have to stop it.”
“Pol, I don’t think we can. It’s the way it was written.”
“____ the way it was written!” Tears were flowing down her cheeks. “We can’t let this happen. It hasn’t happened yet. There must be some way of stopping it.”
The limit of Joy's exclamatory words are "Oh My Gosh," but Polly does swear. Much to my own 15yo (atheist) daughter's chagrin, I've limited Polly's profane vocabulary to what you could hear on network TV. My daughter says that if she got her period in 1526 Denmark, as Polly does, she would say a much stronger word than "crap."
I know that current YA literature DOES use stronger language than that, but I want the book to be accessible to Christian kids too. I'm really making an effort to portray all sides fairly and positively.
That said, I've come across an occasion where a stronger profanity really does seem to fit.
The question is -- do you read, and would you allow your teens to read books with profanity? Where do you draw the line? If a book had the F word in it (uttered by a non-Christian character in a non-offhand manner) would that make it off limits? What about the more minor profanity (the kind you would hear on TV?)
Here is the passage in question, with the word in question blanked out:
“So much heartache,” Polly whispered. “Are there any happily-ever-afters here?”
“Not in Hamlet,” Will said. “Pretty much everybody dies.”
“Even Ophelia?”
He nodded.
“This has to stop. We have to stop it.”
“Pol, I don’t think we can. It’s the way it was written.”
“____ the way it was written!” Tears were flowing down her cheeks. “We can’t let this happen. It hasn’t happened yet. There must be some way of stopping it.”
