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Thank you We sneak in Speak heavy subject matter I'll

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ashman Is the heavy subject matter of the novel appropriate

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for young teens It's a really tricky question Do you

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write a novel that deals with rape because that's something

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that teenagers you know need tto learn about and they

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need support with or do you try to protect them

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because they're going to find out about it later on

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in their lives books like theirs are often on dh

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from school libraries for exactly this reason and books that

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are nowhere near as graphic is this get banned from

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school libraries twilight harry potter those get banned from libraries

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and that reflects yeah a really impulse to hide things

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hoping that no one will ever find out No i

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never really a fan of censorship but i especially think

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in this day and age it just seems as though

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there's so much material out there not just for teenagers

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with young kids that people are going to have to

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deal with serious and weighty topics earlier than you might

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expect And the great thing about writing about this novel

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is that it gives them the chance to deal with

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these things in a really nuanced way So instead of

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just watching a movie where there's you know a really

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violent scene you get to see a year in melinda's

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life where she's dealing with the impact of that violence

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A book can also sometimes be less intense in a

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way that like you don't always pause a movie while

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you're watching it If you're in a movie theater you

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can't posit You can put down a book when it's

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too much So i think that's really useful actually for

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young people to be able to absorb these things sort

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of bit by bit by bit a book is something

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you can talk about with other people So it's helpful

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in that way and the most important reason is just

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you know the whole idea behind this novel is that

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melinda feels so alone on there are really people who

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feel very alone because of the things that they've experienced

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So it's Just a useful to have these books as

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something that people can go to to know that like

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their situation is not totally unique and that there's help

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and support and a future for them Is the heavy 00:02:28.48 --> [endTime] subject matter of the novel appropriate for young teens

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