Why the Best Kid Books Are Written in Blood by Sherman Alexie

        "Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood" by Sherman Alexie tells readers about how censoring YA books will do more harm than good because many teens have already encountered these issues in their loves. And another thing that this article tells readers about is that YA fiction can have positive effects on teens because they can gain valuable experience that can be used as a "weapon" against these dark things in their lives. Alexie includes many quotes and perspectives of both critics of YA fiction, and teens who actually enjoy these books. He  also includes many personal connections between himself and teens. For example he said, "When I think of the poverty-stricken, sexually and physically abused, self-loathing Native American teenager I was, I can only wish, immodestly that I'd been given the opportunity to read "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian"".  He is connecting himself to teens in real life with these problems who may read YA books. He also constantly criticizes Meghan Cox Gurdon, a critic of YA fiction, whenever quotes her, and always has a response ready for all of her arguments.
   
          Throughout the entire text, Alexie tries to convince the readers that the criticisms of YA fiction are incorrect and that teens don't need protecting from these problems, they need tools or weapons to help solve these problems, and also that a YA book is an example of one of these tools because teens can learn from it. Through the whole passage, Alexie makes us feel bad for the teens who have been victims  of the same  issues in YA fiction, so that  we will be on their side. But when he quotes Meghan Cox Gurdon, he makes it seem as if she is ignorant and that she doesn't understand the teens problems and point of view. This may be because in Ms.Gurdon's article, the teen perspective was absent from the entire passage.  An example of how Alexie makes it seem like Gurdon is ignorant is when he said, "Does Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel will traumatize a teen mother?" He also goes on  to name more examples of how the issues in YA books will not bother teens that have already encountered these things in real life. The way he words these rhetorical questions makes it so that Gurdon can't really respond to defend herself. And Alexie also goes on to attack Gurdon's views on who should be the "gatekeepers". He quotes librarians in order to get across the point that they as well as writers are not responsible for the censorship of these books, and those who are actually responsible are the parents. By using these quotes, he is able to freeze her blame of writers and librarians for not helping to make sure kids don't read books that are too explicit for them. Overall, Alexies use of quotes make his arguments stronger because in a sense it is not just him arguing, but a group of the people he quoted behind him as well.

         Overall, I agree with Sherman Alexie's ideas which include, that teens don't need protection from things that they either have already experienced or may experience in their future because they have to learn about these things someday, and what they really need is tools or weapons to use to fight these things. I also agree with him when he says Gurdon is incorrect about some of her views, but I don't think she is completely stupid, but I just don't agree with her opinion. Also on the subject of "gatekeepers" I sort of think that teens should sometimes serve as their own gatekeepers because teens know what they can and can't take in a book, and if they begin to not like the book they can stop reading it. "Why the Best Kid Books Are Written in Blood" by Sherman Alexie is a great article that clearly conveys it's opinion and makes it sort of hard to disagree with it. My opinion that teens should be able to read whatever they want is still the same, but now I too have the opinion that YA books can have positive effects on teens. And I still haven't been convinced that these books can't have negative effects on teens, but right now because of this article, I still feel that these books have more positive effects than negative ones.