I read this recent Guardian piece with interest (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/04/sick-lit-young-adult-fiction-mail). In brief, it refers to, and (reassuringly) criticises, a recent article in the Daily Mail on “the disturbing rise of sick-lit”, ‘otherwise known as young adult fiction that dares to deal with real-life situations rather than dragons, wizards and vampire romances’, the Guardian journalist Michelle Pauli suggests…

Reassuringly also, the Guardian article attracted many comments, almost invariably vitriolic of the Daily Mail’s narrow minded and unenlightened stance, hardly surprising I guess as the Guardian tends to have a relatively broad minded and enlightened readership…

Clearly, the Daily Mail believes that teenagers should remain unaware of serious issues such as depression and terminal illness, amongst others. There is so much to be said about this, but I will resist. The Guardian riposte deals with the issue more than adequately.

The books quoted in the Daily Mail article had already been on my teenage daughter’s to-read list. She has read, as have I, Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones and Jenny Downham’s Before I Die. She does not appear to have been traumatised in any way by the experience. The opposite, I suspect. She has not yet read John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, although she is currently enjoying one of his other books, or Joanna Kenrick’s Red Tears, but plans to read both.

I have asked said-daughter if she would like to write something here on her experience of reading such ‘sick-lit’ stuff. She is keen.

Watch this space…

CQ