The article Should young adult books have age ratings? by Husna Haq for the CS monitor faces the heated debate over YA books in 2014 and whether or not we should restrict teens access to them. Throughout the article she shows different perspectives and groups of people, therefore displaying many different opinions on the topic. Through evidence and opinions, the author gives enough information to make your own decision on this growing conflict.

            By using more than two different opinions (i.e black and white) she gives many different ones, creating room for the readers personal opinion. For example she writes about G.P Taylor, an english writer who, after diving into the young adult fiction genre was horrified and ended his exploration abruptly. He says, “I have changed my mind. I think children's literature has gone too.” For a writer who lives off of the literature that he creates, it is a major step for him to say that he doesn’t support that genre and is even avoiding it. This is an interesting and unique perspective that we may not have considered before. Another example was an author who is against rating books. When speaking about the things teens will have to deal with in their future, he states, “So if children’s literature is not addressing that, if it’s addressing the world as it should be rather than as it is, then why would a teenager read you?” The author uses a person of the same employment but who has a different view on this movement to show that a group of people will not all have the same perspectives but may have totally varying ones. Haq also has statistics from scientific research to further prove her point.

            Throughout the passage Haq was portraying how these issues would become even more relevant and debated in the next few years, so we should decide our positions now. She gave a sense of urgency and importance with the issues at hand. For example she says that “literature is on a move toward responsibility and oversight- or a slide into censorship?” This creates a connection between responsibility and censorship, therefore saying that censorship

is being responsible. I believe her wording shows subtle signs of opinion throughout the piece. She also puts in a quote saying that for parents to guide their children, a certification system is the way forward. Constantly stressing this idea of forward and the future, she portrays that we should jump on the book rating bandwagon now, before its is to late. She also states “Is it time young adult literature comes with an age rating:” She doesn’t ask the question if these books should have age ratings, but if the time has come to have age ratings. she is trying to push us further into the belief that the time has come to put changes on the way kids are reading.

  

            Overall, Husna Haq uses an array of perspectives and quotes to write a multi-opinion piece, while still subtly showing her perspective through her wording. By doing all these things helps to shed enough light on the subject for the reader to have a full understanding and form their own opinion which isn’t forced. This piece is well rounded but may show more opinion than fact.