Deadly Unna – inappropriate?
Posted by Allan Q
Previously reading Deadly Unna, I would be happy to write a very short review for it. As for a school text at year 9 level at Scotch, I thought it was inappropriate. The book is written for a demographic of boys that need to look in the mirror to see how big they have grown in the last 5 minutes, and whose ideas of a female are well…..magazine style. While it does ‘grope’ with controversial teenagers of this age and demographic, it also deals with race discrimination, death and other things that may take part in teenagers’ lives, but to be critically analysed and then have teenagers who may not have dealt with these hard lined issues, to face up to them in a context (referring to the book) that may obviously repulse them. This book is written for a specific group of boys, not the general population. It deals with growing up in ways that may be new to some, and while this may be great for some, let teenagers either introduce themselves to it or have them ‘look back’ when they have matured.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
inappropriate schminappropriate. I think it is necessary to have books like these, or some of us may be living in a world through the eyes of a child. I haven’t read this personally, being in year 8, but would people read it if it was not a school text? The fact that the school has chosen it to be a book doesnt mean that it must be as sterile as an operating theatre, does it?
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
It’s been quite a while since I studied the book in year 9… but I recall most of us not having too much trouble with it. The fact is, the book is at least aimed towards an adolescent demographic – and even if that doesn’t necessarily include all boys of that age, it’s a decent way to ease in younger secondary school students into essay writing. The themes it raises are likely more relevant to them, and the more informal writing style is certainly quite a jump from Shakespeare and all the English texts that follow.
Though I must admit I always preferred a challenge.
Give me Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies any day.
dweedidwe: School books are anything BUT sterile. Even Lockie Leonard, unanimously voted the worst of the lot, deals with sex and general teenage awkwardness.