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Thanks, Addy. And that's more books to add to an already impossibly long list! My favourite is still the last line in 'Little Boy Lost' by Marghanita Laski, but I can't say it here as it would give the story away. It has me blubbing every time. I even stole the name of that character for one of my own stories as an homage to the book but it didn't get picked up. (Still might

This post began with a conversation between Addy and me about a moment in Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce that takes you emotionally by surprise. Addy said, I can do a post on that! And she did - in the most inclusive way! Thanks, Addy! Notes from the Slushpile really feels like a lovely community with this post! Such a blubworthy list!<br /><br />... er but what happened to Millions?

Re Grandfather&#39;s Bench - was this the grandfather married to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBnHri8oHE" rel="nofollow">fighter pilot gran</a>?

Aw - thanks, Clare. I will have to read it!

I&#39;ve lost Millions! I love Millions! Shame but now an excuse for a future blog for all those lost words.

Ha! No! This grandfather was more Private Peaceful!

Made me cry - a lot. <br />I can&#39;t read The Selfish Giant (Oscar Wilde) or the moment in The Children of Green Knowe ( L.M.Boston) where Tolly &amp; his great grandmother hear &#39;Lully lullay&#39; on Christmas Eve &quot; and four hundred years ago, a baby went to sleep.&quot;<br />Thanks hive mind.

Oh, that&#39;s lovely, I&#39;d forgotten Green KNowe - there is soooooo much beautiful writing.

Ridiculous to blub just at these tiny fragments, isn&#39;t it? But lovely too. Beautiful selection, Addy. I just finished A MONSTER CALLS and was beside myself with grief and wonder. &quot;I don&#39;t want you to go.&quot; *lays head on table and sobs self stupid*

Oh I KNOW!

I&#39;ve cried more at that book than any other!

I have two book moments. The first has taken a bit of finding, it&#39;s Mrs Weasley. She&#39;s trying to get rid of a boggart from a wardrobe but it keeps turning into her dead children - &#39;I see them d-d-dead all the time!&#39; Mrs Weasley moaned into his shoulder. &#39;All the time! I d-d-dream about it.&#39; It was a great way to show the seriousness of the fight against evil has real

That sounds like it was an amazing discussion. My hope is that publishers do label books with warnings - or perhaps 15+ type labels. We have ratings on our movings - we need to on books as well.

Sounds like a lot of common sense was spoken here. The whole of my PhD has been about this, or more specifically, the representation of sex, drugs and alcohol. And yes some of Bali Rai&#39;s books were included in my research. My research illustrated that there has been a change in that in some instances these &#39;issues&#39; are more graphic but this is not a necessarily a bad thing. There are

It was indeed a great evening though, as Jackie says, not really a debate as there was very little disagreement. <br /><br />Ness - is your PhD finished? Did you look at the reluctant-reader fiction for teens that covers difficult issues but is written in language accessible to readers with a much lower reading age? I&#39;d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Jackie, thanks so much for reporting on this: I wanted to be there so much! <br />I love that comment: &#39;reading violence does not make young adults violent, any more than reading crime turns adults into murderers&#39;. <br />I&#39;m a bit of a wimp: working in a library and reading jacket backs of adult crime novels - yikes! - I wouldn&#39;t touch many of them personally, I wouldn&#39;t sleep

ha, teri, how do you know what those sweet little old ladies and gents are thinking?

So wish I could have been there, it&#39;s a topic dear to my heart! As I said on Miriam&#39;s pice on The Edge blog: The panel echoes what I&#39;ve always believed and yet, in the past, argued with so many about. The reality is out there, in every other place from real life, the media, games, movies, stuff on the net - for too long writers have been dissuaded from facing the real issues as though

Great post, Jackie - thanks so much for summarising the points raised and for including the links to the pieces which sparked the debate - so helpful.

Great post, Jackie - thanks so much for summarising the points raised and for including the links to the pieces which sparked the debate - so helpful.

Candy, I forgot to say, thanks so much for inviting me to be a guest blogger on this wonderful blog.

The only people who don&#39;t seem to be debating this are the young adults who buy the books.<br />I&#39;m not sure there should be warnings as there are with films, don&#39;t the cover and the blurb serves as warning enough. And anyway, kids can pass them round can&#39;t they if their parents won&#39;t buy them.<br />Even with young people it&#39;s a matter of taste and what they are into at

Great post - very informative. Thanks Jackie and the Notes team.<br />This is a subject close to my heart and the more I read about these discussion the better I feel about a couple of projects I have underway.<br />Thanks again!

I agree with Maureen, write a story off the page (as in leaping off it) and it will be read whatever. I&#39;m more of an escapist myself and like to be transported away from grim reality. Trolls bottoms work for me.<br /><br />thanks so much Jackie!

Trolls&#39; bottoms? Now, that&#39;s what I call depravity!

Thanks for this post, great to read about it having not been able to attend.<br />I like Ness&#39;s suggestion that there should be teen books distinct from YA. <br />I don&#39;t think it would be a good idea to have warning labels on books, and I like that the main thing that seems to have emerged is that it&#39;s the story and writing with integrity that matter most.<br />Jeannie

... but what&#39;s wrong with wearing Hush Puppies?

Great post Jackie! Just to drop another side to the debate in - I was in a big bookshop recently, and a girl (probably around 11-12) was trying to buy a YA book, not sure which one. To her credit, the woman behind the till asked the girl if it was for her. When she answered yes, she asked her to fetch her mum, who wasn&#39;t far away, and proceeded to warn her mum that the book was really written

Jo, I think you make a valid point. I think that YA books should probably have their own section in bookshops at least. And there aren&#39;t always booksellers about to advise. <br /><br />I gave my son &#39;a child called it&#39; to read when he was about 13. I gave it to him because he thought I was a bad mother because I insisted on feeding him healthy food! But I would never have given

@Jo Scott Westerfeld&#39;s piece dealt with trying to educate parents to what YA is actually all about.<br /><br />YA Fiction really needs its own place in a bookstore - older teens really shouldn&#39;t be made to browse next to the picture books. <br /><br />Many booksellers now realize this and set up young adult fiction in appropriate locations - it&#39;s respectful to a very discerning

@ Candy - can there be a section for Adults Who Shamelessly Read Kids Books too? I don&#39;t like hunting for books standing next to 5 year olds either...

@jo you can always go in disguise. refer to comedy teenager photos on the blog.