would you- Marthe Jocelyn

This is a very accessible book for a reluctant reader or those who just prefer something a little shorter. At 161 pages, it meets those demands. Natalie has a pretty good life. She has an okay family, a pretty nice older sister who is heading off to college and a fun set of friends. In fact, one of their favourite larks is to go swimming in pools where they hope the owners are away and then run for it when caught. Nothing too out of the ordinary has touched Natalie’s life until the night she comes home to find that her sister has been hit by a car and is in a coma. Initially, the family believes she may recover but eventually have to face the hard truth that her brain is actually dead. Then they have to make the hard decision to let her go and to know that she has signed her organ donation card. Some hard issues are dealt with and there are some very real emotions portrayed.

Now for some of my reservations. There is some language in this book that, in my opinion, makes it unsuitable for an elementary school, even if we were to house it in the Young Adult section of the library.Probably not more than a half-dozen words would need to be culled in order to turn this into a story that many of our young people could read. The argument is sometimes made that this is the way people talk. Not always; not everyone! I believe firmly that great literature sets a higher standard which is even more important when it is directed at our youth. Editors, publishers- where are you? Could you please consider the plea of many of us who buy for our students to make sure the language is suitable for ALL our readers? Someone said recently that language seems to have become a non-issue for publishing for children. For many of us, it IS still an issue and while we would love to promote an otherwise worthy novel for our students, some of the content prevents that from happening. Are there others who feel as strongly as I do? Is there anything, we as readers, reviewers and buyers can do to ensure that we only offer our students the very best? I would invite your comments on this topic.