In an interview with the BBC, Myracle said, “It is so revealing to me the vituperativeness they address me with. What’s ironic is that the anger and offensive language used by these parents is sometimes worse than what is contained in the pages of her books.Īnother of Myracle’s novels, Twelve, generated a flood of complaints and angry emails because the book, aimed at younger readers, describes a girl trying to figure out how to put in a tampon. I’ve had many girls say ‘thank you for writing this’.”īut Myracle has received a steady stream of angry e-mails from parents who are irate over her bestselling series. “Kids need to see their world reflected back to them. Myracle argues that to engage teenagers you have to write honestly about them. For the IM girls this took shape in situations where one girl gets caught smoking pot, while another gets caught in bed with a boy. It’s that raw truthfulness that has the ire of the censors.Įxperimentation and thrill-seeking are a rite of passage for teens. The books portray the parents with a similar realism, revealing their human imperfections.

What it does is present its characters so realistically that readers immediately identify with them that’s what powerful writing does- it creates a personal connection between the reader and the story. The series does not attempt to be preachy or a lecture on morals that’s the realm of the censors. The books have been challenged mostly because of the use of curse words, graphic descriptions of sex, alcohol use, student-teacher relationships, and “too much partying.”įor example, TTYL was removed from Round Rock, Texas, middle-school libraries in 2008 after parents complained about sexual content and profanity. By 2009 it was the number one title banned by schools and libraries across the nation and has remained in the top ten for the last two years. Thus, the book series became very popular with teenage girls as its popularity grew so did controversy over the storylines and content. Preoccupied with talk of sex and college, the girls run into realistic situations that involve foul language, drugs, and alcohol in a less than casual way. TTYL and TTFN were both New York Times Best Sellers, and TTYL made history as the first novel to be written entirely in instant messages the dialogue is presented in color-coded Instant Message bubbles to distinguish the senders.

The series begins when the girls are in middle school and ends in their senior year. The Young Adult series consisting of TTYL (2005), TTFN (2007), and L8R, G8R (2008) follows the lives of three friends- Zoe, Maddie, and Angela- as they deal with such topics of high school social drama as boys, drugs, alcohol, parties, driving, emotional rampages, and college prep. The “ Internet Girls”, also refered to as the “IM” series, is a trilogy by American author Lauren Myracle written between 20.

Ttyl novel