Reducing Risky Behavior Through Reading

Michael Cart has an interesting article out this week in American Libraries:

A Literature of Risk
By Michael Cart
Teens dealing with violence and other risky behaviors can get help from young adult fiction

sad study on teens & death

I know teens love love love books about death and dying, but I had no idea how many believe they will die young!

Many Teens Expect To Die Young

Writing in the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Iris Borowsky of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and colleagues studied data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which involves more than 20,000 teens from grades 7 through 12.

They found that almost 15 percent of adolescents believed they had a 50/50 chance at best of living to see their 35th birthday.

Wow! The article goes on to talk about this is why so many teens engage in risky behavior...they are literally hopeless. So sad.

How do you think books about death and dying help teens with these worries/fears/hopelessness? What are some of your favorites?