In the wake of Banned Books week, we should talk about the "Young Adult" genre.

For those of you who may not be a book nerd like myself, Banned Books week is an annual celebration of books that have been banned at some point since their publication.

But isn't banning books against the law in the United States? The answer is yes. However, while it has been decided that banning a book for the entire country violates Freedom of Speech, every year books are banned in school and county libraries across the country. Freedom of Speech is the reason we also celebrate and promote these books every year.

Because more often than not, banned books deserve celebration and promotion.

You would think that a book must be pretty inappropriate to get banned. But, you would be wrong. Banning a book is usually the result of a large enough group of upset parents speaking out for a long enough time. Thus, books have been banned for all sorts of reasons; for everything from dealing honestly with adolescent sexuality (here's looking at you, Judy Blume), to delving too far into a magical world. That's right, even Harry Potter has almost been banned.

The reasons behind wanting some of these books banned are silly. Harry Potter, for example, has been accused of being anti-Christian. However, the reasons for other bans make sense. It is understandable not to want your 13 year old reading about topics like sex or suicide. And yet, there those books are, sitting right on the young adult shelf, mixed in with their favorite Sarah Dessen books and Rick Riordan series.

Without getting into the debate of who should be in charge of policing kids' reading, parents or libraries, I'm going to propose another solution: Fix the category.

A lot of times books are banned for being inappropriate for younger readers, even though they're important for older ones. Take, for example, Judy Blume's book Forever. This book deals with sex during high school relationships. So yeah, it's understandable why a parent might not want their middle school or young high school student to read it, because it might give them the wrong idea about when sex is appropriate. However, for a Senior in high school, someone the same age as the two main characters, this book might help them safely make an important decision.

In other words, the young adult genre is too broad.

The term is too vague. What is a young adult? Most people I know started reading young adult books around the age of 12 or 13. Are those kids young adults? Probably not. But those kids are why some books that they wouldn't understand or that wouldn't be appropriate for them are classified as young adult. Ender's Game for example. That series of books is almost always classified as young adult because the characters are all kids. Yet, I read that book for the first time in ninth grade and still didn't understand all the nuances until several years later when I read it again.

Just because a book has young characters doesn't mean it's appropriate for young readers. For example, Esther in The Bell Jar is a young adult. Yet no one would categorize The Bell Jar as a young adult book. Because it would be inappropriate.

The goal of the young adult categorization, especially in libraries, is to give young people their own section of books on topics they're interested in. It also shelters them somewhat from the adult books that may deal with topics inappropriate for their age.

But we're failing in these goals.

Young adult books are typically classified as those appropriate for readers anywhere between the ages 12 and 22. But are topics interesting to 12 years olds really going to be the same as those interesting to 22 year olds, and vice versa? No.

That's why parents keep pushing to get some books banned. Because they've been categorized wrong.

Young adult is being treated like a reading level, when it should be treated like a maturity level. I agree that a bright 12 year old could easily read the same book as a 22 year old. But would they be able to relate to the same book? Would they be able to understand the real message of the book? No.

Judy Blume writes books for all ages. Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret is written in the same way Forever is. The language in one book is not more advanced than that in the other. However, Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, is a great book for 12 year olds. Forever? Not so much. Also, by the time a young reader would enjoy Forever, they've outgrown Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret. Yet, since these books are by the same author, and both are written about people still in school, they get placed right next to each other in libraries across the country. And that's how we end up with lists of banned books that are pages long.

There are about a million and one reasons not to ban books. For instance, despite what worried parents might believe, reading a book about an issue they haven't had to deal with yet, won't cause a child to start dealing with that issue. It will just make them more informed when they do have to deal with it. However, I also understand not wanting an innocent kid exposed to such terrible things as depression and rape.

But the answer isn't to make these books unavailable to them.

Kids are going to learn about these things eventually. And between the pages of a book is a safe space to do it.

That's why we need a better category than young adult. Such as, multiple categories for young readers. That way, we'll keep heavier books available for all readers, so they can find them when they need to, but they won't stumble upon them before they're ready, as they will if we keep all young adult books on the same shelf.