Sex in the City for Teens?

Okay, I know, teens have sex. I am not blind, naive, or old-fashioned. For heaven's sake, I even watch Gossip Girl (it's a guilty pleasure and I love the one liners). As a middle school reading teacher I often read books like the Gossip Girl series and I recommend them to older teen readers but did not have them on my 7th grade book shelves.

How could I possibly recommend books that glorified sexual promiscuity, drug use, drinking, and the main characters had little, if any, consequences?   

In 2010 Candace Bushnell, the author of the 1990's newspaper column who helped create the Sex and the City franchise, will publish two novels for teenagers entitled The Carrie Diaries.

Bushnell has signed a deal with HarperCollins to write two children's/teen books that will take "readers back to Carrie Bradshaw's  formative years in high school, giving an inside look at Carrie's friendships, romances and how she realized her dream of becoming a writer".

Bushnell's editor, Alessandra Blazer, states in the New York Observer that “I mean, the kids will be doing what teenagers realistically do, but it’s not going to be provocative for the sake of that,” Ms. Balzer said. “I would never put something in just to put it in. But if it was organic to the story and it was something that felt real, then it would be in there.”

Bushnell apparently does not have a plan for the books yet but what do you think we should expect from her? Is this just a money maker because she and her publishers know there is an audience or do viewers and readers really want a back story for the four sexiest women on television?

Wait, isn't that Gossip Girl?

Marcie Pickelsimer writes about children's books at One Book, Two Book.