From the Headdeskery Department comes some asschapping news, thanks to librarian Christine of the Awesome. From Pete Hautman‘s blog comes a write up of the Humble, Texas, Teen Lit Fest, where, due to one librarians complaints, author Ellen Hopkins was disinvited to the 2011 celebration.
From Hopkins’ blog:
Once again, censorship opens its nasty mouth and takes a bite out of me. This time in Humble Texas, a suburb of Houston. Let me say first thing that I did two high school visits there a couple of years ago, and they went very well. The librarians were totally supportive and, in fact, took me to the amazing Houston Rodeo afterward. So when they asked me to take part in the Teen Lit Fest they help organize, I said sure. The event is scheduled for the last weekend in January, 2011. But I won’t be there after all.
Apparently, a middle school librarian saw my name on the roster and decided my presence would somehow negatively affect her students. I’m not sure how that is possible. Maybe she thinks I sweat “edgy and dark.” (Are those things catching?) Anyway, she went to a couple of parents with her concerns. I’m guessing she knew the exact ones who would raise a stink, and they did. They went to the school board, and the superintendent, Guy Sconzo, decided to uninvite me. (He says I was never invited, but I was!)
You know, I’m kind of getting used to this, and I had just about decided not to make a big deal about it. But then another Texas librarian, who is a great supporter, e-mailed Mr. Sconzo. His reply was arrogant and condescending and really made me mad, on two fronts. First, he admitted he “relied on his head librarian’s research” in regard to my books or me or both. Meaning he never bothered to read them himself. (Censors rarely do!) Never bothered to contact me with his concerns. Didn’t listen to the other librarians who lobbied heavily to keep me on the speaker roster, or ask other teen book festival organizers about their experiences with me.
Understandably, this pissed off a lot of people, including the fine folks at the Librarified blog, writer Melissa De La Cruz, and, according to Hautman’s site, authors Matt de la Pena and Tera Lynn Childs (author of the RITA-winning Oh My Gods), who have both withdrawn from the Humble Teen Lit Fest in protest of Hopkins’ disinvitation.
My first thought was, holy smoking jackasses, that’s just ridiculous. What scary horrible things does Hopkins write about?
Her 2004 book Crank was about a young girl who gets hooked on crystal meth. That’s not a hideous problem affecting teens right now or anything, deserving of frank discussion. No, not at all. Her 2009 book, Tricks, is a book told in verse dealing with various teens from different backgrounds experiencing and dealing with… wait for it… oh, gosh you might want to hide under the table here… are you sure you want to know?
Fine, I’ll spoiler it. It’s about
sex.
CAN YOU IMAGINE?! WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN (who won’t get to meet a New York Times best selling author whose books deal directly with scary shit that many children AND parents are completely unprepared to deal with)? CAN YOU IMAGINE THE SCANDAL (if an author whose books are powerfully scary could reach one kid and help them understand why drugs and sex or both might not be the best answer to whatever is hurting them right now)? WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING (that librarian who decided she knew best and better than everyone, let alone the superintendent who listened to her)?
Raising children is tough business. There is some scary ass shit out there that I don’t know when to mention to my own children, much less how to deal with any of it, but I do know that I learned a powerful amount of fear and the antidote to much of my self-loathing from books. Decisions like these are the lowest form of asshattery, and I want to start screaming and handing out free books. Censorship is not the answer – but maybe knocking heads with hardbacks is?
Ellen Hopkins published the email address of the superintendent on her site, so if you’d like to send a strongly worded (please don’t cuss at him, though it’s tempting) explanation as to why this decision makes you see steamy red demons of rage and sadness, have at it. His name is Guy Sconzo and his email is Guy.Sconzo@humble.k12.tx.us. Please feel free to post your reaction or the email you send in the comments, and holy smacking morons, I hope this decision is reversed, and her publisher plasters Humble, Texas, with copies of her latest book for all who ask for it.
Hell, let’s give away some right here. I’ll pick three comments from this entry and send a copy of her latest book, Tricks. You can accept or donate to your local library. Obvious disclaimers apply: I’m not being compensated for this giveaway, except to ease the raging vitriol currently circling my brain. Censorship blows.
People need to have their heads surgically removed from their rectums if they think that if kids don’t see it/read it/hear it they’ll never do anything they’re not supposed to. Ok, show of hands – who here ever did something as a teen that they knew they were supposed to? If you don’t talk to them about issues or let them get as much info as possible, then you’ll end up with kids who don’t know how to cope or make educated decisions about thier lives.
Here’s some ideas for the principle and the parents who don’t like Ellen (or any particular author):
1. Don’t let your child go to the festival. This isn’t a mandatory event. Better still, to keep them from being exposed to any “adult” or non-approved ideas—don’t let them out in public. Or be around other teenagers, because you know THOSE people are a bad influence.
2. If you let your child go to the festival, either trust them enough to know to stay away from authors or topics you don’t want them to see, or resign yourself to holding the hand of your untrustworthy teenager the rest of their life. There’s nothing that guarantees teenage angst more than not trusting them to make good decisions, so let’s avoid the issue altogether by not letting them make any.
3. Cancel the festival altogether. By all means, it isn’t a profitable thing. If the community is going to be up in arms, God knows the principle has greater stressors on his mind, like, how to keep from laying off 20% of his educators due to budget. Better still, lets quit worrying about educating anyone altogether, because they’ll be exposed to ideas and it costs money.
It looks like the festival is going to fail anyway. I can almost hear the librarians who actually organized it crying silently in their stacks. Several authors have cancelled in response, and while there are apparently hoardes of them waiting with baited breath to take their place, I know the organizers are the ones who feel most defeated at this point. I wish I could reach out and give them a hug and tell them how much their efforts are appreciated.
Censorship is horrible – shame on the librarian who called for her uninvitation! If I win this book, I’ll read it, then donate it to my system’s AWESOME teen collection.
I don’t normally comment, but I feel I must show my support. I’m a mother of a preteen boy and studying to be a middle school teacher. This age was a very hard time for me and I made some VERY bad choices, but they could have been so much worse if I had not been exposed to important issues through books. I became sexually active at the age of 13 (bad decision) but because I was exposed to the consequences, I ALWAYS made sure I was protected. Same with drugs (age 17) and drinking (age 11). I try so hard to get my straight as an arrow son(must come from his dad) to walk on the wild side and read a banned book and talk about the issues, but he doesn’t feel he needs the book to start a discussion (I guess that’s a good thing). As far as censorship, it is a very slippery slope. I’m sure someone can find a reason to ban any book without trying very hard. For criminy sake, there are even dictionaries on the banned books list! If parents want to “guide” what their children are reading, I suppose that falls under “parenting”. If the schools feel that they have books in their collection that some parents may not want their children to have acess to, then sign a waiver. I have to sign a waiver every year so my son can check out books in the library. Guess I’m going to need to ask if they have “elected” to not stock certain books so I can make sure I have them at home.
sense19: it shouldn’t take any sense-ible person 19 seconds to realize this is not appropriate!
This is so crazy-making to me! As someone who suffered from a dearth of reading material during my childhood and teens (until I started reading romance), the fact that some ignorant idiot will censor others’ reading material—without reading said material!!!—because it might make them yanno, *think*, and stop kids from meeting an author who makes them think, just blows my mind. And not in a good way.
NOT in defense of Mr. Sconzo but he can be replaced by his school board and it is possible for the loud, vocal minority of parents to bug the school board enough that they would remove him. Its entirely possible that he was looking out for his job by acting as he did. I believe Ms. Hopkins that she was invited but perhaps there was an official school letterhead or some sort of invitation that was not yet sent out to her and the superintendent used that excuse to claim she wasn’t invited. While I do think letters should definitely be sent to Sconzo to man up and stand up for teen education and literacy, I also think maybe letters should go to that school board, letting them know that it is not cool for a couple of parents to dictate who gets to be invited to the literacy festival. Since the school board is Sconzo’s boss, they should be made aware of the fact that other people have an opinion about this matter too, and that the majority of parents would probably want Ms.Hopkins invited to the fesitval. Why not send letters home with the students, inviting them to a special school board meeting? What about making copies of the books available to the parents to read, so they can decide for themselves if these books are the devil? I live in a suburb of Houston as well. I know that there are a lot of right-wingers here. But I doubt all of those parents agree with what these few have managed to do. I know a head librarian in the same county as Humble (unfortunately not the head of the Humble library but still.) I’m going to ask her about the Humble library hosting an info session on these books and this author and what it means to ban books like these. Because no good can come of it.
@alisonh – I agree completely. As I’ve had time to consider this – I really think the “librarian” who started this probably doesn’t have an MLS or MLIS degree at all. She may (or may not) have a teaching degree. It depends on what the rules are for library staff at that particular school. I’m saddened to see the OTHER librarians in the district (the ones who fought tooth and nail to KEEP Ms. Hopkins in attendance) being tarred with the same brush as the “librarian” who really behaved in an underhanded manner by going out to recruit parents who shared her views before approaching administration. The other librarians are probably just as horrified as MOST of us posting on this blog are by the censorship being practiced here.
It looks like the contest is still open, so if I won the book I’d definite donate the copy to my library. We can’t keep Ellen Hopkins’ books on the shelves and her books always have a waiting list.
Funny – my verify word is data54. I’m a reference librarian so that completely works for me. Grin.
@Karenmc: I think your e-mail to Sconzo is really excellent; very calm and measured in tone, and with positive suggestions for things to do, rather than only things not to do! I love this especially:
😀
Having a specific form for objectors to complete, with precise citations and precise reasons for the objection, is a great idea. Of course, many of the objectors would still cheat, by not reading the whole book, but at least they’d probably be forced to look at it, rather than simply parroting what someone else has said or quoted.
GRRRR… Don’t they know that I’m pretty sure kids see worse, read worse, say worse, do worse?! I remember when Clan of the Cave Bear was big reading in sixth grade… cause that is proper reading for a 12 year old.
This is ridiculously shameful. How in the world are we still so close-minded as a society to let this happen? I’m with you SBSarah, it sure as hell wasn’t my parents who convinced me to stay away from drugs and sex until I was old enough to know how to deal with that (not that they weren’t great, but there wasn’t even a “just say no” conversation in my house). Unless Ms. Hopkins wrote “Go drugs! Go sex!” in her books this is just freaking ridiculous.
Things66: 66 things I could do with dog poo to seriously upset that librarian’s and that superintendent’s day.
I read “Go Ask Alice” when I was 13 years old and questioning everything. I’m so glad I did. It kept me on the straight and narrow at least until I got out of High School. 😉
When I was a Senior in High School, my English class read several books that had previously been banned and it opened my eyes to censorship and it all comes down to fear.
I think our country has gone weird with censorship these days. As a mother I constantly encourage my teenage daughter to read books on the censored list. I read YA and my daughter and I share YA that we enjoy with each other. And though I do keep an eye on what she reads and may ask her to wait to read certain books I don’t think she’s ready for, we are always open to talking about why I feel she should wait. I had not noticed Ellen Hopkins books before, but now? I think it’s time for a trip to our library (who have several of her books in many media formats) for my daughter and I to share yet more books.
As for Mr. Sconzo? I hope by now he regrets his decision, but have a feeling he has deeply moored himself to self-righteous indignation that his decision has been challenged and brought to so much attention. He seriously makes me glad we homeschool.
I read Hopkins’ book Burned a few years ago and it was so amazingly real and raw that I immediately snatched up several other titles.
Usually when I discover a new author I blaze thru the backlist, but with Hopkins I had to space them out. I am no longer a teenager. I cannot live in the angst-space…I may only visit.
I would love to read Tricks.
Silver Lining for this whole debacle:
I bet a bunch of kids in Humble Texas (at least) who never would have picked up Crank or Tricks will race out to find a copy of the now “illicit” books.
I also bet/hope Guy Bozo I mean Sconzo is crushed by the deluge of emails from cranky lit-advocates.
If you read, if you write, you must send an e-mail to Guy Sconzo. Censorship affects all of us.
I’m off to send my e-mail. I’m also going to have to check out Ellen Hopkins’ books.
This fired me up so badly that I think there is a burn mark on my computer chair. Behold, sisters of the bitchery (I know I’m a brother, but let the gay boy be a sister for a little while), my email in it’s entirety to the asshat/associate of the asshat who made Ellen Hopkins be all insulted and shit:
Mr. Sconzo,
I was trolling the internet today and came across a monstrous post on one of my favorite blogs, concerning one of my favorite authors of all time, Ms. Ellen Hopkins. This author in question has published several New York Times bestselling books, has been garnered with praise from every library and teen lit organization on the planet, and is just a generally awesome person. I myself have read several of her books and have loved every single one of them; the prose is wonderful and the stories speak of the real problems that affect the world today. Teenagers appreciate realism. We’re a frank bunch, Mr. Sconzo. So you can imagine my distress when I saw this post. How could such a lovely woman and such a talent author with so much to talk about be removed from a teen literature festival? How?
Censorship.
Yes. The dirty word. Censorship. Truly an awful thing, that censorship. So why do you do it? Is there a reason? Is it impossible for teenagers to understand that what she’s writing about in her books is real BUT something they should learn from instead of emulate? I can answer that one. NO. In fact, Ellen Hopkins writes those books with such a brutally honest perspective that we know all too well the hard life of a drug addict or a teenager dealing with abuse or someone who tried and failed to commit suicide. They are helpful and deal with those issues that some people can’t find the courage to address – whether in their children or in themselves.
So…why? Why does it matter if a parent or two disapproves of this? Or a middle school librarian? It is a teen literature festival, and Ellen Hopkins has left one huge mark on teen literature through her writing. Not having her – as well as the other authors that are more than willing to step out of the festival because of this atrocious event – will be a huge down-grade in quality of the Teen Lit fest.
Before you say that her work is too rotten or dark, look at all of the other bestselling books. Thirteen Reasons Why. Tithe. Going Bovine. They all have a level of dark humor and brutality that go with a realistic worldview. As a teenager, your decision on the removal of Ms. Hopkins is insulting and does indeed make me want to vomit. Preferably on whoever decided that having Ellen Hopkins at a Teen Lit Fest would be a bad idea.
She’s one of the most successful writers for teens today, and is herself a beacon of hope for people that go through tragedies. Each of her books comes from the experiences she had while dealing with a daughter who was addicted to drugs, or having a gay son. She is exactly the kind of role model teenagers need. Someone who is strong, and who brings no judgment on others’ faults. She turned what was a negative into a positive and an inspiration that led her to a thriving career as a writer. If that’s a bad thing to show teenagers, then I must be delusional.
Be assured that I will not end with this letter. This is an act of censorship that is unbecoming of this day and age, and I will be telling everyone I know in the book world about the injustice of it. You have denied someone the right to show teens some excellent and real facts of life, as well as inspire future writers going through such hardships, and that is not something one can forgive easily. Whether you invite Ms. Hopkins back or not, remember that here is a teenage reader telling you that this is cause to boycott the festival. It’s a great thing you’re doing – well, it WAS a great thing. Now, it’s just another reminder that some people cannot understand that teenagers are just as grounded in reality as adults.
You’ve insulted me, but more importantly, you have insulted Ellen Hopkins and the tens of thousands of people that read and love her books.
– John
I’ve never been one for privacy, folks. They have made me angry. That never turns out well for anyone. 😡
Censorship in rural Ohio in 1987: The school board required my high school English teacher to cut out a page from our Mass Media textbook. Remember the old Nastassja Kinski ad with the snake draped over her body? Well, it’s more than twenty years later, so I’m a little vague, but I think the point was parody as a form of advertising and the book showed both the original ad and a photo of a hairy fat guy with a snake in the same pose. My teacher kept all those evil, debauched, banned pages in his desk. When we got to that part of the book he explained censorship, pulled the pages out, passed them around, and THAT I never forgot. Shout out to Mr. Baughman, retired English teacher in Ohio! (There’s a darn good reason for the First Amendment AND a darn good reason for teacher’s unions, right there in one story.)
And I’ll pass on being entered for the book – I won last week!
@Marie
I don’t think anyone is going to attack you on here, Marie. There is a reason we are all angry, and it’s because Ellen Hopkins’ books AREN’T like that. If they were, I’m sure everyone would be having a very different type of rant/argument.
I have to admit that I one up you on reading her books. And newsflash to you and anyone else that hasn’t read them: They don’t glorify sex. And more importantly, it isn’t even explicit. We are not talking erotica with several pages of a scene that are giving extreme detail and hoo-ha. Her books are, if anything, a great way to show teens what NOT to do.
The librarian in question had every right herself to speak out about her concerns, but they are not grounded enough in my humble opinion to be of any importance. It’s about the teens, and Ellen Hopkins’ books have helped a lot of teens. Helped. So, it would make sense that the author herself helps teens. Not to mention she’s a great example of overcoming hardships and turning them into positives. She’s an advocate for gay rights and writes realistic gay characters because her son is gay. She is able to write about the toll and addiction of drugs because her daughter used to be a drug addict. She is such a wonderful example to teens because she took these troubled spots and turned them into useful things that help other people.
While people have a right to speak out about things they feel are wrong, I don’t think any of the above is wrong – certainly not wrong enough to remove it from a festival celebrating the movers and shakers of Teen Lit. And no one will burn you. We’re the classy bitches that don’t do such things.
earlier59 – I wish I commented earlier. Like 59 comments ago.
My ex-boyfriend teaches 4th grade in Chicago Public Schools and was a little worried when one of his students was reading Crank. His concern was that she, at 9-years-old, may not be mature enough to process the literature, but he read it himself so that he’d be able to effectively discuss the themes with her. I was so proud of him for turning a challenging situation into a teaching experience for him and for his extremely bright student.
This is the answer to dealing with challenging, dark, or morally ambiguous material. Read it yourself, and engage your child/student in a productive dialogue. Censorship is a tool of ignorance and totalitarianism.
I read this post and all the comments with interest. A small town school in my area just “banned” a book from its libraries, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. This book has won multiple awards and deals with cliques, roughness in sports, etc. I haven’t read any of Ms. Hopkins’ books and I’m currently between YA readers(my “baby” is 22 and my oldest grandchild is 3). If I win, I can always donate to that library!!!!
……..whaaaaat. I don’t even have words for this o.O
My youngest just graduated from high school and it is amazing to me how little the school shares with the parents about the real problems in the school. Also, their solutions were ridiculous. When a student was found with heroin in the bathroom their solution was to lock all the bathroom doors so no one could use them.
When I review YA and children’s books for my friends and their kids, I do point out any sex or violence in them just in case my friends want to read the books before letting their kids do so. This way, they are informed beforehand. Doing this for my friends is vastly different from banning a book without even reading it. I wonder what Guy Sconzo would say about “Tender Morsels” by Margo Lanagan; although it is written like a fairytale, in contains, very circumspectly written, incest, abortions, gang rape, and sodomy (after reading this book and “Split” by Swati Avasthi – about domestic violence and child abuse – I gave up reading any YA books for weeks).
Well . . . y’all just don’t understand Texas. It used to be a country all to itself, and it still acts that way often. I pretty much just smile and nod now instead of arguing with people, because these are people who just think that if you have a different opinion, you are a stubborn old rascal who doesn’t care if she’s wrong. In other words, other viewpoints are just WRONG if not SINFUL TOO, and if they themselves ARE wrong, they don’t want to be right.
Still, there is plenty of “underground” stuff going on. Austin and some other places are still rebellious, and Dallas isn’t quite as Neolithic as it likes people to believe.
The UPSIDE of all this? Why, you know what it is already, hon. ANYthing that you ban, hide under the bed, or try to have burned before the kids can see it becomes THE THING for kids to see, have, do, or read! So with her books being made a no-no, this will cause a great surge in underground popularity. Kids who might not have bothered to read them will do it now, just because. This always works. It’s reverse psychology.
My AP English teacher, who had 30 years of teaching experience, was brought up before the school board ten years ago for “teaching racism.” What was her sin? HUCKLEBERRY FINN. She asked them if they’d read the book, and they righteously shouted, “NO, MA’AM!!” She tried to explain that Twain wrote from a position of satire and parody and that you had to realize that he’s REALLY saying slavery is wrong and that Huck is being told by society the WRONG things. But she could not get through to them. They couldn’t get past Twain’s use of the vocabulary then in common use. Anyhow, she was completely amazed when they took it out of the high school libraries and off reading lists. Same happened with LOLITA, A SEPARATE PEACE (“implies gayness”), THE OUTSIDERS, all of Vonnegut and Henry Miller (who is still dirty—I re-read him recently, and, yep, he’s still dirty even by today’s standards!) and several other worthies. It just made the students sneak to read them. *sigh* People need to increase their reading comprehension, but they don’t wanna. They like being silly. The good ones eventually catch on.
I don’t normally comment, but I couldn’t let this go especially considering it happened in my backyard (so to speak). I’ve just sent an email to one of the local news stations. I hope they pick up the story because this is ridiculous and the public should be aware of such decisions. Wow…
I’d never heard of Hopkins before this thread, but now I’m curious to read more.
I attended school in this area (New Caney ISD) and this situation is sadly not unusual. The administrators lisen to a select few parents or teachers and then slide these decisions under the radar without input from the greater community.
My mother has taught literature to sixth graders in the town immediately north of Humble for twenty-six years. She tries to find at least one interesting fantasy novel a year for her advanced students to study. She usually has one parent, about every other year, object to the fantasy novel. I am proud of the way she handles this situation. She assigns an alternate book and requests that the parent read the objectionable novel and get back with her , just in case she “missed something offensive”. The parents usually end up letting the kid read the book, because after reading it, they realize they overreacted.
Not everyone in Texas is a conservative, right-wing idiot. They are just a lot louder than the rest of us at the moment, but we are working on it!
Sometimes you just must make a stand. I’m so proud of my friends in the YA author community who refused to attend this festival after this.
I have never read any of her books but this makes me want to read it and then pass it on to my nephew who is always looking for something to read. I cannot stand people who make decisions based on someone else’s opinion without getting the facts themselves. Don’t they realize that this will just make the kids want to read these books more? Hey wait, that works out well for the author. 🙂
Can I add….
Kids can do what they want with their bodies when they want and it’s really almost impossible for a parent to stop them. HOWEVER!!!!!
If one more damn teenager tries to explore their sexuality DURING SCHOOL TIME WHILE A CO-TEACHER IS HOLDING CLASS I WILL STRING THEM UP! FROM A YARD ARM! I don’t even know what a yard arm is… but it seems like a fit punishment. Keep the damn PDA out of my classrooms and hallways mmk?
There’s a time and a place and parents need to hammer THAT into their children’s heads as well as the courage to respect their own bodies and not give in to pressure.
I have to say I love when censorship backfires and actually does the opposite of what the uptight stidiots intended. This may increase her readership exponentially. Like others before me this has made me curious to read books that I probably would have passed up, not because they aren’t good but because as YA they likely never would have hit my radar. Bring on the books and show the censors so righteous rage.
Nothing any author could write is scarier or more explicit than an unsupervised 14 year old’s facebook/ myspace posts. Parents need to start censorship on their kid’s computers and just HOPE the kid will sit down to read a book.
Best wishes to Ellen, I hope the support you’re getting from your readers and the blog community are keeping your spirits up!
I’ve never heard of her, but this certainly got me interested. Looks like our library system already has several copies of her books, must go check some out…
Rebyj is correct that what kids get into online is potentially worse. I am a pediatrician and talk to families about stuff like this and do encourage them to know what their kids are reading, both online and off. I also encourage families to set standards and let their kids know what they are. Kids need limits. But I set the limits for my personal kids based on my standards and my knowledge of my child. It is not necessary or correct for someone who does not know my child to do that for me, to limit what I might want my kids exposed to. I worked in a Juvenile Hall setting when my oldest was 12 and I made sure she heard some of the stories. I also took the kids to a family picnic at Juvenile Hall. I would have been thrilled to have something like one of Ellen’s book to keep the discussion going. And I am equally thrilled when I mention a book during an exam and a parent says, we don’t feel she/he is ready to read that yet. (And, no, my kids were not perfect as teens – grandkids are pretty darn perfect, though).
I don’t have any children and at thirty-six most YA novels aren’t on my radar but to this day I still remember how much of an impact Go Ask Alice had on me. Growing up with an alcoholic step father (abused drugs on the side) who was also physically and mentally abusive towards the whole family I’d say I had a better than average chance of becoming an addict. While it didn’t prevent me from drinking (started at 14) or smoking pot (started at 17) it did impact me and put a lasting fear in me towards “harder” drugs so when the people I partied with started lacing their blunts and moved on to coke, crack and heroine when it was around I didn’t. Seeing the logical progression of drug use in Go Ask Alice that was “real” left a lasting impression in a way some DARE program where the teachers taught from a textbook had absolutely no chance of reaching me. It was all scare tactics and BS and didn’t reflect the reality of drug use that I grew up with at all.
By my early twenties I grew out of the “party” stage without any addictions but my sisters weren’t as lucky. My oldest sister ended up in her own abusive relationship by her twenties was an alcoholic and drug addict who still struggles with relapses to this day. My other sister was also a drug addict and while I’d like to think she would have gotten better I’ll never know because she died at age thirty-two still using. There but for the grace of god go I… or more likely it was a combination of seeing drugs impact the people around me and books like Go Ask Alice that portrayed drug use realistically.
I don’t like censorship. And books seem to get “banned” a lot for stuff that parents don’t seem to bat an eyelid over when it’s on TV or in a movie. Why? *sigh*
I think I was about 10 when I read FOREVER by Judy Blume. It did not cause me to go out and be promiscuous. I think if kids know more about this stuff and understand the potential consequences (pregnancy, STDs, emotional hurt) then they’re less likely to go out and have sex young, not more. That was certainly the case for me. I was an advanced reader, reading well above my age group, so I read a lot of books that had sex in them when I was fairly young (10-12), but I didn’t do it in real life until many years later.
Censorship really pisses me off—especially YA censorship. I’ve seen kids who claim to hate reading mow through all the Ellen Hopkins books in a week. So many of our students love them. We can’t keep them in our school library.
When I taught a class for reluctant readers, “Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” was the ONLY book they liked—no, LOVED. These high-risk, low-attendance students started coming to school every day because they wanted to know what happened next.
I teach at an alternative high school, where I work with students who often have experienced a level of hardship in their lives most adults wouldn’t believe.
A group of them who had lived and worked through addiction problems raised money to get a classroom set of the book CRANK. They convinced the staff to rotate the set, and allow the group to come into the classes afterward to lead discussion groups and talk about their own struggles. It was an amazing experience, and I guarantee that it convinced a number of students NOT to get involved with drugs. Students begged us to get more copies s that they could share with their friends at other schools.
I have kids, and I work with others daily. I understand the compulsion to shield them from the big bads, but I cannot believe its better to leave kids in ignorance about the realities of the world, and how what seems like a small decision can have huge consequences for the rest of your life.
So many thoughts… #1 the authors who have now declined to attend should change their minds & then base everything they talk about around Ellen Hopkins’ books, censorship & ignorance. #2 Not surprised this happened in Texas. I’ve seen off the top of my head at least 5 programs on Frontline, Nightline, etc. regarding epidemic teen drug abuse & indescriminate sex at inappropriate ages based in Texas. It’s OK for them to do it, just not read about it. Not saying that it doesn’t happen in other states, just that Texas seems to take pride in doing everything big, including ignorance. #3 Never turn your back on the religious conservative. I have no doubt that the offenders at the heart of this would all describe themselves as good God fearing Christians. Sorry if that offends the many actual good God fearing Christians out there. I’ve always found it ironic that God gave us the gift of free will, and organized religions have been doing their best to stamp it out ever since. These are the people who brought you the Inquisition. #4 I always like to point out that the Nazis started out by burning books.
Heads up – I’m picking the winners from this point backwards, but please, feel free to add your comments after this. Thank you!
i have not read any of her books but would like to ask a question of the people who are banning the author. What is so different in the book than what is on the TV. I for one would much rather let my children read books about the things in the world (fiction or real) then to have pictures of it. If some one does not like a story then don’t recommend it, warn what kind of content is in the book, then step back and let the reader decide. good luck with your book.