What a way to start the month. First, John Green's Looking for Alaska is under fire for being "pornographic."While reading the posts and comments on Laurie's blog, I learned that Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher (an oft-challenged writer) is about censorship. Some of us may want to add that book to our reading lists. Since I've already reviewed Speak on my blog, I am posting it here as well.
And now, some parents are going after Speak. The teacher involved has asked me not to name the school because she wants the process and policies of the district to unfold away from the glare of any spotlights. I respect that. I am allowed to say that it's a middle school in suburban Detroit. For the record, this has also happened in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Washington, New York, Maine, and California. (As a result of the challenges, the book was embraced, not banned. Which does make an author feel good and a teacher feel even better.)
I sent her a note with teen sexual assault statistics and shared the feedback I've had from readers and their parents, who are grateful for a story that allows them to broach a difficult subject.
This teacher could use some professional support. If you teach Speak, can you please leave a note in the comments section for her? Tell her why you use the book. Tell her about your classroom experiences and your professional opinion about the place of the book in the curriculum. Or just give her a pat on the back. If you are a teen, tell her what the book meant to you.
Thank you very much and spread the word.
Note to Laurie Halse Anderson: I'm spreading the word just as far as I can shout it, not only here, but also on my Bonnie's Books blog.
Note to my readers: You may be interested in ALL of Laurie's posts about censorship, which you can find if you click here.
Another note: AS IF = Authors Support Intellectual Freedom = another place for us to discover titles of banned and challenged books.
6 comments:
I'm a fourteen year old who attends high school as a freshman, but i read this book last year in eighth grade. This book was an enormous influence on me, and i honestly have no idea why anyone would try to stop teenagers from reading this book. I think its better for us to know exactly what it is like to be put into that kind of a situation to realize that we need to do something about problems in our life. This book was honestly inspiring to me because of how brave she was about how it effected her, and i believe people all over the world should read it. This book made me appreciate the life that i have and i believe that nowhere in this world should people not be able to read this. If it were up to me, i would have this book on the must read list rather than on a banned books list.
Caitlin Chase, 14
Nature Coast High School
Brooksville, FL
Caitlin, you sound wise beyond your years...thanks for posting this comment, it makes me more determined than ever to keep speaking out against book banning and censoring!
though speak does talk about sexual assult these things do happen in real life girls do get raped and don't tell anyone until it's almost to late to do anything about. I think this book iforms in a way that people can relate to but also can learnfromwithout itbeing shoved in their face.I praise Laurie Halse Anderson for writing this book I recomened it all the timeto anyone looking for something good to read.
Thanks, Tracey, for taking the time to comment. I'm glad you recommend this book to others because it's important to be aware of what can happen -- and too often DOES happen.
this book is the best book i have read . i have been in this qirls shoes ndd im 16 in hiqh school . i am a junior but the same stuff happpened too me in freshman year , so this book is a qood book for student to read even ounggirls so they know whats possible too happen in the real world.
i know how it feels to be in melindas situation so its a good thing that these younqq teenage freshman sophmore junior and seniors read this book cause this stuff can happen to anybody !
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