Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Bonnie has already posted about Speak and about author Laurie Halse Anderson's efforts to oppose censorship. I'll just add a couple things:

First, I really loved this book. I'd rate it 4 1/2 of 5 stars. My complete review is here.

Second, in the section at the end of the Platinum Edition of Speak, which some of the members of my IRL book club had with them at our recent meeting, Anderson speaks out against censorship. She wrote:

But censoring books that deal with difficult, adolescent issues does not protect anybody. Quite the opposite. It leaves kids in the darkness and makes them vulnerable. Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them.

I whole-heartedly agree!