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SPEAKing Loudly

19 Sep

I’m positively outraged about this latest censorship attempt against Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Dr. Wesley Scroggins of Republic, MO wrote an article explaining concerns he has about books included in the Republic Schools’ curriculum.  One such book is Speak.  Scroggins believes that parents need to be aware and request that Speak is removed from the curriculum because

“In high school English classes, children are required to read and view material that should be classified as soft pornography. As the main character in the book is alone with a boy who is touching her female parts, she makes the statement that this is what high school is supposed to feel like. The boy then rapes her on the next page. Actually, the book and movie both contain two rape scenes.”

What?!  Mr. Scroggins, did you even read this book?  How can you possibly write the words “soft pornography” only lines before mentioning that the main character is raped?  I’m absolutely disgusted by this misrepresentation of such an important novel.  Melinda did not want to have sex.  Melinda did not enjoy what happened to her.  Melinda was RAPED. 

I’ve mentioned before in other posts that I first read Speak in my college Young Adult Literature class.  Speak is the reason I love young adult literature.  During my first year of teaching I decided to read it out loud to my classes; my students LOVED it.  That was three years ago.  One of my students that year, a freshmen and now a senior, has a younger sister who is in my freshmen English class right now.  Guess what she’s reading!  My student from three years ago remembered me reading it out loud, enjoyed it and told her sister to read it.  Not only that, but we’ve included Speak in our curriculum.  Students that NEVER read have become readers thanks to this book.  Students identify with it, whether they’ve been a victim or they feel like the outcast at school. 

Laurie Halse Anderson should only be hearing praises for her novel, not the ignorant ramblings of a man who couldn’t possibly have read Speak.  Please don’t allow Mr. Scroggins’ article to negatively influence any more people in Republic, MO.  Go to Laurie Halse Anderson’s post about this so you can learn how to spread POSITIVE experiences and praises for Speak.  If you’re on Twitter you can post your support by including #SpeakLoudly to your tweet.

More views on Humble

21 Aug

I’ve been reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s LiveJournal every day this month because she’s holding a writing challenge for the month of August.  In today’s post she brought up the Humble TLF (Teen Lit Fest) censorship issue.  She included links to the blogs of the authors that are no longer attending TLF as way to protest censorship so we can read their reasons why.  Laurie then went on to explain why she thinks authors should attend TLF.  I want you to read her post so you have the opportunity to see this stand against censorship from a couple different perspectives.  We will without a doubt be discussing this in Y.A. Lit this school year!

Let me know what you think after you read her post.

Humble, we have a problem…

17 Aug

Censorship has shown its ugly face again.  Ellen Hopkins was invited to the Teen Lit Festival in Humble, Texas (a suburb of Houston).  At the festival teens and Y.A. authors are invited as a way to interact; teens can meet their favorite authors and authors can make their work known.  Apparently a few parents found out that Hopkins was going to be there, and since they don’t care for the content of her books, they complained to one of the Humble ISD librarians.  This librarian went to the superintendent with the complaints, and ultimately Hopkins was uninvited!

 I first heard about this through Ellen Hopkin’s FB post and it made my blood pressure rise.  If a parent doesn’t like an author and/or her book that’s okay.  It’s a parent’s right to tell her child not to read something.  However, it is not right for a parent to ruin a conference for hundreds of teens.  Hopkin’s books tell the truth; it may be ugly, but everyone knows the real world isn’t always a pleasant place. 

This news has made its way to other authors attending the conference.  One such author is Pete Hautman (Invisible, Godless).  I have a link to his blog entry expressing his opinion on this matter.  I strongly recommend reading it.  He along with a few other authors that were invited to TLF are no longer attending the conference in response to this.

P.S. Here is a link to Ellen  Hopkin’s thoughts on Pete Hautman’s blog post

P.P.S. Ellen Hopkins posted this article that was written in response to everything going on with Teen Lit Fest.  It’s actually pretty humerous :)

Pumped! Pumped!! Pumped!!!

1 Aug

Read this article if you care even a little bit about The Hunger Games becoming a movie :)  
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/07/hunger-games-suzanne-collins-billy-ray-chloe-moretz.html

Boosts in Teen Reading

16 Jul

In the past few years that I’ve been teaching at Clio, I have noticed more and more students reading.  Not only are they reading, but they’re carrying these non-required books from class to class.  Now granted, there are always teens reading; I was one of them.  But I didn’t go to the book store looking for my next book.  I don’t even think I read any young adult books when I was in high school.  Whatever I read was usually recommended by my parents. 

So what’s changed over the past few years?  Is it the quality of the writing?  Is it all the aftermath of the Harry Potter phenomenon?  I found an article that was written a few years ago addressing these questions.  I’d love it if you read it and followed up with your opinions/thoughts.  I’m especially interested to know if any of you purposely seek out more complex, deep novels.

http://www.seattlepi.com/books/306531_teenlit08.html

Drug use in the suburbs

29 Mar

I was watching World News with Diane Sawyer this evening and she included a story about heroin use in the suburbs.  It’s a bigger problem in suburbs than most people think.  I have the link to the article and video posted below. 

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/heroin-suburbs-rise/story?id=10230269

One of the reasons I’m posting this is because I know many of you are reading books about drugs for your trimester project.  Ellen Hopkins has only written about heroin use in Tricks, and she thankfully writes an accurate description of how scary the drug is.  

I really want all of you to watch the video and read the article.  It’s important for you to be aware of what is happening around you.

Jaycee Dugard story

6 Mar

I just finished watching the news and found out that 20/20 is going to air videos made by Jaycee Dugard and her family about how she is doing after being held captive for 18 years.  She was kidnapped by a sex offender, and this made me think of Elizabeth Scott’s Living Dead Girl.  If you’ve read the book or want to read the book, you should watch 20/20 tonight at 9:00pm.  The stories are not the same, but it’s nice to have supplemental material with books.

Diversity in YA

7 Feb

I’m up too early this morning, so I’m sitting at my computer with a Diet Coke.  (I promise I’m trying to cut down…)  Anyway, I was reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s blog because she posted an interesting link discussing diversity in YA.  It raises some important questions.  I apologize about the title of the blog, but it needs to be read.  http://www.bookslut.com/features/2010_02_015679.php

Does this post cause you to think about your own reading habits/choices?  Please comment.

The YA Genre

1 Feb

I found this article over the weekend: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v35n1/stephens.html

Read it and tell me what you think.  Is the YA genre worthwhile?  Should it be taught in schools more often?  What about the name (Young Adult)?

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