Anyone looking for my Elle Straus 250 word blogfest, please click HERE
Sorry, I'm still pretty computer illiterate, so I put in the wrong link.
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I, like many other bloggers, have been outraged and sickened and prompted into action by the threat to ban SPEAK in Missouri.
Nothing expresses the need to keep this book available to all teens more than the poem Laurie Halse Anderson wrote using the responses she's received about her book over the last ten years. It's here, on her blog, along with links to the editorial that prompted all of this, and ideas about what we can do to help.
I'd also like to speak up for one of my favorite authors when I was in high school and still today, Kurt Vonnegut. His book, SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, was attacked in the article and has already (to my understanding) been successfully banned because of it. Kurt Vonnegut may use a certain amount of irreverence to get his point across, but his anti-war message is clear and powerful, especially in this book. We're severely underestimating our youth if we assume they won't understand that message, and it is sad that the adults in that community don't value the message enough to fight for it.
Hear, hear! Even in Canada, these books are classics. Give teens the credit they deserve. It's not the literary masterpieces that's sending them out to do drugs and have pre-marital sex, it's society today.
ReplyDeleteAmen to the above. I'm a teen, and I honestly think that reading classic YA such as Speak made me less likely to go out, do drugs and have sex.
ReplyDeleteBanning books is nothing but sheer idiocy! I agree with Nathalie above. The books don't make them do these things, anymore than standing in the garage makes them a car. Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteLisa ~ YA Literature Lover
Thanks for drawing attention to Vonnegut's being banned as well. As upsetting as it is that those 3 books are being banned, I'm happy to see so many people rallying to protect them.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely against banned books and censorship. I plan on monitoring my kids reading habits, and there will be certain books I'll have them wait to read til a certain age, but that's for MY kids. That's MY prerogative. Trying to determine what everyone ELSE can or can't read is taking it too far. Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteAlso, just wanted to know I gave you an award on my blog!
I'm with you. I missed the announcement, apparently, but I've seen this on a lot of blogs. Thanks for your view, too. :)
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you on this.
ReplyDeleteBTW - love the title of your blog as I love audiobooks.
Shallee- Thanks so much for the blog award (my first!)and the shout out on your blog.
ReplyDeletePatti- So glad another audiobook fan found me! Now that I have a few of you following, I'll look at doing a giveaway of my signed Rick Riordan MP3 CD of his new Egyptian Gods series...soon!
I haven't even read SPEAK, but all this outrage makes me (and probably a lot of kids) more curious!
ReplyDeleteJulie- It has crossed my mind that all this publicity could gain more readers for SPEAK. I hope so, but it still bothers me that there are pockets of readers purposefully kept from knowing about the book.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is, IMO, well worth reading.
nothing makes me want to read a book like banning it.I'll definitely check it out.
ReplyDeleteI think it is awful that any books are banned - and certainly I agree with Tamara: I tend to want to read books more if they have been banned!
ReplyDeleteI do agree that we are underestimating kids if we think they won't be able to understand Vonnegut's anti-war message in Slaughterhouse Five.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you are SpeakingLoudly about this!
This kind of thing always makes me so angry. I really appreciated this post... and the link in it too!
ReplyDeleteNew follower here as well, because I'd really love to read more reviews on audio books.
Thanks!
Speak has been on my TBR list for a while but with all of the 'controversy' surrounding it last week I finally decided to order a copy. I had never heard of Twenty Boy Summer but now that book is on my to-read list as well! I hope that the three books are not banned from the Missouri school system but with all of the attention on the books it has made me want to read them even more now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing-- I love how the blogging community has spoken up for Speak, and thank you for doing your part.
ReplyDeleteVisiting from YA Addict Comment Exchange Program
Brandi from Blkosiner’s Book Blog