Profane Blues
I posted the folowing in YALSA-bk, but I figured it was interesting and important enough to put here, too.

[Start of YLASA-bk post]

A week or so ago, my local paper, The Allentown Morning Call, had a nice article about a school district that had instituted required summer reading for all high school students. (It's commonly required around here in most districts only for honors or AP classes.) On Thursday, there was an article about a parent who was unhappy about the profanity in some of the books. Today, columnist Bill White had a wonderful response to the challenge. It's a very nice example of a rebuttal to a protest, and I thought it was worth sharing. (The links will only be active for seven days after publication.)

Here's the original article:
link to story

Here's the column:
link to column

It's nice to see someone stepping up to the plate like this.

[End of post]

Gail Giles (on LJ as notjazz and on the web as herself), posted an amazing response on YALSA-bk. I'm going to aksk her if I can quote it here. (If so, I'll plug it in later.)

[Edited to add the wise words of Ms. Giles, placed here with her permission.]

Gail said, "Book banning--when I'm asked about it at appearances I reply that it is economic discrimination. Once you pull a book from school or public library shelves you just made sure that only the teen with enough money to spend can read it. And that's usually the same parent that's complaining. So, in essence that parent made sure that students poorer than her own child can't have access to something her child can and probably will read."

For those of you who are really bored, here's an excerpt from the email I sent the columnist. (We correspond on occasion, so he knows I'm a YA writer.)

[start of email]

I felt you did a great job of discussing the issue. Most of the time, these parents end up hurting the kids in some way. Years ago, I volunteered to give a writing workshop for a program in Bethlehem that worked with disadvantaged kids. A week before the event, it was canceled because the wife of the person running it was upset that one of my books was about a ghost. (A nation-wide summer reading program had planned to use the slogan, "Get Enchanted with Reading," but dropped it when PA members explained that the word "enchanted" would cause problems in this state. In some districts, a reading list can't have a book with "Witch" in the title, even if the book has nothing to do with witches.)

A couple years ago, I was asked to do a school visit at Swiftwater Elementary. They said all the teachers wanted me to come, but they were low on funds. Since it was local, I gave them a huge discount. Then, the event was canceled. I eventually found out that a parent didn't want me to come because my stories didn't have happy endings. (I was annoyed enough by this that I offered to come for free, but the principal apparently was born without a spine.) This parental objection absurd for at least 4 reasons. 1. The only book of mine she'd read was a collection of horror stories. They'd be pretty crappy horror stories if they had happy endings. 2. My novels all have happy endings. 3. My school presentation isn't about my own books -- it's about getting ideas and about the pleasure of writing. 4. Fiction isn't required to mirror life.

This misconception about the purpose of reading is part of what really annoyed my about the East Penn challenge. The article said: '''I have to screen the books carefully and find one that contains values I want him to emulate,' Jones said." I could rant about that statement for hours. I suspect you could, too. Katherine Paterson (author of the classic Bridge to Terabithia) wrote an essay about the time a woman complained to her that Gilly Hopkins was not a good role model. (The Great Gilly Hopkins is an amazing book about a young girl who is bounced around among foster parents.)

Yikes -- this has gone on far too long and rambled a bit too much. Especially for a Saturday. Bottom line -- thanks for speaking for legions of writers who work hard to give young readers books that will enrich, excite, and entertain them.

[end of email]


Okay -- it's not like this is new turf for any of us. I'll get back to short, pithy, pointless stuff on my next post. And yes, for those of you who were wondering, the subject heading is a pun-distorted reference to a song.