![]() The outcome has been empty shelves in Florida classrooms and school libraries, where teachers and media specialists don’t only ban books that have been challenged but, in fear of future retribution, also remove other books that might result in punitive measures. Some districts take the books off shelves “pending review”- but months and years go by without a review, and the books remain locked away. Some activists and parents have taken these laws as free reign to remove whatever books they personally do not deem acceptable. What they do have, however, are issues like racism, abortion rights, gun control, gay rights, and other topics that encourage kids to think for themselves. The majority of the books that were targeted do not even have a kiss in them. My books were removed because they were, according to the sole parent who made the challenge, “adult romance that should not be on school shelves.” It is worth noting I do not write adult romance. The 92 books fell into three categories: those with mature content, those written by BIPOC authors, and those written by LGBTQ authors. In Martin Country School District, 92 books were pulled from the school library shelves. ![]() But this week, something truly egregious happened. As sad as it seems, I was getting used to the emails from PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman telling me that yet again, my novel was under attack. In the past six months, my books have been banned dozens of times in dozens of school districts. We were testing it out for the first time when the notification popped on my computer screen: about yet another parent complaining that my novel was inappropriate for high school students. The director was determined to physically set a prop book on fire each night because of how shocking and powerful it was to watch. I was in the U.K., in rehearsals for a musical I’d co-written based on Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, which is set in Nazi Germany. Please note that you can enable or disable and delete cookies in your web browser.The seventh time I learned that my novel Nineteen Minutes was being banned in a school district, I was watching a book burning. ![]() For more details please refer to our Terms of Use and/or our Privacy Policy. When you keep using our website, in compliance with Article 22 of Law 34/2002 of the Information Society Services, in the analytical cookies treatment, we have requested your consent to their use. Analytical cookies which allow anonymous analysis of the behavior of web users, measuring user activity and development of navigation profiles in order to improve websites and the experience of future visitors. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |