First, my post from Book Riot this week is up at the Huffington Post now, too.
If you didn’t go over to the original post at Book Riot, I suggest doing so and spending some time in the comments. One of the original book banners I talked about in the piece has been making his case over and over again. And this morning, he suggests he needs to in order to save the children from people like myself (using my name as an example of who parents need to protect their kids from — it is weird, strange, bizarre or any other similar-word to see your name being connected to an idea like that).
But despite the show he’s caused and still causing there, the ardent and impassioned responses from other people in the comments are great.
My favorite, though, is this. From a 13-year-old:
Dear Dr.Swier, it’s rather blatantly obvious that you haven’t actually READ “Speak”. The entire book is told through a fog of depression in the aftermath of the protagonist’s rape at a party. It’s clear that the event was utterly traumatic and life-altering and depression-inducing and AWFUL and just bad, bad, bad. If anything, I consider it an eye-opener to much of the YA population on the aftereffects of rape. I’ll say this for teenagers: there’s some stupid among us who don’t think about their actions, and those are the type of people who can/will mature into sexual predators. I really don’t think Ms. Anderson wrote Speak as a “don’t do this kids” book, but LET’S GIVE SPEAK A CHANCE TO KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO THE AFOREMENTIONED DUNDERHEADS, allright?
- Laurie Halse Anderson wrote a response to my post and to the book banner in the comments.
- Earlier this year, I wrote a post about how to discuss sex, sexual assault, and rape with teenagers, including a lengthy reading list. I’m resharing it because it’s not only important, but it’s how we arm teens like the one I quoted above, with the knowledge to come to these sorts of conclusions.
- Tanita Davis wrote a wonderful post yesterday about Speaking and Not Speaking and how to tell big stories and little stories, if there’s such a thing as one or the other.
- One of the bloggers at Backlist Books wrote a great response to my piece that’s absolutely worth sharing, too.