Censorship
Who has the right to decide what you can and cannot be exposed to?
Many of you may have heard of Ellen Hopkins, the author of Tricks, Impulse, Crank, Burned, Identical, and others. Personally, I am a big fan of her books because they deal with real-life issues such as self-harm, teenage relationships, prostitution, suicide, drugs, etc.
Ellen has had her invitation to attend the Humble Teen Lit Festival (Humble is a suburb of Houston, TX) rescinded.
Why? What did she do to offend? She had previously been a speaker at two schools in that area, had she conducted herself in a way where she was deemed unfit to speak with the children again?
Her invitation was rescinded because of one librarian and a couple of parents. Out of hundreds of librarians and thousands of parents, a couple of narrow-minded people get to decide that a New York Times bestselling author can't come to their festival because they don't want their kids, their kids, reading her books?
These few people went to the superintendent and ask that Ellen be uninvited, and he agreed, even though he had never read her books.
What about the other kids whose parents said it was okay? What about those other kids who had been dying to meet their favorite author? What about those kids who's lives were changed thanks to one of her books, and wanted to thank her?
Censorship is a huge problem! We are lucky to live somewhere we can read anything we want, and when that starts to be taken away, we need to get angry.
If you want to e-mail the boneheaded super, his e-mail address is Guy.Sconzo@humble.k12.tx.us, though please refrain from cursing.
Keep your restrictions to yourself.
Many of you may have heard of Ellen Hopkins, the author of Tricks, Impulse, Crank, Burned, Identical, and others. Personally, I am a big fan of her books because they deal with real-life issues such as self-harm, teenage relationships, prostitution, suicide, drugs, etc.
Ellen has had her invitation to attend the Humble Teen Lit Festival (Humble is a suburb of Houston, TX) rescinded.
Why? What did she do to offend? She had previously been a speaker at two schools in that area, had she conducted herself in a way where she was deemed unfit to speak with the children again?
Her invitation was rescinded because of one librarian and a couple of parents. Out of hundreds of librarians and thousands of parents, a couple of narrow-minded people get to decide that a New York Times bestselling author can't come to their festival because they don't want their kids, their kids, reading her books?
These few people went to the superintendent and ask that Ellen be uninvited, and he agreed, even though he had never read her books.
What about the other kids whose parents said it was okay? What about those other kids who had been dying to meet their favorite author? What about those kids who's lives were changed thanks to one of her books, and wanted to thank her?
Censorship is a huge problem! We are lucky to live somewhere we can read anything we want, and when that starts to be taken away, we need to get angry.
If you want to e-mail the boneheaded super, his e-mail address is Guy.Sconzo@humble.k12.tx.us, though please refrain from cursing.
Keep your restrictions to yourself.
August 17, 2010 at 9:26 PM
Censorship really is an issue. There shouldn't be "banned" books, nor should an author be turned away because a few people thought she should be. It's stupid.
I've never read this author, though I've heard of some of the books you listed.
An author that writes about real life should obviously be banned from a library visit because clearly teens and children should be totally ignorant about reality. Please.
August 17, 2010 at 9:32 PM
Very polite and professional message sent. :)