Read a Challenged Book!

A parent in Florida wants to have some of Lois Lowry's books removed from the school library. When I first heard that news, I figured that the books in question must be The Giver and its companion books. Nope. It's the Anastasia Krupnick books.

Author Lois Lowry says she's surprised and dismayed that someone wants to ban her Anastasia series of books from Polk County schools.

"I'm against book banning just in general principle," she said. "Those particular books, I'm just astonished that anyone wants to remove them from the library."

Amen.

Another of my absolute favorite authors for young adults is Chris Crutcher. His work, too, is at the center of a considerable amount of fuss in Michigan: "Tension is swirling after a collection of short stories that uses derogatory racial names was removed from four public schools and a teacher was suspended for using it."

The teacher ended up keeping her job, although she was transferred to another school.

Crutcher, who is one of my personal heroes for his honest writing and obvious passionate efforts to make the world better for kids, defended his work eloquently in an open letter "To the Parents and Students (and the Surrounding Community) of Ottawa Montessori Academy Grand Rapids, Michigan:"

"I hate the words Telephone Man uses as much as any of you do. That’s why I put them in the story. They are the words of raw racism and they are depicted as such. The 'n' word (and I use that euphemism only because it seems we have lost our capability to speak real truth) is probably the single most vile word in our nation’s historical vocabulary, a sadistic weapon of a word that has been used in this nation’s history like a hammer. You don’t hide a word like that. You expose it. You tell the truth about it. Unlike the people who are challenging the story, I have confidence in our children’s intellectual ability to understand that."

Read the whole letter. Then go straight to your public library, get a copy of his award-winning book Athletic Shorts, and read "Telephone Man," the story that is causing so much fuss.

(While you're at the library, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Crutcher's King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography, one of the funniest books EVAH.)