What you do with your own kids is, as you say, not censorship it’s how you parent. What we’re talking about is not one parent saying what their kids can or can’t read or play. But when a publisher/book club buyer/bookshop buyer/editor/teacher/librarian/parent tries to stop many kids from reading one particular book. That’s censorship.

You all seem to be discussing teens – I’m most concerned with my 7 y.o. reading age-appropriate stuff, frankly. I’d rather have her learn about sex from “It’s So Amazing” as opposed to “The Happy Hooker” or some of the other stuff I read at a very young age (boy that dates me, doesn’t it).

Anyway, I have to argue for *some* censorship for really young kids who read above their age levels. I assume that’s the reason for having the Teen or YA section? I’m fine with my 12 y.o. reading anything in there, but the 7 y.o. – not yet. And my 12 y.o. doesn’t get to play M video games, even if every other kid in his class plays Halo and Grand Theft Auto. Is this censorship, or just part of parenting?

Twenty-odd years on, it still seems absurd — I can promise that this particular friend knew plenty of naughty words and had a better handle on the mechanics of sex than poor old Adrian — but now it also strikes me as pathetic, and a bit sinister. What are these parents afraid of? And who do they think they’re kidding? And how are Romeo and Juliet (teen sex! defiance of parental units! street fighting! suicide!) and Tess of the D’Urbervilles (seduction! adultery! murder!) OK but a contemporary YA book addressing the same themes is not? (Though my high school English classes also read The Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Handmaid’s Tale, inter alia, and I can’t remember that anyone’s parents objected, so possibly my experience is not typical.)

If, as a parent, you want to raise readers, you can’t tell your kids what they can and can’t read, at home or at school or anywhere else (and you certainly have no right to tell other people’s kids what they can and can’t read, as one is doing when one works to keep a book off the shelves of a library or bookshop). My kid, who is six, is currently enamoured of Teen Titans comic books. Are there other things I would rather she were reading? Sure. But she’ll get there.

I remember years ago reading that someone somewhere had objected to the Harry Potter books on the grounds that the protags’ total lack of respect for authority would be a bad influence on kids. To which, like you, I say, Whaa? What would be left for kids to read if there were no books in which the young protagonist doesn’t do as s/he is told? And also: Are we raising people, here, or are we raising little robots? And also: Part of the point of books is to allow us as readers to have experiences that in real life we probably wouldn’t have.

I’m also a librarian and try to put a wide variety of books on the teen shelves. I’m always amazed I don’t get more challenges (I’ve had one in 12 years). I suspect that the vast majority of parents pay no attention to what their children are reading. Maybe this is the Canadian way.

We had a parent of a fifth grader object to Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson the other day. Seriously. Bridge to Terabithia. I’ve already taken up enough space on this blog today, so I won’t get back on my podium and talk about the merits of that wonderful book right now.

But, the parent objected because of the language. She was frustrated because her child was exposed to the word damn. I asked her if her son rode the school bus and told her that I was certain he’s heard worse than damn while riding the bus to school every day. She didn’t like that observation, but she agreed and dropped the subject.

I also had a parent object to The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver because of a reference to a penis and a statue that resembled one. Mind you, this parent was upset because her son had to read this book and was exposed to this reference. My department chair at the time actually said, “Well, he HAS a penis, correct? I’m assuming this isn’t the first time he’s been exposed to what one looks like.” The parent was angry, the administration supported our choice to use the novel, and to placate the parent and keep our names out of the paper, we chose to provide an alternate choice for the student. Again, because this mother was upset that her 17 year-old son had to read one sentence about a penis.

Honestly, how do parents forget this stuff? How do they forget what it was like growing up? I am a parent now, and I admit that it is hard when my 8 year-old asks me stuff, and it kills me that I have to explain stuff to her when I don’t feel ready. The thing is, sometimes SHE is ready. It’s me that isn’t. I think that is the problem I’ve seen with parents before.

This reminds me of something that recently happened to my brother-in-law’s high-school-aged brother. He and some of his friends had been assigned to retell-via-video MacBeth as a modern-day story. They ended up getting in trouble for turning in something the teacher deemed “inappropriate for school” because it involved toy guns and depictions of (though not graphic by any means!) violence! They got their parents behind them to challenge the ruling– and the principal agreed with them– because it was, of course, a completely accurate modern-day retelling of MacBeth!

Also, I WAS one of those kids/teens who set aside material that made me feel uncomfortable. I came back to some of the same books years later and laughed at the relative tameness of what had once made me uncomfortable, but anyway, yeah, I was perfectly capable of sorting out what I was and wasn’t ready for on my own.

…

Adele: That is a weird position and sounds incredibly frustrating. I do often wonder why the censorship of books is much more prevalent than of TV and movies. I begin to suspect that’ it’s simply because it’s easier.

Anonymouse: Bloody hell. That’s just awful. The notes you were getting about your blog they were from your publisher? Uneblieveable. Yay you for putting your book back how it was meant to be. I think a lot of debut novelists are often unaware that they have the power of STET.

Lauren: So much of this censorship is so random. I would never have predicted that menstruation would be the problem your book faced. Out on tour last year I heard all sorts of tales of books being pulled from shelves or returned for the flimsiest reasons. “Protagonist had bad attitude/was disrespectful to parents” being the one that really floored me. Think how many YA books would never exist if that was a criterion?

Angharad: I used to hate problem books. I’m just not a realism kind of a girl. I found them preachy and annoying and was convinced that no kid ever would like them. School visits have taught me how wrong I was. Where time after time I’d come across some student—or be told about them by the school librarian—who was going through hell at home. The librarian/teacher would put a copy of a book that covered the same territory in their hand and suddenly the student’s got a way to talk about what’s been happening to them. Or the kid will find the book on their own and shyly want to talk about that book with the trusted teacher/librarian as a safer way of discussing their own life. And that’s just one example of the power of those books.

Adrienne: Yeah. Triple yeah. And it really strikes me as so absurd. Show me one fourteen year old who’s never heard those words before (who wasn’t homeschooled in a yurt). I really find the language objections the nuttiest of all.

Lesley: Thank you so much for your comment. Absolutely teachers are right up there on the front lines too. I can think of at least two cases where they’ve lost jobs over books they recommended to students. More power to you for putting fab recent YA into their hands.

I haven’t thought much about public librarians and the choices the make or why they make them. I know my school librarian deals with these censorship issues because she is employed by the school system. I hadn’t thought about the public librarians dealing with this though. I’ll remember that in the future, and when I go there later today, I’ll praise them for making such great selections. We have five branches in our system, and I’ve never not been able to find something I’m interested in. As a middle/high school English teacher and aspiring YA author, I read a ton of YA selections, and I have always been able to check out what I wanted.

I wanted to comment too on this issue of censorship with teachers. Like I said above, I have taught middle and high school English, and some don’t realize this, but teachers deal with the censorship issue as well. There is a huge misconception among some people that English teachers only want kids to read the classics, and that simply isn’t true. First of all, there isn’t anything wrong with the classics. Many of them, like Shakespeare for example, have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. There is a reason for that. In addition though, I agree with John Green. Kids CAN handle content and they CAN handle complex writing styles, including ones that seem archaic to kids.

So yes, I do believe in teaching the classics, but I also HAVE to teach the classics. There are state standards that teachers must follow, and there are state reading lists that are “recommended” for us to follow. These guidelines and standards differ by state, but we don’t simply choose whatever we want our students to read. Number one, we aren’t allowed to, and number two, it isn’t always practical when you are trying to articulate curriculum across a district.

Aside from all of that though, do we have some choice in the matter? Yes. Are we aloud to bring in other things like literature circles, novels to read aloud, novels for reading workshops? Yes, and when that happens, many of us are out there selecting great young adult authors and novels with “content.”

I’m only saying this because teachers don’t get enough support from readers and kids sometimes. Like the librarians you mentioned in the post, teachers often receive quite a bit of flack from community members and parents for the choices they make in the classroom.

Back in the day when the Harry Potter series wasn’t complete, and when people still thought it was going to cause a bunch of kids to run off and not believe in God while they were casting spells, I was reading it in the classroom and getting yelled at by parents. I was lucky because my administration supported me. Since then, I’ve read novels by Megan McCafferty and Chris Crutcher aloud, knowing that I’m going to have to talk about content, but also have to read it aloud to kids while using language that in normal situations I would deem inappropriate in the classroom. I’ve had some objections from parents, and it always frustrates me. If only the parents understood that while I read, that room is silent. Imagine an entire room of 17 year-olds sitting, watching me as I read. You can hear a pin drop. Literally. Why? Because they get these characters. They get their stories and they understand their deep content. And after that, we talk, write, and make connections about our real lives, yet it feels safe to the kids because they aren’t talking about themselves, they’re talking about a character.

It’s really amazing, and I know I’ve gained the respect of my students by showing them material that is not only good but can resonate with them. Parents often feel uncomfortable about the subject matter or language, but it is real. It is happening. So I respect young adult writers who paint such a vivid, authentic experience for readers of all ages. As teenagers, they can connect with and understand these characters who make sense to them because it seems so real. And as teachers and adult, it helps us to remember and then understand teenagers, their lives, and their emotions.

Currently, I’m teaching part-time in an elementary school, and I hope to get back in a high school classroom next fall. Since I’ve had this position while my children are young, I’ve read so much more young adult literature and can’t wait to bring more of it into my classroom, but I also know there will be challenges. I will still try though, and I hope my administrators will continue to support me as they did in the past. I thank the authors like you who write these stories, and I thank the publishers who aren’t afraid to publish them and keep them “real” for the kids. It truly does make a difference for them.

I had this problem with The Higher Power of Lucky. I thought it was lame. I wouldn’t have complained if it wasn’t purchased– it sucked, why bother? But then there was the word “scrotum” and I had to question whether the book was being rejected for the wrong reasons. I found myself filled with resentment that I was defending the book because I felt the use of the word was manipulative, but had no choice other than to allow myself to be manipulated. Freedom to read is Freedom to read, even if I think your choice of reading material is lame and you should go read Beverly Cleary instead.

It was a custom job, very surgical, striking out one or two words in places. Only because I read very closely on copyedits, did I realize she had done it.

When I called her on it, she claimed it was cut because it was unclear. So yeah, I stetted the gay back into my book.

Then I got the nicenasty notes about my blog content- I should stop talking about “politics” because it “makes schools and libraries uncomfortable when they’re looking to book you.” A long and detailed discussion about what was and was not political revealed it was the gay to which they objected.

Amusingly enough, saidsame editor didn’t see any irony in- a few months later- sending me loads of Banned Books Week/Freedom to Read pr crap from the company to put on my blog.

Here’s an example. In sixth grade, I read a book series that contained sex, violence, disturbing deaths, and religiously questionable material. I knew what that stuff was. It’s not like I couldn’t recognize a sex scene, even one portrayed mostly through suggestion. But do you know what I got out of that book? The same thing I got out of a zillion other books; a good read. I read about adventures, secret meetings, love, impossible creatures, myths meshed with science, and any number of other cool things. That’s what I remember. The other stuff just faded away. I only remember it now because I’ve since re-read the book.

Kids who aren’t allowed to read widely, however, can’t do this. They don’t have the right oils on their feathers, so to speak. If they come across something they aren’t ready for, they are much, much more likely to have an issue with it.

Sadly, I’ve met adults who have the same problem. They can’t see the story for the words, and don’t know how to process things they aren’t comfortable or familiar with. People like that are missing out. On reading, AND on life, because they’re often just as close-minded toward their world as they are toward their reading material.

~Mary

The rise of the nanny states will make literature boring and remove its ability to inspire. Fight back! If the handful of “concerned parents” get shouted down by a multitude of “concerned readers” the librarians might feel safer.