Defending Frequently Challenged Young Adult Books: A Handbook for Librarians and Educators

by Pat R. Scales author of "Defending Freq

Overview

A Day No Pigs Would Die, Speak, Thirteen Reasons Why These are some of the most beloved, and most challenged, books. Leaving controversial titles such as these out of your collection or limiting their access is not the answer to challenges.

While ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom reports more than 4,500 challenges to young adult literature from 2000 through 2009. This authoritative handbook gives you the information you need to defend challenged books with an informed response and ensure free access to young book lovers. With a profile of each book that includes its plot and characters, related materials and published reviews, awards and prizes, and Web and audiovisual resources, you will be prepared to answer even the toughest attacks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442264328
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/08/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 17 Years

About the Author

Pat R. Scales is a retired middle and high school librarian whose program Communicate Through Literature was featured on the Today Show and in various professional journals. She received the ALA/Grolier Award in 1997, and was featured in Library Journal’s first issue of Movers and Shakers in Libraries: People Who Are Shaping the Future of Libraries. Ms. Scales has served as chair of the prestigious Newbery, Caldecott, and Wilder Award Committees. She is a past President of the Association of Library Service for Children, a division of the American Library Association. Scales has been actively involved with ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee for a number of years, is a member of the Freedom to Read Foundation, serves as on the Council of Advisers of the National Coalition Against Censorship, and acts as a spokesperson for first amendment issues as they relate to children and young adults.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie 1

2 The Alice Series Phyllis Reynolds Naylot 7

3 Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence, edited Marion Dane Bauer 14

4 America E. R. Frank 17

5 A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl Tanya Lee Stone 20

6 Blood and Chocolate Annette Curtis Klause 24

7 A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive Dave Pelzer 28

8 The Chocolate War Robert Cormier 31

9 The Contender Robert Lipsyte 36

10 Crank Ellen Hopkins 39

11 Daughters of Eve Lois Duncan 43

12 A. Day No Pigs Would Die Robert Newton Peck 47

13 Deliver Us from Evie M. E. Kerr 51

14 The Drowning ofStephan Jones Bette Greene 54

15 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things Carolyn Mackler 58

16 Eleanor & Park Rainbow Rowell 62

17 Fallen Angels Walter Dean Myers 66

18 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 71

19 Feed M. T. Anderson 75

20 Forever Judy Blume 79

21 Geography Club Brent Hartinger 84

22 Give a Boy a Gun Todd Strasser 88

23 The Giver Lois Lowry 91

24 Go Ask Alice Anonymous 96

25 Going Bovine Libba Bray 100

26 The Golden Compass Philip Pullman 103

27 How to Steal a Car Pete Hautman 107

28 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 110

29 I Am J Cris Beam 116

30 Impulse Ellen Hopkins 119

31 The Internet Girls Series Lauren Myracle 123

32 Killing Mr. Griffin Lois Duncan 127

33 Looking for Alaska John Green 131

34 Mexican WhiteBoy Matt de la Peña 135

35 The Miseducation of Cameron Post Emily M. Danforth 138

36 Monster Walter Dean Myers 142

37 One Fat Summer Robert Lipsyte 146

38 The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky 150

39 Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi 155

40 Push Sapphire (Ramona Lofton) 159

41 Rainbow Boys Alex Sanchez 162

42 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson 165

43 Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes Chris Crutcher 170

44 Stuck in Neutral Terry Trueman 174

45 Thirteen Reasons Why Jay Asher 178

46 This One Summer Jillian Tamaki Mariko Tamaki 182

47 Twisted Laurie Halse Anderson 185

48 Two Boys Kissing David Levithan 188

49 Unwind Neal Shusterman 191

50 Vegan Virgin Valentine Carolyn Mackler 194

51 We All Fall Down Robert Cormier 197

52 Whale Talk Chris Crutcher 201

53 What My Mother Doesn't Know Sonya Sones 205

54 Wintergirls Laurie Halse Anderson 209

Appendix A Adult Books That Have Been Challenged or Banned in the High School Curriculum 213

Appendix B Rankings of Young Adult Books on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books List of 2000-2009 215

Appendix C Rankings of Young Adult Books on the Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books List of 1990-1999 217

Appendix D Resources for Teaching Young Adults about the Freedom to Read 219

Appendix E Professional Resources for Book Censorship and the Freedom to Read 221

Appendix F Censorship and Teaching Ideas about the First Amendment 223

Appendix G Free Speech Organizations 225

Index 227

About the Author 231

Editorial Reviews

We want kids to read and that means they need to be able to choose books they want to read. Pat Scales Handbook offers educators and librarians a vital resource for selecting and defending 54 young adult books that kids love to read.

Millie Davis

Pat Scales provides an invaluable resource for teachers, librarians, parents and others who care about young adult literature and literacy. This volume draws on her many years of experience as a librarian guiding young people and their parents through rewarding and meaningful books that others avoid because they don’t know how to deal with sensitive or controversial content. The section in each chapter on “Talking with Teens About the Issues” shows how these books, rather than being “challenging,” invite young readers to think and talk about what’s on their mind and create opportunities for adults to open up discussions about important issues. Implicit in the book is the message that kids should have access to books that interest and engage them, and that the best and safest way to confront life’s challenges is through literature. I couldn’t agree more.

Joan Bertin

Librarians and other school personnel continue to be confronted with challenges from the school and greater community about materials on the school shelves. Young adult books tend to be most vulnerable because their topics often address supposedly adult issues that teens may have to deal with: sexual self identity, pregnancy, drug abuse, violence, and suicide, among others. Noted library expert Scales provides information to support keeping 54 frequently challenged young adult fiction books. Scales’ preface gives a brief history of challenges to YA books and notes the current rise in such efforts. She then has a chapter for each of the 54 titles, arranged alphabetically. Books range in publication date from the 1970s to 2014. Each chapter includes publishing history; sample quotation from the book; history of challenges; brief plot summary and summary of controversial issues; suggestions for talking with teens about the issue; other similar challenged books; resources for responding to challenges (e.g., reviews, articles, awards lists); information about the author; further reading about the novel; and other media sources. Several appendix lists add value: adult books in high-school curricula that have been challenged, top challenged YA books for the last 25 years, resources for teaching about the First Amendment and the freedom to read, and free-speech organizations. A general index concludes the volume.. . .Scales has done a commendable job in providing information about each of these selected titles.

Booklist

★ 01/01/2017
As the title implies, this volume serves as a resource for public and school librarians who face complaints or objections to books housed within their young adult collections. There are 54 separate examples listed alphabetically by title (including Go Ask Alice, Sherman Alexie's The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Judy Blume's Forever, Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and more). Additional books and resources can be found in the title's appendixes, but the work's strength comes from the litany of information in the aforementioned primary book entries. Each of these entries contains a summary, professional reviews, awards, and honors the book may have received and, perhaps most important, a record of all known challenges. There is also a section at the end titled "Resources Responding to Challenges," which offers librarians the necessary background that they may need before responding to an upset or angry patron. Scales spent many years as a middle and high school librarian, which ultimately shows in the finished product; it serves as a very practical guide and is a must-have for new young adult librarians responding to their first book challenge. VERDICT A highly recommended purchase for elementary, middle, and high school professional reading collections as well as for public librarians working with children.—Ryan P. Donovan, SouthboroughPublic Library, MA

School Library Journal

By providing a guide for frequently challenged books, this text serves as a handbook for educators and librarians who must negotiate book challenges in their libraries and classrooms. Defending Frequently Challenged Young Adult Books is an invaluable collection of fifty-two of the most infamously challenged young adult books. In its own chapter, each book is succinctly profiled: a brief plot summary is offered, along with a list of its most important themes, and the most recent or relevant challenges and their rationales. Each book is paired with other young adult novels that were challenged for similar reasons, followed by resources for responding to challenges and credible justifications for inclusion in the library or classroom. An additional section, 'Talking With Teens About The Issues,' offers specific, compelling questions to help facilitate discussions with adolescent readers about the book and its challenged content. This is a must-have resource for teachers, librarians, parents, and anyone else concerned with the implications of censorship.

VOYA

Librarians and other school personnel continue to be confronted with challenges from the school and greater community about materials on the school shelves. Young adult books tend to be most vulnerable because their topics often address supposedly adult issues that teens may have to deal with: sexual self identity, pregnancy, drug abuse, violence, and suicide, among others. Noted library expert Scales provides information to support keeping 54 frequently challenged young adult fiction books. Scales’ preface gives a brief history of challenges to YA books and notes the current rise in such efforts. She then has a chapter for each of the 54 titles, arranged alphabetically. Books range in publication date from the 1970s to 2014. Each chapter includes publishing history; sample quotation from the book; history of challenges; brief plot summary and summary of controversial issues; suggestions for talking with teens about the issue; other similar challenged books; resources for responding to challenges (e.g., reviews, articles, awards lists); information about the author; further reading about the novel; and other media sources. Several appendix lists add value: adult books in high-school curricula that have been challenged, top challenged YA books for the last 25 years, resources for teaching about the First Amendment and the freedom to read, and free-speech organizations. A general index concludes the volume. . . .Scales has done a commendable job in providing information about each of these selected titles.

Booklist