#Speakloudly: Two Books Have Been Banned.

I'm sorry, I know I said I was going on a blogging hiatus but I had to blog about this.  If you see a flaming ball of fire somewhere in southwest Missouri, that would be me.

Remember the #Speakloudly campaign? (you can find my original post here.)  Mr. Scroggins tried to get three books banned from the Republic MO school district: Speak, Twenty Boy Summer, and Slaughterhouse Five.  He succeeded in getting two of the three banned.  Republic schools will no longer keep Twenty Boy Summer or Slaughterhouse Five on their shelves.  And get this: only 1 out of the 4 board members who voted read the books.

He managed to get two books banned from a school district in which he has no children attending at the moment.  I'm at a loss for words so I will let Sarah Ockler take over:

Banned, but never ashamed (she references the article and has a link for it on her blog you can get to from there.)

The superintendent is basically calling his students immature.  He believes they aren't old enough to handle the very things they witness in their own lives.

Please never give up the fight to keep books on the shelves.  Our world isn't some sparkly wonderful fairytale full of rainbows and unicorns.  These problems do exist and if these brave authors that write about them are silenced, our teens who need help the most will be silenced.

Speak UPdate!

So, remember the #Speakloudly campaign?  The one where a man from a small town in Missouri wanted three books removed from the public high school's library?  And one of those books was Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson?  And it was totally my town?  You can read about it here.

Well, do you also remember Laurie Halse Anderson said she would send 20 copies of each of the contested books to our area libraries in her op-ed piece here?

Guess what??

We got those books at our library the other day!



(The box of books courtesy of our awesome Collection Services department)

 

Thank you Ms Anderson!!  Our library greatly appreciates all these books, and man do we need them!  Our hold lists are out the whazoo!

And, I have an update courtesy of some inside sources (because you know, they never tell us parents anything) that all three books are back on the shelves in the school.  Slaughterhouse Five has even been put back on the reading list, as far as I know, and there will be a letter sent home with parents informing them of the book.  (of course this is just what I heard, but my sources are pretty reliable)

And a huge THANK YOU to all of you who spoke up about this issue!  It looks like (for now) the books are safe.