Ellen Hopkins is my hero...

Ellen Hopkins recently posted an article in the Huffington Post called Banned Books Week 2010: An Anti-Censorship Manifesto.  It's a pretty great article and here are a few marvelous quotations:

Some call my books edgy; others say they're dark. They do explore tough subject matter -- addiction, abuse, thoughts of suicide, teen prostitution. But they bring young adult readers a middle-aged author's broader perspective. They show outcomes to choices, offer understanding. And each is infused with hope. I don't sugarcoat, but neither is the content gratuitous. Something would-be censors could only know if they'd actually read the books rather than skimming for dirty words or sexual content.

According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, removing an author from an event because someone disagrees with their ideas or content in their books meets the definition of censorship. And in protest, five of the seven other festival authors -- Pete Hautman, Melissa de la Cruz, Matt de la Pena, Tera Lynn Childs and Brian Meehl -- withdrew. Our books are all very different. But our voices are united against allowing one person, or a handful of people, to speak for an entire community.

Check out the whole article!

The Virginia Beach Public Library has highlighted And Tango Makes Three in a recent article on their library blog which highlights books picked by staff members.

[Some] accused the authors of only telling part of the story. “Critics say the book does not explain that the real penguins -- on which the story is based -- split-up as soon as a potential female partner was introduced into their environment. And one of them later mated with her.”

On the other hand, Justin Richardson stated in the New York Times in 2005, “We wrote the book to help parents teach children about same-sex parent families. It's no more an argument in favor of human gay relationships than it is a call for children to swallow their fish whole or sleep on rocks.”

Click here to read the story of how, in 2008, parents successfully got the book banned from a school library for being pro-homosexual propaganda that was insidiously promoting homosexuality to young children.

Critics say the book does not explain that the real penguins -- on which the story is based -- split-up as soon as a potential female partner was introduced into their environment. And one of them later mated with her.

"In other words, the homosexual activists recommend a story, which is ... not even a true story," LaBarbera argues. "The penguin who returned to normalcy, of course, the kids don't know about that. 

Quite the statements....