National Awards
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Top-10 Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults
Edgar Allan Poe Award finalist
IRA Young Adult Choice
Junior Library Guild Selection
Michael L. Printz Honor Book (American Library Association)
National Book Award Finalist
New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
New York Times Bestseller List
SCBWI Golden Kite Award
YALSA Popular Paperback for Young Adults
Synopsis: Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth.
Now, I haven't read Speak, but you'd think a book that has won multiple awards wouldn't be banned. Well, if Wesley Scroggins, an associate professor of management at Missouri State University has his say, he will.
From Laurie's blog:
"Wesley wrote an opinion piece in the News-Leader of Springfield, MO, in which he characterized SPEAK as filthy and immoral. Then he called it “soft pornography” because of two rape scenes.
The fact that he sees rape as sexually exciting (pornographic) is disturbing, if not horrifying. It gets worse, if that’s possible, when he goes on to completely mischaracterize the book."
Laurie has started a call to action in support of Speak and against censorship:
A Twitterfeed has been started- #SpeakLoudly – where people can tweet their opinions.
You can submit a letter to the editor of the News-Leader.
You can write to the superintendent of the Republic School District, Dr. Vern Minor, or to the high school principal, Daren Harris.
You can comment directly to Scroggins’ opinion piece.
I find it funny that an associate professor of management, who I believe doesn't have a degree in literature and is speaker at Reclaiming Missouri for Christ feels he's knowledgeable enough and has decided he is the best possible person to decide that Speak is filth and dare not be read by the corrupted minds of teenagers.
And yet I wonder if Scroggins has even read Speak? And what gives him the right to decide what books should and should not be read in the Republic School District?
Why not stand on your own soapbox and be heard? Scroggins used his freedom of speech, so why not do the same to stop this?
Added: Urban Fantasy author, C.J. Redwine, a rape survivor, has written a very brave post for her support of Speak.
Go read it.
16 comments:
That bit from Laurie's blog about it being disturbing that Scroggins saw the rape scenes as pornographic... says a lot more about Scroggins than the book.
There's a song by Local Anxiety called "Dirty Books" - it was commissioned for Banned Books Week. All the examples from the song really happened... You can listen to a sample of the song here. It makes its point very, very well.
I threw my hat into the ring and blogged about this as well, I get so angry when jerks dressed up as good Christian men try to censor books, especially ones that are as brave as Speak, then have the gall to refer to it as soft core porn. Laurie Halse Anderson has the guts to talk about a topic that is still taboo today and she did it with brutal honesty and this Scroggins man is afraid of that. Just because of this, I'm going to buy a copy of Speak tomorrow. Take THAT!
One good thing to come out of this is that an important topic is being discussed and he has just sold a lot of books. :) Doesn't mean I think that all is good, people should continue to "speak" out against this misinformation.
Chris: I would like to know if he read Speak, or just saw the movie and made his decision on that?
Ceilidh: How I wish I could be at the school board meeting. What are his credentials to give him the right to say Speak should be banned?
Melissa: And he has no clue what the power of book blogs can do when they get angry.
I really don't think there is any way he could have read the book Speak and think it is pornography. I personally think every teen should be required to read this book, as well as their parents.
I read it when my oldest niece had to read it in 8th grade several years ago and re-read it last year when middle niece had to read it in 9th grade. Both girls have talked to me about how much they loved this book and how they know girls who opened up about being date raped because of this book.
Thanks for continuing the conversation about the importance of this book on your blog. I am teaching this book right now and find it disturbing that anyone would see it as pornographic.
Here are my thoughts in more depth:
http://derapsreads.blogspot.com/2010/09/speak-out-against-censorship.html
Thanks.
This infuriates me! More than one school board has and/or has tried to label The Kite Runner as porn because of a rape scene. Why can't people see the difference?
I knew when I saw your name on the linky I had to run over here and read your post. Like always well said and fantastic.
I wish I could be there during the meeting to tell off this ignorant asshole.
Wow. I didn't even realize Speak was a book. I caught part of the film—starring Kristen Stewart as Melinda, no less— one night and thought it was a pretty moving story. I thought since it was on Lifetime it was probably a made for tv movie.
And I agree with all here... why would someone associate a rape scene in a book with pornography?
Ugh. After reading Mr. Scroggins' article I can say I agree with one thing he said. "parents need to be cautious and inquire as to the nature of the material that their children may be exposed to".
I'm a parent and I think it IS important that parents know what their kids are reading but not so they can censor it!!! Know what they're reading (among other things they're doing) so the lines of communication are there. So when they read a book like Speak they feel comfortable discussing what they felt about the material. So they can ask questions about drugs, sex and "such immorality".
Gawd, I hope my children will grow up with a realistic understanding of the world, good, bad and ugly. I hope they won't be afraid to talk to me and ask me about stuff the way my religious extremist parents did.
Thanks for posting about this KB.
Oh my god. I have read Twenty Boy Summer. It's brutal and if he thinks it's about glorifying drunken parties he's insane. It's a tear jerking tale of a girl who's boyfriend died and she's trying not to mourn to be supportive to his sister (her best friend) who didn't know they were together. It's horribly horribly sad and really puts you directly into the head of a grieving teen (having been there I can admit that it had me bawling because it was exactly how I'd felt).
I don't think I've ever been so furious at hearing about stupid stuff like this.
First, LHA is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE young adult authors- the woman writes everything very well.
Secondly, I've read "Speak" and watched the movie and think both are EXCELLENT and informative.
Finally, "Speak" is REQUIRED reading for ALL 9th grade students in my children's high school.
The teachers use this book not only for literary value, but also to teach teens to SPEAK UP about abuse, to not be quiet about it until is destroys you. It teaches boys that "NO" actually means "NO" even if both the boy and the girl have been drinking and flirting all night.
I was THRILLED when I found out this book was required reading for the 9th graders. My daughter told me about the open class discussions the book brought up and it was a win-win situation for all of them because it was an excellent tool in teaching teens about these situations.
I would recommend ALL high schools make this book required reading. While the rape is clearly there in the book it is not a graphic detail by detail event. But the suffering and pain of the event pours off every page.
MsM
The miltiary is, of course, considered one of the last bastion of conservatism. But even our base library has an active campaign year round against book banning.
And the discussion of book banning reminds me of the scene in the last Raiders of the Arm movie where the female Nazi archeologist wipes away tears when she sees the books burning. Even the loss of books evoked emotion from the evil (but educated) seductress.
Oops! Typing is off this morning, should be Raiders of the Ark (not Arm).
This made me so mad, and this made me go post about it to. That guy is an idiot. To even put the word porn with rape
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