The BookKids Blog!

The fabulous E. Lockhart is one of our favorite authors at BookPeople. Her novel The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (just released in paperback!) garnered both a Printz Honor and a National Book Award nomination this year, and it’s one of our top sellers. Hey – Austin has great taste! When I first approached Ms. E. about participating in our banned books blog project, she had no idea she was a challenged author. In fact, right here in Texas, the second book in her Ruby Oliver series was challenged. The Ruby Oliver series – which includes E. Lockhart’s latest, The Treasure Map of Boys – is a clever, fun exploration of growing up and discovering the strange ways of the males of the species. Thankfully, despite the fluster of finding out her book was challenged, Ms. Lockhart was still willing to participate in our project. Here’s what she had to say:

BookPeople: What book(s) of yours have been banned or challenged and what were the reasons given?

E. Lockhart: I only just learned that The Boy Book (the second in the Ruby Oliver series) was challenged last April in Keller, TX. The reasons were that drinking appeared in chapter three and the instructions for “the care and ownership of boobs” involved the possibility of those boobs being touched by someone else in a consensual situation.
The mother of a thirteen year-old middle-schooler wanted the book removed from the school library, but the school replied that the book met their selection criteria and had been recommended in reputable journals by certified librarians. The parent said she wants to file a formal request for review, but that was back in April. I don’t know what happened after that – I just found out about all of this yesterday!

BP: What was your reaction when you first heard your book(s) were being challenged?
EL: Shock. But then I was glad it gave me an opportunity to speak out about censorship (on my blog) – though sorry, of course, that it had happened at all.
I was also sad for the girl whose mother finds developing bodies and the topic of teenage drinking so very unspeakable that she’s willing to raise a school-wide, community-wide fuss to make sure no kids in the school have access to that material. That mother has just told her kid: “Don’t come to me with your questions. Don’t come to me with your problems. You’re not allowed to know about these things and I am incredibly invested in making sure you don’t.”
Now that kid has nowhere to turn.The mom could have read the book together with her kid, explained why she disagreed with the things in it – and kept the doors of communication open.
I know not every book is right for every age group or every reader. I can’t read horror.Too scary. I don’t pick it up. And there are many things I don’t let my seven year-old read or watch yet. But if you read page one of my books, and read the flap copy, you know what you are getting. You can put it down. You don’t have to take it away from a whole community.

BP: How do you feel knowing there are people out there who don’t want young readers to have access to your books?
EL: My books, anyone’s books, all books. It makes me worried for the future of our society that we are so afraid of entering into critical dialog.

BP: Has having your work banned or challenged changed the way you write?
EL: No. And it will not.
I will say that in books where I don’t need them for the language to remain true and emotional, I have often kept expletives out. I find creative alternatives for the usual slang. If the language is “clean,” more libraries will stock my book. More kids will read my book. So if I don’t need the so-called dirty words, I leave them out.In that sense I suppose I have adapted to the potential threat of conservative populations being turned off by language. Not that I expect the books would be challenged or banned; just not stocked in middle-school libraries.
However, if I need the dirty words, I need them. Then I swear like a sailor — or more accurately, like a homophobic New York City high schooler looking for trouble.
No editor has ever asked me to change a word.

BP: Sexuality, magic, expletives, race, and LGBT themes (among other topics) are often the reasons people challenge books. Why do you write about these topics, and why do you think it’s important that they are included in young people’s literature?
EL: People are different colors. People are sexual. It is impossible to write fiction about adolescence and identity without addressing these topics.

BP: What are your favorite banned books, and why?
EL: My dear friend, Lauren Myracle, wrote ttyl. It’s a hilarious and truthful: an honest look at a friendship between three girls. It is also one of the most banned books of last year, and I can’t imagine a book with a bigger heart or a writer more genuinely wanting to reach out to her readers with encouragement and hope.

BP: If you could say anything to Judy Blume, a literary legend and author of many banned books, what would you say?
EL: Oh, I would just say Thank You. For writing about stuff I didn’t know how to ask about or talk about. For letting me know I wasn’t alone.

BP: What advice would you give a student (or parent, or concerned citizen) whose school or library is facing a book challenge?
EL: I like the resources on Chris Crutcher’s website, and on Laurie Halse Anderson’s. I’d also recommend you email the author, if that’s easy to do. He or she can get in touch with his or her publisher. Random House, one of my publishers, has incredible resources at its disposal to support books that are being challenged.
I’d also encourage communities to focus on the literary merits of a book. So rather than say: Yes! Middle schoolers are ready to read about boob-touching! — because that is arguable and focuses on the boob-touching – you say: School Library Journal, Voya, and The Horn Book (or whatever), all serious review publications, recommend this book for these reasons, for this age group. Cite awards and state lists, any accolades the book has had. Go online and find out other places where that book might have been used in a curriculum, or been defended by another librarian. Make the argument on the worth of the book, not the acceptability of the challenged content.

BP: Since burning books is tragic, but bonfires can be fun, what should we burn instead?
EL: Let’s all set fire to our own self-loathing. Just let it burn up and move on without it.

Many thanks to E. Lockhart! Here’s hoping The Boy Book continues to be retained in Keller libraries.