Cathy Atkin's WHEN JEFF COMES HOME under attack
Catherine Atkins, author of ALT ED and WHEN JEFF COMES HOME, writes in her blog:
"I was interviewed Wednesday by a reporter for the Dallas Morning News about the challenge to When Jeff Comes Home in the Irving School District. The superintendent is requiring middle school parents to write permission letters if they want their students to be able to read the book. Librarians at the school have appealed the decision, so the matter has gone to the school board, which is reading the book now and will cast a vote in January. Stay tuned."
AS IF!'s own E. Lockhart has this take on the situation:
WHEN JEFF COMES HOME is the story of a teenage boy who returns home two years after his abduction at the hands of a psychopath. Booklist said, of what is presumably the controversial material: "the scars on his back are but surface hints of the guilt, fear, and self-loathing he feels because of what Ray forced him to do. Leaving those details to a few horrifying but not explicit flashbacks, Atkins paints a compelling picture of a crime victim desperate for help but trained to reject it."
I've read it, and I agree. The material is handled with zero sensationalism and great subtlety and sensitivity.
It won the following honors: ALA Best Book for Young Adults, ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, Booklist Top Ten First Novel, IRA Young Adults Choice, Nominated for the Garden State Book Award, Nominated for the Eliot Rosewater Book Award.
I believe that supppressing what children and teenagers read at an institutional level (libraries and schools) is wrong and inhibits the freedoms our country is based on.
E. Lockhart
http://www.theboyfriendlist.com
"I was interviewed Wednesday by a reporter for the Dallas Morning News about the challenge to When Jeff Comes Home in the Irving School District. The superintendent is requiring middle school parents to write permission letters if they want their students to be able to read the book. Librarians at the school have appealed the decision, so the matter has gone to the school board, which is reading the book now and will cast a vote in January. Stay tuned."
AS IF!'s own E. Lockhart has this take on the situation:
WHEN JEFF COMES HOME is the story of a teenage boy who returns home two years after his abduction at the hands of a psychopath. Booklist said, of what is presumably the controversial material: "the scars on his back are but surface hints of the guilt, fear, and self-loathing he feels because of what Ray forced him to do. Leaving those details to a few horrifying but not explicit flashbacks, Atkins paints a compelling picture of a crime victim desperate for help but trained to reject it."
I've read it, and I agree. The material is handled with zero sensationalism and great subtlety and sensitivity.
It won the following honors: ALA Best Book for Young Adults, ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, Booklist Top Ten First Novel, IRA Young Adults Choice, Nominated for the Garden State Book Award, Nominated for the Eliot Rosewater Book Award.
I believe that supppressing what children and teenagers read at an institutional level (libraries and schools) is wrong and inhibits the freedoms our country is based on.
E. Lockhart
http://www.theboyfriendlist.com
posted by Brent Hartinger at 1:50 PM
2 Comments:
i read this book last year. SO GOOD. i cried so much.
dude i am reading that right now and i think it is amazing but not that controversal and people should stop trying to hide their kids from the real world. stuff like that is happening all over the world and you can't just put all the bad stuff in the closet and hide it away like its nothing,people need to be informed to protect themselves such as teen. This book should be allowed in the school.
*KILLER HOE* -(Nickname)-
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