Freedom to Read Week Day 7

First of all I want to apologize if I offend anybody with my post. It was not meant to be offensive but rather to be a bit on the facetious side.

In the beginning God created earth, then he rested upon the seventh day and then had an idea to create man. But man was so bored that he asked God to create a companion. So then God created woman, to shut the man up. And then for some idiotic, crazy reason God created language.

I know it may not be the same way as the bible goes, but considering that the bible is also one of the most read and talked about books in the world, it just goes to show you that without books we really would not know how f*ed up our past history would really be.

I am reminded of a favorite movie and TV show of mine: Stargate. In the film the Egyptian god "Ra" banned or outlawed the ability to read and write so that his slaves could not rise up against him. This would be similar to the actions of the person, government or idiot, who would ban books in today's world. There would be a lot of people hunting him down to kick his ass.

Without the written word we would not have medicine to heal the sick, education to teach the doctors, or even a parent’s knowledge to encourage their children to become doctors.

Without the ability to read, society would stagnate and we would still be living in the Stone Age. Primitive cave man that assisted in the establishment of the written word would not have learned how to evolve pass their limitations. If god did not give man the ability to read and write we would all end up as Paleolithic Neanderthals - butt ugly and naked.

I first learned to read when I was six years old. My mother at the time was also my grade one teacher. Although at the time she was not my mother. You see I was a foster child. It was my adopted mother, that grade one teacher, who spent the time to teach me how to read. I had a learning disability at the time, and still do. If it wasn't for my mother who taught me how to read I would not have become a writer as I am today. I volunteer at a junior high school in Edmonton, Alberta and I enjoy teaching and helping the students in the English Language Learning (ELL) class to improve their ability to read. Not necessarily English, but to read. Some of them have come from countries where they were forbidden to read or write. Reading and writing is not a privilege, but a basic human right to pursue.

There are many books written in so many languages that hold the key to our history. In 1929, Erich Maria Remarque, wrote a book called All Quiet on the Western Front, this antiwar novel was banned in NAZI Germany for being demoralizing and insulting to the Wehrmacht. This book gave a historical account of what war was like back then.

Sadly, there are far worse things in society that people can see on YouTube, in the movies or on the news that can be far more traumatizing than what is printed in a book. Fiction or otherwise.

I have a young friend who comes over to visit quite often, and I have always told her that if she ever wants a book I would more than glad he happy to buy her one. Every time we go in Chapters I always get her to pick out at least one book. Reading should not be banned or outlawed but instead always encouraged, sought after and done. We need to encourage our children to read more from books, rather than what they have access to through a social media site, or on the web.

So I will say this...ANYONE who attempts to ban books, ban the ability to learn from the written word, ban the ability to become better educated by books, restrict imagination or inhibit someone’s love of reading because of some “stupid” reason...I will kick your ASS! Luv Ya!

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Freedom to Read Week Day 6

Talking about book banning on a book blog is a decidedly strange feeling. We're all here because we love reading. We love it enough to write books, edit them, hand-sell them, review them; maintain book blogs, go to library school, and befriend perfect strangers from across the world because that same paragraph rips both our hearts in two. We're readers, and the idea of banning books, in the readerly world, is functionally a suggestion to ban air. You don't need to explain why you're against it. It's more curious--and suspicious--if you're for it.

There are ways in which it's a really vital conversation: The Russian government criminalized any writing that speaks positively about homosexuality right before the opening of the 2014 Olympics, and teenage poet Tal Al-Mallouhi has been in prison for four years because of the poems and posts on her blog.

But there are some ways in which I really, really wish the conversation about the freedom to write and read was one in which we held ourselves--writers and readers--to a higher standard. Just like any form of discrimination, it's easy to attack the obvious problems first: Books taken out of libraries or schools; books taken off the shelves with plenty of media coverage. Those books which suffocate quietly because of discomfort with what they have to say are a harder thing to get a handle on. There are many ways to stifle a voice. As editors, readers, writers, reviewers, fans, bloggers, we're complicit in a lot of them.

When a publisher's art department takes the brown protagonist off a book cover and puts a white secondary character on it because conventional wisdom says non-white covers don't sell, that's a tiny banning; it's a tiny statement that certain kinds of stories shouldn't be here, or have to be disguised. It's a tiny statement to the readers who'd see themselves in there that they shouldn't read, or write.

When a black teenage girl and voracious reader is steered by a librarian from the adult books to the kids' books, again and again and again, it's a tiny book banning. It's a message that because of who that girl is, what she looks like, there are books she can't and shouldn't read.

When two YA co-authors are told by a literary agent that their book will be represented if they rewrite the gay protagonist into a straight one, or YA editors tells authors that their male/male romance stories aren't acceptable unless they're made male/female, that's a tiny book banning too. If those authors had listened, no one would have been able to read their books.

When a Sri Lankan author at a reading confides that nobody wanted their speculative work, but people were more than happy to take the almost-standard story of living through the Sri Lankan Civil War.

When an intersex author is rock-certain that their book about an intersex character will have no place at a major press, even though mine somehow found a way through, and they are not coming from nowhere on that one.

When a reader walks into a bookstore and say they want a hard SF novel--but not one by a woman, and if you give them that stuff you don't know your science fiction.

When white readers think there is nothing that books about black, Asian, or Middle Eastern characters could possibly say to them that matters; because they don't read books by those kinds of people.

So many books are banned every day, around the world. Most of them aren't pulled off library or bookstore shelves; they never make it to those shelves, or never make it off them into a reader's hands. I think what we forget is that book banning is a buildup of small acts: Not the big bonfires of Fahrenheit 451 or school board challenges that take whole swathes of titles off shelves.

It's when you put your damned self between a reader and a book.

Even and especially if the reader is you.

In honesty, I'm a bit afraid of sending this post to be published. I've rewritten it five times, taken much too long dithering with it, and gone back and forth about whether I'm being just way too hardassed about the whole thing.

But the problem is, every single one of the examples I put down up there really happened. We talk a lot about how important books are, how banning books is like banning air, but even as people who love books, who love how they heal or break your heart, we are keeping readers from the books they need. We are keeping books from finding the readers they were meant for.

Looking at yourself unflinchingly--as an individual, as a community, or as an industry--is sometimes the hardest thing to do. It's painful to see yourself coming up short; to really take a good, long, hard look for biases, for stereotypical thinking, for prejudice flying under cover of marketing decisions or personal opinion.

To ask if we're doing our best to make sure that the freedom to read means all the stories. Not just the ones that are about you or me.

But it's necessary, and I think, at this point, about time. All we really control in life is the acts that come out of our own two hands and the words that come out of our own mouths. We make our choices. We should be making good, kind, and curious ones.


This Freedom to Read Week, let's not make it about the other people: The ones who pull books off library shelves; the ones we look down upon; the ones who don't understand. Let's make it about us.

Let's count up the women authors, authors of colour, international authors, LGBT authors, authors with disabilities, anyone who's not exactly like us on our reading lists, and if we find we're not reading those books, let's read them and discover what they have to say--whether it's comfortable for us or not.

Let's review them. Let's find the ones that have paragraphs to break your heart open, and give them to our friends.

Let's pick up those books with brown people on the cover or gay teens in love inside, and prove to publishers that yes, people will too buy them.

Let's ask people what story they'd love to read, and make that story happen however we can.

We love books. We love reading. We love the freedom to read.

Let's make sure, in 2014, that the freedom to read's equally free for everyone.

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Freedom to Read Week Day 5

Banned Books… dun dun dun.

Those two words seem to be kryptonite to writers and readers alike. They seem to evoke feelings of negativity in the writing world. But, if you step back and put on a “parent” hat, you start to see the idea of banning of books to be a necessity. Which side of the coin is right? Is there really a “right” side? Let me tell you of my personal experience with banned books.

When I was young (maybe 7) my sister and brother were in high school. I grew up in a very small town in Illinois that had less than 10,000 people at the time and my mother worked at the high school. She came home enraged one day that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was set to be discussed by the school board to put on the ‘banned book’ list. Along with some of the works from Poe, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck. The reason these books were going to be banned from the school was a) the town we lived in was highly religious and b) parents didn’t want literature to corrupt their children. My mother was furious that “The Scarlet Letter” was going to be banned because it dealt with out of wedlock pregnancy and adultery. Even though these are uncomfortable subjects, even in 1985, these things were common place in society and my mother felt like the school board was being hypocritical.

Ultimately, my parents and others that shared their view, were overruled and The Scarlet Letter was placed on the banned list at my sister’s school. My sister and brothers ended up reading the novel at my mother’s insistence. (Thank you mom for encouraging all of us to think outside the box. You’ve made me a better writer that likes to push the boundaries.)

As a parent to a 9 year old boy, I don’t want him reading Stephen King at this age… but does that mean I want his books banned? No. In fact, I’d encourage my son to read as many books, from as many genre’s as he can. Books that address uncomfortable subjects, opposing views, and imaginary world’s help our children and our society grow. I’d rather have my son have a wild imagination, than one that is black and white.

Every written word is worth reading so you can understand the inner-workings of the human mind. Shutting out a book because it doesn’t agree with your view is only stifling yourself and your potential to grow. Are there books out there that have made me uncomfortable to read? Yes. Are there books dealing with Taboo’s that make me nervous for my child to read? Yes. But, I can’t put him (or myself) in a bubble. The world is getting smaller and smaller every day thanks to social media and cable TV. I think my son could view worse things on YouTube than to read The Scarlet Letter… but that’s just my two-cents.

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Freedom to Read Week Day 4

Satanist for a Day

The child finds a book from the many on the shelf. The child climbs into the second branch of an oak tree. She reads the book alone – allbyherselfforthefirsttimeever-yes!

She is free. She is home. She discovers fire.

Last December in Huff Post Books, Oliver Tearle recapped the twelve most interesting facts his blog site Interesting Literature: A Library of Literary Interestingness uncovered in its inaugural year.

Discovering Roald Dahl was a chocolate taster as a kid and Kurt Vonnegut once owned a failed car dealership delighted me. Endless interestingness. Delicious, these little known facts to a bibliophile like me. On Terle’s list was this:

“In Russia in 2009, Winnie-the-Pooh was banned because a senior official was found to own a picture of Pooh wearing swastika-covered clothes. This is one of the weirder stories surrounding the banning of classic children's books in various countries. Another notable 'banning incident' occurred when Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham was outlawed in the People's Republic of China between 1965 and 1991 for portraying 'early Marxism.”

This was a surprise although I knew Milne, Seuss, Dahl, and Sendak and countless others have been challenged over the years for many different reasons.

Banned kids books are not rare. From my vantage point, children’s’ writers are particularly vulnerable. There’s a certain breed of hungry guard dogs-think Cerberus and a pack of his relatives-- lurking behind every fire hydrant, ready to mark out the parameters of moral, political, and socially acceptable territory. They’re often judge and jury when it comes to what books “our” children SHOULD be allowed to read. Trouble is, the road to hell—and all that.

So I’m in good company. My own experience having a book challenged was weird and interesting to say the least. At the time, however, I couldn’t see much humour in the situation. I haven’t shared the story often and never in print.

Halifax 1992. At the end of a long day I come home, start to make supper, ask my children what they did in school. Typical, normal every day stuff. The phone rings and I soon fall down a rabbit hole into a bizarre nonsensical world. The woman on the other end asks first, is this the author?

“Yes,” I reply.

“Well, I'm Mrs. XX, a librarian at XX Elementary School.”

“Yes?” I say, hoping it will be an invitation to do an author reading there. Readings have become my major source of income and I need them if I’m going to keep on being a writer.

“I’m phoning you with some distressing news, “she says, “but I want you to know the librarians are all on your side.”

“My side? My stomach clenches, as if ready to take a fist.

“It seems that there’s a group of parents in XX community who are asking that your book Sleeping Dragons All Around be removed from all schools libraries in the district.”

“Pardon me?”

Sleeping Dragons All Around, published by Doubleday Canada, illustrated by Michel Niedenoff has been out three years. It’s my second book, and it won the Atlantic Booksellers Choice Award, the first children’s book to take that honour. The book gained some national recognition thanks to Peter Gzowski and Morningside. Enough encouragement for me to think pursuing writing full time might feasible if I cobble together other enough other paying jobs. This year, I accepted a one-year contract with CBC radio. Sleeping Dragons is, ---my little darling. Yes, I love her.

“I don’t understand exactly what you’re saying. “

“Well, this group has written a letter to the School Board and have signatures on a petition against the book.”

When there’s only silence from me punctuated by little squeaking sounds of disbelief, she continues.

“It’s ridiculous, “she says, “but they're objecting on religious grounds. The book is considered blasphemy. And um. They’ve accused you of Satanism.

“Satanism. Satanism! I shrieked, loud enough for my sons to poke their head into the room.

“I’m a Satanist?”

“They have several reasons but take issue with the naming of one of your dragons.”

“Satanist?” I‘m weak in my knees.

“Beelzebub. You named one of the dragons after the devil. “

“Oh. My. God.”

“Yes,” I sputtered indignantly, “I called one of my Dragons Beelzebub because I love the sound of the word and Beelzebub was in the tub and blew bubbles and –it’s called alliteration! Wordplay! And I was studying Milton's Paradise lost at the time, in university and the book is based on a line from Keats, and no one not ONE person has mentioned this in three years. “I’m angry now. Unfortunately, when I get angry, my inner child gets louder. Useful to access when you write kids books but not so effective as an adult trying to defend myself. My voice, even to my own ears, is like a ten year old wailing but Mummy; it’s just not FAIR.

The librarian wasn't laughing.

“Well, it's really important that you fight this. If you want to go public with this we’re behind you at the library. So are the teachers who use your book in the classrooms. This is a perfect opportunity to talk about how ridiculous this kind of challenge is, about censorship and intellectual freedom and freedom to read. We could get media involved.

You know it would end up being good publicity for your book. There’s usually a great demand and increase in sales for challenged books.“ He voice is kind and I don’t doubt her for a minute.

“Satanist? I mumble. The word’s velcroed to my tongue. “I .. need to think about this,” I say.

I tell my children what’s just happened and they laugh hysterically. “Oooh, Mama, the devil made you do it,” they chant.

“Not funny.” I phone my best friend and in heartbroken tones, explain the situation.

“Me a Satanist,” I say, “all I've ever done is try to write books for children.” There’s dead silence on the other end of the phone. Then there’s an in breath and a convulsion of laughter.

“You- you’re not seriously taking this to heart, are you?” she manages to snort out.  She's the friend who’s always been able to ask questions that save me hours of therapy.

“Um, no, um, no no, of course not.”

“Maybe you should go public with it.”

*

But I didn’t. I phoned the librarian, thanked her for supporting me but my feeling was that people like this WANTED publicity. Going to the media would provide a forum for them to espouse their twisted views. I had faith, I told her, that the school board would not listen. Sleeping Dragons All Around is a good book, inspired by my own son and his fear of the dark. My own fear of the dark, I said "That’s all."

I wasn’t going to fear those bible-thumping zealots. My idea of God was sketchy, but I figured she’d be on my side. The librarian was maybe a little disappointed, but she said she understood and respected my reasons.

So in the end, there was no big brouhaha and the group was silenced and denied their request.

Sleeping Dragons celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009 and was reissued, this time by

Nimbus Publishing as Doubleday Canada stopped doing picture books. The book has had such a long and rich life, and so many stories.

Think teachers acting out the dragons when I go a school. Beelzebub,Grade Two teacher in bikini and snorkel in a real tub being pulled by the Grade six teacher. Satanic and X– rated? My favourite story was the mother who told me they had a sleeping dragon game in their house and the Dad was the dragon chasing after the kids. I hope the kids, now grown, will pass that along.

The most poignant moment for me was the time I met a mother who told me the book was her son’s favourite book and had given her so many happy memories of when her son was little. He was one of the boys in red, a Bathurst basketball player killed in the tragic traffic accident in 2008.

Every Freedom to Read Week I think about writers in prison for what they have written, of children in refugee camps, countries where reading is a dangerous and subversive act, journalists who have been killed for telling the truth, populations who read only propaganda, poets who are gagged into silence. It’s unbearable.  How grateful I am to live where I do.

But… I also take it personally and know that closer to home and in the present, we still have to be vigilant and protect our intellectual and creative freedom.

Freedom of the imagination, freedom to read.

Fire.

The child in the tree sighs as she closes the book. She looks out to the sea from her perch. She traces the letters of the author’s names with her fingertips. Imagine writing a book like House at Pooh Corner. She begins to dream. She’s just been corrupted forever.

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Freedom to Read Week Day 3

There’s a character in my YA novel Apparition called Kip who is a little irreverent. That’s just the way he is. My heroine Amelia first meets him at a Halloween party where they are both wearing Bob Marley masks (pure coincidence) while all the other kids are dressed either as zombies or vampires. Kip surprises Amelia with his take on zombies:

“Jesus was a zombie, for Christ’s sake. That’s what Easter’s all about.”

“I never thought of it that way.” Holy jeez. He’s different.

“Are you kidding? Don’t you know about the ‘resurrection of the body’ stuff in the Bible? The Bible’s all about zombies.” 

“No, I seriously never thought of that.”

That’s just Kip being Kip. And yet, as the author, I worried vaguely about including that little exchange in my book. I wondered whether some Christians might take offense. Then some well-meaning person warned me that it might make it difficult to get my book onto reading lists in American schools. That made me gulp, and I asked myself whether I really needed to have Kip say it. I decided I did. Apparition hasn’t made it into American schools yet, but I’m not sure it’s Kip’s fault.

The point is that there’s more to the threat of censorship than book banning. There’s self-censorship, brought on by the fear that offending some people might hurt sales, the publisher’s bottom line, and eventually even my own already sad bank account.

But what really concerns me is not that some parent might take offense to the mild reference to the idea of the risen Jesus being a zombie, or even zombie-like. What bothers me is when people aren’t allowed to read something that others consider irreligious or irreverent. Being free to be irreverent about religion, about politics, about industry, about customs, in other words, about dominant views in society, is a critical part of every society that aspires to be democratic. The belief runs deep, even in western religious traditions, that the so-called “sacred cow” as fair game.

Those who take offense are always trying to protect their position, their interests and their power. I don’t blame them for wanting to, I just don’t think they should be allowed to shut other people up.

I’ve always had a soft spot for 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, no stranger to pissing off religious authorities, who declared in his Theologico-Political Treatise that governments should have the authority to restrict the actions of their citizens. No problemo, he argued. But he added one small caveat: their citizens must be free to think and say (and write) whatever they will. What he counted on was that a society that allowed freedom of expression was the surest way to shape and foster a democracy, to keep its politicians clean and its laws fair. Because in order to effectively control people’s actions, you must also control their thoughts, and even better, push thinking itself right out the door. What keeps thoughts free is when they are engaged, agitated and inspired by their free exchange through words, speech and print. Free thoughts and words are the foundation of a just society.

So book banning, censorship, and even the pressures to self-censor, are the enemies of democracy. And offending those with the most power in society, even and sometimes especially religious power, is a right that we must safeguard. Not for the sake of my character Kip necessarily, but for the sake of the next Salman Rushdie, and everyone in between.

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Freedom to Read Week Day 2

Naked Girls For Everyone!

(Context And Why It Matters)

In my seven years as a YA librarian I’ve only had to deal with one book challenge. As far as statistics go, I think I’m doing pretty well. After all, across our three-branch library system I have over 11,000 YA, graphic novel, and manga books filled with all the cursing, drinking, drug use, and sex that turns small town parents’ hair white. I knew when I took the job I would eventually do battle with a book challenge, and I was ready for it. I was fully armed in the Right to Read and Intellectual Freedom, and even had a sword of self-righteousness grasped firmly in my hand.

And then the dragon came gliding across my desk, and I realized there was something I hadn’t prepared for: Guilt and a desire to just give in.*

Maybe it would have been different if the challenge was against a book I knew and loved, but as I read what a mother had written about why she didn’t think her son should be able to pick up this particular issue of Teen Titans off the library shelf, I felt like I had done something wrong. I felt like a bad librarian and person because there was indeed a naked girl** in that book and it was sitting in the YA area of the library. What had I done? How many children had I scarred for life?

Luckily, the story doesn’t end there. (It would be a fairly tragic Freedom to Read Week story if it did.)

After reading the reconsideration form, I went to work. I checked out the book and the three issues leading up to it and read them all that night. I looked up reviews and reached out to other librarians who were familiar with the material. I spoke with people in the Teen Titan fandom to understand the storyline and character’s background. And by the time I was done, all my guilt was gone. I felt confident as I typed up my recommendation to keep the material. Not only did I think it was okay for the book to remain, I felt like it needed to be there.

The difference between the day the form was turned in and the day I responded was context. A naked girl on her own is a little shocking, but a naked girl in the context of a story focusing on grief and some of the not-so-healthy ways people might cope with it? Not only does it make sense, it becomes important, not only for the story, but for the reader’s personal journey as well.

A lot of times when you see people up in arms about a book they’ve deemed “inappropriate” you’ll notice they only talk about a few pages, paragraphs, or even one or two lines. They gasp in horror at an oral sex scene,*** not seeing how it’s an observation on how sex acts without emotion are empty and meaningless because they haven’t taken the time to read the book and learn the context.

As readers and literary advocates, we often look down our noses at the book banners**** who call for the removal of books from our libraries and classrooms. We scoff at their ignorance and paint them as the most villainous of bad guys, and I think that is the wrong way for us to look at the situation. I believe if you were to take a step back, to examine the context of the situation, you wouldn’t find a person whose heart is filled with evil, but someone who genuinely thinks they’re doing the right thing. These are simply people who haven’t learned the importance of context. They don’t see how literature can use situations we might find uncomfortable to read to teach us about ourselves and the world we live in. And that’s why events like the Freedom to Read Week in Canada and Banned Books Week in the United States are so important. They’re an opportunity to educate those well-meaning book banners about the importance of context.

This week, I encourage you to not only talk about the banned books you’ve read and loved, but also about why you love them. Talk about why the story is important to you. Give the world a little context. It can go a long way.

* I’m not saying that there aren’t times when you read a reconsideration form and decide to move the book to another section or whatever it is the patron is asking. I’m saying that I was ready to give in without fully examining the situation, which was not cool. Not cool at all.

** For the record, all the naughty bits were covered.

*** Yes, I’m talking about an actual YA book. It’s a very well done and important oral sex scene. Trust me.

**** By the way, book banners would never categorize themselves as such. “Concerned citizen” is their preferred moniker.

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Freedom to Read Week Day 1

Teens Need More Access To Books, Not Less

Books saved me; I don’t think I could have survived my child- and teenhood without them. I certainly couldn’t have survived with my soul intact, with goodness and hope still in me. Novels gave me escape from the abuse and torture I was living, and they also helped me know that I wasn’t alone (in some ways), that there were good and kind people in the world (even though I didn’t experience much of that in my own life), that I could fight evil and cruelty and have a chance of overcoming it, and that I could hope for love even if I was unloved. If I hadn’t had books, my life would have been without hope, relief, or goodness; I really don’t think I could have survived. As it was, I wanted to die almost all the time.

When you feel like you’re the only one who’s been through something horrible or who feels a certain way, it can be incredibly painful. I was always looking for books that would tell me I wasn’t the only one who was living through horrific experiences such as incest, rape, torture, mind control, cults, self-harm, being held captive, bullying, attempted suicide, and being queer in a homophobic world. I was always looking for books that talked about the things that no one ever talked about. Books that would let me know on a much deeper level that I wasn’t alone, that there was hope, that I could get through. I didn’t find that as a teen, and that’s a big part of why I write what I do. I write the books that I needed as a teen and couldn’t find. I write for the teens who desperately need those books now, the way I did. And I write for the readers who may not have been through those things, but who may become less judgemental and gain greater compassion by reading about those experiences from an inside view. Because that’s what books give us—a glimpse inside someone else’s life and soul for a little while—in a way that I don’t think we get in any other medium. Books are powerful, safe ways to learn about the world, or to discover that you’re not alone, that you’re really okay as you are.

So I’m always distressed when people try to ban or challenge my books or those of any other author’s. It’s happened a few times that I know of with SCARS (and probably a lot more that I don’t know of, where the book has just been quietly removed from the shelves),
and I worry that it will happen with STAINED, too, since it also deals with painful issues (abduction, imprisonment, rape, psychological abuse, bullying). What I think about when people try to ban my books are the letters I still receive—every week—from readers telling me that after reading SCARS they stopped cutting, got help, talked to someone for the first time about their self-harm or sexual abuse or being queer, or that they didn’t kill themselves because of my book. And the letters I'm now getting about STAINED, from readers telling me that it helped them feel stronger, like they can face the abuse or trauma they have in their own lives.  Those teens are living through hell right now, and they need to know that they’re not alone, that someone else has been through it and survived and so they, too, can get through it and be okay.

To prevent a teen who *needs* a book—who might not have any other way of knowing that they’re not alone, not crazy, not to blame for abuse or trauma that’s happened, who may need that book to heal, to stay alive, or to gain greater compassion and understanding for themselves or for someone else—to keep them from reading a book that may be their only lifeline or hand through the darkness seems cruel to me. Maybe not intentionally cruel, but I think it does harm to keep someone from something that can bring them healing and relief, that can help them be kinder to themselves or to someone they know. I think book banning and challenging probably comes from fear, misinformation, and ignorance—but I wish people would be more compassionate, thoughtful, and aware of others’ needs, and know that if they don’t like a book or are afraid of it, they can put it down; they don’t have to try to keep others from it.

I am so thankful for the many librarians, teachers, and book bloggers who help get books into the hands of teens who need them, and for readers who help get the word out about those books. What you do matters.

About the Author:

Cheryl Rainfield is the author of the award-winning SCARS, about a queer teen sexual-abuse survivor who uses self-harm to cope; STAINED, about a teen with a port-wine stain who is abducted and must rescue herself; and the award-winning HUNTED, about a teen telepath living in a world where any paranormal power is illegal. Cheryl Rainfield is an incest and torture survivor, a feminist, and an avid reader and writer. She lives in Toronto with her little dog Petal.

Cheryl Rainfield has been said to write with “great empathy and compassion” (VOYA) and to write stories that “can, perhaps, save a life.” (CM Magazine) SLJ said of her work: “[readers] will be on the edge of their seats.”

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Interview with Debut Author Courtney C. Stevens

1. When did you first start writing, and was there something in particular that inspired you?

I published my first poem in second grade and my love for creative writing continued to grow when I discovered short stories in high school. Several assignments ended up being published in local newspapers and then I won a Scholastic Arts and Writing Gold Award for fantasy my senior year. That helped me decide to pursue a degree in journalism.

Until I changed my major.

For the next ten or so years, I wrote non-fiction bible studies, devotionals, songs, and short scripts.

In 2009, I woke up from a particularly vivid dream that captured my imagination. It was a unique setting, and I was so curious that I sat down and tried to describe it. Then, I NEEDED to know what happened next.

That’s how I decided I wanted to try for a full-length novel.

2.What first attracted you to your genre when you began writing?

That first full-length novel wasn’t contemporary realistic fiction; it was fantasy. I read fantasy, adventure, dystopic books, and that’s what I thought I wanted to write. When I was between book one and two in that series (that will never resurface), I had an idea about an interracial romance in the south. I wrote a few paragraphs, and I was totally hooked on first person contemporary. This was my voice.
I’ve had a few flings with fantasy since (because I love it), but I don’t have a talent for it.

3. In regards to your own characters, who is your favorite to write and why?

Bodee is my favorite. Although Gerry, from The Blue-Haired Boy, is a close second. I love their sincerity and I-will-love-you-in-spite-of-you attitude.

4. What other genres (besides your own) do you enjoy reading?

I read mystery, fantasy, dystopian, science fiction and historical. Most of my choices in the last six years have been young adult, although I’ve read several middle grade series and a few adult stand-alones. The only genre I haven’t dipped into is paranormal. Not because I wouldn’t like, but rather because of time. One of these days, I’m going to dive in.

5. As a reader I know how difficult it can be to name a ‘favorite’ book, would you mind listing your top three? (Past or present authors)

Top Three:
1. Winger by Andrew Smith
2. I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

6. What are some ‘must haves’ when you sit down to write?

Music. Diet Coke. A room that’s not too cold. And, I must be funny dressed, unlike every other writer in the world who works in theirpjs.

7. If you became trapped as a character in a book or series, which would you choose and why? (Any book, any series, new or old)

I’ll give you a guy and a girl.

1. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter series). She’s kind, cunning, still alive at the end, has a boyfriend and a best friend who are worth dying for, and I believe she’s a very good friend.

2. Ed Kennedy (I am the Messenger). He’s an underachiever on a journey to become someone who matters. He’s good to his dog, his friends, strangers, and he even manages to love people who are difficult. This is very admirable to me.

Faking Normal:
Release Date: February 25, 2014
An edgy, realistic, and utterly captivating novel from an exciting new voice in teen fiction.

Alexi Littrell hasn't told anyone what happened to her over the summer. Ashamed and embarrassed, she hides in her closet and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.

When Bodee Lennox, the quiet and awkward boy next door, comes to live with the Littrells, Alexi discovers an unlikely friend in "the Kool-Aid Kid," who has secrets of his own. As they lean on each other for support, Alexi gives him the strength to deal with his past, and Bodee helps her find the courage to finally face the truth.

A searing, poignant book, Faking Normal is the extraordinary debut novel from an exciting new author-Courtney C. Stevens.


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The Heartbreakers Blog Tour Day 6 (Part 2)

In a paragraph or two:
1. Tell us about your most romantic experience (either as an adult or as a teenager).

I never had a lot of the hearts and flowers, champagne under the stars, surprise trips to Europe romances. Which was okay. Flowers work best while growing in the ground. I’ve never understood the appeal of champagne – I really prefer beer. And I took myself to Europe after guy I was supposed to go with cancelled at the last minute. (I had a blast, the tour guide and I became friends and I saw nightspots the rest of the group never knew about.)
Only one thing jumped into my mind. I was in college on a date, we were heading back to his place, and I felt really ill. I didn’t want to tell him because we had plans for the evening, but I felt worse every minute. In spite of guys usually being deaf, dumb and blind, he realized I was only pretending to be all right. Instead of all the fun we had planned for the evening, he put me to bed, gently wrapped a blanket around me, and brought me chicken soup. I went to sleep with his hand brushing my hair.

2. Which literary character embodies true romance to you?

Angelique and Joffrey de Peyrac.
I discovered the Angelique books written by Sergeanne Golon in college and became an immediate and devoted fan. I’m currently a member of the Friends of Angelique Facebook group and went to far as to learn French so I could read the two books in the series that were never translated into English.
I love the way Angelique starts out strong. She is a teen in the first book, but you can see the woman she is going to mature into. While her marriage was supposed to be a business arrangement (Joffrey really only wanted her dowry) in true romance tradition, he fell in love with his young wife and wooed her with music and gallantry until she loved him back. Twelve books later the series has taken them through wars, separations, children (she is a truly devoted mother). The two have taken readers across the historical landscape and ended up in the new world. Sometimes he saves her, sometimes she saves him. They mature and grow, fall out of love and then back in again. I would love to create a character as smart, strong, resourceful and loving as Angelique, who resonates with readers the way she does with me.




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In a paragraph or two:
1. Tell us about your most romantic experience (either as an adult or as a teenager).

One time my husband made a super-fancy dinner for me, including special sauces and dessert, and he served it to me in different courses. For anyone else, this may not be the most romantic thing ever, but because it was so far out of my husband’s comfort zone (he rarely cooks anything, and when he does, there’s usually not much creativity involved) it meant a lot to me. That was as an adult. As a (late) teen, I remember being in Hawaii and meeting a cute guy at the beach. The first time he kissed me was under the stars while we were having a late-night swim in the ocean. (As romantic as that may sound, I still liked the dinner better!)

2. Which literary character embodies true romance to you?

I’d have to say Etienne St. Clair from Stephanie Perkins’s ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. He knows how to show Anna around Paris and makes pretty much every conversation he has with her romantic. Plus, you know, the accent and the hair...




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