Skip to main content

Books Save Lives

I always enjoy highlighting Banned Books Week when it rolls around each year. This year, I came across a set of videos of authors talking about censorship, reading, and the importance of books in the lives of children, young adults, families, and communities. I particularly enjoyed these two from Laurie Halse Anderson and Sherman Alexie, both authors I have read and loved and who have insightful comments on these ever-present issues. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. I've included a couple of my favorite observations from each of them.


Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.

They need us to be brave enough to give them great books so that they can learn how to grow into the strong women and men that we need them to be.

It makes me hope that my book becomes their gateway into other books.

I know there are kids who need these books. And I know there are kids like me who aren't frightened by these books but who, you know, dream of them.

Comments

  1. THANK YOU!!!

    I've been so out of it that I had completely forgotten about Banned Books Week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure!! It's an important week.

      Delete
  2. I just got myself a long overdue copy of Sherman Alexie's book for this week and I can't wait to read it!

    -Maggie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome, Maggie. I love his writing so much.

      Delete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Review | The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vols. 1 & 2 by Beth Brower

I feel a bit giddy finally talking to you all about this series. If you'll remember, I fell madly in love with The Q  when it came out a few years ago. Now, Beth Brower is writing The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion — a series of novellas set in London in 1883. Each volume is an excerpt from the incorrigible Emma's journals, and the first two volumes are already available with the third on the way soon. I think they'd make rather perfect pandemic reading. Humorous and charming down to their bones, they're just what the doctor ordered to lift your spirits in this uncertain time that just proves to be too much some days. If you're experiencing one of those days, I suggest giving Volume 1   a go (it's only 99 cents on Kindle, $4.99 for a trade paperback copy). It will surprise exactly none of you that I own print and digital editions of both volumes.  Miss Emma M. Lion has waited long enough. Come hell or high water (and really, given her track record,  both a...

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

I know this is an almost unpardonably early review. But honestly, I waited on it as long as I possibly could before the effort of holding it in caused me some sort of bodily harm. I've been anxiously looking forward to For Darkness Shows the Stars  for going on two years now, and the day an ARC showed up on my doorstep was just a very good day indeed . When a book you've been dying to read finally falls into your lap, do you ever just hold onto it and savor the possibilities? I do. I did with this one for a little while. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I just tear into it immediately. But sometimes I don't. Because sometimes dreaming about it while you're actually holding it in your hands is special, too. So I savored and I dreamt and I started reading and . . . I was gone. My first reaction to finishing it was a sense of complete satisfaction mingled with sadness that it was over. My second was thinking that I cannot wait to see  For Darkness Shows the Stars  work ...

Angie's 2026 Must Be Mine

As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2026: And no covers on these yet, but I'm just as excited for each one: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 9 by Beth Brower Finest Kind of Fate by J.J. Mulder My Kind of Guy by Sarina Bowen Ravenous by Kresley Cole Mastermind by Sarah MacLean Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison Villain Edit by Rosie Danan What titles are on your list?