In my culminating project for INFO 267, Intellectual Freedom for Young Adults, I developed a blog featuring bestselling young adult author Laurie Halse Anderson, whose books are frequently challenged, along with rationales for why two of her books deserve their place on library shelves in any young adult collection. The introduction to the blog introduces Anderson’s work, and explains why her books are core collection selections for young adults, both for their award-winning writing, and their important subject matter. Through this assignment, I explored the awards selection process for young adult books, read through much of Anderson’s work, and researched how her work has been challenged and defended by librarians and students since her first book, Speak, was published and became one of the top challenged books reported to the ALA.
This project demonstrates examples of how to approach a rationale for challenges to books, and shows how a case for a book can be made with evidence of awards and merit, public demand, and relevant content. When selecting an author to research, Anderson stood out to me because of her collected body of work and her advocacy of intellectual freedom for youth. Through recorded interviews, her own blog, and letters from teachers and students, she provides strong support for any librarian facing a potential challenge to any of her work.
Challenging Normal