I Interrupt your book reading for this important announcement.

Pam (aka Bookalicious) created this Twibbon

Over on Twitter, there will be a Laurie Halse Anderson chat to discuss what has become a hotly contested issue.  Banning of books by meat-headed people in Republic, MO.  Under the hashtag #SpeakLoudly, we will be discussing this disturbing trend of parents complaining about books that they haven't read.

Dr. Wesley Scroggins has written something like a 29-page manifesto complaining about SPEAK (he calls it soft porn.  Yep, a book about rape, is considered soft porn!)  He complains about SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE (for it's language and it's unchristian attitude) and he also complains about TWENTY BOY SUMMER.

So yeah, c'mon over to twitter to partake.  It's starts now!

Btw, if you are a parent and you have questions about the books that the schools are requiring your child to read, READ the book first.  Don't go by word of mouth.  Isn't this a great way to open up dialog with your child?  How you can not like it, if you haven't tried it?  How can you condemn a book when you haven't read it?

Small-mindedness has never gotten the world very far.  I'm pretty progressive and quite laid back, but when it comes to censoring, it just boils the blood.