I had my picture book all ready for today’s post, along with my three activities. But I can’t let this time pass without talking about the tragedy of Whitney Houston’s death. It’s on a lot of people’s minds–especially those of us who grew up in the 80s and then saw The Bodyguard over and over again in 1992. My very first concert on my own with my best friend, Kristin, was Whitney at The Muny (outdoor theater in Forest Park) in St. Louis, MO in 1985, right before we started high school. We had to leave before the concert was over because Whitney liked to really add to her songs–extending each one with all sorts of runs and musical interludes. So, she was still playing and we were running to the front of The Muny to be picked up by our parents because we were too young to even drive to the concert.
If you are a girl of the 80s, you know you say, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and thought of the cute guy in your homeroom. . .
So what’s YA author Ellen Hopkins have to do with Whitney Houston? It hasn’t been confirmed yet how Whitney died, but it is probably going to have something to do with substance abuse. She either mixed something or took to much of something or weakened her body from years of abuse. She had a wonderful talent, a family that loved her, a beautiful child, and she STILL couldn’t find power over drugs. If anyone knows how drugs can effect lives, it’s Ellen Hopkins.
If you aren’t familiar with her books: Crank, Glass, Fallout, they are loosely based on her daughter’s crystal meth addiction. Here’s what she says on her website, “By writing the story from ‘my daughter’s’ perspective, I learned a lot, both about her, and about myself. But I also learned a lot about the nature of addiction, and the physiology of this particular substance. For those struggling with similar addictions, there is help, but the road to recovery is not easy. The addict has to want to get well. Rehabilitation cannot be forced. For those who love someone struggling with addiction, learn as much as you can about
how a substance works on the brain. This will help divorce you from the overwhelming emotion involved.”
Ellen Hopkins’s Crank series of books are powerful. They are written in verse, and they are real. They do not paint a pretty picture of addiction. They’re often banned in close-minded communities, where people don’t want to admit that kids as young as elementary school are involved with drugs and in sexual situations. I believe ALL 8th graders should read these books, maybe even younger–required reading to see what drugs are really like and to see the mess that they can create in your life.
If we start looking at the problem realistically, maybe we can save a few talents, like Whitney. We have to start protecting our children in a different way by educating them on how the “big, bad world” really works.
Thank you, Ellen Hopkins, for the work you do.
R.I.P. Whitney Houston
Once again, it’s time for the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. Yes, it’s sad that we even have to have a week like this each year; but at least, enough people are outraged by banning books that we have a week to recognize them. Pictured here, And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, is one of the top ten most challenged books in 2009. Why? Well, let’s see. . .it focuses on two male penguins who are given a baby penguin to raise at New York’s Central Park Zoo. And it is based on a true story. And those crazy advocates of book banning think it is promoting homosexual behavior, same-sex marriages/adoption, and get this. . .homosexuality in ANIMALS. How many of us are really sitting at home worrying about whether or not male dogs or female gorillas are bonding in the wild? I guess there are some people who do this–obviously.
And this is why I love Banned Books Week because it shows us, the normal readers, how people can take a simple and beautiful TRUE story, like And Tango Makes Three, and turn it into something controversial and challenged. It’s crazy. The craziest thing–when are these book banners going to realize that by banning these books, they actually become MORE POPULAR? How many of you had heard of And Tango Makes Three before I talked about it today? How many of you now want to read it? (I am waving my hand in the air.)
Other top ten challenged books in 2009 are: ttly (the whole series), To Kill a Mockingbird, Twilight (series), The Chocolate War, and more. To check out everything about Banned Books Week, go to the ALA website here.
My cyber author friend, Ellen Hopkins (author of The Crank series shown above), has to face book banning all the time. Parents are constantly challenging her books, and schools are constantly taking the books off the shelves. It is even happening where she lives. Lately, she’s been talking a lot about it on Twitter and Facebook. One of the comments someone left on her Facebook page was that she is a huge fan of Hopkins’s books, but that she agreed they weren’t appropriate for middle schoolers. I left a comment after that one, stating nicely that middle schoolers know A LOT about sex and drugs NOW, and that books like Ellen’s can only help them. Hopkins is not saying–let’s all go out and get addicted to crystal meth. In her Crank series, she realistically shows how a “good girl” can get hooked, and how it can ruin her life. We need to face facts–some kids are taking drugs in middle school. If reading Crank can stop even one middle school kid from taking drugs, then it needs to be ON THE SHELF! Someone else left the comment that as a parent, she wanted the choice of whether or not her child read the book–she wanted them available to all kids, and then parents can be the ones to decide for their own children. AMEN!
What’s your stand on banned books? If you are a teacher, do you talk about these books/teach any of these books in your classroom? If you are an author, have your books ever been challenged?
BTW, there’s still time to enter the Mockingjay book giveaway today (September 27) until 8:00 p.m. CST tonight! Go here: Mockingjay Book Giveaway.
