Celebrating Banned Books Week: What Would Scroggins Say?

Becky at Escapism Through Books had the genius idea of reviewing books from the ridiculous and ignorant point of view of Wesley Scroggins, Universal Moral Police.

Since its banned books week, I thought this sounded like a great opportunity to highlight great books, and the fact that it isn’t books that cause problems – its closed minds. The #SpeakLoudly campaign that Wesley Scroggins inadvertently started represents a lot more than a few books: it is about the issues that teenagers – ALL teenagers – face.

Trying to keep teenagers from books that can help explain these issues and their negative effects in a safe environment (like Ellen Hopkins’ books) or help teenagers who have already experienced them (like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson) is stupid. Yes. That’s right. STUPID. People like Wesley Scroggins who think that teenagers’ only exposure to drugs, sex, pregnancy and other issues comes from books need the reality check, not the many YA authors who spend their valuable time writing books to help teenagers work through the issues that they all – every single one – face on a daily basis.

So, I’m joining Becky in her Banned Books Week activity of What Would Scroggins Say? Go check out her blog post and be inspired to write one of your own!

No Comment Yet