Follow-up: the Humble, TX Teen Lit Fest; John Green’s personal library; YA Fantasy Showdown results

August 31, 2010

The Humble, TX Teen Lit Fest

Leila of Bookshelves of Doom reports that after the controversy surrounding Ellen Hopkins’ disinvitation from the Humble, Texas Teen Lit Fest, the event has been canceled. There’s more at Chron.com, including this:

“The Teen Lit Fest is for middle and high school, so kids as young as 11 would be attending,” [Karen] Collier [the district's public information director] said. “We could have limited access to Hopkins, but that’s not how we want to set up our event. We want the students to have access to all the authors.”

[...]

But the district doesn’t regret the decision to exclude Hopkins.

“It’s a disappointment when something like this happens,” Collier said. “But if parents are concerned that we overreacted, I suggest that they read some of her work. It’s very graphic.”

But Hopkins, who writes all her novels in free verse, maintains that she’s writing about real issues that affect real kids.

“I don’t understand the district’s fear,” Hopkins said. “Do they think I’m going to stand up there and tell the kids how to do drugs?”

I’m so sad for the teens and librarians and teachers who are going to miss out on this event, but I’m also really disappointed that the school district still thinks it did the right thing in uninviting Hopkins.

John Green’s personal library
I wrote about organizing my personal library last month, and in a recent Vlogbrothers video, John Green talks about the recent reorganization of his own personal library:

The categories into which his books are organized are:

• his foreign editions
• first editions of fiction
• literary biography
• Southern studies
• art books
• more art books
• history
• fiction by dead people
• travel
• kids’ books
• fiction by living people
• young adult
• mystery novels
• memoirs
• literary criticism
• author copies of PAPER TOWNS
• boxing
• author copies of LOOKING FOR ALASKA
• Desert Island books
• WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON
• works of lexicography
• books about child prodigies
• Mark Twain
• AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES
• more Mark Twain
• books about death
• more young adult fiction
• poetry
• EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE GOTH SCENE (…in your pants)
• religion
• books about conjoined twins

What a great example of organizing your personal library how it works for you, even if that means hilariously hyper-specific categories.

YA Fantasy Showdown results

And finally, the YA Fantasy Showdown has concluded! All of the votes have been counted and the final victor, with 51% of the votes, is Eugenides. Huge huge huge thanks to Heather Zundel, Beth Revis, Charlotte Taylor, Danyelle Leafty, Chelsea Swigget, and Lois Moss, the team behind the Showdown. There’s been call for them to put together another Showdown; Heather’s promising some sort of new content soon, and she’ll address whether or not we’ll see another Showdown. Here’s hoping!

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Tags: censorship, ellen hopkins, intellectual freedom, john green, news, vlogbrothers, ya fantasy showdown