Shine

I loved Shine. Loved.

I think Lauren Myracle is a very cool person, so I was prepared to love it and was thankfully not disappointed.

Shine is the story of a teenager trying to solve the mystery of who severely beat her gay friend. The sheriff and town don't seem too concerned about the crime so Cat, the main character, sets out to find out who did it.

Shine is set in a rural southern town, a place that is struggling with drugs, a lack of jobs, and the belief from outsiders that they are just a bunch of "mountain niggers." The book is set in Transylvania County, NC, which is a real place. The specific town in the novel doesn't exist. My parents have a house in the mountains in Transylvania County, so I was really interested in reading this book.

Photo taken down the hill from my parents' place:
Complete with trailer, confederate flag, ex-con owner, and mean ass dog.

E and I visited my parents' place earlier this summer and I read Shine while I was there. My parents don't stay at the house full-time and right before we got there someone kicked in the front door and stole all the alcohol. The person they were pretty sure did it was an alcoholic with no job and a criminal history (not the guy who lives down the hill.) So the real side of this small town with lax law enforcement was very much what we were experiencing. I could picture the story in the exact setting.

I loved Shine. I am sure my biased view helped, but I thought it was a wonderful book. I thought it was a great mystery with lots of insight to many social issues.

Luv Ya Bunches

Luv Ya Bunches is first in a children's series by Lauren Myracle. I picked it up when I heard her speak last year. Her ttyl series has been challenged, as well as books from the Luv Ya Bunches series.

Myracle was told if she changed the story so one of the main characters had a mom and a dad instead of two moms, Scholastic book fairs (the ones in schools across the country) would sell the book. If not, the book wouldn't be included. Myracle stuck firm and her book was not carried. I thought this was SO COOL. Based on the prevalence of the book fairs, not having her book included certainly had a impact on the money in her pocket.

The story follows four girls who meet and become friends. The story is told from each of the girls'' perspectives through IMs, emails, etc. I thought it was super cute. The girls each have some aspect that they are concerned about: the girl whose mom is in a mental hospital, the girl who is Muslim, etc. These issues are dealt with matter of factly.

If I had a kid (besides my dogs, of course), this is the kind of book I'd love for her to read.

Banned Book Challenge

One of inspirations I had for starting this book blog was hearing Lauren Myracle speak about her books and the censorship she's faced. I think that freedom of press and freedom of speech issues are fascinating. I teach poli sci at the college level and over the years, the section on civil liberties has become one of my favorites. Books and constitutional law, what's not to like?

On the surface, the 1st Amendment looks pretty forthright:

"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or..."

But as we know, it gets so much more complicated than that. So Congress can't pass a law, but what about when your local school district pulls a book from the middle school library? Or a private company is putting pressure on an author to change content in his book? These other ways hurt too, and there aren't easy answers.


Banned book week is at the end of September, and today I stumbled across a blogger challenge about banned books. Here's Steph Su's post about the challenge. The challenge runs from September 1 until October 15. My goal for the challenge is to read seven banned or challenged books, approximately one per week, and to reflect on the book and why it was banned. I'm not sure which books I'll pick up, but I will have a post about one soon.

Lauren Myracle and Book Banning

Last night, I heard Lauren Myracle, a tween/YA author speak. She recently topped the American Library Association's list of Most Frequently Challenged Books in 2009. With my love of books and interest in free speech issues (my day job is teaching poli sci), it was fascinating.

She has a series of books (ttyl, ttfn, and l8r,g8r) that are written all in IM/text format as well as several books that touch on GLBT issues. It was hilarious to hear the 60+ year old dean of the college's arts and sciences to introduce her and hearing his text talk. You might imagine why her books have been challenged, but really, they're not that different from other young adult books I've read.

Her latest book Luv Ya Bunches is about four 5th graders. One of the girls has two moms. Scholastic has book fairs in school, perhaps you remember or have kids that have them. Scholastic said they'd include this book in the nationwide fairs if she would change the two moms thing. She said no. I really admire this. She stuck to her guns at the cost of a huge market for her book.

The event was really cool. As you might imagine, not many authors come to Wyoming on their book tours. It made me think about the books I read as a kid. I read Gone with the Wind in 5th grade. I'm glad my parents weren't writing authors to tell them they were Satan and let me read what I wanted. One of the things that that Myracle said that I really agreed with is that books are a safe place to learn about things. And, as a tween/teen there was a heck of a lot to learn about, especially those things you are too embarrassed to ask about.