Vernon Minor, Superintendant of Republic, MO school district, has resigned, three months after the school board voted not to extend his contract. This is the district that banned Speak, Slaughterhouse Five, and Twenty Boy Summer after a local man (Wesley Scroggins) complained about the books. Speak was later put back in the classroom. The other two books are in a “secure” spot in the library.
Read about the resignation and the other controversies of Minor’s time in Republic: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120321/NEWS04/303210030/Republic-school-district-Vern-Minor?odyssey=nav%7Chead
So it goes.
This week’s YA news, including publishing pot, Arizona, Bologna, the Hunger Games, Native steampunk, & really? They changed their name to Cullen?!
Mr. de la Peña donated his fee to buy 240 copies of his books, which he gave to the students. “I want to give back what was taken away,” he told Samantha Neville, a reporter for the school newspaper, The Cactus Chronicle.
As for Ana, this may have been the greatest day of her life. Having finished all four of Mr. de la Peña’s novels, she is now reading “The Lucky One” by Nicholas Sparks, about a Marine’s search for a mysterious woman in a tattered photo he finds, who turns out to be strong but vulnerable.
“It’s not the same,” Ana said. “I don’t know anybody like that.”
— Racial Lens Used to Cull Curriculum in Arizona - NYTimes.com (via gwendabond)(via gwendabond)
This week’s publishing news, including Fifty Shades of Grey, March Madness book brackets, Hunger Games marketing, an author who reports making $50K/mo, Paypal backing down on censorship, least helpful reviews & more!
Emilia Plater says it seems like there’s a general consensus that almost anything goes in YA, but wants to know: Is there anything that you still feel you shouldn’t write about, considering your audience?
“Real” boys, PayPal censorship, writing for an online audience; misogyny in reviews, rap, & gaming; what sci fi tells us about the future of reproductive rights, Harry Potter Oscar snub, and more!
Field Trip Friday, February 17, 2012:
Active vs passive voice, realistic romance, why we need dirty books, strong female characters, how publishing has changed, Sugar revealed, Sh*t Book Reviewers Say, the Hillywood Breaking Dawn parody, and more!
From Imagining Canadian Literature: The Selected Letters of Jack McClelland (via courts)
