The importance of freedom to read

 Generally, I try to keep this book blog separate from my teen reads book blog, but in this case, I've decided to make an exception.  I strongly feel that kids should be given the opportunity to make reading choices.  While I respect individual family s' decisions regarding reading content, I don't believe that a few people have the right to make reading decisions for the wider community.  Yesterday I posted a little about censorship as it relates to one of my colleagues, young adult author Ellen Hopkins on my teen lit blog.   Ms. Hopkins was disinvited to a teen lit festival in Humble, Texas after a complain about the content of some of her novels.  Ms. Hopkins does write about some very tough topics, and I can see that not everyone is comfortable reading her books or listening to her speak, but those that do want to read her books or listen to her speak, should be able to.  If you want to follow this topic, check out my teen reads blog.  Both Publisher Weekly (in their blog), and School Library Journal, have been actively posting, as have many many writers, including several others who were invite to this festival and have since declined given the withdrawal of Ms. Hopkins invitation.