Eve's Fan Garden

Just when I thought that censorship can’t get any worse, someone is there protesting something else. I sat down to write this post and stared at my screen for at least 10 minutes because I didn’t know where to start. The newest victim is Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, about a young girl who struggles to find her voice after a rape. But, to a man in Missouri, this book is pornographic. I am not going to go into the details of the article, you can check out Halse Anderson’s blog for more.

As a teacher, I recommend this book often. Both copies have already been check off of my shelf this year. In fact, I recommended it to a girl who we suspected had been raped and didn’t know where to turn. While she never came to talk to me, I can only hope the the book helped her find someone to talk to. It could help someone like her find their voice and pulling this book minimalizes people who have been raped and tells them that they have no voice.

There is a Twitter campaign (#SpeakLoudly) for people to “speak” their support for the book and Halse Anderson is encouraging everyone to blog about it. If you support this book. “Speak Loudly” on Twitter, Facebook or on your own blog.

*I just had to go back and edit this post to add a video of a poem written by Laurie Halse Anderson about all of the mail she has received over the years regarding Speak. If you want to know what censorship takes away, just listen to this.