A decade old, this is an ecclectic collection of short stories on a variety of themes around young adults finding themselves in places they never meant to be (hence the title), and united by the commonality that all the YA authors represented have been censored. Each story is followed by a reflection on censorship - the author's experiences of being censored, a recollection of works censored when they were a young adult, or simply a description of what censorship means to them.
I found this last element the most valuable, as I found the stories themselves to be uninteresting for the most part - they didn't deal with censorship, or with themes that are often censored, and going in with the expectation that they would coloured my perception of the writing.Many of the expected writers are featured, from editor and contributor Blume to Norma Klein, Norma Fox Mazer, Paul Zindel and Walter Dean Myers, as well as a few authors I hadn't read. There were some notable omissions, too, including the amazing Chris Crutcher - Blume says some authors were approached, though she doesn't name them, who can't (or don't) write short stories, which could explain this.
Some of the contributors are explicit about where they think the limits of censorship for young adults should be - restrict your child's reading as you see fit, but leave my child alone. I don't have kids, but that's where I live, too. - Alex
No comments:
Post a Comment