new york public library
I just got some fine news. The New York Public Library has listed Strong at the Heart in its annual publication Books for the Teen Age. The 2006 book isn’t available yet (it will be downloadable), but there is an announcement of the exhibit and related book event at the NYPL’s TeenLink page.
Chris Crutcher, who was so supportive in the writing and pre-publication of Strong at the Heart, will give the “celebratory remarks.”
In other news, I’m prepping for this Saturday’s Reading the World conference in San Francisco. My talk will be on the representation of child sexual abuse survivors in young adult literature.
This means I’ve been reading, and re-reading, a stack of YA books and bound galleys of forthcoming books. It is interesting to see how persistent some of the stereotypes are. But there are wonderful books, too.
The standout is Chris Lynch’s Inexcusable. It’s potentially a tough read for a survivor because it is told from inside the head of Keir, a high school football player who rapes a girl on the night of the Senior Prom. BUT–and here’s the thing that is so skillfully done–as the story progresses you lose faith in this self-proclaimed “nice guy” and you begin to see how he is able to delude himself into thinking that what he did was okay. There is also chilling insight into how our culture encourages the potential for violence in young men.
Fortunately, the girl has a voice, too. “You raped me!” she tells Keir. She is clear and strong from the very first page, and she refuses to take on the blame or accept his excuses. If you are up for a tough but excellent read, check it out. Inexcusable recently received the National Book Award for young people’s literature.
