Image by ALA – The American Library Association via Flickr

Laurie Halse Anderson shares the news on her blog that Speak has been called “soft pornography” because of its two rape scenes.  What?!  How in the world can anyone be turned on sexually by rape scenes written in the voice of the victim.  Rape scenes that are violent, repugnant and filled with violation.  How ill.

Huge thanks to Anderson not only for bringing our attention to this latest threat to teen books in schools, but also for having the courage to write Speak in the first place.  Speak is one of those books that lives under your skin, allows you to deeply understand what it is to lose one’s voice.   Speak, unfortunately for Wesley Scroggins (really, could he have a better name?  It’s a perfect character name) is the sort of book that readers, librarians and teachers appreciate and deeply love.  It is a book worth yelling for, worth speaking for. 

Follow the Twitter feed on this subject at #SpeakLoudly.