Laurie Halse Anderson's Friends

Laurie Halse Anderson's Discussions

Replied Oct. 2, 2008

At 10:24am on October 18, 2008, Zara said…: Laurie, it's so wonderful to see you here, and your books are fabulous! :)

At 3:29pm on October 15, 2008, Katie said…: Hello! It is so lovely to see you here. Speak is one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm going to read Twisted soon. It sounds really amazing!

At 10:04am on September 30, 2008, Maria D said…: Hi Laurie. I heard earlier this morning that Speak is among the ever increasing pile of books that some hick somewhere is trying to ban. I'm not really surprised, but it makes me sad. I read Speak when I was 14 (one of the 'tender' ages at which parents feel people are too young to hear about the hardships of life). it was difficult for me to read but it helped me. I went throught a similar experience when I was 11 and I hadn't been able to talk about it at all. As I said, it was difficult to get through, but reading it helped me so much. I was finally able to talk to my mom and some very close family friends about it and started to get the support I needed. Life does not wait for people to 'grow up;' it is not 'age appropriate', and all these concerned parents -concerned but not involved- are crippling children by sending them out into the world with the equivalent of a wooden spoon while everyone else has a sword. My mother knows what I read, and when I was younger, she often read the books with me so that I could talk to her about them. If the people who advocate censorship had a singular brain to share among their heads, they'd do that too instead of creating blanket standards of safe.

What I orignally meant to do, before I broke down ranting, was thank you for writing Speak. I know I'm not the only girl it's helped and I wish you the best of luck fighting the insanity that is censorship. So, thank you!

At 8:50pm on September 25, 2008, Jo Knowles said…: Hi Laurie!
Great to see you here!!
:-)

Jo

At 1:52pm on September 25, 2008, Kelly Fineman said…: Glad to see you here, Laurie.

At 1:25pm on September 25, 2008, Terri Farley said…: You must've done it exactly right! Thanks so much. I am a great admirer of your books!
Best,
Terri