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Year They Burned The Books [Hardcover]

N Garden
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Sep 1 1999
By the author of Annie on My Mind

When Wilson High Telegraph editor Jamie Crawford writes an opinion piece in support of the new sex-ed curriculum, which includes making condoms available to high school students, she has no idea that a huge controversy is brewing. Lisa Buel, a school board member, is trying to get rid of the health program, which she considers morally flawed, from its textbooks to its recommendations for outside reading. The newspaper staff find themselves in the center of the storm, and things are complicated by the fact that Jamie is in the process of coming to terms with being gay, and her best friend, Terry, also gay, has fallen in love with a boy whose parents are anti-homosexual. As Jamie's and Terry's sexual orientation becomes more obvious to other studetns, it looks as if the paper they're fighting to keep alive and honest is going to be taken away from them. Nancy Garden has depicted a contemporary battleground in a novel that probes deep into issues of censorship, prejudice, and ethics.

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From Amazon

High school condom distribution and a hotly contested sex education curriculum set a small New England town's blood boiling and books burning in The Year They Burned the Books, an issue-driven novel by Nancy Garden. Jamie Crawford is the senior editor of the "Telegraph," her high school's newspaper, but the publication of her editorial in favor of the school's new policy to distribute condoms happens to coincide with the election of a new, highly conservative school board member. As a result, Jamie suddenly finds her editorial voice gagged. Soon the school's health books have been removed from the classrooms for "review," a conservative parents' group stages a library book burning, and Jamie's beloved teacher is forced to resign as the newspaper's faculty advisor. Jamie's personal life also becomes more complicated as she tries to deal with her physical attraction to Tessa, a new girl at school. Then, on top of it all, Jamie and her best friend Terry (who is openly gay) are the victims of an attack by a group of conservative students and Jamie has to decide if she can handle the consequences of coming out.

Teens love controversies, especially those involving young people, and there is scarcely a hot topic here that Garden doesn't touch. Yet in spite of the scene-stealing issues, Garden's timeless message that hardship shapes character is illustrated well in Jamie's transition from a "maybe," (as in "maybe gay, maybe straight")to a "probably" by novel's end. An excellent choice for use in high school discussions about censorship and free speech. (Ages 13 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

Issues, not characters, drive this story, a retread of the themes and setting in Garden's Good Moon Rising. Jamie Crawford, a senior, has achieved her goal of becoming editor-in-chief of her small New England high school's paper. She is also fairly sure she is gay, and when Tessa Gillespie, a new girl from Boston, shows up wearing a red cape and a star-shaped stud in her nose, Jamie starts falling in love. Tessa happens to be straight, but as it turns out, Jamie's unrequited love causes her less anguish than the rise to power of fundamentalist Mrs. Buel. A "stealth candidate" during her campaign for a seat on the school committee, Mrs. Buel leads the committee to set aside the new sex education curriculum and stages a book burning on Halloween. The liberal faculty adviser to the school paper is put on leave, and Jamie is forbidden to weigh in on controversial subjects in her editorials. While turning out the rah-rah paper the new faculty adviser insists on, Jamie and her staff eke out the time and energy to publish an underground paper. Another plot line concerns the outing of Jamie's best friend and the swim team star he is attracted to: lockers are defaced, and Jamie and her friends are nearly attacked in the cafeteria. Garden pays less attention to her characters' emotional lives than to their political passions. Unfortunately, if the characters don't seem real, their passions won't ignite readers. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Still Reading, but book is breaking on me! Dec 20 2003
Format:Hardcover
The physical construction of this book (hardback) is highly inferior to any hardbacks I have come across in a long while! Seems like the publisher skimped on the binding or something. Granted, this has nothing to do with the story itself, but I'd be quite disappointed had I purchased this book myself. As it stands now, the library's copy I am reading will be hard-pressed to make it through two more circulations intact! Promising story, poor quality book!
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4.0 out of 5 stars Oy vey!!! May 21 2003
Format:Hardcover
Could there be anything else in this book? Censorship, homophobia, the religious right, sexuality, suicide--I can't think of a book that attempts to tackle so many issues at once. Not that Garden doesn't handle all of the issues well. I am particularly impressed with how she works in a minor physical altercation--a level of homophobia not seen in her earlier novels, and, I suspect, a reaction to the homocide of Matthew Shepard the same year. This novel raises many questions and is a must read for gay and straight teenagers.
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3.0 out of 5 stars A Controversial Story Nov 28 2001
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
The Year They Burned the Books is about a group of high school students who run the school newspaper. When the paper's editor, Jamie Crawford, writes an editorial supporting the new Health Ed curriculum, which includes condom distribution, a controversy erupts. Jamie and her friends' views are opposed by fellow students, the new school board member, and even Jamie's good friend, Nomi. Can Jamie still keep her friendship with Nomi while coming to terms with her own beliefs and sexuality? I liked this book because most of the characters and situations were realistic and believable.
The only things I didn't like were Lisa Buel's comments; they really made me mad. In this case for me, being fair to everyone was difficult. Something that confused me was why some of the kids were so Bible-obsessed. I have never seen kids like that in my life. Also, I don't remember any passage in the Bible saying homosexuality was evil. What Bible were they reading?
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