Hypocrisy suspected in school board's ban of THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST

This Monday, Cape Gazette announced that the Cape Henlopen school board in Delaware had decided to ban The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth from its summer reading list. The announcement coincidentally came just as LGBT Pride Month was ending and sparked a backlash against the school board on Twitter and the blogosphere.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a critically acclaimed young adult novel published by HarperCollins in 2012. It tells the story of a girl named Cameron growing up in rural Montana whose parents die in a car accident the same day she kisses a girl for the first time. Feeling a mixture of guilt and relief that her parents will never find out, Cameron moves in with her highly conservative aunt and eventually falls in love with her best friend, a girl. When her aunt discovers the truth, she sends Cameron to a religious conversion camp, where Cameron must decide the person she wants to be. You can read more about the book in our previous posts here.

Below is an excerpt from Cape Gazette:

Citing language deemed inappropriate for entering freshmen, Cape Henlopen school board has removed "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" from the district’s summer reading list.

The book was part of a 10-book list given to district middle school students entering high school in the fall and taking college prep and honors classes. The list, called the Blue Hen List, is a collection of books deemed age-appropriate by state librarians from across the state.

Yet, as noted on AfterEllen.com, the school board was not concerned with the same "inappropriate" language in other books allowed to remain on the summer reading list, including The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. Hypocrisy, anyone? AfterEllen.com posits the real issue was not inappropriate language but rather homophobia.

Here's more on what AfterEllen.com had to say about Danforth's book:

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth, published in 2012, was a YA tour de force, a book that older queers wished had been written when they were kids, lauded by numerous high-brow publications for the quality of its writing. It was also nominated for the much-coveted Morris Award, given by the American Library Association each year to the best new voice in YA. This wasn’t just a book that the gays were reading. Everybody was reading it! And loving it!

AfterEllen.com called upon readers to "act now," and email the school board with complaints. They posted the complaint letter they sent themselves, as well as the email addresses of all the members of the school board. You can view these here.

Browseabout Books, a local Delaware bookstore, got in the action.  It has been working with AfterEllen.com to give donated copies of The Miseducation of Cameron Post to interested readers in the area. Find out how to donate copies to the cause here.

In a recent blog post, Danforth pointed out that other books on the Blue Hen reading list have been banned elsewhere due to their supposedly offensive language. To combat this censorship, she decided to celebrate all the books on the original list with a massive giveaway. In collaboration with Browseabout Books, she's giving away every single book on the Blue Hen list--including a signed copy of her own and possibly others' books. Here are more details:

All you have to do to enter is to use your twitter account (easiest for tech-challenged me to track and collate) to explain, in not very many characters, why you want/need these books. Use the hashtag #LeaveTheBlueHenListAlone so that I can find your entry. (The limited character count is part of the challenge.) And you have to do this by next Friday, July 11th. Feel free to tweet about this as many times as you’d like—the more entries the better.

Already, people have been putting out some great reasons why these books are so important:

And, in a very recent update on AfterEllen.com, it seems the emails coming into the school board may have begun having some effect.  One board member claimed he would make a request to reinstate The Miseducation of Cameron Post on the reading list.

We can only hope the other board members will be swayed--but in the meantime, more emails to the school board can't hurt, nor can donating more books to interested readers in the area and speaking out to prevent censorship like this from continuing to happen now and in the future.

2012's "Top Ten"s and "Best Of"s

At the end of each year, book reviewers go gaga over list-making, selecting books published over the course of the past year that they consider "Top 10" and "Best Of" reads.  This year, six of JVNLA's books have been named to lists put together by the Los Angeles Times, Daily Candy, Kirkus, The Boston Globe, Pop Sugar, and more!  We are excited to announce these books, lauded as having made a lasting impression on 2012, below:

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST by Emily M. Danforth

In the introduction to their Top Ten List of Best Young Adult Books of 2012, The Boston Globe wrote, “We find that the stories and characters in YA literature are as compelling (sometimes more so) than novels written for our own demographic.” Among this new generation of YA novels, loved by teens, loved by adults, Emily M. Danforth's THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST stands out. The Boston Globe included it in their top ten list and also called the novel “evocative and stunningly written," praising it as “a coming-of-age story" for anyone who "has felt like an outsider or stopped and started her way toward an authentic self."

CAMERON POST was also named to School Library Journal's Best Fiction Books of 2012 and Kirkus's Best Teen Books of 2012. It cleaned up at Booklist, making their list for Editors' Choice: Books for Youth for 2012, Top 10 First Novels for Youth for 2012, and Top 10 Religion and Spirituality Books for Youth for 2012. The Huffington Post also named it to their list of Top Ten Young Adult Books of 2012, noting that the heroine will get “under your skin (in a good way) and stay with you long after you finish the book."

Each year, AfterEllen.com gives out Visibility Awards “to honor the best lesbian and bi people, characters, events and moments of the year.” They polled their fan base to pick among top nominees in various categories (over 750,000 votes were cast) and also named a staff pick for each category. For Best Book of the Year, fans as well as staff chose THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST! The staff commented, "Danforth's story is heartbreaking and healing in equal measure."

Speaking of awards, CAMERON POST was also named a finalist for the William C. Morris Debut Award.  This award is given annually by YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association) to honor “impressive new voices in young adult literature." In a recent post, The Hub, the blog connecting YALSA to their online teen readers, spoke to some of the likely reasons CAMERON POST was named a finalist, calling it a novel to be “savored,” “a book of lasting images,” “heartbreaking yet hopeful.” The winner of the William C. Morris Debut Award will be announced on January 28, so keep your fingers crossed for CAMERON POST!

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST was released in February 2012 by Balzer+Bray.

WE ONLY KNOW SO MUCH by Elizabeth Crane

Daily Candy created a list of Can't-Miss Books of the Year, which featured Elizabeth Crane's WE ONLY KNOW SO MUCH. The website that is all about “fashion, food, and fun” calls the book a “darkly comic gift” that made the editors “cringe-laugh the whole way through.”

Harper Perennial published WE ONLY KNOW SO MUCH in June 2012.

DARK LIE by Nancy Springer

Over at The Crime Fiction Collective, reviewer Marlyn Beebe created a Favorite Mysteries of 2012 list.  The collective is comprised of reviewers, editors, and authors who release essays, reviews, and updates on thriller fiction and digital publishing.  Included among Marlyn's favorites was Nancy Springer's DARK LIE. In Marlyn's review of DARK LIE on her own blog, Stuff and Nonsense, she wrote, DARK LIE “is a gripping story that draws the reader in and doesn't let go until the final page."

DARK LIE was released from NAL (New American Library) in November 2012.

ON POLITICS by Alan Ryan

In Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin's introduction to 2012's best titles of the year, Ulin wrote that 2012 marked a return to books “that both portray and reflect upon the spirit of their moment, telling not just a story but using it to illustrate something about the world in which we live.” Ulin also notes that this type of writing has been missing since the 1960s. Fortunately for all of us, we are witness to the second coming of "writing that takes the measure of the moment."  One such book named to Ulin's top ten books of 2012 is Alan Ryan's two-volume compendium of political thought, ON POLITICS.

ON POLITICS also made Kirkus's list of Best Nonfiction Books of 2012. Kirkus gave ON POLITICS a starred review, calling it "provocative, illuminating, and entertaining—an exemplary work of philosophy and history."

The Daily Beast highlighted ON POLITICS in their end-of-the-year Best Books of 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, noting that it may be the perfect gift for "your aunt or uncle who's a college professor."

ON POLITICS came out in October 2012 from Liveright.

PASSION BLUE by Victoria Strauss

In October, Kirkus gave PASSION BLUE by Victoria Strauss a rave starred review and selected it as an Editor's Pick for Fall 2012.  Naturally, at the end of the year, Kirkus named the book to its list of Best Teen Books of 2012.  Among other praises the review magazine heaped upon the novel and its main character's "achingly real search for her heart's desire," Kirkus called PASSION BLUE "a rare, rewarding, sumptuous exploration of artistic passion."

PASSION BLUE was published by Amazon Children's Publishing in November 2012.

THE LAST NUDE by Ellis Avery

Last year, in our blog post round-up of titles featured on "Top 10" and "Best Of" lists for 2011, we noted that THE LAST NUDE had been included in Library Journal's 2011 list of Top 25 Books to Read in 2012. Since then, THE LAST NUDE has received dazzling praise--from More Magazine's statement that "Avery's prose sings" to O Magazine's declaration "We've been loving this tough-but-vulnerable heroine," and from Kirkus praising the book as a "dark, sexy romp" to a starred Booklist review calling it "glittering, luminescent...riveting."  Fittingly, THE LAST NUDE was included in entertainment and style website Pop Sugar's Favorite Books of 2012 / Must Read List of 2012.

THE LAST NUDE appeared from Riverhead in January 2012.

Rave reviews keep rolling in

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST by Emily Danforth has been receiving rave reviews like no other!  After its release in February, it received four starred reviews (Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal) and was reviewed in numerous locations, from NPR to Seventeen Magazine.  Kirkus named the book its Critics' Best Book Pick, Publishers Weekly named it a Pick of the Week, Amazon named it a Best Book of the Month, and the book was profiled in USA Today and Entertainment Weekly.

Below is an update of all the reviews that have come in since our last post at the end of January!  (To check out the older reviews, just click on the "Danforth" label and scroll down.)

"This finely crafted, sophisticated coming-of-age debut novel is multilayered, finessing such issues as loss, first love, and friendship.  An excellent read for both teens and adults." --Library Journal, starred review

"Powerful...Danforth is a talented wordsmith who recounts...experiences not only with impeccable phrasing but emotional and visual clarity, drilling down into individual moments and dwelling there in slow motion to help readers experience Cameron's hopes and fears...Danforth has crafted a story that's likely to be remembered long after readers of any sexual orientation have put it down." --Los Angeles Times

"You'll love it if you've ever struggled to come to terms with a part of yourself that you fear others might not accept.  MISEDUCATION is incredibly well-written, and stays light-hearted throughout, even as Cam faces serious social prejudices and her own internal dilemmas." --Seventeen Magazine

"Danforth's writing style is multilayered in the best way, with a gradual, deliberate accretion of details that creates a resonant whole.  This is a book that invites lingering--and not only on the scenes of young love that might become dog-eared at the library--though, if you're like me, you'll speed through the story, unable to tear yourself away from Cameron's meticulously rendered life.  Describing a book as 'important' is a compliment, but it can also seem to detract from its literary quality--as if its significance is more about its message than its sentences.  MISEDUCATION is indeed an important book--especially for teens growing up today in communities that don't accept them for who they are.  But it is also a skillfully and beautifully written story that does what the best books do: It shows us ourselves in the lives of others." --National Public Radio

"Nuanced, complex character[s]...Cameron is a memorable heroine with an unforgettable and important story to tell, and she does so with wit, emotion, and depth." --Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books

Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins, February 2012

Trailer for THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST by Emily Danforth

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST by Emily Danforth comes out February 7th from Balzer+Bray, and the book has already received starred reviews from three different publications!  View the incredible trailer and the reviews below!

Plus, if you want to learn more about the author and the book, you can view Danforth's website here and the book's Facebook page here.


The Miseducation of Cameron Post Book Trailer from emily danforth on Vimeo.

"[An] ambitious literary novel, a multidimensional coming-of-age...There is nothing superficial or simplistic here, and Danforth carefully and deliberately fleshes out Cam's character and that of her family and friends.  Even the eastern Montana setting is vividly realized." --Booklist, starred review

"Runs the gamut from heart-rending to triumphant, epic to mundane...Carefully crafted symbols provide a backbone for the story's ever-shifting array of characters and episodes, each rendered in vibrant, almost memoir-like detail...Handled with particular nuance...Even when events take a dark and gut-punchingly inevitable turn, the novel remains at its heart a story of survival and of carving out space even in a world that wants one's annihilation.  Rich with detail and emotion, a sophisticated read for teens and adults alike." --Kirkus, starred review

"The story is riveting, beautiful, and full of the kind of detail that brings to life a place (rural Montana), a time (the early 1990s), and a questioning teenage girl...Danforth's story gains even more complexity and dimension from [a] shift [halfway through], further developing the political, religious, and coming-of-age themes introduced in the first half...Cam's reckoning with her sexuality develops through a series of vignette-like early chapters that focus on the girls that come and go in Cam's life...creating narrative moments that will have teens rereading the sexy bits like an earlier generation did with Judy Blume's FOREVER." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins, February 2012