"It's hard to be what you can't see." - Jason Reynolds
"But [they] really should be uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable is a human condition. We use books to help us make sense of it and to learn and to grow.” - Laurie Halse Anderson
Speaking for the Voiceless (PEN America)
Laurie Halse Anderson with Ali Velshi (interview)
Laurie Halse Anderson Discusses Censorship, its Frightening Impact, and the Need for Conversation (School Library Journal)
Facts about SPEAK's awards & censorship attempts (Wikipedia)
"To have access and opportunity to learn and grow and to communicate is the bedrock of our democracy. It should be a human right” - Ava DuVernay
“The things he taught me were great things: that all racism was rotten, white or black, that everything is political; that people tend to be indescribably beautiful and uproariously funny. He also taught me that they have enemies who are grotesque and that freedom lies in the recognition of all of that and other things.” ― Lorraine Hansberry, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: An Informal Autobiography
“Mama, it is a play that tells the truth about people, Negroes and life and I think it will help a lot of people to understand how we are just as complicated as they are—and just as mixed up—but above all, that we have among our miserable and downtrodden ranks—people who are the very essence of human dignity. That is what, after all the laughter and tears, the play is supposed to say.” - Lorraine Hanesberry in a note to her mother, 1959
“And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about.” - John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck - Biography (InfoBase)
Steinbeck Quits Boxing to Take Up Writing (Salinas Morning Post)
Of Mice and Men (Wikipedia)
“"A writer, when he's asked to discuss his craft, ought to get up and call out in a loud voice just the names of the writers he loves. I love Kafka, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Proust, O'Casey, Rilke, Lorca, Keats, Rimbaud, Burns, E. Brontë, Jane Austen, Henry James, Blake, Coleridge. I won't name any living writers. I don't think it's right" (although O'Casey was in fact alive at the time). - J D Salinger
“There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It’s peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.” - J D Salinger
English Language Arts (ELA) Standards:
RL.9-10.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text.
RI.9-10.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text.
W.9-10.2: Write informative/explanatory texts.
Information Literacy Standards:
I.L.9-10.1: Access information efficiently and effectively.
I.L.9-10.3: Evaluate information critically.
I.L.9-10.4: Use information accurately and creatively.