By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
Kelly Yang is an Asian American author of young adult (YA) and children’s literature. She won the 2018 Parents’ Choice Gold Medal for Fiction and 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for her novel, Front Desk.
Another of her books, Private Label, has been moved from the teen section to the adult section of the Hamilton East Public Library (HEPL), along with well over 1,300 other books. She has spoken about this in a video on Twitter, which you can watch at this link.
The Reporter reached out to Yang to talk about her own book in light of a recent statement from HEPL Board President Laura Alerding indicating John Green’s novel The Fault In Our Stars should be moved back to the teen section and that the choice to move it should be reviewed.
“I’m glad John’s book is going to be put back, but teens deserve access to all the books that got moved,” Yang told The Reporter. “All teens, including teens of color, deserve to feel seen and valued. To pick and choose which narratives and books get to stay in the YA section and which must be moved to Adult is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars, it’s censorship. It’s making a judgment call on which stories get to be told.”
Yang said she thinks the HEPL policy (which is costing over $300,000 to implement) is not only bad for taxpayers, but for teenage readers as a whole.
“It makes it that much harder for teens to find the stories that were written for them, that they need to feel less alone in the universe,” Yang said. “This, at a time when teens have gone through so much during the pandemic – and desperately need stories to process and heal. That goes against the core mission of libraries to serve everyone.”
Yang was very clear that she is not advocating solely for her own titles to be moved back to the section they were specifically written for.
“Even if the library moves one or two books back, it’s not a win,” Yang said. “All YA books pulled need to be moved back.”
Yang said she does not blame the Fishers community or the librarians for this policy.
“I want to add that I have so much love and admiration for the community of Fishers and the librarians of Hamilton East Public Library,” Yang said. “I was just at HELP last year, speaking on my middle grade novel Front Desk and the community came out and gave me such a standing ovation. I know how much these books matter to the kids and teens of the Fishers community – I heard from them first hand. I also know how hard the librarians are working to safeguard books. But they can’t do it alone. So I urge everyone to speak up and show up to their local library board meeting, if they care about the right to think freely and read freely! Let’s stand up to censorship together.”
If any authors, readers of books, or readers of this newspaper would like to have their voices heard on this issue, please write to News@ReadTheReporter.com. Include your name, city of residence, and phone number in your email. While we will not publish your contact information, we do need it for any follow-up questions The Reporter may have prior to publication.
Most people don’t realize that if a book does not get checked out enough times it gets tossed. So how many adults are going to check out YA books that they find in the Adult section? Those YA books will be trashed.