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David LaRochelle's award-winning novel about a gay teenager, "Absolutely, Positively Not," will be sold at next week's Twin Cities Young Writers Conference after being banned at last year's event.
LaRochelle, who lives in White Bear Lake, says he's pleased that 3,000 students will have an opportunity to look at his book during the conference for fourth- through eighth-graders at Bethel College in Arden Hills.
"Absolutely, Positively Not" was well-reviewed when it was published last year, and it earned several honors, including the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators annual Sid Fleischman Humor Award. The 45-year-old author says young readers, parents and teachers have been supportive of his story about a young man who tries everything to convince himself he's not gay, including taking a dog to the prom.
Now, LaRochelle's novel will join other books on display at the Young Writers Conference at Bethel, which rents space to conference presenter Success Beyond the Classroom, a program of the nonprofit Metropolitan Educational Cooperative Service Unit.
LaRochelle's book was banned at last year's conference because Success Beyond the Classroom staff was under the mistaken impression that Bethel does not allow sales of books about homosexuality.
They discovered there was no such policy after getting press inquiries about LaRochelle and his book, which were passionately defended by Minneapolis author John Coy during a Young Authors Conference in Thief River Falls earlier this month.
LaRochelle was invited to be a presenter at the northern Minnesota conference, but his book was not welcome. That made the usually unflappable Coy furious.
"If I'd known ahead of time that David's book wasn't accepted, I never would have attended," Coy says.
"My prepared keynote speech about finding your voice didn't make much sense in light of banning David's voice. So, I talked to the 450 kids about how terrific David's book was and about banning books.
"The students were intrigued by the idea that they were going to be protected from a gay character," Coy says. "David's book is about a 16-year-old in a small town in Minnesota, and these are small-town kids.
"These conferences rely on presenters to come and talk with students about being a writer," he adds. "To ask people to do that and then say, 'We don't want to have your book here, but don't talk about what we're doing' is a confusing message to youngsters."
'NOT AGEAPPROPRIATE'
Lloyd Styrwoll, executive director of the Northwest Service Cooperative, defends his decision to keep "Absolutely, Positively Not" out of the Thief River Falls conference, which his group organized.
"I have spent 35 years in public education, and the issue of appropriate media selection for age groups is not a new one to me," Styrwoll said in an e-mail to the Pioneer Press.
"These were fifth- to eighth-grade students and one needs to exercise good judgment when dealing with the introduction of sensitive material to them. Mr. Coy might characterize our actions as book banning or, even worse, as an act of homophobia. The reality is that the only consideration was, is this appropriate subject matter for that age group? The overwhelming response from parents who filled out evaluations was anger that Mr. Coy chose to hijack the conference for his own personal reasons."
The man at the center of this controversy, David LaRochelle, says he is not as upset as Coy about what happened at the Thief River Falls conference, but he was disappointed his book was not there because he feels it was age-appropriate.
"I experienced mixed feelings when John talked about my book in his speech," LaRochelle says. "I was awed by his courage in taking such a bold stance but also uncomfortable in some ways, because it wasn't the way I would have handled the situation. Then, I thought about how I handled my book not being allowed at the Bethel conference last year. I had expressed my disappointment privately and then continued attending the conference, which is the type of compliant person I am. But then, I wonder if that attitude ever changes anything. If John hadn't spoken out, my book wouldn't be available at Bethel this year."
MIXED REVIEWS
Some authors who attended the Thief River Falls conference applaud Coy for his strong stance. Others are more cautious.
Joy Bumgardner, a children's writing specialist who lives in Plymouth, thinks LaRochelle's book is wonderful and funny, and she cheers Coy's passion in speaking out against its exclusion from the conference.
"I'm so proud of John. I hugged him and told him every word he said in his speech was true," she recalls. "If we wait for a time for this (book banning) to change, it will never change. Some writers I talked to worried that if David's book is banned today, theirs could be tomorrow."
Heidi Grosch, one of the Silly Sisters, a puppet and storytelling company in St. Paul, is more cautious.
"Many admire John's courage in speaking. Others felt he overstepped a boundary, went on a little too long and made his statements without having all the facts," she says.
"My position is that it's always great to take a stand. But it's also good to stop and think about the consequences of your actions. John took a controversial stand, and controversy, although not always the most effective agent of change, stirs people up more than a subtler approach. What this has done is give one a bigger awareness of bigger issues and censorship in general."
Grosch sees a difference between censorship and making judgments based on age appropriateness.
"We do censor ourselves according to our audience," she says. "If you work with 5-year-olds, you watch your language. Some at the Thief River Falls conference questioned whether this was the right audience for John to say these things. There are two things here. One is the idea of censorship; the other is whether John handled it the right way. But he did what he felt he had to do."
One thing is certain: The 28 adult writers who will give presentations at the Twin Cities Young Writers Conference next week will be talking about censorship.
Mary Ann Grossmann can be reached at mgrossmann@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5574.
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