It’s currently the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, whose by-line is “celebrating the freedom to read”. Having the freedom to read is always cause for celebration (as is the freedom to write and we should bear in mind those who are persecuted for trying to exercise that freedom). However, having that freedom does not mean that we should advocate a blanket lack of discernment. And it would be naive to think that the reading choices available have not been subject to a selection process along the way: publishers, librarians, booksellers, teachers, parents.

Our Book of the Month back in August, Requiem for a Beast by Matt Ottley (Hachette Livre/ Lothian Books, 2007) caused a great deal of contoversy when it first hit the bookshops in Australia. The misunderstandings about this Australian Children’s Book Council Picture Book of the Year (2008) centered on the fact that this is a picture-book but is certainly not aimed at young readers.

Here’s an extract from our recent interview with Matt:

Requiem for a Beast has now notoriously become the most complained about book for young people in Australian history! That’s because it contains one graphic illustration of a bloodied axe, as well as two vague references to suicide and five incidences of the “f” word. What a lot of commentators didn’t seem to take on board when the book first came to public notice, is that this is a picture book for young adults, not for little children.

My young adult audience has been unfalteringly supportive, and I’ve received the most amazing feedback from them.

The whole ensemble of words, image and music is extremely powerful and the use of swearing in some of the written dialogue is certainly not gratuitous. On the contrary: I cannot imagine that Australian stockmen do not resort to colorful language from time to time. However, this is a book for young adults and indeed adults. It is not for young children – and it was never intended to be.

One of the responsibilities of being a parent or a teacher is to provide young people with the tools to discern and to think for themselves. It can be scary to see where that thinking takes them but we have to trust them to make their choices…

Natasha over at Maw Books has a thought-provoking post with a list of books that have been banned at some point – some of them may surprise you; and she has lots of links to other blogs discussing Banned Books…

The Inkys are the award in Australia that reflects what teenagers want to read. Voted for online by the readers of Insideadog (a project of the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria), there are three awards: the Golden Inky for an Australian book, the Silver Inky for an international book, and the Creative Reading Prize, won by a young person for a creative response to a book they love, in any format they choose.

Today, August 20, the 2009 Inky Awards have been launched online with the announcement of the award longlist by two of this year’s judges, Steph Bowe and Adele Walsh. Australian youth, their teachers and anyone else interested in Australian youth literature were encouraged to join in the free, interactive on-line launch – but if you missed it, you can still watch it by following the link at the end of Insideadog’s announcement here. It’s great to see The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki up for a Silver Inky!

On October 9 the shortlist will be announced and on-line voting begins. The winners will be announced on Thursday, November 26 at the State Library of Victoria. Everyone is invited to join in this free event, meet the winners, talk books and enjoy some special surprises!

The Centre for Youth Literature promotes reading as an active, pleasurable and essential activity for all young people. It also offers exciting and affordable book events for young people and professionals. Teenagers and children meet great writers and talented young actors – bringing reading to life. Professional learning programs and the biennial Reading Matters conference keep adults in touch with crucial issues and ideas in youth literature – read about events at this year’s conference in May here, here and here.

The Insideadog website is Australia’s number one website for teenagers about books. It’s chock full of features including news, book reviews, a writer-in-residence blog, author interviews, links, competitions and lots of opportunity for contributions from young readers! For anyone interested in youth literature, teens or otherwise, I highly recommend taking some time to browse this amazing site!