The Year They Burned the Books [Hardcover]

Nancy Garden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 1999

By the author of Annie on My Mind

When Wilson High Telegraph editor Jamie Crawford writes an opinion piece in support of the new sex-ed curriculum, which includes making condoms available to high school students, she has no idea that a huge controversy is brewing. Lisa Buel, a school board member, is trying to get rid of the health program, which she considers morally flawed, from its textbooks to its recommendations for outside reading. The newspaper staff find themselves in the center of the storm, and things are complicated by the fact that Jamie is in the process of coming to terms with being gay, and her best friend, Terry, also gay, has fallen in love with a boy whose parents are anti-homosexual. As Jamie's and Terry's sexual orientation becomes more obvious to other studetns, it looks as if the paper they're fighting to keep alive and honest is going to be taken away from them. Nancy Garden has depicted a contemporary battleground in a novel that probes deep into issues of censorship, prejudice, and ethics.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

High school condom distribution and a hotly contested sex education curriculum set a small New England town's blood boiling and books burning in The Year They Burned the Books, an issue-driven novel by Nancy Garden. Jamie Crawford is the senior editor of the "Telegraph," her high school's newspaper, but the publication of her editorial in favor of the school's new policy to distribute condoms happens to coincide with the election of a new, highly conservative school board member. As a result, Jamie suddenly finds her editorial voice gagged. Soon the school's health books have been removed from the classrooms for "review," a conservative parents' group stages a library book burning, and Jamie's beloved teacher is forced to resign as the newspaper's faculty advisor. Jamie's personal life also becomes more complicated as she tries to deal with her physical attraction to Tessa, a new girl at school. Then, on top of it all, Jamie and her best friend Terry (who is openly gay) are the victims of an attack by a group of conservative students and Jamie has to decide if she can handle the consequences of coming out.

Teens love controversies, especially those involving young people, and there is scarcely a hot topic here that Garden doesn't touch. Yet in spite of the scene-stealing issues, Garden's timeless message that hardship shapes character is illustrated well in Jamie's transition from a "maybe," (as in "maybe gay, maybe straight")to a "probably" by novel's end. An excellent choice for use in high school discussions about censorship and free speech. (Ages 13 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

Issues, not characters, drive this story, a retread of the themes and setting in Garden's Good Moon Rising. Jamie Crawford, a senior, has achieved her goal of becoming editor-in-chief of her small New England high school's paper. She is also fairly sure she is gay, and when Tessa Gillespie, a new girl from Boston, shows up wearing a red cape and a star-shaped stud in her nose, Jamie starts falling in love. Tessa happens to be straight, but as it turns out, Jamie's unrequited love causes her less anguish than the rise to power of fundamentalist Mrs. Buel. A "stealth candidate" during her campaign for a seat on the school committee, Mrs. Buel leads the committee to set aside the new sex education curriculum and stages a book burning on Halloween. The liberal faculty adviser to the school paper is put on leave, and Jamie is forbidden to weigh in on controversial subjects in her editorials. While turning out the rah-rah paper the new faculty adviser insists on, Jamie and her staff eke out the time and energy to publish an underground paper. Another plot line concerns the outing of Jamie's best friend and the swim team star he is attracted to: lockers are defaced, and Jamie and her friends are nearly attacked in the cafeteria. Garden pays less attention to her characters' emotional lives than to their political passions. Unfortunately, if the characters don't seem real, their passions won't ignite readers. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (September 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374386676
• ISBN-13: 978-0374386672
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,268,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars silence = death, November 23, 1999

By 

Randy Bomer (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Year They Burned the Books (Hardcover)

When I first read some reviews of this book, I thought maybe Garden had taken on too many subjects for one novel. Reading it, however, I started to think that its themes are unified and that it is showing a whole system of the ways people are silenced by oppressive groups. The closet takes many forms, and the kids' inability to speak about who they are - for fear of being physically hurt - is mirrored in the censoring of information about sex and the censoring of commentary about the censorship itself. The novel is thought-provoking about social issues as well as moving in its portrayal of individuals finding their voices. If I'm picky, I could say that some of the dialogue sounded too written to me, and I really dislike the book's cover. But I read it in a few hours, and I feel richer for it. I am going to use it in my YA Literature class.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oy vey!!!, May 21, 2003

By 

F. Mercer "bibliophile" (Phoenix, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Year They Burned the Books (Hardcover)

Could there be anything else in this book? Censorship, homophobia, the religious right, sexuality, suicide--I can't think of a book that attempts to tackle so many issues at once. Not that Garden doesn't handle all of the issues well. I am particularly impressed with how she works in a minor physical altercation--a level of homophobia not seen in her earlier novels, and, I suspect, a reaction to the homocide of Matthew Shepard the same year. This novel raises many questions and is a must read for gay and straight teenagers.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nancy Garden has done it again!, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Year They Burned the Books (Hardcover)

THE YEAR THEY BURNED THE BOOKS is another wonderful novel by Nancy Garden. It is somewhat different than Annie on My Mind and Good Moon Rising in that the main focus isn't on a relationship, but instead is about what happens when a group of conservatives try to censor the school health curriculum, as well as the newspaper. It is another coming out story, and the wonderfully portrayed characters provide a vivid and realistic picture of what it is like to be young and gay, and to have to fight for what you believe in. Anyone concerned with issues of censorship should definitely read this book, whatever side of the issue they are on. It is eye-opening, and heart-opening.