Speaking at New York’s 92YTribeca on October 3, Lowry said her readers often asked whether Jonas, the 12-year-old protagonist in The Giver, ever saved Gabriel, the baby he attempts to rescue as he flees his community. The novel is about Jonas’s disillusionment with his utopian world and his struggles with its hypocrisy.

Although Lowry briefly alludes to Gabriel still being alive in her third book, Messenger (Houghton, 2004), the idea for Son was born when she decided to describe what became of him as he grew up. Then, during the writing process, she “became diverted by [her] own imagination and created a whole new character who became the center of the fourth book.”

Speaking with interviewers Anna Holmes, founder of the popular website Jezebel.com, and Lizzie Skurnick, author of Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, and a columnist for Jezebel.com’s Fine Lines, Lowry explored the stories behind some of her best known titles, her fans’ reactions to The Giver, as well as book banning and censorship.

Lowry, who will talk about Son at a free SLJ webcast November 7, discussed some of the personal connections and the stories behind her well-known works. The image on the cover of The Giver, for example, is a photograph she took in 1977 of the painter Carl Nelson while she was writing a magazine article about him. Lowry later discovered that Nelson was blind during the last five years of his life, but used his memory of vibrant flowers and colors to continue enjoying to paint. Lowry compared Nelson to the title character of The Giver, an old man who holds the memories of the true pain and pleasures of life despite living in a rigid, circumscribed world.

Lowry also told the backstory of her Newbery-award winning novel Number the Stars (Houghton, 1989). Set in 1943 during the German Occupation of Denmark, the book centers around a young girl whose family is involved with the rescue of Danish Jews. After discovering that a close friend lived in Denmark during World War II and learning about how Danes involved with the Resistance were able to save almost all Danish Jews from concentration camps, Lowry was inspired to write the novel to share this courageous story with others.

In light of Banned Books Week, Lowry addressed censorship. Lowry is familiar with the issue because The Giver has often been challenged due to themes of euthanasia and suicide. She believes that calls for book removals are often rooted in good intentions. Much like the inhabitants of the safe, controlled society in The Giver, concerned parents just want to protect their children, she explains. However, according to Lowry, books are the best way to expose children to new and potentially frightening ideas.

Lauren Myracle

freedom to read. We caught up by email with bestselling author Lauren Myracle, who ranked number one on the American Library Association’s top 10 most frequently challenged books list in 2011 and 2009—and who also made the list in 2008 and 2007.

What does it mean to top ALA’s list of most challenged books–not once–but twice?

Well, it means I get a little bit of attention for a few days. I like that. I like attention! It also reminds me to do my best to stay on the top of my game. If I’m going to be an advocate for intellectual freedom which I sure try to be—then I better keep a close eye on myself. Where do I fall short? What ideas am I uncomfortable with? How do I deal with those ideas and the people who express them? +shrugs+ It’s tough. I am still a total work in progress.

Are you proud? Sad? Mad?

PROUD, for sure. “Mad” went away a long time ago. (I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know. I’ve been on this list before.) “Sad”? Well…maybe a little, in the broad way that I am sad that we silly humans can’t get our acts together and sing in harmony. But I’m an eternal optimist. We’ll figure it out, and conversations about tough topics—like censorship—inevitably lead to growth.

This is your fourth time on the list in five years. Why’s it important that kids get to read books like yours?

Because they’re AWESOME. Can that be my answer? Okaaaay, fine. Because ideas don’t kill people. Guns do. Except maybe gun-totin’ mamas have a valid argument for strapping lady revolvers to their inner thighs. Only how will I know if I’m forbidden from reading the gun-totin’ mamas’ treatise: “How to Coordinate Your Pistol with Your Pumps”? Hmmm???? (Um. My books have nothing to do with guns. My brain just goes to weird places late at night…)

What is the most moving comment from a reader that you’ve received?

“I am a gay boy living in NC. If I hadn’t read yr book Shine (Amulet, 2011), I probably wldn’t be here today. Thx.”

Do book challenges have any effect on your writing?

Absolutely, and it’s a pain in the butt. I doubt myself all the time. I want to reach tween and teen readers, but to reach them, I often have to meet the approval of an adult parent/teacher/book buyer/etc. But I don’t care about the approval of those adults. Do I? What if what I write really *is* “wrong”? What if I try so hard to not censor myself that I go too far and fall over? What if I try so hard to not not censor myself that I teeter in my high-and-mighty heels and fall over in the other direction? WHAT IF I SUCK? It is a mind game, see? But for the record, I don’t wear heels. I am usually barefoot.

OK, an easy one. How do you feel about book banning and challenges?

Can my answer be “Awesome!” again? Kidding. I don’t feel awesome about book banning. I feel crappy about it. Censorship hurts readers (all readers) and hurts authors (especially those who have yet to develop a thick skin). As Chris Crutcher said, “When you ban a book, you ban a kid.” Uncool. On the plus side, the fact that we celebrate Banned Books Week every year *is* awesome, because it draws attention to the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power—and yes, the absolute and utter awesomeness—of literature.

Bill Moyers Joins ALA’s Banned Books Week Virtual Read Out.

As honorary co-chair of this year’s Banned Books Week, from September 30 to October 6, Moyers’s video, “The Bane of Banned Books,” talks about how he grew up in East Texas without any money for books, so he’d go to the small local library where he checked out his first books: Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days and a primer on Greek and Roman mythology.

Years later, when he entered the library as a freshman at a state college, Moyers says he was overwhelmed.

“I looked down at row after row of books and periodicals and thought, ‘Wow! All this for me?’” says Moyers, adding that he even considered majoring in library science just to be close to all those books. “Which is one reason it pains me to think that in this modern age, some folks and communities across America are saying, ‘No, that book isn’t for you.’”

ALA’s Virtual Read Out is an advocacy campaign that highlights the danger of censoring books in schools and libraries, and provides an opportunity for readers to demonstrate their support for the First Amendment by reading from their favorite banned or challenged books.

Joining Moyers in this year’s Virtual Read-Out are frequently challenged authors Dori Hillstad Butler, Stephen Chbosky, Sara Paretsky, Carmen Tafolla, and others. More than 800 videos were uploaded during last year’s Banned Books Week, including posts from authors Jay Asher, Judy Blume, Chris Crutcher, Whoopi Goldberg, and Lauren Myracle.

Be sure to mark your calendars for another Banned Books Week event: Moyers will discuss book censorship and Banned Books Week, along with other topics, in a “Live Chat with Bill Moyers” on Monday, October 1 at 3 p.m. EST. Join the chat with your class by leaving comments and questions on the site or via Twitter @BillMoyers.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, an annual event sponsored by ALA, which recognizes the importance of the freedom to read. For more information about book challenges and bans in your area, or a listing of Banned Books Week events sponsored by libraries, bookstores and other groups across the county, visit the Banned Books Week website.

Corey Michael Dalton

30—writer and editor Corey Michael Dalton plans to mark Banned Books Week by camping out there to demonstrate the value of our freedom to read.

Dalton’s decision to spend 24/7 there until October 6—except for bathroom breaks—stems from the Vonnegut Library’s fight against Missouri’s Republic High School, which last year removed copies of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five from the library and relocated them to a place only accessible by parents.

After Republic High School’s move to restrict the book, the Vonnegut Library offered to send free copies to any Republic High School student who requested one. To date, the library has mailed 75 copies.

“We thought this would be perfect for Banned Books Week,” says Dalton, the editor of U.S. Kids Magazine’s Jack and Jill, Turtle and Humpty Dumpty. “The book is locked up, and I would be locked up in the front window. It’s a symbolic thing that this is how the book is now allowed to live in the free world.”

Launched in 1982, Banned Books Week typically takes place the last week of September and highlights the importance of intellectual freedom, while also reminding readers how many books are removed regularly from school libraries and classrooms across the country.

Slaughterhouse Five, an anti-war story of a World War II soldier who travels through time after being abducted by aliens, was one of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books from 2000 to 2012, according to the American Library Association (ALA), which along with the American Booksellers Association, the  American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and others, sponsor the event.

For those with the urge to check-up on Dalton, a webcam will be installed and viewable from the library’s main website, where he’ll also be blogging. Those who want to pop in and say hello will be able to catch some of the library’s other activities for the week, which will include an evening reading of banned books and Skype visits from authors Michael Dahle, Ben H, Winters, to filmmaker Michael Moore. While all the titles have yet to be decided, Julia Whitehead, the library’s executive director, promises “a wonderful passage from Slaughterhouse Five.”

But don’t expect Dalton to sit on his heels and read all week either. The editor isn’t taking vacation time for his public protest, and says he’ll be working on his magazines.

“They’re setting me up with a desk, laptop, and networking me into my computer at work,” he says. “The November/December issues are going to be on the wall, and staff is going to be bringing me pages to edit and approve that week.

Born in Indianapolis, IN, Vonnegut later moved away. But the library is located in his hometown. Since opening its doors in January 2011, it allows anyone to check out books—titles that are mostly classics and donated to the library.

Although the library isn’t city-funded, it offers WiFi and tours—all free to visitors who chose to visit the “laid-back” spot, Whitehead says. “We’re not going to hound people if they’re a few days late with their book. You just sign a notebook page and we take your contact information, and look at your driver’s license. We trust you’ll bring the book back, and we haven’t been burned.”