Newbery medalist Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was honored at the NCAC’s annual Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defenders ceremony.

New York Times best-selling author Ellen Hopkins, Newbery medalist Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and First Amendment activist Chris Finan were all recognized by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) on November 12 for their work defending free speech.

NCAC’s annual Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defenders ceremony in New York City brought together more than 200 authors, publishers, and First Amendment advocates to honor and raise money for the 38-year-old organization, which protects free expression and access to information.

Joan Bertin, NCAC Executive Director, presented awards to the nominees.

Hopkins’s books, including the “Crank” trilogy (S&S), deal with such hard-hitting topic as incest, teen prostitution and drug addiction. Hopkins herself has often been the target of censorship. In 2010, an invitation for her to speak at a Texas teen lit festival was withdrawn after a middle-school librarian voiced concern about her students’ hearing Hopkins’ presentation. The previous year, Hopkins was uninvited to speak at a school in Norman, OK when a parent asked that Hopkins’s novel Glass (S & S, 2007), the story of a girl’s crystal meth addiction, be removed from district middle school libraries—and that no student be allowed to attend Hopkins’s presentation.

In accepting the award, Hopkins expressed her concern that children from conservative regions of the country are not exposed to people who are different from them or disturbing situations like those faced by the characters in her books. “In the red part of this country there are young people who don’t hear the other side,” said Hopkins. She believes that her books give young people a window into the lives of teens grappling with difficult issues.

Author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is no stranger to censorship either. Her “Alice” series (S&S) has attracted ongoing attention from censors due to their themes of teenage relationships, dating and sex. The books have made the American Library Association (ALA) list of most challenged books for several years. Naylor’s 25th “Alice” book, Always Alice (S&S) is due out in 2013.

In accepting the award, Naylor thanked librarians and teachers who fight to keep her books on the shelves. Naylor’s Newbery-winning Shiloh (Atheneum, 1991), about a young boy and an abused dog, was not immune to censorship, either. A principal and librarian in Louisiana had to hire lawyers to keep the book from being banned because of its inclusion of the words “hell” and “damn.”

The NCAC ceremony also recognized Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, who also has served as chairman of the NCAC for over a decade, Finan was thanked for his service to the organization and for being a defender of the First Amendment.

Joan Bertin, NCAC Executive Director, presented the awards to each nominee. The award statuettes, titled Digitus Impudicus, portrayed a hand with a raised middle finger.

Attendees also had the opportunity to bid on controversial book covers created by noted illustrators for the event, with proceeds going to NCAC. Drawing the greatest reaction from the audience were particularly risqué designs, entitled Tommy’s Pussy Wagon by Betsy Lewin, Blow Me: A Book About Whistles by Adam Rex, and Holiday Hummers: A Burst of Christmas Cheer by Tomie dePaola.

Ellen Hopkins

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) will honor award-winning authors Ellen Hopkins and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor next month for their fight to defend free speech.

Hopkins, who writes about addiction, teen prostitution, and other controversial issues in her “Crank” trilogy (S & S/Margaret K. McElderry Bks.), is no stranger to book banning. In January 2010, she and a handful of other YA authors were scheduled to attend the Humble ISD Libraries’ Teen Lit Festival in Texas, but Hopkins was uninvited when a middle school librarian voiced concern over the author “being in the vicinity of her students.”  In protest, five of the seven other festival authors—Melissa de la Cruz, Matt de la Peña, Pete Hautman, Tera Lynn Childs, and Brian Meehl—withdrew from the event.

Hopkins was also banned from speaking at Whittier Middle School in Norman, OK, in 2009, after a parent asked that her novel, Glass (S & S, 2007), a semiautobiographical account of her daughter’s battle with a crystal meth addiction, be pulled from all district middle school libraries—and that no student be allowed to hear Hopkins speak.

For Banned Books Week in September 2009, Hopkins created a “Manifesto” video, in which she recites an anticensorship poem that chides “you zealots and bigots and false patriots who live in fear of discourse.”

“We’re thrilled to honor Ellen as an author who is courageous for the kinds of stories she writes and her willingness to fight for young people’s right to read them,” says Joan Bertin, NCAC’s executive director.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Reynolds Naylor, a 1992 Newbery Award-winner for Shiloh, has published more than 25 books in the often-challenged “Alice” series, which deals with relationships, sex, friendships, life problems, and God—and landed on the American Library Association’s list of most challenged books for several years, topping the list in 2003. Reynolds Naylor is also founder of the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, which annually rewards $5,000 to an author of children’s or young-adult fiction of literary merit to complete a work-in-progress.

NCAC has for years honored authors and journalists among defenders of free speech but began recognizing YA authors annually in 2009, when it highlighted the work of Judy Blume, who has served on NCAC’s board since 2000 and is vocal about her battles against censorship.

Lauren Myracle, a New York Times best-selling author of the “IM” series of books, which include ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r, was honored in 2010. Myracle ranked number one on ALA’s top 10 most frequently challenged books list in 2011 and 2009—and also made the list in 2008 and 2007. In 2011, NCAC honored Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the debut novel, Speak, about rape, and Wintergirls, which deals with eating disorders. Both books are often challenged in schools.

Hopkins, Reynolds Naylor, and Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, will be honored November 12 during NCAC’s annual Free Speech Matters ceremony in New York City.

NCAC’s Free Speech Matters celebration is the only annual event to recognize YA writers and children’s book publishers for their contributions to free expression. If you’d like to attend, sponsor, or donate to the event, there’s still time.