Young Adult Literature, Libraries, and Conservative Activism

Gaffney, a former school librarian who teaches on topics such as intellectual freedom and youth services librarianship, takes a broad look at YA literature, examining its history, its readership, censorship, and more. Structured as a series of essays, with subheadings that help avoid the textbooklike monotony of a typical reference work, this title will be extremely helpful to library school students and first-time young adult librarians. Librarians who have been interacting with teenagers for years will find the later sections—such as those dealing with the pro-family movement, which has called out novels with sexual or fantastical themes as offensive or even pornographic—particularly relevant and insightful. Gaffney provides numerous examples of materials that have been challenged, including the often contentious "Harry Potter" series, and instances of how different libraries have dealt with book challenges. Though the text is occasionally dry, it is also succinct and generally avoids overly academic language.