Diverse Books Opinion

Teen Librarian Karen Jensen discusses why the idea that librarians should pre-read every book before purchasing is an unsustainable answer to address the concerns of book banners

When I was growing up, if I had a big feeling about something, books were the first place I turned…but there was nothing on the shelves that could have helped me learn about being queer, or trans, or autistic.

It took eleven re-envisionings over six years, but now, holding the finished book in my hands, I know that what feels impossible often isn’t.

When I was in middle school, the word “nerd” was thrown around a lot, a word that then meant someone who was too much, who loved something too deeply. This passion was a delicate flame within me when I was 14, a little older than Elissa, the protagonist of my novel, We Are the Song.

When I finally found my way to writing a novel about growing up as an immigrant with hip dysplasia, it was this wholeness—not parts of me segmented into boxes—that guided me. I wrote Breathe and Count Back from Ten because the only way I can imagine creating books in a world that draws boundaries around my identity is to write myself beyond them.

As much as my younger self loved final girls like Gerda from The Snow Queen, Buffy Summers, and Clarice Starling however, these characters didn’t exactly reflect my lived experience. They were all white women and they were all at least coded as being Christian, if not outright stated to be so. So in 2019, I decided to write a final girl who was like me: Ilana Lopez, the biracial heroine of The Ghosts of Rose Hill. 

I like to think series books are the “Comfort Tacos” of the book world; they pull you in and swaddle you up in a world where you know you belong, know you feel comfortable, and where everything is just a little easier.

The authors of THE AGATHAS talk about their experience writing their book, a story about two teen girls who go rogue to solve the disappearance of Brooke Donovan, the richest and most popular girl at their high school.

The simple truth is, there has never been a time in history when simply knowing the truth was such a monumental task. Now imagine what that task must look like to a young reader.