[Now don't get me wrong on a few things here: I say that she was writing some of the first books on these topics that were published. Which is different than being the first person writing books of this sort.]
Anyway, I've been thinking about her lately. To be honest, until earlier this year, I didn't even know that she was still alive. There's something about reading a book as a kid that I just assumed everyone who had written anything I liked was super old, or was already dead. I mean, the books had been out since before I was born...obviously this person was 98, right?
Needless to say, it is a completely bizarre feeling to be an adult and be reading Judy's blog post from a few years ago about her breast cancer diagnosis and feeling my heart pang- as an adult for another adult.
Weird shit.
Anyway, if you had ever read some of her books, or just want to get a feel for why she was, in her context, an important writer, I'd say do two things. One, is read a bit here about her views on censorship (as you probably know, many of her things were banned or attempted to be banned). The other thing, and I will warn you that if any of her books have touched you this one will be a tear jerker, listen to this song that Amanda Palmer wrote as a song to Judy as one of her inspirations and heros:one version of it can be seen/heard, here.
While her books were never a huge part of what I read- I had read only a few- I saw how her books influenced those around me, and later, when I put her work in the context of censorship issues, I had a deeper understanding of why they were so important.
(pause)
Kid and Young Adult literature is crucial. Efforts like We Need Diverse Books and apps like like We Read Too, an app that showcases boks written by authors of color with characters of color need to be saturating the libraries. In working in libraries most of my life, what I know is that they are one of the few places where shit is free. Internet. Books. ESL resources. Voting info. Music. Documentaries. Movies. Large Print. Braille. E books. Audio books. Comic books. And sometimes, even hand puppets. They are the places where, no matter how fucked up or absent or present your parents are, you can go and explore and figure out who the fuck you are.
What we don't need are more white dudes like Roger Sutton who have positions of power within and influencing children and young adult books writing shit like this.
(In case you're interested, yes, it is my long ass comment midway down from 11/21 at 9:09pm. And yes, I'll say that a few of the other comments are by bad ass children's librarians that I have the please of knowing.)
(pause)
Stay well and loved.
Keep reading, keep sharing.
-k.
(image: Man Ray, Permanent Attraction, 1948)
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