The Year They Burned the Books

by Nancy Garden

Book Overview

By the author of Annie on My Mind When Wilson High Telegraph editor Jamie Crawford writes an opinion piece in support of the new sex-ed curriculum, which includes making condoms available to high... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374386676
• ISBN13: 9780374386672
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Amazing book

I literally just finished reading this book,and i thought it was amazing.As a teenager in a small town, I could relate to the characters,especially Jamie. This book was so interesting I couldn't even put it down!I recommend this book to absolutley anyone, and especially to teenagers.It's by far my favorite book ever!

eye-opening

"The Year They Burned the Books" was one of the most realistic and eye-opening books I have ever read. Jamie, the main character in Ms. Garden's wonderful novel, struggles with the how, when and if of coming out of the closet. At the same time, the school board is voting to re-evaluate the school's sex-ed material, stressing abstience and showing pre-marital sex and homosexuality as being immoral and anti-God. Jamie is the editor-in-chief of her school's newspaper, and through the paper, she fights with her first amendmet right to make her point heard in the midst of all the chaos and divided opinions. This is an excellent book, showing how the differences in people's thoughts on morality can split them apart.

Chiiling, But Real

Book burning and censorship are things that should be addressed more often in schools. It is sad that only a few volumes are in print that zero in on the topic. "The Year They Burned the Books" is one of the best. I only wish the author had done more to develop the antagonists. As vile as Nancy Garden painted them, the reality of people like that is much worse. Our young people are mature enough to know that not all adults will defend their rights to think and read. Any child who has searched a school library in vain for a book they really needed to read knows this. Even in major cities like New York, even in enlightened schools, libraries do not stock books on their shelves that address every student's need. The solution that the young people in this book created for themselves should be an inspiration for students in every school. This is one book which should be available for any student who wants to stand up for his or her right to have ideas.

silence = death

When I first read some reviews of this book, I thought maybe Garden had taken on too many subjects for one novel. Reading it, however, I started to think that its themes are unified and that it is showing a whole system of the ways people are silenced by oppressive groups. The closet takes many forms, and the kids' inability to speak about who they are - for fear of being physically hurt - is mirrored in the censoring of information about sex and the censoring of commentary about the censorship itself. The novel is thought-provoking about social issues as well as moving in its portrayal of individuals finding their voices. If I'm picky, I could say that some of the dialogue sounded too written to me, and I really dislike the book's cover. But I read it in a few hours, and I feel richer for it. I am going to use it in my YA Literature class.

Nancy Garden has done it again!

THE YEAR THEY BURNED THE BOOKS is another wonderful novel by Nancy Garden. It is somewhat different than Annie on My Mind and Good Moon Rising in that the main focus isn't on a relationship, but instead is about what happens when a group of conservatives try to censor the school health curriculum, as well as the newspaper. It is another coming out story, and the wonderfully portrayed characters provide a vivid and realistic picture of what it is like to be young and gay, and to have to fight for what you believe in. Anyone concerned with issues of censorship should definitely read this book, whatever side of the issue they are on. It is eye-opening, and heart-opening.