In 2007, Susan Patron's Newbery Medal-winning The Higher Power of Lucky was the subject of national controversy regarding its appropriateness for children. In 2005, Robie Harris’s illustrated books It’s Perfectly Normal and It's So Amazing! were numbers 1 and 10 on the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books in America. In celebration of Banned Book Week, Perri Klass joins Harris and Patron in an online discussion about censorship, book challenges, and the heroic role librarians play in defending intellectual freedom.

Listen to the conversation

Conversation: Robie H. Harris and Susan Patron, moderated by Perri Klass

Discussed: how children’s literature, when written with integrity, can help kids and teens decipher the great mysteries and paradoxes of growing up and being human; the challenges of never hesitating to use the exact word or image, even if it may cause controversy; the necessity to write in an honest voice; self-censorship after a book has been challenged or banned; And Tango Makes Three topping the ALA’s ten top most challenged books list; Simon and Schuster’s scrotum chant; children’s book librarians being the real heroes of our democracy.

Also included: readings from The Higher Power of Lucky and It's Perfectly Normal.



It’s Perfectly Normal
by Robie H. Harris
Illustrated by Michael Emberley

Planning Ahead: Postponement, Abstinence, and Birth Control

Whether or not to have sexual intercourse is a decision each person has a right to make. But a person should always remember that vaginal intercourse can result in pregnancy and having a baby. . . .

  View It's Perfectly Normal and It's So Amazing!



The Higher Power of Lucky
by Susan Patron

Lucky Trimble crouched in a wedge of shade behind the Dumpster. Her ear near a hole in the paint-chipped wall of Hard Pan's Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center, she listened as Short Sammy told the story of how he hit rock bottom. How he quit drinking and found his Higher Power. Short Sammy's story, of all the rock-bottom stories Lucky had heard at twelve-step anonymous meetings—alcoholics, gamblers, smokers, and overeaters—was still her favorite. [More]