New Adventures in Censorship

By Emma Pearse, Women's eNews. Posted April 11, 2005.

"Sybil Davis has a genius IQ and has been laid at least six times," goes the first line of the first ever Young Adult novel to contain an explicit sex scene.

The novel, Forever, was published in 1975, and last year its author Judy Blume became the fifth woman and first author of Young Adult literature to receive The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Since then, YA writers who admire and emulate Blume as the "mother of chick lit" have been savoring the prize--after Blume's more than 30 years of writing and sale of 75 million books worldwide--as an overdue celebration of their literary niche.

"This means realistic portrayals of girls trying to make sense of and find their place in the world have been ordained 'real literature,'" says Sarah Mlynowski. "About time, no?"

Mlynowski's own YA novel, Bras and Broomsticks, came out in February and is about a female teen whose younger sister wakes up as a witch one day. The author says the book was inspired by her simultaneously proud and envy-filled relationship with her own baby sister.

"Blume is the one we all grew up reading and she's the one who helped shape our consciousness," Mlynowski says.

Stories about Girls Growing Up

Blume, who wrote Forever after her daughter "asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die," is known for her unflinching, intimate portrayals of young girls and women growing up in the U.S. suburbs.

Exploring such issues as first-time menstruation, divorce and family tragedy, her books are viewed as a rite of passage for young women entering and in the midst of adolescence.

The National Book Foundation's award--which recognizes a lifetime of achievement and in previous years has been given to such prominent writers as Stephen King, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison--has prompted a mixture of excitement and curiosity within the community of Young Adult writers and publishers.

It comes at a critical time for YA, enjoying new acceptance by the mainstream literary world and receiving what some say is the increasing threat of censorship.

Emma Pearse has written for the Village Voice, ArtReview, Time Out New York and Bitch magazine. She currently lives in Berlin, where she is the books editor for the English-language magazine, ExBerliner.

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