The Year They Burned the Books

About this book

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 school students she has no idea that a huge controversy is brewing. Lisa Buel a school board member is trying to get rid of the health program which she considers morally flawed from its textbooks to its recommendations for outside reading. The newspaper staff find themselves in the center of the storm and things are complicated by the fact that Jamie is in the process of coming to terms with being gay and her best friend Terry also gay has fallen in love with a boy whose parents are anti-homosexual. As Jamies and Terrys sexual orientation becomes more obvious to other studetns it looks as if the paper theyre fighting to keep alive and honest is going to be taken away from them. Nancy Garden has depicted a contemporary battleground in a novel that probes deep into issues of censorship prejudice and ethics.