DRAMA is about girl named Callie who is in a acting class at school. She likes a boy who finds out he is gay in acting class. Callie loves to read acting books at the library. In this book Callie is a set designer and at the end of the she becomes the stage manager. West's process of coming out is still burgeoning. He displays signs of perpetually self-questioning tweens who "recognize the fluidity of identity." He represents the idea that the "gay-straight divide" is slowly fading by continuously doubting his sexuality without selecting a label, "still doesn't know if he's really gay, or whatever the character its self is probably pan or bi." [ citation needed] Due to this, West is able choose what he wants to self-identify as. [8] Portrayal of hegemonic masculinity [ edit ] Also in 2013, the American Library Association deemed Drama as a Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. [31] Y’all, after attending Raina’s Presentation at the NBF, I got a sneak peek. It looks very good and extremely relatable. I’ve request it already and I’m so excited!

The old acquaintance I Googled was someone who helped make this safety and comfort possible. I distinctly remember the caring and polite manner in which he treated me and others, even just in quiet and seemingly insignificant everyday encounters.Lori: I think the age of the readers is the whole point of the debate. Parents are upset not only that their children are being exposed to homosexual characters in a book they don’t think should even be talking about it, but a lot of the children are coming to ask them about it. Several of the one-star comments mention their child coming to them with questions, like a book shouldn’t stimulate a child to want to know, or a child should question what they are reading. Any book that does that should be seen more, not less. Thank you to Scholastic for the Advanced Reading Copy. This review contains spoilers, and is written from the perspective of a children's librarian. Lori: No, it shouldn’t because homosexuality should be treated like it’s a part of everyday life, because it is, and kids need to see that. Too many kids who start to discover they might be different before they become teenagers, or even start middle school, still feel that there is something wrong with them because they are not heteronormative, and that is just not right. Robin: The challenges reported in 2014 total 311, and I would hazard a guess that the top challenged titles would be, perhaps, 10-20 challenges? I’m not at all certain of that, though! Earlier this week, the American Library Association released its list of the most frequently challenged books in America. Last year’s list included Bone and Captain Underpants (which is sort of an honorary comic). This year’s list had three graphic novels: Saga, Persepolis, and Raina Telgemeier’s Drama.

Deadpan Snarker: Crops up a bit less than with Raina, but still present. Mostly when around Bonnie. Drama has been challenged by some parents and critics for being "sexually explicit", for having "subject matter too advanced for elementary students." [14] [15] and for "promoting the homosexual agenda". [16] Drama has almost consistently received a spot on the American Library Association's Top Ten 10 of Banned Books from 2014 to 2019, [16] and ultimately became the seventh-most banned book between 2010 and 2019. [2] In Texas, Drama was banned three years consecutively between 2014 and 2018. [17] In 2014, a ban in Chapel Hill Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, Texas, put Drama on the American Library Association list of top 10 banned books. [18] However, the details regarding the Chapel Hill Elementary School ban are limited since "there has been no news coverage... so details are thin on the ground." [19] Its use was also restricted in Seele Elementary School in New Braunfels, Texas in 2014. [15] At Kirbyville Junior High in Kirbyville, Texas, the book was also banned for being "politically, racially, or socially offensive" in 2016. [20] During the 2016–17 school year, Drama was banned in the Franklin Independent School District in Franklin, Texas "most likely... due to the storyline involving a crush between two friends of main character Callie." [17] That year, Drama was the only novel noted on the Texas ACLU list of banned books. [17] Drama was meant to be a Banned Books Week selection, but the wait list at the library was a little longer than anticipated (and hopefully full of children who were taking a stand against censorship and not just old ladies like me). Why it’s banned or challenged? Homosexuality – in the form of first crushes. In all actuality it's about the cast, but mainly crew, of the school play and all the goings on while they try to make it to opening night while battling first crushes, first heartbreak, mean girls, best friends, and all the other goings on of your typical 8th grader. Esther: I believe this includes all libraries. So it would even include universities, though I don’t know how often a challenge would occur at that level. Over the years, as I’ve followed the ALA list, I have noticed that many titles on the list are for children and teens. And the gay characters were handled really well, for the most part. I liked that Justin was fleshed out, that he wasn't a queer stereotype. (Well, he was in that he was into theater, but he wasn't at all girly or perverted or anything like that.) I liked that he was portrayed as being entirely comfortable with his sexuality, and that everyone around him was, too. I liked that Telgemeier didn't make it an informed attribute, that he mentioned boys that he was attracted to more than once. The one thing that I didn't like in how the gay characters was the ending; I'll discuss this more later.Most importantly the book is incredibly optimistic and positive about dealing with anxiety something that, in my opinion, is possibly the most important thing to be telling young kids dealing with it. It encourages its readers to turn to the people who care about them for help and not to feel ashamed of what they're going through. Now, as promised, I'll discuss the ending. (See, I told you I would do it. What, you didn't believe me? Well, you should've. Asshole.)

Drama was nominated for a Harvey Award in 2013 by a group of comic-book professionals for excellence in comics. [29] The Harvey Award is one of the most prestigious and oldest accomplishments within the comic industry. [30] I want to start by putting this into context. People often refer to books being “banned”—can the librarians in the group please clarify what “banned” means in this context and what sort of challenges the list encompasses? In 2012, Drama was declared a Notable Children's Books and a Teen Top Ten by the Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), which are all as part of the American Library Association. [23]

Helping All Readers

Spear Counterpart: Of the Single Woman Seeks Good Man trope: Has a crush on West, who is a very nice, chill person. There's not a cohesive storyline, and that probably won't bother most people, but for me it makes a book less enjoyable. Never, did anything of the sort cross my mind. Tell me, oh people who gave this 1 star because two boys kissed and one wore a dress to save the show because the lead girl was having hysterics and the understudy was nowhere to be found, tell me, if this story was about a boy and a GIRL would you say it shouldn't be on library shelves where kids could see a picture of them kissing? Would it need a warning label then? Should it be banned because there would be, horror of horrors, heterosexual activity in it? I guess I believe, or at least can hypothesize based on my personal experience, that a significant portion of one's best self - including the part that constructively solves problems and contends with challenges, and the part that empathizes and connects with others and develops a sense of self in relation to them - is developed during a critical high school window that, in the case of myself, and presumably many others, happens to occur right around the peak time period of prospective involvement in school drama club, a place where even the most introverted kids can be compelled to safely push comfort zones, interact with others, formulate and share opinions, and be encouraged to use one's unique talents to contribute to the betterment of a community. I often feel like my personal journey of self-actualization in the decades after high school can in some ways be viewed as an unnecessarily elaborate full-circle return to many values and sensibilities I initially formulated in high school, only after having figured out what they'd actually look like IRL. And likewise: I've been thinking lately, as one might in my line of work (as a sexual assault counselor) and also just as a post-November-2016 citizen of the U.S., that I owe a debt of gratitude to the fellow young men in my high school drama club circle for always treating me and other young women and men with acceptance, kindness, and respect. Maybe it's because the drama club attracted sensitive and empathic and outsider-identifying kids; maybe it's because it was an itty bitty Catholic school; maybe it's because I'm just old enough to have dodged the bullets of social media, cellphone cameras, and high-speed Internet (porn) that have made school environments so harrowing, confusing, and devaluing for so many young women and men today. In any case, I'm fortunately able to remember high school as a time of safe and happy coeducational interaction for me and for my friends.

While I’m not keen to reread this graphic novel I did really love the illustrations. I also learned something new: if you drink water after eating artichokes it takes sweet. I found that tidbit really interesting, but I wasn’t quite as smiley when I found out it also works if you reverse the process. I loved the message that it’s perfectly okay to need therapy and I thought anxiety was portrayed realistically. While there are plenty of relatable moments for readers with anxiety, I’m not sure how well people with emetophobia would manage while reading this graphic novel.Nonetheless: I did recently, and really out of nowhere, compulsively Google an old friend/acquaintance from high school, someone who'd been a grade ahead of me and whom I knew from having done the annual Shakespeare play together for three autumns at the small suburban Detroit Catholic high school we attended. Though my Googling was fairly random and unusual overall, it was neither terribly unusual nor random in that my Googling was centered on an acquaintance from my high school drama club circle. I've found that years and years later, even after having wandered the world and attended some of its fine universities and wrested out an existence in some of its major cities, these fellow adolescent Midwestern amateur thespians, clad in their finest early-90s goth attire, are still the folks I think of most often, and most fondly, and hope to find well. Why is this?!