really understand the world around you and have empathy for everyone.
Can you share some of the struggles you’ ve run into with your book? A lot of districts in Texas have policies where you can’ t have books with gay or trans characters in any of their schools. My book’ s main character is lesbian, and I have a nonbinary side character, so my book would not be allowed. That also means that my school visits are pretty limited to private schools. I have some other queer author friends here, and they’ ve said they used to have quite a lot of school visits, but they’ ve almost completely dried up. It’ s just so wild. I’ ve also received threats online.
I’ m so sorry you went through that. I was really scared for a little bit because I was about to have my book launch event and I didn’ t want to put anyone in danger. Thankfully, Authors Against Book Bans and Penguin has resources for how to deal with these situations, because so many authors deal with this. It’ s made me realize what we’ re up against. Yes, some of the commenters were probably bots, but some are real people. I’ ve seen people stand up at state board meetings and testify saying these books are inappropriate. My book is for kids eight to twelve. Yes, it talks about a first kiss, but my favorite movie growing up was The Little Mermaid and there’ s a whole song dedicated to kissing. It’ s such a double standard.
How can people ensure that representation makes it to the right hands? Everything helps. Sales, requesting it at libraries, or even just leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads. My biggest goal is just getting this book to kids and teens. But it doesn’ t need to be my book! There are a lot of great queer middle grade books and graphic novels that are out and that are coming out, but there are fewer being published now than there were in, say, 2023. So, any way you can support the books, get them past the gatekeepers and prove to publishers that these books are wanted helps.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Visit rimonthly. com / rebeccabendheim-gordon-school to read the whole article. 🆁
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