Forbidden Reads: Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Welcome to my new feature called Forbidden Reads! Join me in celebrating your freedom to read. My goal for this soon-to be- regular monthly feature is to highlight challenged and/or banned books from each literary audience: children, YA, and adult. Not only will I be doing a review of the book, I will also include information as to where and why the book was challenged/banned. Today I'll be reviewing Chris Crutcher's controversial, hard hitting YA novel, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, which was published in 1993.

Description: Sarah Byrnes and Eric have been friends for years. When they were children, his fat and her terrible scars made them both outcasts. Later, although swimming slimmed Eric, she stayed his closest friend. Now Sarah Byrnes -- the smartest, toughest person Eric has ever known -- sits silent in a hospital. Eric must uncover the terrible secret she's hiding, before its dark currents pull them both under.

Review: Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a heart-wrenching story of loyalty, friendship, and courage. A social outcast in junior high due to his excessive weight, narrator Eric Calhoune found a kindred spirit in Sarah Byrnes, whose face and hands were hideously disfigured in a childhood accident. Now a slim senior thanks to competitive swimming, Eric remains fiercely devoted to Sarah by standing up for her. Unlike Eric who uses physical exercise who fight his bullies, Sarah uses her sharp tongue and whit.
  For Sarah to remain silent and committed to a mental ward, is alarming to Eric. Eric is compelled to take action to help her, but quickly finds that he is in over his head. He risks their friendship by breaking his vow of secrecy and enlisting others' aid--help that comes from such unlikely quarters as a former bully, Eric's swim coach and, most surprisingly, his mother's seemingly wimpy boyfriend. Crutcher emphasizes throughout his story that none of the characters are what they appear to be on the surface.
    I really enjoyed Eric's voice. Self deprecating and humorous, Eric's voice is memorable. We applaud him for taking on a huge task of helping his friend and standing up for what he believed in. Sarah was a tough character to connect to at first. Her abrasive nature is a defense mechanism she uses to prevent anyone to see her weakness. Her emotional strength is admirable.
  Like many of Crutcher books, there are lots of other serious topics addressed from religion to abortion in Eric's philosophy elective. While the discussions are interesting, they do came across a bit heavy handed especially with very conservative characters. Though I appreciated Crutcher allowing teens to talk about important subject matter, I did feel that it slowed down an otherwise tightly paced novel. I would definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy gritty realistic fiction with a hopeful ending.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Why it was challenged: In 2011 the Belleville (WI) School Board decided to keep a book that's required reading for high school freshmen in the curriculum despite a parent's complaint that the book was "pornography" and its language was "pervasively vulgar." Published in 1993, the novel has been read by ninth-grade students at Belleville Hish School for eight years. Source: Marshall University

Words of Caution: After reading Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, I can see why some people would want to challenge it. Topics such as emotional and physical abuse, abortion, suicide, and religion are hard topics to discuss. It's important to remember that Crutcher offers a discussion on these topics, a chance for the characters to exchange their opinions and not attacking on another nor preaching his own ideas. I really don't see how different these topics are from a class doing a debate/speech unit.
  As for the "pornography" comment, there is a small scene of Eric flipping to HBO late night and seeing, briefly describing what's going on in an Adult program, but he doesn't indulge in it. He is trying to test and make his mother's boyfriend uncomfortable. There is not much strong language in the book. In fact if you had to rate it like a movie, I think it very much lies on the PG scale. Due to the mature topics discussed in the book, I would recommend this book for Grades 9 and up.

If you like this book try: It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer, Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

Forbidden Reads: Tenderness by Robert Cormier

Welcome to my new feature called Forbidden Reads! Join me in celebrating your freedom to read. My goal for this soon-to be- regular monthly feature is to highlight challenged and/or banned books from each literary audience: children, YA, and adult. Not only will I be doing a review of the book, I will also include information as to where and why the book was challenged/banned. Today I'll be reviewing Robert Cormier's controversial YA suspense novel, Tenderness, which was published in 1997.

Description (from Goodreads): Eighteen-year-old Eric has just been released from juvenile detention for murdering his parents. Now he's looking for tenderness--tenderness he finds in killing girls. Fifteen-year-old Lori has run away from home again. Emotionally naive and sexually precocious, she is also looking for tenderness--tenderness that she finds in Eric. Will Lori and Eric be each other's salvation or destruction?

Review: Cormier is known for his gritty novels. His most widely known book, The Chocolate War, is a staple in YA literature and unapologetically looks at the important issue of bullying which we are still struggling today. Tenderness is a mesmerizing albeit extremely disturbing plunge into the mind of a psychopathic teen killer. The book is compelling, short, and quick to the point. The story is simple as it follows two teens who are desperately searching for something called tenderness. 
  Eric Poole is handsome, clean cut, and with a vulnerability that plays well before the cameras. He is about to be released from the juvenile facility where he has spent three years for killing his mother and stepfather, who were believed to have abused him. The fact that he murdered his parents without provocation and has also killed and sexual assaulted a few girls (a fact that is certainly known only to Eric himself). Veteran cop Jake Proctor is almost positive that Eric is the serial killer, but he has no hard evidence to prove his suspicions. When Proctor's covert endeavors to obstruct Eric's release fail, the teen walks out of the facility, glorying in his cleverness and in great anticipation of renewing his obsessive search for "tenderness." 
  The really suspense begins with Eric carefully avoiding controversy until he can escape to another town and Proctor anxiously watching and waiting for the young man to make a mistake. Neither villain nor cop suspects that Eric's undoing will come in the form of 15-year-old runaway Lori, who sees her own desire for affection mirrored in Eric's haunted eyes.  Lori is a complicated character. My reactions toward her varied from a selfish, vulnerable, obsessive child to a sexually precocious and an intuitive young woman. A victim of sexual harassment and abuse, Lori blatantly and aggressively uses her sexuality to get what she wants. Like Eric, she is obsessed with a search for genuine affection, and she's every bit as committed to pursuing it.
  While I was engrossed in the story, I didn't think this book was textured enough to satisfy today's YA readers. The chapters that switch from Eric and Lori's point of views aren't labeled though their voices are clearly distinct. There are, however, a number of intriguing psychological underpinnings that made me pause and think. There are strong hints of incest as we get a clear focus of Eric's fixation for his young victims: girls who have long, dark hair, medium height, just like his mother's.  Sex, though never explicit, plays a big role in both Lori's and Eric's behaviors. 
  Even though we don't get a whole lot of background to the story, particularly with Eric's parents, both main characters are fully developed. Though the characters are introduced separately, their perspectives smoothly transition once they finally meet. As readers, we know that Lori's time might be quickly shorten when she meets and spends time with Eric, but I never expected the book's final twist. The irony of Eric and Lori's ends is searing. The idea that humanity is a switch that can be turned off and on by will is the most disquieting aspect of the novel. It is also what ultimately makes the book so dark, seductive, and well  forbidding. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Why it was challenged: According to Marhall University Library, the book was challenged in 2003 at the Fairfax (VA) school libraries by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools for "profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct and torture".

Words of Caution: There is some profanity in the book, but nothing that isn't spoken in a PG-13 movie. Lori mentions that her mother has an alcohol and drug problem, which highlights her isolation and the way she behaves. She is harassed by her mother's boyfriends who don't disguise their lecherous desire for her. There are scenes of sexual suggestiveness: In the beginning we see Lori's mother's current boyfriend brushes against her. Later a hitchhiker who Lori allows him to kiss and fondle her, but these incidents aren't graphically depicted but give enough of a set-up for readers to fill in the details. While difficult to read, I though these scenes were necessary to show how sexualized Lori has become without really thinking about what she is doing which is the point that Cormier is trying to make. Her opinions of adults never go beyond their sexual desires because that is all that she has known. As mentioned in the review, Eric is a serial killer and there is obviously going to be violence associated with him. We are briefly told that he strangles his victims and there are clear suggestions that he sexually assaults his victims. In almost all popular adult books, the author spends time detailing the act of crime.  Cormier, however,  spends more time focusing on Eric's psychological state. Due to the book's mature themes, I would feel comfortable in recommending this book to older teens (i.e. Grades 10 and up).

If you like this book try: Right Behind You by Gail Giles, The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

Coming Soon: Forbidden Reads

 Welcome to Forbidden Reads! Join me in celebrating your freedom to read. My goal for this regular feature is to highlight challenged and/or banned books from each literary audience: children's, YA, and adult. Not only will I be doing a review of the book, I will also include information as to where and why the book was challenged/banned.

Join me in the fight against censorship. If you would like to join me and do a review or a guest post for this feature, I would be thrilled! Just email me at: rummanaha(at)hotmail(dotcom) and we'll set up a schedule. I would also love to have an author's input on censorship and their first hand experience. If you are an author who would like to participate in this feature, please email me at  rummanaha(at)hotmail(dotcom).

I'm currently working on a list of books to get me started. I will post all the books I've read for this feature on this page:

                                                            Books I Read for Forbidden Reads

1.