Year They Burned the Books

As a high school junior I wrote for the school newspaper. It wasn't much of a paper, just a four-page foldout with the school's logo on the front. Mostly I wrote humorous essays on school lunches, science projects gone awry, and cockroaches and rats in the gymnasium. But I once wrote an editorial on cigarette smoking in school. It stemmed from the fact that many of the teachers smoked in their offices in between classes, and the smoke wafted out into the hallways where many of the students, my comrades, smelled it. Students complained of smelling it and that they were forced to smoke in the bathrooms or outside and thus be late for class. This was a weak argument, but it put the focus on the teachers. I wasn't a smoker, but since many of my friends were and I needed a subject, I wrote about it. It caused a bit of an uproar and my English teacher, a chain-smoker with yellow fingers and a nicotine-stained beard, came down on me about it. What resulted was designated smoking areas for the teachers (the teacher's lounge) only during the school day. Although nothing really changed for the students except that they wouldn't need to be tempted by the smell of cigarette smoke between classes, I had -- through a 300-plus word editorial -- made a change.

All this came back to me when I read The Year They Burned the Books by Nancy Garden. A veteran teen writer and mystery aficionado, Garden has penned more than 25 books, with subjects ranging from witches and vampires to lesbians and star-crossed teen love affairs. The Year They Burned the Books revolves around Wilson High, located in a suburban northeast town, (familiar territory for the author, who divides her time between Massachusetts and Maine), and the school newspaper, The Telegraph. The story opens in September, when an announcement is made that condoms will be made available at the nurse's office. This inspires Jamie Crawford, editor in chief of the paper, to write an editorial voicing her support of the announcement, which is subsequently followed by a rebuttal by the local moral system led by Lisa Buel. What ensues is near-anarchy.

Jamie, indomitable and curious, brings the subject to the forefront, revealing that the very fabric of the town's moral value system is divided. The paper's teacher adviser is put on the moral hot-seat. But Garden doesn't just use her characters to wield political battles against the so-called establishment, she illustrates what is at the heart of such controversial editorials and the theme of her book: self-expression.

All of the characters in this novel long to express themselves. We meet Tessa, a girl who moves to Wilson at the beginning of her senior year, joins the school paper as photo editor, and befriends Jamie in her cause; and Terry, a lithe friend of Jamie, who grapples with being gay. And then Nomi, whose mother is involved with the local board of education, tries to decide what she believes in when her friend Jamie takes a stand. There are local hoodlums like Brandon, and attractive cheerleader-types like Vicky. The principal, Mr. Bartholomew (a little too lenient by my standards), makes for a colorful arbitrator in the dispute. In addition to condom distribution, homosexuality also plays a large role in Books, a subject Garden has written successfully on in her revered Annie on My Mind. In Books, Garden dramatizes Jamie's and Terry's confusion over their sexuality very effectively through extensive dialogue.

Garden's strong points are her natural prose, realistic dialogue, and her adeptness in handling multiple plots. In a few sections we get to hear the inner thoughts of Jamie as she writes in her diary about her struggle with being a lesbian. And in some passages, most notably toward the end, we hear the students speak without being edited, tripping over words naturally as though this were a documentation of an actual transcript.

I am reluctant to give out any details or passages, since it would spoil the outcome of the story, which is brilliantly uncontrived. Above all in this novel, Garden encourages self-expression. The characters, including parents, brothers, and sisters, even the minor characters, all essentially try to find their own voice and place that voice among others. To watch them reach out in dramatic action is exciting. The effect of a school paper looms large throughout, showing that words remain a powerful medium for expression, something that still holds weight in a world pounded by visual imagery. Yet Garden's world seems to revolve around a yesteryear, filled with typewriters and religious states -- the term "theocracy" comes up at least once. But it all made me feel that my own writing in high school was not for naught, and that no matter the results, self-expression, in whatever medium, is essential for the individual's survival. Speak and be heard.

-Kevin Giordano


Genre: Young Adult Fiction