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book and getting it signed. hello, my name is allison lee. i am the managing director of penn america los angeles. penn america is a national organization that stands at the intersection of literature and human rights, celebrating and uniting writers and readers and defending the freedom that may creative expression possible. which is why i am pleased to moderate today's discussion on band books, defending the right to read. joining me today are peter coyle , the library director and ceo

of the sacramento public library. president of the freedom to read foundation. recipient of this years's los angeles times innovator award. next to peter is angie thomas, whose latest novel is nick lake and the remarkable manifester prophecy. she is the author of the award-winning number one new york times best-selling novel, the hate you give, on the come up and concrete road as well as find your voice, a guide to writing your truth. angie will be appearing in another panel today on the y stage at 2:00 p.m. on middle grade fiction. also joining us is george m johnson, an award-winning, black, non-binary author and executive producer located in los angeles. they are the author of the new york times best telling author of the young adult men wire, all

boys are not blue, discussing adolescents growing up as a young, black, queer boy in new jersey through a series of powerful essays which were auctioned by gabrielle union. >> [applause] >> george, i would like to start with you. if you can tell us a bit about all boys are not blue, which has been described as this memoir manifesto. the book is in your story and your truth. in the context of today's discussion, the attempt to ban and remove access to it is an attempt to ban and remove your expanse, which i imagine must be difficult. can you share about that, how you cope and why you decided to become a public defender of the freedom to write and read movement? >> can you hear me? i was getting nervous. these mics are short. [laughter]

ok. so, yeah. i guess the first thing i will say is, one, it is not an attempt at my story personally, because they have not read the book. so, you cannot be trying to attack my story if you actually have not read the book. i say that and i know they have not read the book because the parts they are upset about come in chapter 11, but i know they would have been more upset if they read the book and saw what i said about abraham lincoln and thomas jefferson. so. [laughter] >> so, i note that it is not an attempt at blocking my story, as much as the ideology that they are trying to protect. and ideology around white supremacy, ideology that says that lgbtq people do not have the right to exist in this country, that we should be looked at as a lower class of citizens.

my biggest reason for defending not just my book, all the books, just the right to read, when you look at generation z -- all of this is stemming out from 2019 that said gen z was about to be more nonwhite than white and that gen z was already identifying as wendy percent lgbtq. -- 20% lgbtq. people got scared because this country has always been based on fear, not faith. so. because of that irrational fear, thinking like, oh, wow, if this is the next population in power, that means lgbtq people will be in power. that means more nonwhite people will be in power. that means white kids within generations he will have empathy for the rest of the people because they got to interact with people who did not look like them and got to read books about people that had different

experiences. when they become the next governors and people in power, they go into these systems wanting to dismantle them, understanding that you may have to abolish, not reform, and go into it with the mindset of thinking about everybody all encompassing of the communities that they exist in. that is why i chose to be a fighter in this, because it is that important and it is that important that the younger generation, the young adults now know they have the law on their side, and y'all have the power to change this world and we are watching in real time. i want to be a part of that change. [applause] >> angie. your book has been consistent bestsellers, even more than that, they have been powerful conversation starters in

engaging dialogue with young people about racial injustice against black people. i am curious how your relationship with your readers have changed since were brooks were first published and how it has changed in the political environment we are now in. >> the most interesting thing is that i have seen the readers themselves, how diverse they are. i have had readers from all walks of life who have told me they have read the hate you give or watch the movie. i am not mad if you just watched a movie. [laughter] my own cousin told me, i did not read the book, i watched the movie. [laughter] i have seen people who are 80 who said they love the hate you give. i have kids who are eight who said, i want to read the hate you give. my relationship has not necessarily changed, i would say more so it has grown. and b conversations the book has created have grown.

i think that is one reason why people are fearful of it. i will say, i do not think when george and i were sitting down to read our books, we were not writing them to have a political agenda. we were writing about experiences, real people, things that actually happened that affect people. we were writing about personal, emotional things. i do not sit down wondering if this is a political agenda i want to instill in any child. i have yet a reader to come to me and say, this shifted my political agenda. no, what they say is, i have had 16-year-olds tell me, 16-year-old white whittle america tell me, i do not know any black people, this book allows me to learn what black people have gone through and be more aware. i have 16-year-old black kids say, this oak has shown me me for the first time. i have had 80-year-olds who say, i had no idea black parents sit

down and talk with their children about what to do if they are stopped by police. it has crated conversations and awareness. i have learned that books have the power to do that. i have also learned that books have the power to scare people who do not want to understand people unlike themselves, who do not want to take the time to put themselves in somebody else's shoes. that is their problem, not mine. [applause] >> peter, let's talk about this scary people. [laughter] there is a 2022 poll that found over 70% of parents opposed book banning. yet, the movement to ban books is getting larger and larger and it is led by a vocal minority demanding censorship. librarians are often on the front lines of this issue.

i am curious if you can share how book banning is impacting librarians and what resources they have available to them. >> how much time do we have? [laughter] >> i think first of all, it has been -- this book banning has slowly ramped up since the pandemic. i think the pandemic gave some parents more insight into what their children are learning in school. having parents in homes while that was happening, i think really spurted this. this is an active, organized effort. it is really impacting librarians. usually, we have parents and caregivers come with sincere questions. they are curious about why we have a certain book. these are orchestrated temps. there are lists of books that are spread through the internet and they tell people, go to your library, ask about these books. they have this playbook they follow.

we -- librarians have been threatened. they have in some cases lost their jobs in some states and cities, the funding has been pulled. we are being in some cases being called groomers, i am being accused of a number of things that are not true. it is a scary time to be a librarian. but, we do our job because this is about sharing information. if we stop sharing information, then other people win. and i think i'm going off-topic of what your question was. i think that if we as a community are supported, support your libraries, vote in your elections. when they ask you to pay more taxes for libraries, please do so. [laughter] [applause] >> libraries are not an amenity,

they are a necessity in your community. it is not a swimming pool. you need your library to have an educated citizenry, and anyone. if you are interested in supporting libraries efforts, -- a whole host of publishers, there is a toolkit you can go and find out what you can do in your local community to support your library and fight these efforts. >> this week, penn america released its updated index of banned books in the 2022-2023 school year. our findings recorded more books banned in the fall 2022 semesters then each of the prior two semesters with most bands affecting young adult ya books. ya books are understand --they

serve as a tool for developing empathy. we have talked about it a little bit, what do you think is the most dangerous aspect of this troubling trend? >> is that to all of us? >> any of you. >> i was not sure. i mean, is this how fascism begins? i do not want to put it lightly, but that is the start of fascism. you know, there is this interesting story about how, oh, these books are indoctrinating our youth. it is like, yes. the problem with that is exactly, what? yes, it is indoctrinating them with resources and with empathy and to know that other people exist outside of them. there is nothing wrong with that. the biggest thing is, it is indoctrinating them with the truth. living in the united states of america, we have all been sold

an alternative history of what this country actually is. i grew up and i write about it in my novel, i thought abraham lincoln was a savior almost in comparison to martin luther king. the way he was taught to us was -- and the reason you get to sit with these white students, they freed the slaves. that is how he was taught to us. i often think about when they talk about indoctrination, that is what indoctrination is. it is giving you this false narrative of how we came to be where we are today. when you start to go back in time, research and look at the actual history of things, it is like, y'all wrote something talking about we the people, but you had people you didn't consider people. y'all freed the slaves and said, look, we are the party that freed the slaves. it is like, yeah, but why would you need a civil rights movement if the freeing of the slaves was not the ultimate thing that got us here today? it is like starting to be able

to be able to connect those dots. that is what the danger is, that they are trying to a race dots. they are trying to erase how we got here today. they are trying to say these things are not systemic. every single police shooting is a one-off thing. we have to find were good cops. you know, we fight school shootings with more guns. right? you know, because my book has killed so many people. [laughter] >> right. >> we have to ban these books because my book is walking into so many places and harming so many people, but we will not ban assault rifles. we will not ban the actual things that are killing people. [applause] >> but we want to ban the things that make us greater, the things that give us the power and the tools and knowledge to fix the

problems in society. i think -- i always laugh anytime i hear them say antifa did it. yes, people that are antifascist. that is literally what antifa stands for. how could you be upset about a person who does not want fascism? that is where we are. that is where we are, that is the road we are going at. it is fascism. i was just poking about this the other day. when you are mad at anti-fa cists, that means you are not good at fascism. i think it is funny we are moving at a place with fascism when people do not know what fascism is. >> they should read more books. >> right. they should read more books. [laughter] >> power and control, right. power of books to change lives and what that change will mean, they will lose the power they have as we dismantled these

structures put in place and it really is a fight because there is this tension that is happening because of that. i think that is a powerful motivation for both sides on the issue, that we have to make sure that we do not let that power overtake what we are trying to do, which is trying to share information with people. [laughter] >> angie and george, you talked about the fact none of you sat down and said, i am going to write a book that is going to get banned. yet, we are all about risks -- making the a list in l.a.. you have the dubious honor of in the 2021, 2022 school year, i think george, your book was number two. the hate you give was number

five. give it up for that honor. [applause] [laughter] >> but, as writers, that was not your intention. what you wrote were deeply personal and real stories. i am wondering in the face of that, what gets you writing? >> what keeps me writing? the kids who come to me and say, thank you for this book because this is the first time i saw myself. the kids who say thank you, it helped me understand. the kids who say thank you for this book because it led me to want to pick up the baton of optimism -- activism. i had this young man in philly, yo, ma, i hate reading but i read this in a day. that was built. -- dope. as someone who did not see

herself in books a lot, i take issue with why adults, -- white adults, who say black kids should not see themselves, iac issue with that. you should take an issue with that, too. it is not just about them keeping the books from their kids. they are trying to keep them from all of your kids. they are trying to keep them from kids who need them. i need parents who recognize that. a lot of talk about parents rights, parents rights. cbs did a segment this morning talking about book bans and talked to a group of parents or parents rights. they were all white parents. i want them to start talking about black parents who come to me and say, thank you for this book, because it helped my child. i want them to talk to parents of lgbtqia kids, who say, thank you, george for my book. it helped me and my child have a conversation. we are not talking about the kids who need the book at all. they are being ignored and have been ignored for so long. as someone from a demographic

ignored for so long, a young, black woman in poor mississippi, i am angry you are now trying to push kids just like that to the side and act as if the things they go through are not important. act as if their lives, their dreams do not matter. their aspirations do not matter. that is essentially what you are telling them and it pisses me off. [applause] >> do not laugh. what was the original question? [laughter] >> why do you write? >> i think you got that, right? what we would say is, keep writing, because clearly, we need it. [applause] >> it is like, how do you follow that? [laughter] >> i keep saying that every time you answer.

>> how do i follow this? i will start by saying, i made a list with toni morrison. it is dope to be on a banned book list with toni morrison. iconic. have a quote on my arm by toni morrison. if there is a book you want to read and it has not been written yet, you must write it. there are books i want to read that have not been written yet. if i am still yearning for these books and i know there are other young adults who are yearning for these books, in writing all boys are not blue and having so many people say, this is the first time i have ever felt seen in a book, and it was not coming from the demographic i thought it was going to come from -- it was coming from people who were 60 and older. that was so bittersweet to me. it was like, i am so glad that you now, for the first time, get to feel seen.

how many years did you go not feeling seen and heard for this moment to have to come? at the same time, this moment comes and we are watching the restriction be put in place on, well, you cannot say gay, you cannot do this, you cannot do that. like it is automatically going to erase the young adults or teenagers. my philosophy has been, they cannot ban all the damn books. if i keep writing black, queer books, they cannot ban them all. that is primarily one of the reasons i keep writing. i keep writing because there is so much history and legacy that has been erased. the fact that when i grew up and i knew who langston hughes was and josephine baker was and these iconic figures, but i had no idea they were clear -- queer. i had no idea i did exist, i had creative side should have had

the right to look up to. that is another reason i keep writing and keep putting these things out into the world. i do not want us to keep going generation after generation where we do not have that history thanks preserved. i think that is the other thing. banning books does not mean history is being preserved. this just becomes a time capsule, so we all can remember what was happening right now. it comes a time capsule so 50 years from now, we know who was on the right night of history and who was on the wrong side of history. it never gets recorded, then the narrative can be flipped and turned into whoever at the time is in power. the final reason is, i get these messages. i got one from a kid in pennsylvania who was at a school board meeting fighting the book ban and said to the panel that reading my book helped them name their abuser.

i get messages about the fact that, i grew up not knowing what my first name was. it is a long story. it is in the book. i went by my middle name. there are now people -- i mean cis people, trans people, changing the names. saying, i never thought about the fact i do not like my name, and i can change it. watching it be a tool to empower people. james baldwin said, writing is the greatest form of liberation. it is the greatest tool to liberate people. i think that is why me and angie do the work we do. we continuously, with each book put out, watch a person be liberated. [applause] >> so, we are sitting in los angeles and i think that most of us think of book banning as

something that is happening someplace else. our educational censorship is happening someplace else. we know the big three in terms of florida, texas -- i do not think there is three. florida, texas, utah. tennessee. >> iowa. >> we think it only impacts writers and readers in someplace else, we are protected here in our bible. peter, i am wondering if you can give examples of look bans that hit closer to home so we can understand if this is happening someplace else, it is happening here in the state of california and why we should be worried about it from where we sit today. >> a couple months >> and alameda county, the alameda county library had a drag queen story time that was disrupted by a group of proud

boys. the fbi treated it as a hate crime. because -- they showed up and they were threatening. i don't know if they had weapons, but that is troubling. you can't have a library event without a group coming to protest. it was scary for the staff. i talked to staff members. we don't expect that at a library. they were doing a story time for children. what is threatening about that? that is happening in california. there is a bookstore that had a similar program, a children's museum as well. it is not out of the realm of possibility that it could happen any place these programs are happening. anytime a library has an event that has to do with racism or some historical, something that shouldn't be controversial because it is history in america, it is not fake, it

happened we should be able to talk about it, we second-guess ourselves and start thinking as librarians about what plans should we have in place? do we need security? do we need to have it on certain days? these things go through our minds, not just drag queen story time but anything that could be controversial or could bring some sort of publicity. we didn't have to use to do that. it is not normally how we do our jobs. not how we should have to do our jobs. >> i know there is a group of young people from fairfax high school in the audience over there. there are lots of young people -- yay. [applause] in the audience today. you have already spoken beautifully on the power of your

stories, the power of the written word, the impact that you have seen it have on young people. i guess in terms of, so much of this can be soul killing. so much of it can be helpful. can you share words of wisdom, whether we have aspiring writers or journalists or activists, hopefully all, in the audience, any wisdom or advice for them? no pressure. >> all right. i'm like -- i made a joke the other day and i was like, the earth, zero stars, would not recommend. [laughter] so i can start there. you all are -- one, i am so

inspired by you, your server. it sucks that as teenagers you have to become activists and don't just get to be teenagers, do not just get to think about life, you have to think about your safety over your happiness first in many ways. i am inspired by the fact that you want to change the world. you want to know more things and do more things. we have watched in the past, 4 -- for years, your age group becoming a powerful voice and starting to show up in an electoral way that is starting to shift this country quicker than anybody could have expected. you have to process a lot of heaviness in the world, but don't ever use the light -- lose the light that you are. you are a light in this world

and you truly inspire people like myself and many others to continue to want to put more resources in the world for you to continue to want right for you -- to fight for you. the first person you have to be an activist for is yourself. i'm watching your work activate you in a way i could never have imagined when i was for being. -- when i was 15. there is a generation that is younger than you that is looking, and watching how well, how articulate, how decisive you are about who you are. there is nothing more beautiful than to watch you as young adult know exactly who you are and be proud and be fighting to let everyone else know who you are. [applause] >> i piggyback off this and say

it is ok if you don't know who you are yet. it's ok if you are still learning and growing, evolving and changing. you get to define that. for the young activists especially it is a marathon, not a sprint. we don't necessarily need you to reinvent the wheel. there are wheels that need you to help get going. if you want to change the world, start by changing the world around you. there are things happening in your community, your school, that you have the power to change. that is how you change the world. do something about those things the -- and try to fix them and find people who want to help you ask them. for the young writers especially, i like to ask, how many writers are in your?

how many people want to be writers? you should have raised your hand the first time because if you write, you are a writer. your story is your story. don't aim to be perfect. aim for progress. perfection is the enemy of progress and that goes with anything in life. like george was saying, this generation inspires me so much. they have a better idea of who they are and they want to be. they have more empathy and compassion. you know why they don't want you reading books and stuff? because they recognize your power. that means you have power. you are some of the most powerful people in the world. since you have that power, this will be corny, the power that you have is stronger than the hate anybody can give, so use it. [applause] >> i would say sometimes, young

people are some of our strongest advocates. we have examples in texas and pennsylvania where students banded together to keep their right to read. i think adults need to take more notice of that. kids and young people know more than we give them credit for and when they see injustice, they speak up against it. when we are told to ignore that we should be ashamed. we should pay attention to kids more, listen to them. they know what they need when they are finding what books to read. if it speaks to them, they will find it. they know what they don't want to read. have you ever gotten a kid to do what they don't want to do? it they don't like the book they won't read it. let kids make choices. we talked about parental involvement we want parents

involved in the choices kids are making when they are reading but we want that for that family. you can't make that rule for every family and the kids know that. they are the ones speaking up, sometimes the loudest. his brave to do that. -- it is brave to do that. we should take a page from their playbook and stand up. we need to say more as adults. [applause] >> i want to open it up to questions. i think there are some, so raise your hand. there are people who are walking around with microphones. >> i'm a librarian. [applause] >> how many librarians? >> we have, i am a librarian in santa monica so we have the hawaii book festival next week.

one thing i wanted to say about librarianship, that i guessed -- get asked a lot, how do you, what can i do you especially since we live in l.a. and or privileged to have a better atmosphere. it you have -- if you have relatives in florida or tennessee, encourage them to run for school boards and library boards. for drag queen story times, which are fun, it is just dress, in tennessee the law is that you can't imitate a woman, a man can't imitate a woman and vice versa. women can dress in drag. i would love to see allies, women show up in drag and do a drag queen story time. my question is for george. on the trans issue, they are

painting this as a social contagion issue but your book shows that the 20% we are talking about non-binary people. i would love for you to talk about how you are representing a wide spectrum of the trans spectrum. >> yes. academically trans is an umbrella term that encompasses people who identify as non-binary and genderqueer, genderfluid. for "all boys aren't blue," i grew up with the transgender cousin named hope. i talk about her journey. i didn't realize every family didn't have trans people in it until people said things about my family. i thought every family had this.

it informed me once again that a lot of times we operate in the world we are in. if you grew up with a trans person, you assume everybody does. i think that is part of the work i'm doing, showcasing using my family as the vehicle, this is what it was like to grow up with a transgender person in my family. this was my experience as a non-binary person. putting it out to the world, what people are witnessing is that i didn't realize so many, that your world encompasses heterosexual people. i still grew up with heterosexual cousins, parents who are heterosexual, aunts and uncles who are heterosexual. at one of the board's where there was a young 11-year-old kid who described it best, my mom and my aunts went to a school board meeting and thought for my book.

>> if you haven't watched this, it is the best viral video. it is awesome. sorry. >> my mother and my aunt went to a school board meeting where they were trying to ban my book and spoke on my behalf. an 11-year-old went up and said, all my life, my name is kyle and all my life i have been forced to read heterosexual books. i identify as bisexual. the more heterosexual books i read, that doesn't change my identity. you shouldn't be fearful of your straight kids reading queer books because it won't change their identity, either. that was powerful coming from an 11-year-old. but that is what it is. these books are building bridges are empathy. so we know our different experiences. with what i do, showcasing my life and my parents publicly, my

cousins publicly, it helps people understand what the file -- family dynamic and look like like we watch dwyane and zaya wade. we become positivity models for everyone. that is what the book and my story is doing, creating the possibility in my world to show what it looks like when you operate from a place of love and not fear. >> what happened at the school board meeting? >> they kept the book. after my mom and them went, it was going to be hard for them to pull the book with them going on camera. >> i don't think anyone was crossing them. it speaks to the power of the individual. attend your school board meeting. get involved. we have seen that again and

again, when the resistance against educational censorship and book bands schools or libraries, when it comes together they are able to stop that vocal minority against it. >> it is also, asking candidates. library boards aren't elected in california, they are appointed by county supervisors or city council. need to ask those people, how -- don't -- not just do you love the library, but how do you feel about censorship and intellectual read him? that is what we need to be asking, not softball questions. nobody will say they hate apple pie. this is america. everybody loves libraries. but how do they feel about the core issue, which is library funding and intellectual

freedom. >> next question. >> thank you for being here. i'm really great. i just got back from a month in florida where i was working with youth on banned books and censorship and trying to get access to the curriculum in higher ed and at elementary schools. there is so much fear out there. it is alarming. i have been wearing my "i read banned books" button in miami with judy blume and trying to get a sense of how to connect, particularly the youth and college age students also in this fight and conversation. i was at the miami-dade school board meeting two weeks ago,

which was quite something. several teachers came up after me and said thank you for wearing the button because i can't. i thought, what planet is this? what time is this? darius if you have suggestions about particularly how to engage the youth nationally and internationally. thank you. >> i'm going to do moderators privilege for a second. quick plug. pan america runs -- pen america runs advocacy institute. we have morning los angeles. they are free. we have it in los angeles, miami , new york and d.c. and we run online summits. through our local libraries we partner with free speech teen summits to train and teach the next generation how to be

advocates for free speech and free expression. that is one way. >> it is a broad question but i think encouraging young people to speak up. if you know someone, just talking about those issues, knowing they are about to speak up for themselves and sometimes there is nervousness. 12, 13, 14, going to a school board or city council meeting and speaking up the kids need examples. adults need to do it and encourage young people to do it. talking to the teachers who are scared, who can't. maybe they know a way that you can help in their school district. they might be able to give you pointers. every situation might be different but generally, kids need the support. you need to be there for them and encourage them to do what they need to do in their

situation. >> i will answer real quick. the issues are not big enough. that is really the real problem i'm running into. we still can't figure out why certain places aren't taking this as seriously as they are taking everything else that is happening. it is mind-boggling to me that you have certain, for instance certain book clubs in this country which are huge book clubs, but they haven't necessarily happen to using the resources to fight against book bands. one thing we need to do is figure out how do we make this a larger national issue? like, i don't know if oprah watches c-span. >> we know she is not doing anything on a sunday afternoon,

but watching c-span? >> if she is watching it would be nice to invite some of the banned authors. i say that in jest but i say it because as someone as powerful as she has been around books, she makes a choice in the country reads it. if she started to make choices on some of these banned books allowing the truth about what we write and, can you imagine the millions of eyes on our books? it creates new access points. national media coverage, the more media coverage and the more sales of banned books, it creates more access points because then more stores will carry it. the airports carry it on free libraries care -- carry it and does it matter that you remove from one library? it matters but if i can create

five more access points to get it, what has it done? i think that is the next stage of this. how do we nationalize this fight? we should be on cnn and msnbc every day talking about this, not only one it becomes something favorable or palatable. this should be talked about every day. it is that important. i'm from a community of people who were not allowed to read or write in this country, who were denied that. if they were caught learning how to read or write, they could have been killed for it. i'm not, 150, 200 years later going to watch them take away the stories. this has to be a nationalized fight. it is that important. that is the next goal for me, what i think about what is next. it's time to nationalize the fight.

[applause] >> for those of you who can't see, peter is wearing a great shirt. do you mind modeling it? it says free people read freely. i want to talk about that movement. >> this is our slogan. that is the core of what we believe. this is a country of freedom. we are getting more free and not everyone has had that, but we are getting the. as a free country you should be able to read what you want to read, and that is the core of what we do. we are not about defending books. we will defend particular books but the idea is defending the concept of any book. who gets to make the list of what books you can read? it is no one's job. we had that happen in other

countries before, and we know where it goes historically. that is where we are at. you have wrist -- list of books you can't read in certain schools now. in one state they are proposing legislation to prohibit publishers from selling certain books to schools. hopefully we can roll the clock back a bit if we get our ducks in a row and keep fighting. but that first amendment right is so important. that is a bedrock of what this country is founded on and if we don't have that, we don't have anything. you can buy the shirt, go to the ala website ala.org and you can buy one. >> we have time for questions, one or two more. i'm picking this person -- sorry. i will get to you eventually. right there. >> i'm from fairfax and i'm a

student. i think my teacher is here. [applause] >> yay for teachers and educators of all kinds. >> she is intelligent and wonderful. she gets me going everyday. i want to thank her. i'm so nervous. >> don't be. >> i'm so thankful to be here at this panel. you are wonderful. i want to become a writer myself. [applause] >> i couldn't hear the last part. >> >> the best thing, the teachers will be like "woo~!" but thank you to all the teachers. the best thing a writer can do

is read. read a lot, read widely, read as much as you can. that is one of the best ways to learn to write. so read, read, read. perfection is the enemy of progress. don't aim to be perfect. every book i wrote started out horrible. first drafts are horrible. they are not supposed to be good. you have to keep writing and revise and revise and edit and learn the craft. write the book you want to read. like the tony morris". don't write it because i think this will win awards or become a bestseller or made into a movie that gets made and all of this. you don't know those things. the only thing you control is what you put on paper. right because it is something you enjoy, because it is a book you want to read, because it is

something you haven't seen yet that you would love to see. write it because you will end up reading it a lot, trust me. you will read it so much and asked me questions about "the hate u give" and i'm like, what? i haven't read it since i put it out. but write it because it is something you enjoy and know that you may got -- get a lot of no's along the way. i say this as somebody who wrote this book originally 15 years ago, and it got over 300 rejections. this past week, i wrote it and rewrote it again in 2020 and it debuted at number one on the new york times best seller list. [applause] had i let those 300 no's deter me, it never would have happened. remember it only takes one yes. it only takes one yes.

keep going. thank you. >> i love reading. i'm planning to read your books next and i really want to read "the hate u give" and the "all boys aren't blue." sorry. thank you for your advice. >> axios. [applause] -- it's yours. [applause] >> i will get them signed real quick. do we have a photographer in the house? this is that moment. there we go. right here in the glasses, third row. once they are done signing. >> i wanted to say thank you for everything you are doing,

whether it is getting readers to read your books, librarians, thank you so much. what i want to know is, besides your books, what is the one band book you recommend everyone read? >> i always recommend george's book. i always recommend george's book. i say this, go look at the 10 most banned books and make that your to be read list. there are classics on there. when you see them mention book is something that have been banned, recently a book about ruby bridges was challenged. this woman is still alive today. she experienced this not that long ago and they wanted to ban the book, accusing it of being crt? that is an interesting thing. let's make this clear, nobody's child is being taught crt.

that term has been used so much. the funny thing is, if you ask people what it means they don't know. i would recommend going down the list. i would look at the list and i would like you to pay attention to the fact that that list is full of books by people of color, by queer people, and you have to ask yourself, why? read that list. i always recommend george's book and i recommend "all-american boys" by jason reynolds. "dear martin" by nick stone which is on the list. i recommend all the those books. there is a reason they want to keep them out of people's hands and you need to ask yourself why. >> i'm always going to say tony morrison but -- toni morrison, she has 13 books. read all of them.

like that she just, she is the architect. there are people who consider her the greatest writer this country has ever seen. that is because of how powerful her word back then and again, if you are banning a book from back then along with current authors, it is something about that. there is a reason her book is the oldest book on the list. start with the one they have up there and go through her collection as she wrote them. >> i will say, this year's list, or sorry, last year's most challenged books will be coming out this week. it is national library week starting tomorrow. [applause] >> so i cannot recommend that list enough to see what is being challenged. as you read it, look and see

what the commonalities are. over 60% of the titles in the last three years have all been up by or about people of color or people in the queer community. over 60%. >> if you are curious, we have a booth today, booth 165. we have the index of the 2022-2023 band booklist. and if you want to start by, you can look it up. -- if you want to stop by you can look it up. you'd be surprised how books have been banned, challenged or are not on shelves on school libraries. take a look and share with us the most important book for you. so i want to thank everyone for this incredible conversation. >> may i say one thing? , sorry. >> i am so thankful to see a full room. and to see people from all walks

of life and to have this conversation. i challenge you all to create a world where we do not have to have a banned books panel. >> amen! >> where we create a world where george and i can get up on a panel and talk about the content of our books and not the challenges. talk about what we do and why we do what we love. create a world where a panel like this is not necessary. thank you. [applause] >> so i think angie will have a chance to talk about books at the young adult stage at 2:00. so you can drop by there and we do have a signing, a book signing following this session. as a reminder, it is in signing area one. check your map, as the volunteers in the green shirts and thank you all for joining us today.

it is on gun violence in america. in the meantime, we're pleased to be joined by author joel