Chris Crutcher on Banned Books
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Chris Crutcher’s novels for teens are among the most frequently challenged by prudes.
“I was just bored all the time in school,” Crutcher said in a recent telephone interview from his Spokane, Wash., home. “I could not find any connection between the books they were giving me at school and my life.” …
In his newest book, The Sledding Hill (HarperCollins, $15.99), Crutcher focuses on the efforts by people to challenge or ban books. “Banning books is senseless,” he said. “It doesn’t do what they [censors] want it to do, and it lets kids - their kids included - know we think they can’t handle tough subjects.”
Chris Crutcher’s gritty young-adult novels are loved and reviled