Drama

Product Information

What Do We Know About the Frequently Challenged Comics of 2014? | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund". 17 April 2015 . Retrieved 2018-12-05. In fact, I’m probably gonna bring this book to therapy so I can explain my thoughts without having to come up with the idea myself.. thanks, Raina! 💙 It helped that the plot was well done. There were just enough events to support the character interactions (which are really what the book is about), but it never threatened to overcome them. It was well-paced, and there were no plotholes or contradictions. Again, the only thing I didn't like was the ending. (I will discuss this later, I promise.) Other than that, the plot worked for me, in a way that most MG realistic fiction doesn't.

Drama was nominated for a Harvey Award in 2013 by a group of comic-book professionals for excellence in comics. [29] The Harvey Award is one of the most prestigious and oldest accomplishments within the comic industry. [30]Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books Lists of the 21st Century". American Library Association. 26 March 2013 . Retrieved 18 February 2016. Drama has been challenged by some parents and critics for being "sexually explicit", for having "subject matter too advanced for elementary students." [14] [15] and for "promoting the homosexual agenda". [16] Drama has almost consistently received a spot on the American Library Association's Top Ten 10 of Banned Books from 2014 to 2019, [16] and ultimately became the seventh-most banned book between 2010 and 2019. [2] In Texas, Drama was banned three years consecutively between 2014 and 2018. [17] In 2014, a ban in Chapel Hill Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, Texas, put Drama on the American Library Association list of top 10 banned books. [18] However, the details regarding the Chapel Hill Elementary School ban are limited since "there has been no news coverage... so details are thin on the ground." [19] Its use was also restricted in Seele Elementary School in New Braunfels, Texas in 2014. [15] At Kirbyville Junior High in Kirbyville, Texas, the book was also banned for being "politically, racially, or socially offensive" in 2016. [20] During the 2016–17 school year, Drama was banned in the Franklin Independent School District in Franklin, Texas "most likely... due to the storyline involving a crush between two friends of main character Callie." [17] That year, Drama was the only novel noted on the Texas ACLU list of banned books. [17] A sense of place is pretty important to me in my work, and my childhood all took place in San Francisco, which not everybody lives in San Francisco, but I did. And so I have tried consciously to sort of bring the atmosphere of that city into my books. And sometimes it comes into my fiction work too. So I wrote a book called Ghosts, where they spend a lot of time on the beach in Northern California, which is not the sunny California beach that some people think of. It’s windy, it’s chilly, it’s very damp, it’s usually very gray. And that’s what it’s like in San Francisco in the summertime. Raina is ten years old. After contracting a stomach bug and throwing up all night along with her mother, Raina becomes wary of artichokes as that's the last food she ate before throwing up. She is shy and becomes scared when she has to give a presentation in front of the whole class. That fear makes her stomach hurt and she becomes even more scared of all the foods she's eating or the people around her are eating. Platonic Life-Partners: With Callie, as he's gay and she's more interested in his brother. (Amusingly enough, they look and sound the same.)

The color schemes and palettes in Drama were vibrant, spellbinding, and incredibly fitting to the ongoing theme. The exploration of sexuality and coming out. I'm sad we didn't get to see it from the character's perspective, but still... I loved the turn of events that lead to this iconic moment:

Eventually though, I made a full mental recovery. Now I just live my life doing my best to survive through the anxiety that does still exist in my brain. Berland states that Jesse's case is more complex as he learns to come to terms with his sexual identity. His process of coming out is slow and closely related to his fear of being judged. Performing in the play is a major catalyst to the development of his identity as he comes to terms with his sexuality. [8] Despite the initially worrisome situation Jesse finds himself in after ditching Callie in the school play, his coming out story is "challenging but affirming" where he finds an accepting and supportive community. [8]

That's not something I'd normally do; I have no problems with gay characters in books, but I don't normally go out of my way to look for them. What made this book different was that it was a middle-grade book, meant for kids as young as second grade. I didn't know such a book existed, let alone one published by Scholastic. After I heard about Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant's story with Remnatns, I sort of gave up on a book like this existing in the near-future. (Ask me about that if you're curious; I'd love to rant explain.) But apparently it not only existed, but my sister was obsessed with it. The second I realized it had a gay character, I demanded to read it. I'm not someone who Googles old acquaintances much; I tend to leave the past in the past, and I'm also a bit of a digital recluse. (Who am I kidding: a bit of a recluse in general!) By this I mean that I never got much into Facebook and have limited myself to only dabbling in other platforms. GR is pretty much the only mechanism I regularly use to virtually interact with others, and I like it because it's focused precisely on the literary aspects of life rather than, you know, All Of Life. As usual, Telgemeier makes books with wonderful illustrations that involve realistic kids going through realistic problems (ha ha ha, maybe with the exception of Ghosts). The only reason I struggled with it is because it's not really about anything nor does it have the typical hallmarks of plot.Cavna, Michael. " 'Persepolis,' 'Saga' and 'Drama' among 'Most Challenged' books in U.S. libraries". The Washington Post. I guess I believe, or at least can hypothesize based on my personal experience, that a significant portion of one's best self - including the part that constructively solves problems and contends with challenges, and the part that empathizes and connects with others and develops a sense of self in relation to them - is developed during a critical high school window that, in the case of myself, and presumably many others, happens to occur right around the peak time period of prospective involvement in school drama club, a place where even the most introverted kids can be compelled to safely push comfort zones, interact with others, formulate and share opinions, and be encouraged to use one's unique talents to contribute to the betterment of a community. I often feel like my personal journey of self-actualization in the decades after high school can in some ways be viewed as an unnecessarily elaborate full-circle return to many values and sensibilities I initially formulated in high school, only after having figured out what they'd actually look like IRL.