I appreciated the idea behind this bool but I felt like it read a little young for my taste.

The opinion of the majority is important,” Mr. Just said. “But the majority must never be allowed to tyrannize the minority— nor must the minority be allowed to tyrannize the majority.”


I requested Garden's The Year They Burned the Books from Netgalley thinking it was a brand new novel tackling what it's like to be, not only gay in a small town, but to also be a spokesperson on gay rights in said small town. Turns out that's not quite what I got as this book was originally published in 1999 and yet it is still relevant.
It follows Jamie Crawford who is the editor of the Wilson High Telegraph as she discovers her sexual identity while also starting a rogue paper, Renegade Telegraph, with the help of her friends. Jamie uses the Renegade to talk about the need for LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education and the importance of having safe sex options readily available to teenagers.
But Jamie's voice meets a lot of criticism and challenges as the FTV (Families for Traditional Values) go to great lengths to try and block any and all LGBTQ+ positive and safe sex initiatives, seeing them as immoral.

"People are dumb! It's like they've got it backwards. They want editorials to be balanced and news stories to be biased."
"Or the think news stories are biased whenever they report on stuff they don't like," said Jamie,
"even when the stories are objective."
I loved Jamie! She was fiery and sharp, and she was incredibly brave. Jamie takes on seemingly the whole town.
What starts as an editorial talking about condoms being available to students quickly turns into founding an independent newspaper challenging a large group of the townspeople trying to censor what is taught in schools. She tries her best to be fair while still making sure she's heard and isn't afraid to calling people out on bullshit either.

"Have you...? You know."
"No. I kissed him once and he cried."
The LGBTQ+ rep in this book in my eyes was done very well. I identified with Jamie and her best friend Terry as young people not knowing how they identified but knowing they weren't considered 'normal'.
Garden did well in representing different experiences with coming out. She gave us characters who were supported and accepted by family and friends but she also gave us someone who was terrified of coming out as well and showing that it was okay not to do so if it's not a safe option.
Coming to terms with your sexuality can be a scary process and not everyone is able to handle it very well. Garden was great at sharing a story that was very true to life.

Morality needs to be taught in the home. In school, especially high school, kids need access to as many ideas and cultures as possible.
I don't know about you but parents shouldn't get that much of a say in school curriculum, that's how we end up with a large percentage of the population being uneducated and voting for a president who has no idea how to even do his job, but I suppose that's none of my business, being an Australian.
In Australia we do have churches trying to bar schools from teaching LGBTQ+ inclusive sex ed and it's dangerous. Even as someone who graduated in 2011, I wasn't taught anything about LGBTQ+ safe sex. Everything I've learnt since, I've learnt from the internet which isn't always a reliable source of information and a lot of kids are too afraid to even look it up because they're scared their parents or friends will see their browser history.
Not teaching LGBTQ+ safe sex does far more harm than good just as teaching abstinence only is dangerous.
Teenagers are going to have sex no matter how much you preach about the immorality of it at them. So isn't it better to teach them how to protect themselves no matter who they choose to have sex with?

This book, although being written in the 90's, is still very much relevant today and I do believe that anyone against LGBTQ+ rights or safe sex education should read it and learn something. Or just read it for the lessons on the importance of free speech and not censoring what is taught in schools.

I’m pretty sure of one thing: that people no matter what they believe or what their differences are, have to be able to live together without hurting each other.

ARC from Netgalley and BSB

I was excited about this book because I really loved Annie on my Mind but I didn’t like this one as much. It was more confrontational than emotional - however it still had well developed characters and plot.

Definitely didn't realize this book was originally published in 1999 until after a couple of chapters, and after learning that, it made a lot more sense. I was in high school not long after 1999 and feel like Garden accurately portrayed a lot of the conversations happening at that time in schools. This text would probably still be really helpful to a lot of LGBT high schoolers today, but the writing style and character development leaves something to be desired. I like the issues she chose to tackle; I just wish it was a little better executed.

We need to see more books like this on our shelves. Books that talk about a group of people standing up for their beliefs despite a heavy opposition where even those people that you are supposed to respect oppose you on a fundamental level. This book covers censorship and the value of opposing opinions and how someone who holds power can often cause a lot of harm disguised by supposed good intentions.


I really enjoyed having this story be about high school students hosting a newspaper and deciding to talk about an issue that starts a controversy that goes deeper then they could have thought. It is a novel for the modern generation, a generation that struggles to find the lines between new and old belief and where the lines should be crossed.


The Year They Burned the Books is a novel that will inspire your rebel side and give yourself something beautiful to believe in. We can be a change for our communities. You don’t ever have to give up in the face of opposition.

I started reading this during Banned Books Week this year. Not on purpose. I needed next, and was looking forward to reading it as well. It ironically fit right into that week, wayy too well. Not to mention the fact that the things happening in this book (sometimes to a lesser degree in real life, sometimes not) are still going on in the real world.

It was mainly about Jamie and Terry. Although their friends and co-workers at the high school student newspaper like Tessa, Nomi (love the name, the character... eh....), and others were very much in the book as well. But Jamie and Terry were the focus of the book for one main reason, they were both (or maybe both) one of the types of people/things that the parents who wind up burning books in the novel were against. They were gay.

That's not the only topic that Garden brings up that the parents don't like though, it's also sex ed in general, and it's the fight that's still happening to this day, sex ed vs. abstinence ed.

What makes this book interesting instead of a bore is that throughout the book there is also the question of journalistic ethics, and lots of other juicy journalistic conundrums that Jamie (as Editor-in-Chief) has to go through with the help of her staff. That was my favorite part.

A lot of the book was sorta of depressing, not because of the book itself, but because I would think, 'oh, this is still happening'. And that would just bum me out.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Open Road Integrated Media.

Really enjoyed this novel. There is a palpable sense of growing tension and injustice which is so strong. Some of the characters / dialogue is a little twee and unrealistic but generally a great narrative.

This book includes so many topics, such as sexuality, suicide, homophobia, religion, and censorship. I think this is an important book for teens today.

I was excited to be approved for this title as Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind is one of my favourite YA novels from when I was a teen, and I had recently re-read it. The Year They Burned the Books is a reaction to the furore surrounding that title. Originally published in the 90s it follows two teens in school journalism (old school styles complete with typewriters!) who are questioning their sexuality against a background of fighting for free speech (Amendment rights in US terms). A great read that hasn't lost any of its relevance.

A challenging but true and fairly written tale about growing up homosexual. Worth a read but not for warm and fuzzy feelings

This had a very interesting premise, of fighting for new ideas and encouraging openmindedness within a community, and the characters were developed in such ways that readers can easily relate to. However, it was not as groundbreaking as I expected it to be, perhaps due to the fact that there are more diverse books nowadays. Still, would recommend to those who are hesitant to try YA lit that tackles sexuality.

I didn’t realize this was a reissued book when I initially started it. I believe it was originally published in 1999. Sadly, none of the issues faced by the characters are outdated. Perhaps they’re even worse today. The only thing that felt out the ordinary was the lack of technology used to assemble the school papers, which was really the only reason I checked the original publication date.

It’s a little book but it packs a lot in – sex education, sexuality, condoms in school, free speech vs hate speech, censorship, homophobia and more. It’s done well because it never feels like it’s beating you over the head with social issues. It simply presents modern high school life (circa ’99 anyway) in a realistic fashion and reminds you what high schoolers are often facing, no matter how much parents my try shield them. It doesn’t back down from difficult topics or hard situations for its characters.

Side note: The covers are both really bad. The original and the new one. The most recent one is better but shows a male front an center as the focus of the image when the main protagonist is a girl. The book deserves better.

I loved this book a lot more than what I was expecting to. it was a good story, with great characters and an awesome plot. I loved how Jamie never gave up and how she came to accept her sexuality. I think everyone should read this.

"People, no matter what they believe or what their differences are, have to be able to live together without hurting each other."

I loved this book a lot more than what I was expecting to. I originally picked it up so I could catch up on my arcs (even though I don't know if I should consider this an arc since it was published years ago), but I really enjoyed it in the end.

This book follows Jamie, an editor-in-chief on her school's newspaper. After writing an editorial piece on making condoms available at school, it creates a divide between the school and the town.

I really liked Jamie. I really liked how she stood up for her views and for her actions. She never gave up on reporting the truth. I also really liked how you see her accept her sexuality over the course of the story. But my favorite character was Terry. I thought he was really funny and an overall great character. What I really admired about him though was how much he respected other people's boundaries. He was very understanding and patient.

This book deals heavily with censorship and homophobia. The book also touches on free speech vs hate speech and prejudice. And Nancy Garden doesn't shy away from the topics. And with these topics being discussed, you really get into the debates. I found myself getting riled up at the logic in some of the arguments, which was something I didn't expect to happen. Even though this was originally written nearly two decades ago, there are still topics and debates that are still discussed to this day.

Though I did enjoy this book, there was something that I didn't like. Early on in the book, Jamie gets invited to a debate at one of the churches in the town after the article was published. I was excited to read about this debate, even though it's an argument that is stated repetitively, I was excited to see an actual debate going on. But that part total gets skipped over. Instead we hear about what happened through Jamie's journal. I would've really loved to see how it went down instead of reading a little summary from her journal.

Something that did confuse me was the cover. On the new cover, there is a guy standing in front of a girl. Now I am assuming that this is Jamie and Terry. But why is Terry standing infront of Jamie? Jamie is the main character who we follow, so why is she standing behind him? Even in the original cover she is front and center. This is something that didn't affect my rating but I noticed it and was genuinely confused.

I really liked this book. It covers extremely important and relevant topics. And is one that a lot more people should read.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2124796061

A coming of age story that deals with accepting one's own sexuality in a world in which it's not always safe or comfortable to be yourself. In other words the world we all live in right now.
Jamie, the editor of the school paper, and her best friend both feel they might probably be possibly maybe gay (I believe that is how they put it.)
The school has recently adopted a free condom Friday policy which has upset some of the parents, and particularly those who believe sex is sinful. Things escalate as books are removed from the library and some want to adopt an abstinence only policy for sex education.
It was an enjoyable although simplistic story that I don't feel quite grasped all the complexities of the subject matter but keeping in mind it is intended for a YA audience I am rounding up my 3 and a half stars to 4.

I don't know what it is about this book that tells me it was published some time back (1999, to be exact). I didn't realize it when I requested the book from Netgalley, I only discovered it when I started reading it. The feel is so different from current YA that when I came to GR and saw the published date, it made complete sense.

The storyline is easy enough to follow, and as relevant now as it was 18 years ago. A group of students on a newspaper staff get swept up in controversy when a new school board member comes in and starts preaching morality and condemning the school's sex education policy. Jamie, the editor-in-chief, ends up in the eye of this hurricane, both because of her strong view points and her own inner turmoil over her sexuality.

This is a good read, a pretty strong read. It's difficult to read because of the extreme homophobia of the other students and a lot of the adults, but again, this is all extremely relevant. If you've never been in a conversation where someone started complaining about queers and liberals, you are an extremely lucky human being.

There isn't too much sugar coating here, though we never fully deal with the aspect of a parent alienating their child for their sexuality. We come close, but it's skirted around neatly. There are slurs, and violence. And even though everything works out okay in the end, it's not the happy ending one would expect from a book like this, published when it was.

I think this is an important read, now as much as it was when originally published. Definitely worth picking up, especially for the YA age bracket.

Jamie is the editor-in-chief of her school's newspaper, and early in her senior year she publishes an editorial concerning the school's choice to make condoms available in the nurse's office after school on Fridays. Meanwhile, a concerned parent is running for the school board in the hopes that she might be able to alter the school's health curriculum to remove any mention of sex outside of marriage or homosexuality. Things quickly spiral out of control: the faculty sponsor of the newspaper is put on administrative leave, the health textbooks are removed from the school, and everyone is up in arms. The school newspaper staff is divided: some, like Jamie, believe that the school should educate students about all aspects of the world they're about to face; others believe that the school has a responsibility to educate students according to the conservative moral views of the majority in the community. Jamie herself is coming to terms with feelings she's never acknowledged before and wondering how she'll obtain information about homosexuality when all the library books on that topic have been locked up.

I enjoyed this story, especially once I realized it had been published shortly after I graduated from high school. I appreciated the librarian angle in this book, which reinforced the theory that libraries should be storehouses of information, not moral guides to a community. I was sad when the school board member and her minions burned books in a bonfire, even though they were books they themselves had purchased for that purpose.