In COOL FOR THE SUMMER by Dahlia Adler, Lara finally lands the guy of her dreams, only to have her unexpected(ly female) summer fling transfer to her school. It’s a queer coming-of-age story about self-discovery, taking chances, and finding love where you least expect it.
In her letter to librarians, Dahlia expresses her gratitude and encouragement to librarians who battle book bans and get books like hers into the hands of teens.
To learn more about Macmillan’s banned and challenged books, click on the link.
Dear Librarians,
When you signed on for this profession as advocates of children’s literature, I imagine you didn’t know quite how fierce that advocacy would have to be. I’m so incredibly grateful for how you’ve risen to the challenges you should never have had to face, and for sticking up for both your readers and the books we’ve worked so hard to give them.
My biggest hope for Cool for the Summer was that it would give teen readers the language and ideas they might need in order to better understand their identities and seek the best version of their lives and happiness. Things like compulsory heterosexuality are so rarely discussed, and for so many teens, exposure to a wide variety of experiences is so limited. What I’ve always loved about books is the way they open up the world to readers, and to see those worlds closed off, to see that language taken away, to write the books you needed as a teen in the hopes other readers would get to read them “on time,” only to have that crushed… it’s both heartbreaking and suffocating.
To know that there are librarians on the front lines of getting books to teens who fight to keep that access, to keep those worlds open, to keep that language accessible—it’s one of the things that keeps me going, that helps quell that feeling of hopelessness. Thank you for fighting so hard where we can’t, for making a difference and helping us make a difference.
Warmly,
Dahlia Adler
Author of Cool for the Summer
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