Read Lovely Books
“Trauma” has become a bit of a buzzword around the internet
Trauma is an emotional response to an event; it is not the event itself
It is being consistently on guard, with less and less opportunity to shut down the body’s
There are many life situations that create trauma for a person, and because it is so individual,
It’s been fascinating to watch teachers this year talk about how unmotivated and disinterested in learning
Imagine during your early developmental periods (be it preschool or elementary school, middle school or high school)
Suddenly, you’re being removed from school and put into a variety of virtual learning environments
Imagine on top of that being sick from COVID or having a loved one die from it
While there are many children who will bounce back, as many, if not more, will not
They’re kids who have had so many traumatic experiences pile up
Sign up to Today In Books to receive daily news and miscellany from the world of books
The ongoing fight over the rights of young people to access books is contributing to their trauma
Who are witnessing adults who began their Joyful War against access to literature saying that kids were
These messages are being piled on top of the trauma already circulating within young people from the
They’re further confused and, if they’re from groups already under the spotlight of bigotry and
Imagine the kids seeing their parents showing up to these board meetings and creating a scene
In ways that get them their 15 minutes of fame on social media
And when they speak up, they’re sometimes ridiculed by the adults who should be nurturing them
These groups, with their talking points and handy “research,” can influence the self-same young people they’ve
It’s not that young people do not want to think for themselves; it’s that the
It impacts the authors whose books — and identities — are deemed inappropriate, pornographic, explicit
*There is a lot to be said about the limitations of this study and how fat people
But it is groundbreaking work that has been built upon for the last couple of decades