From: Ken Cyll <buzzeocyll>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 05:46:22 -0400

Katy,

We weren't able to lay hands on any copies of SMACK in April when we were planning the workshop panel itself, so I called Holt and asked for review copies. They quickly obliged.

All panel members (two teens, two librarians - one younger and quite liberal, one older and more conservative - and a middle school social worker) read the book. So, yes, the other teen had also read the book. Her response was intriguing. She is an avid reader herself, but the only one who reads in her group of friends. Though I don't know her well, the things that she had to say led me to believe that she has had significant exposure to a drug culture. She was very positive about the book, spoke eloquently about the possibility of even sharing it with some non-reading friends, sure that they would identify with the characters.

The telling moment came when I told her over lunch that we'd like to give her one of the review copies to keep. She was thrilled and, were she a little girl, I imagined her hugging the book to her chest tightly.

Toni

Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS Longfellow School Library Portland, ME 04103


Terri, Thanks for giving us your 15-year-old son's review of "Smack." The conference panel on YA literature you described sounds intriguing. It's especially interesting to hear that "Smack" has had enough young readers that it would be discussed at a library conference. Was your son the only one who had had a chance to read it, or were there other panelists who commented on it? If the latter, was there general agreement among them that "Smack" was a good book?

Kathleen Horning

Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison Room 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park St Madison, WI 53706 Telephone: 608&3720 FAX: 608&2I33 ccbcinfo at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Thu 11 Jun 1998 04:46:22 AM CDT