Speak Faces School Ban, Alongside Slaughterhouse Five

Laurie Halse Anderson’s 1999 novel, Speak, is facing an attempt to ban her novel in Republic, Missouri, alongside Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Halse Anderson’s novel, which was a National Book Award finalist, explores the controversial topic of teenage rape. Due to its subject matter, the book has been condemned by university professor, Wesley Scroggins, as “soft pornography”. Scroggins also took the time to lambaste Vonnegut’s 1969 novel, suggesting in an article for News-Leader.com that it “is a book that contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. “ In particular, Scroggins raised concerns about the “f-word… (being) plastered on almost every other page”.

Slaughterhouse Five has faced multiple banning attempts and is featured in the American Library Association's 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-1999 list, alongside Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies. When discussing the use of profane language in Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut has suggested he was glad he had “the freedom to make soldiers talk the way they do talk.” Halse Anderson has commented on the recent banning attempt in Missouri, suggesting that she has “found a way to kind of love people who are so afraid of the world and afraid for their children that they think banning a book is an answer”. However, Halse Anderson also noted that she disagrees “with them completely about how they're going about it”