Complicating Censorship: Reading All American Boys with Parents of Young Adults

In this article, we describe findings from a discourse community created for parents to discuss potentially controversial young adult literature. Focusing on participants’ reactions to All American Boys , the study explores how parents responded to issues of racism in the United States and investigates how participants conceived of the text for their own children and in English classrooms. We distinguish four themes in the parents’ responses: identifying with injustice, seeing Whiteness as a protection, stereotypes versus individuality, and reading as parents. Implications for preservice and inservice teachers, as well as teacher educators, involve preparation for leading difficult conversations and for working with parents toward transparency in classroom texts and topics.