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Eleanor & Park Rainbow Rowell. New York: St. Martin's, 2013. 325 pages. $18.99. Grades 10 and up. ISBN 978-1-250-01257-9 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-250-03121-1 (ebook). YALSA Top Ten, Printz Honor Book, and "Best Book" lists in SLJ, NYT, and PubWkl.
Of the eight books chosen for this year's Honor List, Eleanor & Park was the first one to make it to the New York Times "Best Seller" list, and as far as we know, it was also the first one to be involved in a major censorship case. Parents of a reader at Anoka High School in Minnesota led a citizens' group in challenging the book's place in school libraries after counting 227 instances of coarse language or sexuality. An invitation to author Rainbow Rowell to speak at the school was rescinded, but after the school principal convened a committee of parents, staff, and a student to review the book, Eleanor & Park was returned to the library because the committee judged it to be "powerful, realistic, and appropriate for high schoolers."
The book is a love story between two outsiders. Park is half-Korean because...