Monday's Not Coming

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Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried. Do you feel that authors have a special responsibility to the victims of the crimes when their books are inspired by events that happened to them or their families?

In the “Before” timeline, Claudia has just returned from spending the summer between seventh and eighth grade with her grandmother in Georgia. It’s been an odd summer because Monday hasn’t written to her like she usually does. Monday’s phone is disconnected, and Monday doesn’t show up to school at all the first week. Claudia finally goes to Monday’s house after school one day, but Monday’s mother, Mrs. Charles, acts aggressive and insists Monday is with her daddy. Claudia is distraught. She believes something may have happened to Monday, but Monday’s disappearance also poses a different problem for Claudia: Monday has been helping Claudia cover up her dyslexia for years, and now, Claudia is on her own. Without Monday’s help, Claudia fears she’ll never get into the prestigious Banneker High, the high school she and Monday planned on attending. Eventually, her teachers identify her dyslexia and send her to the Learning Center, where tutors help her learn to read and manage her diagnosis. At the Canyons School Board meeting on Nov. 8, a woman read aloud from a book that she said she found on the shelves of Alta High School's library. Extremely touching. This book strikes a beautiful balance between a sweet story of friendship and profound story of loss and confusion. Review to come!A high school administrator in the district who spoke on the condition of anonymity said he doesn't understand why parent groups are targeting books when "every kid has a cellphone." Huffaker said challenges began to increase last year, and most of the targets were books about race. This year, and specifically in Utah, the challenges are more often aimed at LGBTQ content and sexual content.

And when she said the challenges are up 60% over last year, she notes that 'this year' doesn't end until Dec. 31. Haney said the district's policy review committee met Tuesday to discuss the issues with the policy and what should happen next. He said it will evaluate, review and discuss all related issues and decide how to move forward. This group eventually makes recommendations to the school board, and it's the board that would adopt any changes or new policies. District spokesman Jeff Haney said the policy doesn't apply to this situation, and says the district decided to pull the books off the shelves of the school libraries while district officials review what they now feel is an issue with the policy itself — the fact that challenges to library materials cannot come from outside a school community, nor can they come from the superintendent's office or school board members.

Did we miss something on diversity?

Monday's sister knows what happened to members of her family but fails to report it because she fears the dissolution of that family (a family that is so dark and violent that readers wonder why all of them wouldn't run away at the first opportunity); Eventually it becomes apparent why the author decided to do this, but by that point I'd already struggled too much. And, to be honest, I find myself once again raising an eyebrow at the ending, rather than being impressed. Readers of Allegedly will be poised in anticipation of some twist and, just as I thought it weakened the ending of that book, I feel like we are again presented with a reveal so out of left field that it's more "seriously?" than "oh my god!".

First Ravi Singh from AGGGTM then Jamie from the last housewife, now Michael... damn these thriller book bfs are boyfriend-ing harder than romance book bfs ever could 💅🏽💅🏽

It’s crucial for authors to not only respect the victims but also respect the families by doing solid research and making their stories appropriately different. Additionally, in all of my school talks and book chats, I make it a point to teach kids the difference between ‘based on’ vs. ‘inspired by’ so that readers are fully aware my books are not the carbon copy of someone’s tragedy.