THE ALAN REVIEW Winter 2016 77 Embracing the Difficult Truths of Adolescence through Young Adult Literature where young people can engage with social issues in safe ways. For this column, we asked two youth advocates to share their thoughts about youth culture, censorship, and young people’s right to read. Tracey Flores, the director of Arizona State University’s (ASU) youth literacy event, “Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros,” discusses her approach to creating a space that honors young people and their cultures, languag- es, and literacies. Meg Medina, the author of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass (2013) and a keynote speaker at Día, shares her experience with censorship and the importance of writing and providing access to books that embrace the difficult truths of adolescence. (Re)mediating Youth Spaces through Literature In May of 2015, ASU hosted its fifth annual “Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros.” This event, organized by Tracey Flores and Jim Blasingame, features authors, poets, and scholars who write about issues relevant to young people. In 2015, over 600 middle and high school students attended Día. They listened to keynote speakers such as poet Alberto Ríos and slam poet Myrlin Hepworth, as well as young adult literature authors Matt de la Peña, Bill Konigsberg, Tom Leveen, Meg Medina, and Jeanette Rallison. At Día, the few adults in the room—teachers, authors, chaperones, and other program facilita- tors—all worked to honor the often difficult realities young people have to face. The authors spoke about and against the marginalizing experiences of youth of This article is also available in an online format that allows direct access to all links included. We encourage you to access it on the ALAN website at http://www. alan-ya.org/publications/the-alan-review/the-alan- review-columns/. I n the call for submissions for this issue of The ALAN Review, the editors explain that “how we conceive of adolescence influences our perception of adolescents.” With respect to this column, we won- dered what censorship reveals about censors’ percep- tions of young people. It seems to us that when adults block adolescents’ access to books that address the concerns and possible difficult realities young people face, they suggest that adolescents are incapable of handling these challenging situations. Such a stance aims to cover and largely silence the ugly truths of adolescence—that young people are not always in- nocent and that some young people are the victims (and perpetrators) of violence, including bullying and verbal, physical, and sexual assault. Ultimately, censoring books that represent these issues in realistic and accessible ways works to undermine the lived experiences of so many adolescents readers. If censors hold a narrow perception of adoles- cents, the reverse is also true. As an organization, ALAN is evidence of the authors, librarians, and educators who recognize that many young people face challenging situations and who believe that, as a whole, adolescents are fully capable of understanding and addressing these issues. These adults honor youth cultures by creating discursive and literary spaces RIGHT TO READ Tracey Flores and Meg Medina with E. Sybil Durand and James Blasingame James Blasingame E. Sybil Durand L77-82-ALAN-Win15/16.indd 77 1/31/16 5:17 PM