For once, not a funny post. I heard a beautiful impassioned plea from award winning author Padma Venkatraman at the James River Writers Conference this weekend. Though I had never thought about it until now, this is a horrible book, filled with the worst sorts of negative stereotypes. Don’t give it to your children or put it on your school reading lists. We’re not talking Shakespeare or Mark Twain, where the literary merit gives some justification, or at least leaves room for argument.