This website is devoted to describing an incident of censorship that took place in Norman, Oklahoma, in 2009. Best-selling young adult fiction author Ellen Hopkins, who was scheduled to speak at Whittier Middle School, was barred from speaking due to a parent’s complaint about her recent free-verse novel, Glass.

Using interviews, administrative documents, and historical research, this is a thorough account of the Ellen Hopkins challenge in Norman, its cultural backdrop, and the responses that signal its significance in the scheme of censorship in general.

This site was created for A Burning Idea, a COPLAC Digital Humanities course dedicated to censorship research and digital fluency. We, the creators, hope it will be of use to those seeking more information about this case, or perhaps the history of young adult fiction censorship in Oklahoma as a whole.

Header image: “Broken Glass #1.” Jooinn.com.