FRANCES HANCKEL and JOHN CUNNINGHAM
Holland's novel [The Man Without a Face] contains one of the most destructive and fallacious stereotypes [in YA novels dealing with homosexuality and the homosexual lifestyle]—the homosexual as child molester. Justin, whose scarred face is noted by the title, is responsible for the death of a boy under unclarified circumstances. In light of such limited coverage of the gay experience in YA fiction, the possible identification of such a major character as a corrupter of children is grossly unfair. (p. 308)
Frances Hanckel and John Cunningham, "Can Young Gays Find Happiness in YA Books?" (copyright © 1976 by the H. W. Wilson Company; reprinted by permission of the authors and publisher), in Wilson Library Bulletin, Vol. 50, No. 7, March, 1976 (and reprinted in Young Adult Literature in the Seventies: A Selection of Readings, edited by Jana Varlejs, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978, pp. 302-09).∗
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