Ljubljana City Library, Gold Pears and Assuming Responsibility

All of us dealing with studies on young adult literature (professionally, semi-professionally or unprofessionally) are also advocates of children in literature. We have a duty to treat the image of a child (from birth up to the age of 18) with dignity and respect, especially when it comes to problematic issues that the authors of young adult literature deal with by taking the side of children. These issues are therefore studied from a problemoriented aspect (in a decent and respectful way) and not in a problematic manner (e.g., attributing the desire for sexual abuse to the child and the shifting of responsibility for the sexual abuse of a child onto the child). Authors and literary historians dealing with young adult literature – as stated in the principles of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award – base their work onthe fundamental principle of trusting the child, and we are obliged to protect the integrity of the child, both in literature and real-world scenarios. Those of us who are truly committed to the well-being of children need to immediately inform the competent state authorities of possible abuses of children by staff, institutions and other people. The book entitled Evangelij za pitbule[The Gospel for Pitbulls]describes the primary sexual abuse of a child, while the secondary abuse is taking place "in front of us,"as the cameraman/narrator placesthe blame for sexual abuse (or for alleged consent) on the child, followed by the tertiary abuse by the youth literary system, or more precisely, the Ljubljana City Library which promotes the novel intended for adults, with adult fantasies, as an excellent literary work for children and young adults, although it does not have an unambiguous message and does not advocate for children's rights and integrity.

Keywords: Ljubljana City Library, Slavoj Žižek, The Plague of Fantasies, The Gospel for Pitbulls, ALMA (Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award).