Banned Book News

Last year I challenged myself to catch up on a number of banned books I missed out on while growing up. I've read and reviewed 17 of the 18 books on my list, but there are many, many more . . . so many, in fact, I could keep making new lists of banned books to read from now until forever, and you know what? I probably will. Banned books are almost invariably good books, books that make you think . . . which is probably why they were banned in the first place.

You never hear "banned in Boston" anymore; most of us assume book banning in the USA stopped sometime in the 1960s. Not so. As I began to read and review banned books, I was astonished to learn that the forces of darkness are still trying to ban or restrict access to these books. Would-be censors are everywhere, as active as ever, trying to stick their noses into our lives by controlling what we read.

I recently set up a news feed so that I can follow reports of book censorship in the USA. This, the first post in a series, is a roundup of current book banning news:

• A mother in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, tried to have The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by childrens' author Ann Brashares banned from a middle school library (she went after several other books as well, most of her objections centering on sexuality). So far the school board has resisted her efforts: http://jezebel.com/5477102/traveling-pants-stays-put-a-parents-failed-book-banning


• A non-fiction book by Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed, is on the 11th grade advanced English reading list at Easton High School in Pennsylvania. A man who does not have children at the school (or even live in the district) wants the book banned because it contains "socialist" ideas. The school board plans to hold a public hearing: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2010/02/lower_saucon_township_man_want.html


• Apple is busy pulling sexy applications from users' iPhones (yes, Apple can reach right into your iPhone and remove already-installed apps), but not all sexy apps are equal and some have been allowed to stay. Shockingly, Apple's decision may have something to do with money: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/22/itunes-promotes-sports-illustrated-sexy-swimsuit-app/


• Borders Books will not carry the the current issue of Q Magazine because the cover shows a topless Lady Gaga, even though Lady G is holding a hand over her breasts: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/44451809.html


• Idiot reader makes faulty assumption about the identity of Daniel Defoe, author of A Journal of the Plague Year (1722). Hilarity ensues. Scroll down and read the comment left by reader "Mark Twain": http://blogweekend.com/a-journal-of-the-plague-year.html


• Idiots on the Texas Board of Education pull Bill Martin's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? from 3rd grade reading list because they thought he was the same Bill Martin who wrote Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation. He wasn't: http://media.www.depauliaonline.com/media/storage/paper1414/news/2010/02/22/News/Behind.The.Books-3876197.shtml


• Former President George W. Bush refused to grant a recommended Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, "fearing that it would look like a tacit approval of witchcraft": http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/books/bush-snubbed-harry-potter-author-20100223-ote8.html


• Culpeper County, Virginia public school official denies pulling the definitive edition of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl from library shelves, while at the same time admitting he did just that: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6719881.html?desc=topstory


• Idiots in Texas (again!) try to ban Farenheit 451, a book about book banning: http://7-8-6.info/general/religious-nuts-in-texas-seek-to-ban-book-about-book-banning/


• Think schoolkids have it bad? Prisoners (in Texas, where else?) have it worse: http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/banned-in-texas-prisons-books-and-magazines-that-203986.html


• School principal in Kirkland, Washington forces changes to the script of a stage production of Snow White before allowing children to see it: http://www.thezeroboss.com/2010/02/05/school-edits-snow-white-thats-stupid/


• Parents in North Dakota try to ban Buster's Sugartime from school reading list because of Teh Gay: http://ndlaonline.org/ifblog/?p=326