Banned Books

Whoopi Goldberg reads banned books

2011-12-07T01:15:00.002-05:00

Shel Silverstein and Whoopi Goldberg? A good combination.

Helen: Banned Book Week at work

2011-10-02T10:13:00.001-04:00

Banned Book Week at a high school

Banned Book Week is over and it went pretty well at work for me (I am a high school teacher librarian). In the past I've done displays, a daily bulletin announcement with BBW facts, and at lunch teachers have read from banned books. Unfortunately, students don't tend to join us for the readings so this year I dropped that part of the week. Less stress for me and the teachers who volunteered in the past.

However, the display part is always fun. I have poster boards with lists of banned books as well as charts showing why books are banned, who bans them, and how many get banned each year. This year I stole an idea from a fellow teacher librarian and put the banned books in brown paper bags, which ended up being very beneficial and led to many fun discussions.

Students were definitely attracted to the bags that were on shelves throughout the library. They peeked inside to see which book had been banned and it got them asking questions and talking about banning much more than in the past. It was especially effective since I made sure to include favorites such as Twilight and Harry Potter as well as books they read in their English classes such as Of Mice and Men and To Kill A Mockingbird. I read that another teacher librarian uses caution tape on her display and I love the idea so next year I am going to add caution tape on the Library front doors.

Bonnie's Review ~ A Day No Pigs Would Die

2011-10-01T22:30:00.001-04:00

Review for Banned Books Week (BBW #22)

A Day No Pigs Would Die ~ by Robert Newton Peck, 1972, YA fiction (Vermont)

I've had a hard time trying to decide how to tell you about this book. It's been challenged and banned because of its graphic violence and sexual content. It has both. It starts with the boy, Robert, nearly getting killed saving a calf when the cow had trouble giving birth. The novel has a scene where a boar is thrown in with a pig who hasn't gone into heat and basically rapes the pig who is screaming the whole time. And there's one heartbreaking day when the pig raised by a 12-year-old boy must be slaughtered to provide food for the family. The boy, who "becomes a man" that day, had already learned how getting his chores done felt good, and he is aware of the beauty of the world around him. There was a lot of violence, but it depicted what life was like on a Shaker farm.

One complaint given by those who challenge this book is that the novel condones animal cruelty. And this is the scene that bothered me the most. The boy's father, Haven, invites his neighbor to let his dog learn weasel-killing skills on a weasel Haven has captured in the chicken coop. The two animals are thrown in together. When it's over, the weasel is dead, but the dog is so badly injured that she must be put to sleep. However, the father realizes he can't ever let that happen again, no matter how many chickens he loses. Nobody enjoyed what happened, and it wasn't done out of callousness. The father is trying to teach his son about "doing what's got to be done."

"I swear," Papa said. "I swear by the Book of Shaker and all that's holy. I will never again weasel a dog. Even if I lose every chicken I own."

His father told Robert he would not live much longer, and the boy would have to be a man at thirteen. We see how tender-hearted Robert is by what he does afterwards.

"I sat watching the red cinders turn gray. I stayed there until the fire died. So it would not have to die alone."

Haven, the father, was a butcher. He's the one who had to slaughter his son's pig. That's the most memorable scene in the book -- and the one shown on the cover above. The boy/young man said,

"Oh, Papa. My heart's broke."
"So is mine" said Papa.

And the son forgave what his father had to do. Robert was given the piglet, named it Pinky, raised it, fattened it up, and won a prize showing her. The pig was barren, and the family didn't have enough meat for the winter or enough feed to keep the pig as a pet. Slaughtering it was necessary. The son knew...

"He did it. Because he had to. Hated to and had to. And he knew he’d never have to say to me that he was sorry."

When Haven the butcher died, his co-workers came to his funeral, making that "a day no pigs would die." Because of Haven’s death, the pigs would live an additional day.

I rate this book 8 of 10, a very good book.

Also posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

2011-09-30T10:53:00.000-04:00

Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party. As she walks through London on a fine June morning, picking up fresh flowers, decorations, and finding just the right dress. As she prepares her home for the event, she is flooded with memories of her past -from Peter Walsh, whom she spurned years ago, to her daughter Elizabeth, the girl’s angry teacher, Doris Kilman, and war-shocked Septimus Warren Smith, who is sinking into madness.

As preparetions for the party continue, a series of events intrudes on her composure. Her husband is invited, without her, to lunch with Lady Bruton (who, Clarissa notes anxiously, gives the most amusing luncheons). Meanwhile, Peter Walsh appears, recently from India, to criticize and confide in her. His sudden arrival evokes memories of a distant past, the choices she made then, and her wistful friendship with Sally Seto…

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself" ~ first sentence

Hmmmm…. as close the book on Mrs. Dalloway I am left with this one lingering thought…

hmmmm…..

I have never read anything by Virginia Woolf before, and with banned book week upon us I felt that this would be a great time to read this book I picked up earlier this year at a sale… this book, Mrs. Dalloway which is considered to be Virginia Woolf’s best book, as well as a banned book.

As I read through this 177 page read I found it to be rather detail oriented, flitting from one topic and one character to the next. The twenty plus characters al play a role in Clarissa’s memories but also you get a peek into their own as well. The book is to be a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she deals with the present and the past. Really for a book published in 1925, the idea behind the book is brilliant.

There are strong subject matters that float through the pages…. feminism, suicide, and apparently referenced homosexuality (more on that at the bottom of this review)

I think for me, who has recently been immersed in dystopia fiction, a steampunk novel on audio, as well as a modern-day thriller…. I found Mrs. Dalloway to be a bit of a bore. I hate to say that I do…. but being honest here, the book more than likely came to me at the wrong time. It happens.

Am I glad I had an opportunity to try Virginia Woolf? Yes. But as for me and Mrs. Dalloway, I think we are going to agree to part ways as mere acquaintances.

“It’s not you Clarissa, it’s me. “

So… Mrs. Dalloway? Why are you a Banned book?

Mrs. Dalloway was banned in some communities because of the homosexual attraction of Clarissa to Sally at Bourton. Apparently there is a reference as well of Septimus being haunted by the image of his dear friend Evans. Evans, his commanding officer, is described as being “undemonstrative in the company of women”.

Beloved by Toni Morrision

2011-09-30T10:50:00.000-04:00

In the troubled years following the Civil War, the spirit of a murdered child haunts the Ohio home of a former slave. This angry, destructive ghost breaks mirrors, leaves its fingerprints in cake icing, and generally makes life difficult for Sethe and her family. People will not visit the home at 124 Bluestone road for it is clearly haunted – things moving on their own accord, a heavy reddish light of sorrow in the doorway. While Sethe’s daughter Denver would like to move, to escape this every ever enduring life, Sethe herself finds the haunting oddly comforting for the spirit is that of her own dead baby, never named, thought of only as Beloved.

Beloved is also a movie starring Oprah Winfrey

Does the above synopsis sound like a Paranormal read of today? It is not, instead it is a book released in 1997.

Beloved was my first book by Toni Morrision and I read this for banned book week.

In the beginning of Beloved, the haunting is merely ghost like, a feeling, a movement…. knowing someone is there. Soon in the book Paul D is introduced, a former friend of Sethe’s who is initially passing through the area, but upon making his way to Sethe’s door, finds that she was who he was searching for all along. His presence disturbs the ghost and brings her to full manifestation, in the body of a young woman who immediately falls upon the sympathies of Sethe and Denver as a woman who has nowhere to go and winds up staying with them.

Its hard to write my thoughts on beloved… it was at times powerful, the writing smoothly flowing on each page to the next as I followed Sethe’s loss and pain.. And then at other times it was disturbing. The entrance of Beloved and how she immediately wrapped herself into the family, only Paul D sensing that there was something about her that did not sit right…

As I closed the book (late at night) I had to sit with my thoughts for a bit, all jumbled and processing… was Beloved’s appearance into the home of Sethe a good thing? On one hand it led to abuse – both physical betrayal, and sexual. Her presence, being full accepted as it was creeped me out a bit. Yes on the other hand, Beloved’s arrival also forced Sethe, Denver, and Paul D to make the decsions they did…. to move on and beyond….

Perhaps even more so for me was the fact that Morrison based this book on actual events and the story of an escaped slave named Margaret Garner who had murdered her own child rather than see them all returned to slavery.

Overall Beloved is a disturbing read. Not always, in a bad way. This book made me think about the slavery in our history and the lengths people went to escape it. Toni Morrison shows us here through her work in Beloved, that some ways of escapes…

are not escapes at all.

Why was Beloved banned?

Challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine, FL (1995). Retained on the Round Rock, TX Independent High School reading list (1996) after a challenge that the book was too violent. Challenged by a member of the Madawaska, ME School Committee (1997) because of the book’s language. The 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning novel has been required reading for the advanced placement English class for six years. Challenged in the Sarasota County, FL schools (1998) because of sexual material. Retained on the Northwest Suburban High School District 214 reading listing in Arlington Heights, IL (2006), along with eight other challenged titles. A board member, elected amid promises to bring her Christian beliefs into all board decision-making, raised the controversy based on excerpts from the books she’d found on the Internet. Challenged in the Coeur d’Alene School District, ID (2007). Some parents say the book, along with five others, should require parental permission for students to read them. Pulled from the senior Advanced Placement (AP) English class at Eastern High School in Louisville, KY (2007) because two parents complained that the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about antebellum slavery depicted the inappropriate topics of bestiality, racism, and sex. The principal ordered teachers to start over with The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in preparation for upcoming AP exams.

Bonnie's Review ~ The Face on the Milk Carton

2011-09-30T02:30:00.001-04:00

Review for Banned Books Week (BBW #19)

The Face on the Milk Carton ~ by Caroline B. Cooney, 1990, YA fiction (Connecticut), 9/10

Summary: A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads 15-year-old Janie to think she was kidnapped a decade ago. So she goes on a search for her real identity.

"Janie finished her essay. She never knew what grade she would get in Mr. Brylowe's English class. Whenever she joked, he wanted the essay serious. Whenever she was serious, he had intended the essay to be light-hearted."

I was curious enough to keep reading after those opening lines, but more because of the mystery of that face on a milk carton. Writing an essay? That's what I do when I review a book. On the other hand, when I was her age, I also had to learn about writing and (as I read on the next page or so) thought about names. She thinks "Jane" is too plain, so she considers "Jayne." I, on the other hand, was the only Bonnie I knew, besides the aunt I was named for, so I longed for a more usual kind of name. I guess all kids feel weird about something.

I kept reading this book, but I wasn't imagining how it would feel if I'd been taken from my mom and dad, as I think most teens would, but as the mom wondering where her daughter was. For example, this section really got to me. All I could think was that her mother had missed all of these life events.

"Janie climbed the stairs to her room, passing by the ascending wall of photographs. Her parents disliked albums: they immortalized Janie on the stairs. Janie at the beach, on skis, in a Scout uniform, in her first dancing dress. Janie on their trip to the Grand Canyon. Janie in gymnastics. Janie at the Middle School Awards Ceremony. Janie on the runway for the fashion show the hospital sponsored as a benefit" (p. 26).

Why was this book banned? I can't imagine, since there's nothing in it that seems objectionable. Janie and a boy had an opportunity for sex, but didn't. Yet in 2002-2003, it was challenged in Texas Public Schools for "sexual content and challenge to authority." Ignore them and read the book, which kept me turning the pages. When I learned there are three more books in the series, I got online tonight and put them on hold at my library so I can read.....

Whatever happened to Janie? (1993)
The Voice on the Radio (1996)
What Janie Found (2000)

I rate this one 9 of 10, an excellent book. Also posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Helen on Banned Book Week

2011-09-29T08:15:00.006-04:00

Banned Book Week. How strange that we celebrate this, but I think it's such an important issue. I totally understand that a parent might want to keep a certain book away from their own child, but to try to take it away from everyone? Seriously? What happened to freedom of speech? Don't these banners understand that books are more interesting when they are banned?

Wait! I get it, the people who ban are really trying to get their kids to read by making it seem more enticing, right? No? Oh well, silly them.

Here are some of my favorite banned books because they are linked to fond life memories.

Judy Blume's books--who can forget discovering what it's all about through Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and Then Again Maybe I Won't.

Go Ask Alice--I remember passing this one around in sixth grade and encouraging each other to read the dog-eared pages. Decades later this is still a favorite amongst students at the high school where I work.

The Harry Potter series--every darn one of these (and the movies) is dear to me. When I got to see Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station in London, I was SO excited!

Of Mice and Men and To Kill A Mockingbird--both of these were books that I actually enjoyed reading in school even though they were required.

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

2011-09-28T20:18:00.001-04:00

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

published 2001 by Simon & Schuster

259 pages (hardcover), YA

Jacket flap:

My name is Sophie.
This book is about me.
It tells
the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love, too.

It's not that I'm boy crazy.
It's just that even though
I'm almost fifteen
I've been having sort of a hard time
trying to figure out the difference
between love and lust.

It's like
my mind
and my body
and my heart
just don't seem to be able to agree
on anything.

I think that's enough of a summary, really. You've got the main character (Sophie), the basic content of the book (her love life as a 15 year-old girl), and the style in which it's written (series of poems).

What My Mother Doesn't Know shockingly made it to #7 on 2010's Most Frequently Challenged Books list for reasons that I cannot comprehend. So, I'm just not going to even try. Instead, let's talk about why this book is absolutely amazing and why I love it so. :)

The title of this book makes it sound like it's going to be super trashy, but it's not - not at all! I don't like to do this, but I'm going to reveal the secret of the title for you. Cover your eyes if you really don't want to know. Here it comes ... What Sophie's mother doesn't know is that Sophie doesn't want to wear the ugly rose-printed dress she guilted Sophie into buying and that Sophie actually will be changing at a friend's house into a slinky black dress more suited for the Halloween dance. Oh Sophie, how could you! (Pardon the sarcasm.) C'mon, who hasn't performed the good ol' switcheroo? I know I certainly did as a teen!

What's wonderful about the book is Sophie's voice. She's so disarmingly honest. Her poems transport you right into the depths of a specific feeling. From the initial sparks of a new crush to the empathy of a lonely classmate and the longing for a better relationship with her mother, Sophie feels everything so acutely that you can't help but feel it a little too. On the back cover of my book, there's a blurb by Laurie Halse Anderson that sums up my thoughts about the story - "Tender and sexy and honest. With the poetry of an innocent kiss and the passion of a teenager's heart, Sones has created a book that feels like real love." Exactly! It feels like real love.

I remember reading this book when it first came out and absolutely devouring and adoring it because I could relate to it so well (even though I was a few years older than Sophie), but even reading it again just last night, 10 years later, I'm still right there with Sophie. It's not that it was a good book for me at the time because I could relate to it - it's just a good book, period. It's one that I'll re-read again and again because it'll remind me of what it's like to be a teen in such a beautiful and heartfelt way. Sophie and I are kindred spirits, that's for sure, but I think Sophie's charm can extend to those who may not relate so closely too. Gosh, I want to read it again right now! I'm not properly conveying how excited about and grateful for this book I am. You'll just have to read it for yourself to see why it makes me so giddy and tongue-tied. :)

So yeah, I was indeed surprised to find this book on last year's Most Frequently Challenged list mostly because it's so old. Ten years is a long shelf life for a YA novel! Does that mean it's on its way to becoming a classic? Are teens still gobbling it up like I did back in the day? I sure hope so! And I hope that this list appearance makes it a little more popular still.

Cross-posted to my blog, This Purple Crayon.

Bonnie's Review ~ Epaminondas and His Auntie

2011-09-27T08:00:00.005-04:00

Review for Banned Books Week (BBW #11)

Epaminondas and His Auntie ~ by Sara Cone Bryant, 1907, children's, 10/10

A child can feel good about knowing (or understanding) something when the child in the story just doesn't get it. Every time Auntie gives Epaminondas something to take home, he messes up. The cake she sent with him arrives in crumbs, and Mammy tells him he should have brought it home under his cap. Next time, it's butter and it's a hot day, but Epaminondas remembers and puts it under his cap. See the buttery yellow cover? That's butter melting all down his face and neck. Mammy says he should have dipped the butter in the water to cool it, but the next thing he brings home from Auntie's is a puppy-dog, almost drowned (more than "almost" in the original). Should have tied a string around its neck and come along home, says Mammy. So imagine the loaf of bread he brings next. Mammy gives up and says to him,

"O Epaminondas, Epaminondas, you ain't got the sense you was born with; you never did have the sense you was born with, you never will have the sense you was born with! Now I ain't gwine tell you any more ways to bring truck home."

Should the language be changed to make the mother sound more educated? No, of course not. The language is colorful, and changing it makes the book lose its appeal, in my opinion, though many have tried. "You ain't got the sense you was born with" sounds more like something his mama would say than "You don't have the sense you were born with." This is especially true at the end of the book where the instructions to Epaminondas must be phrased in a way that leaves the kind of ambiguity that "allows" him to step on the six mince pies left to cool off while Mammy goes to visit Auntie herself. I wasn't happy with the original version, back in my childhood days:

"Well, now, you hear me, Epaminondas, you be careful how you step on those pies."

I never, ever thought that sounded like anything an adult would say to me. It was that word "how" that didn't work for me. And this is "how" Epaminondas did it:
This book has been rewritten many times, including this version where, to eliminate the charge of racism, the main character becomes a possum.

Epossumondas ~ by Coleen Salley, 2002, children's, 7/10

This is a retelling of the Epanimondas story. That same section of the book goes like this:

"Ooooooh! Epossumondas! Epossumondas! You DON'T have the sense you were born with! You never DID have the sense you were born with! You never WILL have the sense you were born with! Now I'm not telling you any more ways of bringing truck home..."

That word "truck" in the mouth of a modern woman talking to a diapered possum just "ain't" right. But the 21st-century author did phrase the final instructions in a way that's more logical to our ears:

"Well, Epossumondas, you be careful about stepping on those pies!"

Yes, we realize immediately what going to happen, even with these bland words. Being careful "about stepping on those pies" works better for me than being careful "how you step on those pies." But still, this one doesn't grab me like the original, which has more character. I don't relate to the silly little possum, but I could imagine myself responding to instructions from my own mother, just as the little boy Epaminondas did.

The boy's struggles to do the right thing endeared him to me, in a way holding an opposum does not. When I was a child, I thought like a child. Would I have misunderstood the way Epaminondas did? No! ... so I could feel good about myself. Would I have known what my mother meant? Yes! ... so I could feel good that I was a big girl who could understand instructions. I wouldn't have related to a possum wearing a diaper. No, I was too big for that.

Back to Epaminondas and His Auntie:

According to Intellectual Freedom in Libraries: Then and Now, access to library materials was restricted in response to an objection by the San Jose, California branch of the NAACP claiming that this book depicts a black child as “completely idiotic and stupid.”

Epaminondas isn't stupid. He isn't an idiot. He's a little boy trying very hard to get it right. It's the adults who aren't thinking clearly. His Auntie could have been more specific, if only she had known how badly the poor guy was struggling to do the right thing ... just as I did, when I was a child. He was doing exactly as he was told, poor fellow.

Best comment I found online was written by Jan Zehr in 2003.

I credit "Epaminondas and His Auntie" with my ability to think critically. I am an entrepreneur have employed many people. The single, biggest problem in today's work force is the lack of ability to think critically. When given an instruction, if it is remembered(!), that instruction is construed to mean applicable in EVERY instance. Epaminondas is the condition of too many people today.

One example, true story, comes to mind of an airplane crash, the accident site was flooded with jet fuel and one of the survivors, on fire, was told to roll on the ground. Yes, that is the normal survival routine that we are all taught....it just doesn't apply if the ground is flooded with jet fuel! Life is flooded with jet fuel. We have think beyond the instructions we've been given. We have to analyze the conditions and THEN think of the solution.

I compare "Epaminondas and His Auntie" with Aesops Fables. I do NOT think that because a character is black it is bad. Does everyone need to be white? Let's rewrite "Epaminondas" in every color and every language. It was a definitive book in my childhood. Jan Zehr

Yes! Thanks, Jan, I love it!

I still love the book, having re-read it for the ten millionth time before writing this post. I rate it 10 of 10, because I still can't put it down.

Also posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Lush by Natasha Friend

2011-09-26T16:05:00.000-04:00

Lush by Natasha Friend
published November 2006 by Scholastic
192 pages (hardcover), YA

Thirteen year-old Samantha has a fairly normal life. She has three fantastic best friends, an adorable and energetic four year-old brother, and a mom who is quite obsessed with yoga. Oh, and her dad's an alcoholic. But he's not the blatantly belligerent type. He doesn't come crashing down the street, alerting the neighbors to his unseemly state. No, he just crashes around inside the house and forgets about it all in the morning. After one crash too many, Sam doesn't know how to deal anymore. She can't tell her best friends because they're just so normal and who knows how they'll react. So, she's been writing notes back and forth to AJK, some anonymous person she "met" at the library. All the while, she's also "mashing" (is that really the new word for kissing?) with a cute high school boy at the water fountain, who just so happens to invite her to a party. You can guess what happens there. This is Sam's life, a bit messy and complicated, but honest and real.

I downloaded this book last night because it was #6 on ALA's Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2010 list, and it is now Banned Books Week. The reasons it was so frequently challenged? Drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group. Yes, alcohol is a drug, and it's a running theme throughout the book. But it's not glorified in any way. Samantha hates that her father drinks. She tries it at a party one night, without thinking really, and realizes even more afterward how horrible it actually is. I won't even go into defending the other reasons because I think they're all unjustified and ridiculous. Common Sense Media does a good job of highlighting any questionable content, if you're really into judging a book before you read it. The one other thing I'd mention, though, is that it's definitely not "unsuited to the age group." I'd hand this book to a mature 10 year-old, I really would. I have students in 5th grade that would read this and really appreciate it.

Samantha's voice is just so honest. Lush isn't only about Sam's feelings about her alcoholic father. That would translate into problem novel, and it's definitely not one of those. We get to know her as a complex 13 year-old. A girl who wears baggy shirts because she's developed faster than her friends and doesn't know how to communicate those feelings. A girl who so desperately needs someone to talk to that she writes notes back and forth to someone she's never met. But a girl who still has her head on her shoulders (most of the time) and who knows the difference between right and wrong.

Natasha Friend articulates Sam's thoughts about her father so well - the way she analyzes his words and movements to tell if he's drunk, the way she checks all the supposedly hidden bottles of alcohol in the house to see if there's any liquid missing. And she makes Sam strong. Sam tells her father the truth - she doesn't believe him when he says he'll stop, and she says so. Although having an alcoholic father is a seriously tough issue, Natasha Friend provides a realistic way for teens to respond, cope, and make amends. It's not cutesy or wrapped up nicely. But it offers hope.

I'm so glad that I looked at this year's list of challenged books because I definitely missed this one when it came out. And I'm torn between being furious that it's been so frequently challenged and happy that it has been because it means that much more exposure for the book. You don't have to have an alcoholic in the family to get this book. But if you do, goodness gracious, you're not alone, and it feels so good to know that.

Cross-posted to my blog at This Purple Crayon.

Banned Books are for Sharing

2011-09-26T09:22:00.003-04:00

Reprinted from Bookfoolery and Babble

Image source

My first attempt at writing up a post on Banned Books Week went awry, thanks to a little injudicious cutting and pasting, so this time I'm going to truncate my text a bit and go with something a wee bit different. Drawing from a variety of banned-book lists, I'm going to talk about three of the banned/challenged books I've read and what they meant to me and my children. I will not be reading a banned book, this week, due to time constraints. But, I do have about a half dozen still waiting for me. I don't think I realized any book I came home with had been challenged or banned, at the time of purchase.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - I've only read it once and I suspect it wouldn't mean as much to me on a second reading, but when I began collecting classics for my personal library, in my early twenties, The Catcher in the Rye was one of the first I managed to find in our library's perpetual sale corner. I remember being surprised by the style, the informality and the very personal, voyeuristic sensation of reading from Holden Caulfield's point of view.

I also recall how easily I related to his pain and angst and yet, at the same time, I thought it was terribly funny watching him go completely nutso. The reason I related is that I still remembered junior high, I suppose. Now? Hard to say if I'd like it. But, as a fairly young reader, I appreciated that frank view of fictional Holden's misery at a time only a decade past two really miserable years during which I was lonely, awkward and bullied.

Recommended to my own kids? Yes, I handed it to both kids, at some point. I don't think either of them enjoyed it.

While searching for cover images, I found an article within a post noting J. D. Salinger's death at The War Eagle Reader. The article was originally printed in 1962. I highly recommend that you click that link and read the 1962 article, just for grins.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Another book I read quite some time ago, I recall realizing that I had no idea what I was getting into when I started to read this futuristic book about a man whose job is burning books and whose wife has left reality for the companionship of a simulated family. I absolutely loved Fahrenheit 451. It's a bit dystopian, really, isn't it? I'm using the Merriam-Webster definition:

Dystopia: an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives.

My fondness for dystopian novels (particularly futuristic and rooted in reality, as opposed to those that are more fantasy-oriented) is that they make you think, "What if this really occurred? Could it really happen? Are we headed that way? If so, what can our society do to prevent [the bad things] from occurring?"

Ironically, I think the simulated family in Fahrenheit 451 is the closest thing to a prophetic offering the book can claim. The Sims, anyone? Otherwise, I honestly only have flashes of memories about this book.

Recommended to my own kids? Yes! Both of my sons are book gobblers. They read fast and they go through obsessive reading phases and lulls. I think my eldest was in junior high when he came to me with the complaint that he'd run out of reading material and could I please give him some suggestions? I handed him Fahrenheit 451 and it immediately became his new favorite book. One year in the not-too-distant past, we ordered an autographed copy for him for Christmas. He also has a copy of the movie, which I've never seen. I don't think my youngest son has managed to finish Fahrenheit 451, although he kept a copy tucked in the back seat pocket of my car, for a time. Perhaps hacking away at it on brief road jaunts isn't the best way to read Fahrenheit 451. He did tell me he was intrigued, in spite of giving up about halfway through the book. It had been in the car for a couple months, by the time he decided it wasn't the best book for reading as we drove about.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's [Philosopher's] Stone by J. K. Rowling - I recall how my curiosity was piqued when I read about the excitement in Great Britain over this popular fantasy novel, well before it was released in the U.S. I just had to see what the fuss was all about and ended up buying the British version while we were in Scotland. I later purchased the Americanized version (which, frankly, ticked me off -- I think our children are perfectly capable of figuring out British English; if not, a glossary is a very fine addition to any book) for comparison. I was completely blown away by Rowling's wildly imaginative world and, admittedly, stunned when the book began to be challenged. Harry is the good in a good vs. evil plot! I was always impressed with Harry's strength of character. Magic was simply the world, the setting, the fantasy aspect.

At any rate, I loved Harry's world. But, I am not much good at reading series books back-to-back. I get series fatigue and I burned out either during or after #4. Someday, I'll get through the rest of the series. I didn't manage to acquire all of the novels in their original UK versions, but I prefer unsanitized British English. Kiddo doesn't care. Either way, he loves all the Harry Potter books.

Recommended to my own kids? Of course! My youngest son was one of those lunatics who had to stand in line for the midnight release of at least two of the books. He and his current girlfriend are both Potter fanatics, to this day. My eldest, on the other hand, was disinterested. But, he was in college and had other things on his mind.

Are you reading a banned book, this week?

Bonnie's Review ~ Falling Up

2011-09-25T09:25:00.008-04:00

Review for Banned Books Week (BBW #6)

Falling Up: Poems and Drawings ~ by Shel Silverstein, 1996, children's, 8/10

A good part of the humor of Shel Silverstein's poetry is the play on words, often by one who is taking something literally. Here's an example from page 75:

They Say I Have

They say I have my father's nose,
My grandpa's eyes,
My mother's hair.
Could it be that my behind's
The only thing that's really mine?

The drawing that accompanies this poem shows a child with arm outstretched to three relatives: dad without a nose, mom without hair, and poor ole grandpa without any eyes. We must study the child to imagine THOSE eyes for grandpa, THAT curly hair for his (her?) mother, and an appropriately adult-sized nose for like THAT for dear ole dad.

I can relate to this poem, because I remember a time when I was a very small child that I was quite perturbed when my mother said, "Keep an eye on your baby brother." I was so perturbed and so anxious that, to this day, I can vividly recall the feelings I felt. I wrote a post about it for my Words from a Wordsmith blog, with the words I threw back at my mother that day, "How can I keep an eye on him? Do I take out my eye and put it on him?"

Some of the humor of these poems comes from their evocation of the questions most children ponder. Did you ever wonder about God? The kid on page 78 did:

Description

George said, "God is short and fat."
Nick said, "No, He's tall and lean."
Len said, "With a long white beard."
"No," said John, "He's shaven clean."
Will said, "He's black," Bob said, "He's white."
Rhonda Rose said, "He's a She."
I smiled but never showed 'em all
The autographed photograph God sent to me.

Ah, the last line throws us for a loop! It's so unexpected. Well, it was for me, anyway, 'cause God never sent me a photograph, autographed or otherwise. I liked the poem about God in yesterday's book, too, but didn't find a way to fit it into the review.

Here it is, from page 152 of A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein:

God's Wheel

God says to me with kind of a smile,
"Hey how would you like to be God awhile
And steer the world?"
"Okay," says I, "I'll give it a try.
Where do I set?
How much do I get?
What time is lunch?
When can I quit?"
"Gimme back that wheel," says God,
"I don't think you're quite ready yet."

The wheel sticks up above one of the world's oceans, and that tiny boy would have a hard time turning it. Have I learned anything about Shel's theology? Nah, don't think so.

If you would like to hear a poem or three animated and spoken by the author/artist, click here. After the intro, click on "Shel's Books." Then click on "Falling Up" to watch an animation from page 77: "The Toy Eater."

Falling Up is fun, and funny, and playful, and I rate it 8 of 10, a very good book.

Also posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Helen's Review: Ironman by Chris Crutcher

2011-09-24T21:44:00.000-04:00

Title: Ironman

Author: Chris Crutcher

Genre: YA Fiction

Pages: 181

Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary (from the back of the book): Bo Brewster has been at war with his father for as long as he can remember. Following angry outbursts at his football coach and English teacher that have cost him his spot on the football team and moved him dangerously close to expulsion from school, he turns to the only adult he believes will listen. Larry King.

In his letters to Larry, Bo describes his quest for excellence on his own terms. No more coaches for me, he tells the talk show icon, no more dads. I'm going to be a triathlete, an Ironman. Relegated to Mr. Nak's before-school Anger Management group (which he initially believes to be populated with future serial killers and freeway snipers), Bo meets a hard-edged, down-on-their-luck pack of survivors with stainless steel shields against the world that Bo comes to see are not so different from his own. It is her he meets and falls in love with Shelly, a future American Gladiator, whose passion for physical challenge more than matches his.

Review: Chris Crutcher has done it again. He combines a sense of humor with horror and makes me want to read more. Bo is an angry teen whose dad is a total jerk, all they do is butt heads while Bo's dad uses denial to raise his son. Bo's reaction is to call his football coach an asshole, which lands him in this Anger Management group. This is a common theme for Crutcher who was a teacher and child/family therapist. My guess is that he was excellent at both.

All the characters except one in this book are male, making it one of those rare books geared toward teenage boys. There is also the sports element as Bo trains to participate in an Ironman (very long triathlon where he will swim, bike and run). However, the sports doesn't rule the book and is more of a vehicle for the character to let off steam, have some control of his life, and for the reader to learn more about the characters.

The issues that Crutcher raises in the anger management group are, unfortunately, typical family issues tied in with homophobia, racism, ignorance, and fear. When parents let their kids down and the kids need to be the grown ups, ugliness can take hold. These are the students in Bo's group and while they are angry, afraid, and yes, a little bit scary, Mr. Nak manages to get them to open up, admit things they are hiding, and come together for a common goal. This sounds sappy, but it isn't, not at all. It feels real and raw and that is the power of a Chris Crutcher novel.

Chris Crutcher has a number of novels that have been banned in addition to this one (Whale Talk, I think, and Athletic Shorts).

Paul's Review: Lush, by Natasha Friend

2011-09-24T16:07:00.003-04:00

Lush
Natasha Friend

I'm reading a few of the young adult novels that have shown up on the American Library Association's Top Ten Banned and Challenged List. Natasha Friend's Lush made the list in 2010, so I sat down to read it. And I have to say, I'm baffled. Why anyone would object to this book is beyond me. But according to the ALA, parents object to the book for the following reasons: it deals with drugs, contains offensive language, is sexually explicit, and is unsuited to the age group for which it is intended.

Drugs? The book is about growing up with an alcoholic parent. As the kids would say, duh! Offensive language? Samantha's breasts develop a little earlier than some of her classmates', and some junior high boys tease her about that. Unless I missed a purple passage somewhere, a couple of repetitions of the word "boobs" is what they're calling offensive language. Sexually explicit? Oh give me a break ... an older teenaged boy hits on Sam, but nothing happens ... she's a virgin going in and when the book ends she still is. There's no explicit sex whatsoever in this book. Unsuited to age group? How many young teens have alcoholic parents? Unless the answer is "none," how could this book be unsuitable for young teens?

Sorry, I'm not buying it. This is a helpful YA novel for troubled kids. With alcoholism as big a problem as it is in our society, there are a lot of kids with alcoholic parents, kids who could get support and direction from a book like this. Lush is everything you want a YA novel to be: kindly, understanding, full of good advice, supportive of good morals ... it even has a happy ending, for crying out loud.

My opinion only (and if you read the author's comments at the end of this review, you'll see that I may be the only person on earth to think this): the folks who want to ban this book aren't objecting to Lush for the reasons stated. They're upset there's a gay character in the book: Jesse, the library assistant who becomes Sam's friend and confessor. Reading parental comments on book-banning forums, I see hostility to books with gay characters come up again and again. I think that's what's really going on here. They want to ban this book for the same reason they keep going after And Tango Makes Three.

So how's the book? Great. Natasha Friend tells a compelling story, perfectly tailored for the young adult audience but one any adult will find readable. Very few of us are untouched by alcoholism, so Samantha's story gets its hooks into us quickly and doesn't let go. There are a lot of YA books about the dangers of drug addiction, but I was happy to see one ... and such a readable one at that ... dealing with the most common, arguably hardest and most addictive drug of all, plain old alcohol. This is a book all kids should read, and maybe all parents too. I'm glad I read it.

To close, a few words about the banning of Lush from Natasha Friend herself:

Lush has been banned in some middle schools. How do you feel about that? Befuddled. While I was writing, it never occurred to me that Sam’s story was in any way controversial or inappropriate for middle-grade readers. To my mind, the book is a realistic portrayal of a girl with an alcoholic father, a girl who is struggling with her own decision-making vis-à-vis alcohol and boys. The scene of contention for some parents and educators: when a drunken Sam ends up in a bedroom with an older boy and he attempts to take advantage of her. The incident, while disturbing, is not gratuitous. If anything, the scene serves as a cautionary tale — fruit for discussion, not forbidden fruit.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2011-09-24T13:34:00.003-04:00

Breathtaking action! I was transported into a world that may have once been mine… and I found myself anticipating what would happen next! ~ Sheila

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games.” The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place.

In My Opinion:

I read Hunger Games in November 2009 and I feel like I have just been let in to a secret club. Seriously. I have read reviews on Hunger Games for months prior and wondering what all the hype was. I entered a few contests to win it, and did not. I did however win a copy of Catching Fire and I knew I had to read Hunger Games first so I bought it last weekend and started it yesterday.
This is a book that by cover alone I would never have picked up. The title? Nope. Reading what it was about? Still a no, I couldn’t imagine myself reading on a topic of young kids fighting to the death. Even after I picked the book up and opened up to the first page I still am having doubt. What if I am that one person that just cant get into this book? And then I started reading…. and in no time, I love Katniss and her strength and her love for her family. I love Prim in all her youthfulness and sweetness… still mostly untouched by all the harshness of all this world that I have just entered. I could hardly put it down. You know the type. The book that you can hardly stop to eat dinner for. It traveled with me everywhere the past 48 hours. In any spare moments I had, I read.
I don’t know what I can say other than I loved this book! It is so well written that I have a list of people who I feel must read it. I have to tell my book club about it. I am not sure who to pass this book on to next because the selfish book lover in me is thinking, what if they damage it? What if I don’t get it back? I seriously am treating this book like a piece of gold I just discovered…. a book of much worth.
What did I read next? Catching Fire. It had to be next. I have to know what happened next.

Why did Hunger Games hit the Banned Book list?
I woman challenged to have the book removed from schools because she said her 11-year-old daughter began having nightmares after reading it.

The woman told the School Board that the book was wholly inappropriate for her daughter or any other student.
“Twenty-four children are pitted in a life-or-death struggle with each other. The reason? Entertainment. That’s sick,” the woman said. “You guys don’t want Columbine, but you’re putting forth material that will totally desensitize the children to murdering other children.”

NIGHT by Eli Wiesel

2011-09-24T13:23:00.004-04:00

In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life’s essential riddles with the lucid anguish only great literature achieves. It marks the crucial first step in Wiesel’s lifelong project to bear witness for those who died.

Elie Wiesel and the original cover of the book Night

There are few books that cross my path that I say are a must read for everybody. This would be one of those rare reads. I have had this book for over a year on the shelf. I took it down a couple of months ago, started it… and put it down for something else. Recently when browsing audio books at my library, this audio stood out to me and I thought maybe if I listen to it… so I borrowed it.

I love audio for the ability it has to let me multi task. I can listen to a book while folding laundry, cooking, dusting, cleaning… yet this story took me so far into the Nazi German concentration camps that I was rendered useless to do anything else but listen… for fear I may miss a word, or a moment of this incredibly powerful and heart wrenching story.

Elie Weisel’s memoir recaps everything from the sounds, the smells, and the visual empowerment of the camps. Along side his father Shlomo, they work in the camps trying to stay energized and look strong as the weak are picked out one by one and taken to the gas chambers to be asphyxiated.

There are moments in this audio that will not ever leave me as Elie retells a story of watching an elderly man hiding a piece of bread to share with his son, and the son beats his father to the death to have all of the bread.

…….

I pause here – because that particular part of the story brought me to my knees in my kitchen. Surrounded by ingredients I was using to make dinner, I looked at the excess I had in front of me as I listened to a man being beaten to death.. for a scrap of bread.

Elie recaps how as a teenager in the camp, always seeming to have to protect his own aging father, he admits to becoming weary of the task, at one time, as his father draws ill he admits to thinking, “If only I could get rid of this dead weight … Immediately I felt ashamed of myself, ashamed forever.”

While Night may not seem to be for everyone, I have to disagree. This audio changed me. I have read several books regarding the Nazi Concentration Camps and each time I am slammed with the reality of what a confusing and painful world we live in. I listened to this audio astounded how people can be so cruel to one another… and yet, I think it is so important that we recognize this.

Although I picked this up at my library, I will be looking for my own audio copy of this book. I think this is something I need to listen to again, and yes I will be reading the book as well… still open to the page where I left it in the Reading Room.

So why why why was this book banned?
~ Night is on the ACLU's list of banned and challenged books for the year 2001-2002

~It was challenged in Texas for profanity, violence and horror.

~As a result of challenge:, use of the book in the curriculum was restricted to select students.

Bonnie's review ~ A Light in the Attic

2011-09-24T09:24:00.011-04:00

Review for Banned Books Week (BBW #1)

A Light in the Attic: Poems and Drawings ~ by Shel Silverstein, 1981, children's, 8/10

Why was this book banned? Because it allegedly "promotes disrespect, horror, and violence." Oh, my! What about hilarious nonsense, made-up-words, and giggles? It has also been banned because of "suggestive illustrations." One library also claimed that the book "glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient." Oh, come on! I think we need to give children more credit. They are smarter than some parents apparently think. Okay, on to the book.

I love playing with words, as in this one from page 110:

Bored

I can't afford
A skateboard.
I can't afford
An outboard.
I can't afford
A surfboard.
All I can afford
Is a board.

The drawing shows a child with a board across his shoulder that spreads across both pages.

The best way for me to praise this book is by quoting from it, words and drawings. I'll "quote" this drawing from pages 140-141, because it's one I could find online:

click to enlarge

The poem on page 22 made me think it could have been his life's philosophy:

Put Something In

Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-gumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.

Thank you, Shel Silverstein, for putting some silliness into this world that wasn't been there before.

If you would like to hear a poem or three animated and spoken by the author/artist, click here. After the intro, click on "Shel's Books." Then click on "A Light in the Attic," and choose one of the three (or all three) poems, read by their creator. "Eight Balloons" is my favorite.

In a sign drawn on a flower, Shel dedicated this book to his daughter Shanna — Shoshanna means "lily" or "rose" in Hebrew — who turned eleven the year it was published. She died the following year, not yet twelve.

I rate this book 8 of 10, a very good book.

Also posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Two lists of banned books

2011-09-22T05:41:00.010-04:00

Top 100 banned/challenged books of 2000-2009

1. Harry Potter (series) ~ by J.K. Rowling
2. Alice (series) ~ by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3. The Chocolate War ~ by Robert Cormier
4. And Tango Makes Three ~ by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5. Of Mice and Men ~ by John Steinbeck
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ~ by Maya Angelou
7. Scary Stories (series) ~ by Alvin Schwartz
8. His Dark Materials (series) ~ by Philip Pullman
9. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (Internet Girls series) ~ by Lauren Myracle
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower ~ by Stephen Chbosky
11. Fallen Angels ~ by Walter Dean Myers
12. It’s Perfectly Normal ~ by Robie Harris
13. Captain Underpants (series) ~ by Dav Pilkey
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ~ by Mark Twain
15. The Bluest Eye ~ by Toni Morrison
16. Forever ~ by Judy Blume
17. The Color Purple ~ by Alice Walker
18. Go Ask Alice ~ by Anonymous
19. Catcher in the Rye ~ by J.D. Salinger
20. King and King ~ by Linda de Haan
21. To Kill A Mockingbird ~ by Harper Lee
22. Gossip Girl (series) ~ by Cecily von Ziegesar
23. The Giver ~ by Lois Lowry
24. In the Night Kitchen ~ by Maurice Sendak
25. Killing Mr. Griffen ~ by Lois Duncan
26. Beloved ~ by Toni Morrison
27. My Brother Sam Is Dead ~ by James Lincoln Collier
28. Bridge To Terabithia ~ by Katherine Paterson
29. The Face on the Milk Carton ~ by Caroline B. Cooney
30. We All Fall Down ~ by Robert Cormier
31. What My Mother Doesn’t Know ~ by Sonya Sones
32. Bless Me, Ultima ~ by Rudolfo Anaya
33. Snow Falling on Cedars ~ by David Guterson
34. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things ~ by Carolyn Mackler
35. Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging ~ by Louise Rennison
36. Brave New World ~ by Aldous Huxley
37. It’s So Amazing ~ by Robie Harris
38. Arming America ~ by Michael Bellasiles
39. Kaffir Boy ~ by Mark Mathabane
40. Life is Funny ~ by E.R. Frank
41. Whale Talk ~ by Chris Crutcher
42. The Fighting Ground ~ by Avi
43. Blubber ~ by Judy Blume
44. Athletic Shorts ~ by Chris Crutcher
45. Crazy Lady ~ by Jane Leslie Conly
46. Slaughterhouse-Five ~ by Kurt Vonnegut
47. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby ~ by George Beard
48. Rainbow Boys ~ by Alex Sanchez
49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest ~ by Ken Kesey
50. The Kite Runner ~ by Khaled Hosseini
51. Daughters of Eve ~ by Lois Duncan
52. The Great Gilly Hopkins ~ by Katherine Paterson
53. You Hear Me? ~ by Betsy Franco
54. The Facts Speak for Themselves ~ by Brock Cole
55. Summer of My German Soldier ~ by Bette Green
56. When Dad Killed Mom ~ by Julius Lester
57. Blood and Chocolate ~ by Annette Curtis Klause
58. Fat Kid Rules the World ~ by K.L. Going
59. Olive’s Ocean ~ by Kevin Henkes
60. Speak ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson
61. Draw Me A Star ~ by Eric Carle
62. The Stupids (series) ~ by Harry Allard
63. The Terrorist ~ by Caroline B. Cooney
64. Mick Harte Was Here ~ by Barbara Park
65. The Things They Carried ~ by Tim O’Brien
66. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry ~ by Mildred Taylor
67. A Time to Kill ~ by John Grisham
68. Always Running ~ by Luis Rodriguez
69. Fahrenheit 451 ~ by Ray Bradbury
70. Harris and Me ~ by Gary Paulsen
71. Junie B. Jones (series) ~ by Barbara Park
72. Song of Solomon ~ by Toni Morrison
73. What’s Happening to My Body Book ~ by Lynda Madaras
74. The Lovely Bones ~ by Alice Sebold
75. Anastasia (series) ~ by Lois Lowry
76. A Prayer for Owen Meany ~ by John Irving
77. Crazy: A Novel ~ by Benjamin Lebert
78. The Joy of Gay Sex ~ by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79. The Upstairs Room ~ by Johanna Reiss
80. A Day No Pigs Would Die ~ by Robert Newton Peck
81. Black Boy ~ by Richard Wright
82. Deal With It! ~ by Esther Drill
83. Detour for Emmy ~ by Marilyn Reynolds
84. So Far From the Bamboo Grove ~ by Yoko Watkins
85. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes ~ by Chris Crutcher
86. Cut ~ by Patricia McCormick
87. Tiger Eyes ~ by Judy Blume
88. The Handmaid’s Tale ~ by Margaret Atwood
89. Friday Night Lights ~ by H.G. Bissenger
90. A Wrinkle in Time ~ by Madeline L’Engle
91. Julie of the Wolves ~ by Jean Craighead George
92. The Boy Who Lost His Face ~ by Louis Sachar
93. Bumps in the Night ~ by Harry Allard
94. Goosebumps (series) ~ by R.L. Stine
95. Shade’s Children ~ by Garth Nix
96. Grendel ~ by John Gardner
97. The House of the Spirits ~ by Isabel Allende
98. I Saw Esau ~ by Iona Opte
99. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret ~ by Judy Blume
100. America: A Novel ~ by E.R. Frank

The 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000

1. Scary Stories (Series) ~ by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate ~ by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ~ by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War ~ by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ~ by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men ~ by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) ~ by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever ~ by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia ~ by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) ~ by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies ~ by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead ~ by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye ~ by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver ~ by Lois Lowry
15. It's Perfectly Normal ~ by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) ~ by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die ~ by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple ~ by Alice Walker
19. Sex ~ by Madonna
20. Earth's Children (Series) ~ by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins ~ by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time ~ by Madeleine L'Engle
23. Go Ask Alice ~ by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels ~ by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen ~ by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) ~ by Harry Allard
27. The Witches ~ by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex ~ by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) ~ by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats ~ by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy ~ by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber ~ by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin ~ by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC ~ by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down ~ by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit ~ by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid's Tale ~ by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves ~ by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye ~ by Toni Morrison
40. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents and Daughters ~ by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird ~ by Harper Lee
42. Beloved ~ by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders ~ by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman ~ by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night ~ by Harry Allard
46. Deenie ~ by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon ~ by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind ~ by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face ~ by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat ~ by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic ~ by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World ~ by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy ~ by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up ~ by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo ~ by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach ~ by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook ~ by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex ~ by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People ~ by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho ~ by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents and Sons ~ by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret ~ by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady ~ by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts ~ by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade ~ by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? ~ by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits ~ by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton ~ by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five ~ by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies ~ by William Golding
71. Native Son ~ by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies ~ by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells ~ by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack ~ by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima ~ by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? ~ by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie ~ by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes ~ by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor ~ by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid ~ by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets ~ by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg ~ by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone ~ by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ~ by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon ~ by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running ~ by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts ~ by Howard Stern
88. Where's Waldo? ~ by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier ~ by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo ~ by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth ~ by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose ~ by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education ~ by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones ~ by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex ~ by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms ~ by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree ~ by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid ~ by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist ~ by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom ~ by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Most frequently challenged books of 2010

2011-09-16T02:37:00.001-04:00

According to the ALA, these are the top ten most frequently challenged books of 2010.

1. And Tango Makes Three ~ by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

3. Brave New World ~ by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

4. Crank ~ by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit

5. The Hunger Games ~ by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

6. Lush ~ by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

7. What My Mother Doesn’t Know ~ by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America ~ by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

9. Revolutionary Voices ~ edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit

10. Twilight ~ by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: religious viewpoint, violence

Some Thoughts on Banned Books Week

2011-09-15T13:35:00.003-04:00

Banned Books Week (September 24 to October 1) is almost upon us. What's it all about? From the American Library Association's site:

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Not everyone is on board with the ALA's "banned books" rhetoric. A conservative columnist waves the BS flag, stating that books are no longer banned in the USA, and that the ALA's use of charged rhetoric amounts to hype. A progressive librarian echoes this theme, stating that parental challenges to the inclusion of certain books on school reading lists is not at all the same thing as banning books outright.

Another newspaper columnist defends the use of banned books rhetoric, pointing out that removing books from school curricula and libraries is in fact banning, because the intent is to keep students from reading those books. He also points to the new trend of rewriting classics to remove offensive words.

Where do I stand? I think Banned Books Week is right on.

It was an ALA list of the top 50 banned and challenged books, published in connection with Banned Books Week 2009, that reawakened my interest in the subject. Since then I've been reading and reviewing banned and challenged books, and reporting banned book news from around the Americas.

Parental challenges to books on school reading lists and library shelves are not in themselves that big a deal. It is when schools respond by removing books that it becomes a big deal, because it amounts to book-banning. I think it's important to distinguish between challenges and bannings, but as far as "Banned Books Week" goes, I think the rhetoric is fully justified.

They still ban books. They do it all the time. If it weren't for organizations like the ALA or annual observances like Banned Books Week, they'd be getting away with it to a much greater extent than they are.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Wendy's Review

2011-09-15T09:53:00.000-04:00

Even the best-behaved Admission is bound to need some work to swing into routine, and, also, you never can tell when just that certain one might come in who’s free enough to foul things up right and left, really make a hell of a mess and constitute a threat to the whole smoothness of the outfit. And, like I explain, the Big Nurse gets real put out if anything keeps her outfit from running smooth. – from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, page 39 -

Ken Kesey’s classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was published in 1962 – but the themes it embodies are as relevant today as they were then. Most people are familiar with the plot and characters (who has not referred to someone as a Nurse Ratched from time to time?!??!). The story takes place behind the walls of an Oregon mental institution, specifically on one ward run by the tyrannical Big Nurse. When Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives – a convict who has faked mental illness in order to get out of the work farm – no one is left unscathed.

Narrated from the point of view of Chief Bromden, a native American patient on the ward who pretends to be deaf and mute, readers are treated to a cynical look at society and its rules. He refers to the authority figures in the book as “The Combine” in reference to the mechanical way they manipulate individuals. The story is really a modern day parable of good vs. evil, and misfits vs. society. McMurphy represents the freedom that the patients have voluntarily given up – and it is McMurphy who shows them how to find the courage to stand up and be true to who they are.
He’d shown us what a little bravado and courage could accomplish, and we thought he’d taught us how to use it. – from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, page 227 -

Nurse Ratched controls her charges with a subtle, but dangerous combination of coercion and subtle threats. The battle between her and McMurphy gradually scales out of control as McMurphy’s influence over the patients escalates.

Themes of the book include the ostracizing of those who are different, and the emasculation of men (especially Harding, who is effeminate and is bullied by his wife; and Billy who stutters and is treated like a “boy” by his mother and Nurse Ratched even though he is thirty-one years old).
Although McMurphy, Bromden and Nurse Ratched play central roles in the novel, other characters are just as memorable including the already mentioned Billy Bibbit, Harding, “the black boys” (the cruel and jaded attendants on the ward), Martini (a man consumed by his hallucinations), and The Chronics (those patients who will never be cured).

Some readers may feel offended by the treatment of women in the novel – besides the Big Nurse, there are two prostitutes who take large roles in the book, as well as several other nurses who are stereotyped characters rather than individuals. Although I consider myself a feminist, I was not put off by this aspect of the book because I don’t think Kesey was degrading women…quite the opposite, I think he was showing yet another aspect of society of which he is critical (the compartmentalizing of the sexes).

Kesey’s novel deserves its reputation as a classic work of literature. The characters are well developed and although the subject matter could be perceived as being depressing, Kesey’s sharp sense of humor rescues the book from bleakness.

Readers who have enjoyed the movie, will also love the book.

This book was Removed from required reading list by Westport, Massachusetts, 1977; banned by Freemont High School, St. Anthony, Idaho (instructor was fired); and challenged by Merrimack (New Hampshire) High School, 1982.

Highly recommended.

Get on the BANNED wagon

2011-09-13T02:15:00.000-04:00

It's time to find a book or two to read during Banned Books Week, from September 24 to October 1 this year. If you have found a good list of banned books — or have a favorite banned or challenged book you think we should read — please share that information with us.

Paul's Review: Slaughterhouse-FIve, by Kurt Vonnegut

2011-08-15T16:51:00.003-04:00

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

Would you believe people are still trying to ban Slaughterhouse-Five? They are, and in some cases they're succeeding, as in Republic, Missouri, where the book has recently been removed from high school library shelves.

The simplest way to convey the essence of Slaughterhouse-Five is to quote Vonnegut's long title:

Slaughterhouse-Five; or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., a Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Cod (and Smoking Too Much) Who, as an American Infantry Scout Hors de Combat, as a Prisoner of War, Witnessed the Fire-Bombing of Dresden, Germany, the Florence of the Elbe, a Long Time Ago, and Survived to Tell the Tale: This Is a Novel Somewhat in the Telegraphic Schizophrenic Manner of Tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, Where The Flying Saucers Come From

This is a war novel, like Catch-22, that everyone in my college generation read. Everyone. It remains widely read today. In addition to being widely read, it has also been widely challenged and banned, from its publication in 1969 right up to the present day.* I hadn't read it in a long time, but hearing that it had been banned again -- this time from high school libraries and reading lists in Republic, Missouri, on the grounds that it isn't "Christian" -- prompted me to re-read it.

Vonnegut's writing style is simple and sparse, even repetitive. Many readers are put off by Vonnegut's repetition of the phrase "And so it goes" when characters die, but it is part and parcel of Vonnegut's quietist philosophy. As for the science-fiction aspects of the novel, I personally think the best way to interpret the Tralfamadorians and their way of perceiving time and death is as a manifestation of Billy Pilgrim's post-traumatic stress ... Vonnegut strongly hints at that himself.

Many books on high school reading lists contain salty language and some address sexuality, two elements present in Vonnegut's story, but few exude as strong an air of existential fatalism as Slaughterhouse-Five. Man will always make war. People will always die, horribly. You can't fight it. It is what it is. Best to look at life in its entirety, all times visible and occurring at once and forever, and to focus on those times that make us (or made us, or will make us) happy.

Vonnegut's good-natured fatalism is a direct challenge to religion as it is practiced in America, and though I deplore it, I fatalistically accept the fact that zealots will continue to attack this gentle, peaceful, wry book. It is what it is ... and so it goes.

Would I want my high-schooler to read Slaughterhouse-Five? Absolutely. Everyone should read it.

* A summary of Slaughterhouse-Five banning incidents from 1972 to 2006, compiled by the American Library Association:

Challenged in many communities, but burned in Drake, ND (1973). Banned in Rochester, MI because the novel "contains and makes references to religious matters" and thus fell within the ban of the establishment clause. An appellate court upheld its usage in the school in Todd v Rochester Community Schools, 41 Mich. App. 320, 200 N. W 2d 90 (1972). Banned in Levittown, NY (1975), North Jackson, OH (1979), and Lakeland, FL (1982) because of the "book's explicit sexual scenes, violence, and obscene language." Barred from purchase at the Washington Park High School in Racine, WI (1984) by the district administrative assistant for instructional services. Challenged at the Owensboro, KY High School library (1985) because of "foul language, a section depicting a picture of an act of bestiality, a reference to 'Magic Fingers' attached to the protagonist's bed to help him sleep, and the sentence: 'The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the fly of God Almighty."' Restricted to students who have parental permission at the four Racine, WI Unified District high school libraries (1986) because of "language used in the book, depictions of torture, ethnic slurs, and negative portrayals of women." Challenged at the LaRue County, KY High School library (1987) because "the book contains foul language and promotes deviant sexual behavior.” Banned from the Fitzgerald, GA schools (1987) because it was filled with profanity and full of explicit sexual references:' Challenged in the Baton Rouge, LA public high school libraries (1988) because the book is "vulgar and offensive:' Challenged in the Monroe, MI public schools (1989) as required reading in a modem novel course for high school juniors and seniors because of the book's language and the way women are portrayed. Retained on the Round Rock, TX Independent High School reading list (1996) after a challenge that the book was too violent. Challenged as an eleventh grade summer reading option in Prince William County, VA (1998) because the book "was rife with profanity and explicit sex:" Removed as required reading for sophomores at the Coventry, RI High School (2000) after a parent complained that it contains vulgar language, violent imagery, and sexual content. Retained on the Northwest Suburban High School District 214 reading list in Arlington Heights, IL (2006), along with eight other challenged titles. A board member, elected amid promises to bring her Christian beliefs into all board decision-making, raised the controversy based on excerpts from the books she'd found on the internet. Challenged in the Howell, MI High School (2007) because of the book's strong sexual content. In response to a request from the president of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education, or LOVE, the county's top law enforcement official reviewed the books to see whether laws against distribution of sexually explicit materials to minors had been broken. "After reading the books in question, it is clear that the explicit passages illustrated a larger literary, artistic or political message and were not included solely to appeal to the prurient interests of minors," the county prosecutor wrote. "Whether these materials are appropriate for minors is a decision to be made by the school board, but I find that they are not in violation of criminal laws."

Paul's Review: Crank, by Ellen Hopkins

2011-07-30T16:03:00.002-04:00

Crank
Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Hopkins' young adult novel is told in blank verse. This 400-page paperback is composed of short poem-like chapters, frequently with just a few words per page, with plenty of blank paper between short sentences and verse-like paragraphs. Compressed, the book wouldn't amount to 100 pages. I started reading at noon and was done by seven in the evening, with multiple breaks and time out for dinner and the Rachel Maddow Show.

Which is not a complaint, mind you. Some of the verse chapters are beautifully done and indeed can stand alone as poetry. I'm just saying, to any teenager who sees this thick paperback on the shelf, don't be intimidated by its size ... it's a quick read.

The story of Kristina and her alter-ego Bree was immediately familiar to me from my own teenaged reading. We had YA books like this when I was in high school in the 1960s, scary morality tales about teenaged boys and girls succumbing to temptation, the physical and mental horrors of going bad, and the slow climb back to redemption. Our books didn't have meth, granted, but they did have alcohol, marijuana, and heroin. And our books had teen pregnancy and the dangers of falling in with the wrong crowd, just as Ellen Hopkins' book does.

So other than the verse format, there's nothing new here. The story pulls you in, horrifies you (or tries to) with the details of Bree's plunge into wild girl behavior and meth addiction, and rewards you with her decision to have her baby, kick the habit, and become Kristina again. I think I caught a whiff of anti-abortion zealotry in the chapters about her visit to Planned Parenthood, but I could be mistaken. Nevertheless, that section of the book read like pro-life propaganda to me.

So why was Ellen Hopkins one of the most challenged authors of 2009 and 2010, according to the American Library Association? Why have some of Ellen Hopkins' scheduled school appearances been cancelled at the last minute? Why was she so famously dis-invited from a teen literature festival in Texas, a festival that was later cancelled after other authors protested her treatment by school board officials?

I dunno. I'm stumped. There's some sex in Crank, true, but no detail, nothing like the graphic and positive descriptions of sex you'll encounter in, say, a Judy Blume YA novel. And Bree gets pregnant the very first time, a classic trope of moralizing teen literature. Yes, there's the meth, but that too is presented from a moral angle, and as I mentioned, there's plenty of precedent for books warning teenagers about the dangers of drug use by describing the gritty, wasted lives of junkies. The word "fuck" appears maybe three times in 400 pages. So what's the problem?

The problem, it appears, is a growing hover-parent movement against "dark" YA literature (you can read about that movement in this Wall Street Journal article: Darkness Too Visible). There's no denying Ellen Hopkins' books are dark. They're also popular with teens. That puts them in the crosshairs of the anti-dark hover-parents. That appears to be the extent of it. Unless it's that pesky f-word.

Psst, hover-parents: if I was a teenaged girl and I heard that Crank or any of Ellen Hopkins' other books had been taken off my school library shelves, I'd run right down to the local public library and check out a copy. And if I was a parent with a teenaged girl living at home, I'd go check it out for her. So whatever it is you think you're doing? It ain't working.

The Book of Negroes/Someone Knows My Name: Paul's Review

2011-07-21T20:57:00.003-04:00

In a banned book news roundup on my personal blog, Paul's Thing, I mentioned a recent book-burning in The Netherlands, where a group protesting The Book of Negroes ... apparently objecting to little more than the word "negro" in the title ... burned several copies. I decided to read the book myself. Here's my review:

The Book of Negroes
by Lawrence Hill

(published in the USA as Someone Knows My Name)

I learned of this novel while doing research on a favorite area of study, the banning of books. A group of political activists in Amsterdam recently burned copies of The Book of Negroes, objecting to the title. The news article explained that The Book of Negroes, a novel about the slave trade in the Americas and Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, takes its name from the original "Book of Negroes," a historical document listing the names of blacks who served the British during the American Revolutionary War and who were resettled along with other loyalists in Canada after the British defeat. Well, I ask you, with an introduction like that, how could I not read The Book of Negroes?

I'm a white American who went to public school during the 1950s and 1960s, which is another way of saying I know almost nothing about slavery in America. Our textbooks barely mentioned it. White baby boomers learned what little we know from watching Roots back in the 1970s. I didn't get around to reading Uncle Tom's Cabin until last year. I didn't know American blacks fought on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War until I read M.T. Anderson's historical novels The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party and Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves.

The Book of Negroes/Someone Knows My Name is the fictional autobiography of Aminata Diallo, who, at the age of nine, is abducted from her African village by slavers, marched to the coast, and shipped to South Carolina where she is sold to an indigo planter. Partially literate when she is abducted, she fully learns to read and write through the kindness of a older, educated house slave. She's sold to an indigo inspector who teaches her the ins and outs of business and bookkeeping and eventually takes her to New York City where she escapes, just as Americans begin to revolt. She, like many other free and escaped American blacks, serves the British during the war, then is resettled with other black and white loyalists in Nova Scotia.

British abolitionists enlist her to help with a plan to resettle black loyalists in Sierra Leone; she returns with them to Africa. As an old woman, she travels from Sierra Leone to London with her abolitionist sponsor to testify before Parliament, playing a central role in the British decision to outlaw the slave trade. Along the way she is beset with injustices and outrages: her original owner rapes her, her first baby is sold, she's separated from her husband, her second child is abducted by a white family, she's forced to hide from runaway slave catchers employed by her first and second owners, she is betrayed by the British and her fellow Africans again and again.

Despite the piety and florid language, I was enthralled by Uncle Tom's Cabin. I devoured the Octavian Nothing novels and pray for additional volumes. I started The Book of Negroes/Someone Knows My Name with the same level of enthusiasm, but after a few chapters it faded. Aminata is too successful in overcoming the betrayals, debasement, and cruelty of slavery. Certainly, a few slaves educated themselves and reclaimed ownership of their lives, but Aminata is practically a 19th century Oprah, and frankly not believable. Her story, despite the horrendous injustices of slavery present on almost every page, is relentlessly upbeat. This is not to say that Lawrence Hill's novel is ever less than a good read; it is just a bit too positively educational for my tastes.

Kudos to Lawrence Hill for tackling dialect, which he does well. Few modern writers would have the balls to try it. Aminata, being the paragon she is, is fluent in three versions of English: Gullah, the "yes massa" language slaves use when speaking to whites, and the King's English. She also, inexplicably, retains the two African languages she knew when she was abducted at the age of nine, and I had a particularly hard time swallowing that. There are, unfortunately, a few lapses, with modern phrases creeping jarringly in, as when Aminata tells another black woman, "Nice try."

Overall this is a very well-written book, and it helps tell a story too few of us know, a story shamefully absent from our history books. I particularly appreciate the list of recommended reading Lawrence Hill includes in his afterword, because slavery-related material -- particularly the stories told by the slaves themselves -- is still hard to come by in the United States, and I mean to learn more.

Back to the thing that caught my attention in the first place: book burning and banning. Yes, this book has been literally burned. It has also been retitled to make it more appealing to American readers, something I consider a form of censorship. Why anyone would object to the original title of this book is beyond me, unless the very word "negro" has become so radioactive it cannot be used in polite conversation. Sadly, that appears to be the case.

When Uncle Tom's Cabin was banned in many American states, the stated reason was that it would fan the flames of abolition, but the unstated reason was its unflattering depiction of whites. That is certainly true of this novel ... after reading it I am distinctly uncomfortable with my white heritage. Of the many stains on white mens' souls, slavery is one that can never be scrubbed away.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

2010-10-21T09:58:00.003-04:00

Note: This review is based on my original post at A Novel Review.

I was immediately drawn into Ray Bradbury's monumental work. It was a very good fit for me. I read it because it turned up repeatedly on Banned Book Week displays as well as on banned lists. As I read, I could find nothing that warranted banning. I began to second-guess myself—thinking that I had misunderstood. Maybe it was recommended reading for the week since it was about the banning of books. But that was not the case. Some reasons given for the banning of Fahrenheit 451 include (1) offensive language and content, and (2) questionable themes.

From the back cover:
"The system was simple. Everyone undestood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden." Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames ... never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. And Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do ...

I've read commentary that place the setting of this futuristic novel in either the 21st or 24th century. Either way, the setting plays a significant role in the plot. The atmosphere is that of a police-state. Though many have conformed to this soulless society, there are still those who remember "how it was." I found the primary characters of Guy, Clarisse, Mildred, and Professor Faber to be the most developed. A suspense element drives the plot and supports the suspended delineation of the secondary characters.

I can only marvel at the similarities between Bradbury's dystopian society and that of today. The similarities are uncanny! Our mammoth flatscreens are only small one-dimensional versions of the parlor walls. Images constantly invade our minds—numbing our thought processes. Though not as often, I still sometimes leave an unwatched-tv on in a room. I thought my saving grace was that it was tuned to the cooking channel—or better still, a religious sermon. When I enter the room, someone is there demonstrating a cooking method or sharing a recipe or preaching or praying. But it actually doesn't matter what's on. The fact still remains that what's coming out of the tv (the wall) is being introduced into my psyche with little effort on my part. We still have time to reclaim the segments of our minds currently placated by what comes out of the ~~flat-screen~~ wall.

We are fastly approaching the society depicted in Fahrenheit 451. Whether books are banned or burned, the fact still remains that they are not being read. Our mp3 players are equivalent to the seashells the people placed in their ears. And while calling 222-TIPS (or its equivalent in your locale) is quite beneficial to society, it can still be likened to the parlor walls instructing citizens to open their doors at a given time in order to help catch Montag. These are but a few of the similarities shared between today's society and that depicted in Fahrenheit 451.

Bradbury is a thinker. Over fifty years ago, he could see where society was headed. I enjoyed reading this author so much that I picked up Now and Forever, a compilation of two previously-written short stories. I recommend Fahrenheit 451 to all readers. The following quote from wiki answers echoes the thoughts I entertained while reading Fahrehheit 451.

Like the opposition to "1984", the opposition to "Fahrenheit 451" seems to grow as the depicted society grows too similar to our own. One of these uncomfortable parallels is today's increased use of entertainment in place of learning and culture. Ray Bradbury has stated that this dumbing down was one of the concerns he was trying to raise.

I had never heard of Fahrenheit 451. Even the octogenarian friend I discuss many things with had at least attempted to read it. Now that I've explained that the setting was in the future, she's going to try it again.

SPEAK (The Movie)

2010-10-11T22:39:00.000-04:00

After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak.

During Banned Books week I had the opportunity to review the book SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book was brought to my attention during the big hype about the recent controversy surrounding the book and its status as a banned and challenged book. I read the book and found it to be very well and tastefully done.

While doing a little research on the book I was surprised to discover it had also been a movie. Surprise #2 was that the lead role of Melinda was played by non other than Kristen Stewart (you may know her better as Bella in the Twilight movies). I was instantly fascinated with this early role for Kristen as well as the movie itself.

Thank goodness for the miracle that is Netflix. I was able to find the movie that was released in 2004.

I appreciated the movie as much as I appreciated the book. Again, I was brought to the brink as I relived the books harder parts through the screen. Kristen Stewart does well in this role being at first silent with fear and later, able to SPEAK of what has happened to her. I found this movie to a wonderful companion to the book and highly recommend this to those who have had the opportunity to read this heartfelt book of a young girl’s life after rape.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

2010-10-08T00:08:00.005-04:00

Arnold Spirit (known as Junior at home) is a 14-year-old Spokane Indian. He was born with water on the brain, is regularly picked on by his peers, and loves to draw pictures. He refers to the world as a series of broken dams and floods and his pictures are tiny lifeboats. He loves basketball, and is fairly good on the Spokane Team. He decided if he stays in the reservation all his life he is never going to go anywhere just like his parents. They too had dreams once of being something more. He requests that they let him go to the rich white school in Reardan which is 20 minutes away. His parents agree. This destroys his friendship with his best friend Rowdy, who has always been this crazy Native American kid who will beat up anyone who looks at him twice. This once meant Rowdy was a source of protection to Junior, and now includes Junior in the beating category.

What happens when Arnold (known as Arnold when he switches schools) is that he once again finds himself the blunt of jokes and discrimination. He stays at his new school, determined to make it work, even sometimes having to walk the twenty minutes to and from when his dad does not have enough money for gas in the car. Eventually he makes a few friends along the way, and is able to find a happy medium between his life on the reservation and his school that is not.

Confession time. I picked this book up as part of Banned Books Week. It came to my library late but I still wanted to read it. After I brought it home with several others I looked up why it was banned. On line it said that is was banned for talk of masturbation, racism, and vulgar language. I almost returned it to the library unread. It was honestly, the first of all the banned books that I read this past couple of weeks that I can say I questioned if I wanted to read it or not. I don’t condone banning, not in the least, but I do believe in our rights to choose to read a book or not.

However, I listed this book on a post about the books I had received at my library and I started receiving comments from people who had read this book saying what an amazing read it was, some even calling it a favorite. A few others who hadn’t read it said that they had been wanting too. To all of these people, I say thank you. If not for you, I may have missed out on an incredible reading experience.

So I was cautiously optimistic when I opened up the book, still reserving the right to put it down at any time. (Oh the conversations I have with myself sometimes… )

I didn’t put it down.

The parts that I felt may have been unnecessary were so small. They did not take away from the book. I read this story told from a 14-year-old boys perspective and I have to say I really enjoyed the incredible insight he brought into race, stereo types, and color.

The pictures throughout the book are so important to the story line and really give Arnold’s story a life. The pictures add to what he is feeling, be it happiness, confusion, anger, or pain. You can see it all, and for me, I could feel it as well.

As Arnold shares his story I was reminded again how strong prejudices can be when people see through eyes of judgment. What I also seen was that the power of friendship and acceptance has a much stronger presence and hold.

While I would not say hand this book to your young child, I do think it is an important read for older YA and holds within its pages an amazing read that I will not soon forget.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

2010-10-04T23:00:00.004-04:00

Twelve year old Margaret has a lot of worries for her young age. She wonders if she will ever need anything beyond her training bra. When the time comes to kiss a boy, how will she even know how? And she is desperately afraid that she will be the last girl in her club to get her period. As if this wasn’t enough, she also has a new home and a new school. And where does God fit into all of this…

Ok. I think I became a reader through Judy Blume’s books. Ok…. maybe I started with my collection of Nancy Drews and then on to the Hardy Boys, but in those early years of double digits, Judy Blume was my author of choice. I fondly remember reading this book and it was a pleasure to pull it out again for this re-read.

Judy writes well with her sixth grade voice of Margaret, page by page going through Margaret’s fears and hopes for her new school and for herself. When Margaret’s teacher asks the students to share what religion they are, Margaret starts to wonder about that too.

What I love about this book is how Margaret takes her questions to God. Throughout the whole book God is her companion and much like a voiced diary, Margaret shares it all. The book is funny and sweet and a wonderful book for young girls as the are starting to ask their own questions. I think this book would be a wonderful discussion book that could be shared between mother and daughter.

Reading this book again made me laugh out loud (all I am saying is six cotton balls…. ) and reminded me of the wonderful stories and characters I had found with Judy Blume. It brought me back to a time when I worried about such things and it was good to read a book about a girl who had concerns like me.

Check out all the covers for this book… how fun are they!

Did you ever read this book? What cover was your copy?

Why was Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret banned?
Due to its relatively frank treatment of adolescent sexuality and religion, this book is one of the top 100 most frequently challenged books at libraries (i.e., books that have been requested to be banned), according to the American Library Association.

A fun FYI: This book was seen being read by Sawyer from the hit TV show LOST, on the beach, demonstrating his indiscriminate desire for reading material. He disliked the book, calling it “predictable”, with “not nearly enough sex”.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling

2010-10-04T22:57:00.005-04:00

He who shall not be named has once again… oops…. scratch that….. I guess I am a little deep into the story line yet….

*shakes head* Starts again….

Voldemort is once again causing a bit of destruction and mayhem in the wizarding world. It is the fifth year at Hogwarts and Harry has emerged into full-blown adolescence, including a crush, rage, and questions about his future. Dumbledore has taken to avoiding him at all costs and it seems to Harry that everyone has forgotten that he almost had died last year and had saved the school from yet another horrifying evil.

Then there is the new addition to the school compliments of the Ministry of Magic, Dolores Umbridge. A short toad like of a woman who is scrutinizing everything going on in Hogwarts much like a child would do to an ant with a magnifying glass. In no time at all she has Harry off the Quidich team … banned for life (there’s that dirty word banned again!) and in desperation the Griffindor Team puts Ron in as Keeper.

“Hem Hem”

Things are not so wonderful at the school as they had been in the past and Harry is really wondering what sort of future he is going to have if this keeps up….

I listened to this one on audio, which I have been doing all year, and highly recommend the audio versions if you have not yet experienced Harry Potter that way. Narrator Jim Dale is an experience in itself and you will not believe the many voices he uses for the different characters. I swear Hagrid is the real Hagrid and when Dale does Delores my skin crawls just like it did when I read the books!

While listening to this audio what I really noticed that I had not before (during my many readings of this book) is that this really is the book where Harry comes to the realization that his father was not the hero that he had built him up to be in his mind. Harry is introduced to some hard truths about his dad and has to learn that everyone has faults.

As I thought about Harry’s feelings about his dad I had to think that this was another great move on J K Rowling’s part. I swear, the more I listen and or read the books, I find more things that impress me. I thought about how easy it is to put someone on a pedestal when they have passed away…. how we forget the annoyances, and focus on the wonderfulness and what we miss. J K shows Harry a side of James that not only gives us a glimpse at why Snape loathes Harry so….. but also a look at his true father…. a fifteen year old hot-shot kid who thought he was super cool and loved to show off for his friends. This book really shows us a good message about relationships and Harry comes to realize that while his dad was not the perfect man he had imagined, he was still a very good man.

If you have not taken the time to experience Harry Potter on audio I highly (HIGHLY) recommend it. This rich installment won Jim Dale a Guinness World Record for the most character voices in an audio book. The series has won the Audies Hall of Fame Award. Fifth in the series. “Dale’s exciting, nuanced performance wholly captures the story’s irrepressible humor and magic.”—Booklist

Why was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling banned?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, along with the rest of the Harry Potter series, has been attacked by several religious groups and banned in some countries because of accusations that the novels promote witchcraft. However, some Christian commentators have written that the book exemplifies important Christian viewpoints, including the power of self-sacrifice and the ways in which people’s decisions shape their personalities. Educators regard Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and its sequels as an important aid in improving literacy because of the books’ popularity.

In July 2002, the parents of a student in Cedarville, Arkansas, filed suit against the School Board’s decision to restrict access to the Harry Potter series. The Board’s decision limiting the availability of the book only to students who received parental clearance came in response to a parent’s complaint that Rowling’s books promoted witchcraft and defiance of authority.

If only we could wave a magic wand and educate parents and school boards about the First Amendment.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

2010-10-04T22:55:00.002-04:00

Melinda wanders the halls of her school. She sees the excitement of the cheerleaders (which she has much opinion on this group), the decorations for the upcoming dance, people passing her… passing her… passing her by. The preps, the jocks, the human waste, euro-trash, big hair chix, goths, thespians, shredders, country clubbers, suffering artists… all roaming the halls in their little herds… Melinda stands alone.

She is outcast. And she is not speaking.

There is no point in looking for her friends…. err.. ex-friends. Her best friend Rachel, now goes by Rachelle. They have moved on without her. Ever since the day she called the cops during the party she was attending, the entire school population has turned their back on her.

Loser.

What they do not know is why Melinda called the cops that fateful night. Why…. why …. why…. they don’t know about IT. They don’t know about the rape. If only Melinda could Speak. Instead, she stops speaking… to her parents, to her teachers, to anyone.

Told in the first person of Melinda, I found this book to be filled with raw and real emotion. Melinda narrates with a true teenager voice. She is sarcastic and funnily so.

The first ten lies they tell you in High School:
1. We are here to help you.
2. You will have enough time to get to your class before the bell rings.
3. The dress code will be enforced.
4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.
5. Our football team will win the championship this year.
6. We expect more of you here.
7. Guidance counselors are available to listen.
8. Your schedule was created with your needs in mind.
9. Your locker combination is private.
10. These will be the years you look back on fondly.

I have to be honest… I picked up this book because I was hearing all the hype around it being challenged, and I was hearing also the other side of what this book was about. After reading it, I am pro this book. I did not find the subject matter to be anywhere near as strong as it was described and certainly not offensive. I thought Laurie Halse Anderson wrote in a very tasteful manner about a hard subject.

The book is a quick read and an important one. I loved Melinda’s inner dialogue throughout the book, and it is interesting to watch her grow in her own self-confidence through the dynamics that Laurie Halse Anderson breathed into other characters.

A book like this may help young girls find their voice to SPEAK. And that is really what SPEAK is all about.

FYI: Before she was Bella, she was Melinda. Kristin Stewart plays the lead in the movie SPEAK. (Which I am excited to see!)

Why was SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson banned?

The 1999 young adult novel Speak, which chronicles a high school freshman’s struggle with the aftermath of rape, was challenged by a Missouri professor and father of three in June.

Wesley Scroggins, an associate professor of management at Missouri State University in Springfield, made a public complaint to his local school board about Speak and two other books included on English reading lists at Republic High School. Scroggins also issued an editorial in the Springfield News-Leader on Sept. 18, in which he categorized Speak and other books on the high school reading list as “material that should be classified as soft pornography.”

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

2010-10-04T22:51:00.005-04:00

The background story: Fahrenheit 451 takes place in an unspecified future time (some dialogue places it after 1990) in a hedonistic, anti-intellectual America that has completely abandoned self-control. This America is filled with lawlessness in the streets ranging from teenagers crashing cars into people to firemen at a station who set their ‘mechanical hound’ to hunt various animals by their scent for the simple and grotesque pleasure of watching them die. Anyone caught reading or possessing illegal books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the books are burned by the firemen. Illegal books mainly include famous works of literature, such as Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, as well as the Bible and all historical texts.

My synopsis: The book opens with Fireman Guy Montag coming home after a long day at work. As he gets close to home he meets his new neighbor Clarisse who is young and free spirited. As they walk and talk Guy finds her talk strange… speaking of taking time to look at the grass and enjoy a summer. Yes, even after their brief encounter he can not get what she spoke of out of his head.
Once home he finds his wife laying on the bed having taken an entire bottle of sleeping pills. When Montag calls for help a team comes and cleans her out as though they were carpet cleaners. Their cold regard to a human life starts Montag really thinking about the state of society and about why he does what he does.

Firemen in this futuristic read do not put out fires… they start them. In fact in this world the firemen we all know never existed. Firemen always started fire. And why? Well, to burn books of course. Reading is BANNED, and if you are caught with books they are all burned, many times your home too, and occasionally the home owner. During one such raid, Montag catches sight of a line in one the books as it is being burned, “Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine.” This prompts Montag to steal a book…..

… and it’s not the first time….

This book should be the king of the banned books week. Why? Because it is actually a book about banning books. It’s brilliant – and so is Bradbury who I have never read before.

Honestly, before I listened to this book (yup – audio…. while I mowed the lawn and when I would get ready for work in the morning…) I had no idea what it was about. Well, sure I thought it had to do with fire… but if I would have known this was a book about burning books, I probably would have made this one a priority long before now.

Books, according to the story, do nothing but put ideas into people’s heads. And really who needs free thinkers all willy nilly coming up with their own ideas?

I really was impressed by this reading and was surprised really how much I enjoyed the story line. I have never been one for sci-fi or futuristic reads but have to make an exception in this case. For as old as this book is (originally published as The Fireman in 1951), it is almost spooky how it speaks of censorship.

I really enjoyed this audio – if you remember I had one audio of this I gave up on due to the narrator. Unfortunately that narrator was Ray Bradbury himself. I hate to say it, but I could not understand him. I sent that copy back to the library and purchased a different narrator at audible.com, read by Christopher Hurt. This one was amazing.

It’s frightening to think that as book stores close, libraries fight to stay open and e-books become more popular… that I picture my library becoming paper contraband… hiding my books in the basement under lock and key and the pretense of a storage room…

Why was Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury banned?

The banning of “Fahrenheit 451″ Ray Bradbury’s 1953 book about the evils of book banning and censorship is one of those circular jokes that we see every once in a while. The initial complaint was that the words “hell” and “damn” appeared in it making it a corrupting force on society. Opponents then noted that one of the books burned was a Christian Bible and took the position that the author advocated burning Bibles (rather than the opposite that he was trying to show how bad things had become)

A more obvious reason seems to exist. One of the main themes of the story is that a government which tries to suppress freedom of expression should be opposed. In the early 50′s, when this book was written, this advocacy of opposition was seen as a bad thing by real world authoritarian groups (e.g. McCarthyism) that claimed to have all the answers.

Like the opposition to “1984″, the opposition to “Fahrenheit 451″ seems to grow as the depicted society grows too similar to our own. One of these uncomfortable parallels is today’s increased use of entertainment in place of learning and culture. Ray Bradbury has stated that this dumbing down was one of the concerns he was trying to raise.

Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell and her students

2010-09-26T15:39:00.002-04:00

Twenty three year old Erin Gruwell was a new teacher in Long Beach, California. Erin was filled with energy and ideas and was not deterred when she was given the students referred to as the “unteachables”. Going optimistically head long into the class it did not take Erin long to see the invisible lines drawn between race, color, and social status.
When a picture is passed through the room making fun of a student, Erin brings up how hateful things like this start wars. Mentioning the Holocaust she is shocked to find that most of the students in her room had never heard of this. Using her own money, as the school would not provide books for such social outcasts, Erin teaches the students through reads like Anne Frank, and slowly builds the trust not only in her, but in each other.

I always try to read a book before I watch a movie although, such as in this case, it does not happen that way. When I seen this movie years ago I did not even know it was a book. The movie was phenomenal and even as I write this review and I think of this powerful story it brings tears to my eyes.
I had purchased the books years back after realizing it was a book and as many of my books do… it sat on the shelf until recently. Reading this book, was just as wonderful as the movie.
I can not stand hate. It is a dirty four letter word. I can not handle families torn apart and people judging each other for anything. Having lost all of my immediate family members to tragedies, it breaks my heart to see families choose not to speak to one another over whatever differences they feel they have.
What I wouldn’t give to have one more conversation with my mom. My dad. My sister.
I am getting off course, but this book brings out a lot of emotion as I felt again within the pages, the hate, the labels, the teachers who looked at these students as a waste of their time and the schools money. What Erin does costs her much, but the outcome…. is priceless. Within this true story you will find the power and passion of one person, who erased the invisible hate lines by daring to cross them and showing love to students that were starving for it.
An amazing and powerful read that if you have not read – I highly recommend you do. And this week, if you can make the time, I challenge you to rent this movie. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Amazon Rating

Why was The Freedom’ Writers Diary Banned?
On March 11, 2008, an English teacher at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, Connie Heerman, was suspended for a year and a half without pay for using the Freedom Writers Diary in her classroom against the wishes of the school board.^[Administrators objected to racial slurs and sexual content in portions of the book. Heerman had received permission the previous year to attend a workshop based on the books and obtained permission slips from the parents involved. The school board contends that Heermen did not properly follow the rules to receive permission to use the book. Erin Gruwell commented on the controversy, saying, "The best way to get a teenager to read a book is to ban it. When someone who is a daunting authority figure says, 'Give us your book', I think these students [thought], ‘There must be something powerful in these words’.
*FYI. The Diary of Anne Frank is also a banned book.
(1982) Challenged in Wise County, Virginia due to protests of several parents who complained the book contains sexually offensive passages. (1983) Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the rejection of this title because it is a “real downer.” (1998) Removed for two months from the Baker Middle School in Corpus Christi, Texas after two parents charged that the book was pornographic. The book was returned after students waged a letter-writing campaign to keep it, and the review committee recommended the book’s retention.

The Face On The Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney

2010-09-26T15:35:00.001-04:00

15-year-old Janie Johnson feels plain. Ordinary. She wishes she had a better name like her friends Sarah-Charlotte Sherwood and Adair O’ Dell. Those are names that say something. She thinks maybe she could start spelling her name with a “y”, like Jayne. Or two”y’s”, Jayyne. And maybe her last name could be something cooler, like Johnstone. How will she ever be anyone as Janie Johnson?

All of this changes when one day at lunch she sees a face on the milk carton of a little three-year old pigtail girl. The face, is Janie’s face. She remembers the dress in the picture and suddenly her world is turned upside down. Is she a missing child? Are her parents not really her parents? If she is not Janie Johnson….

then who is she?

The Face On The Milk Carton was a quick and good read. As I was reading this book I could not help but feel I had seen this somewhere and had a flash back to a younger version of me watching an After School Special about this. (Anyone remember after school specials? They were on tv around 4:00 in the afternoon and they were stories with a message. ) Sure enough, I looked it up and this was actually a tv show and seeing the actress that played Janie, it all came back to me.

The book deals with typical teenage angst. Janie gives me the impression in the beginning of just being bored. Of course that rapidly changes as she starts to have anxiety over what she discovered on the milk carton and starts to explore what that could possibly mean for her and the people she loves as her parents.

I thought the book was handled well and as I finished it I really had no idea why this book would have made the banned books list. Other than a brief possible sexual opportunity – which is considered, but declined, there really was nothing in the book.

The books ends suddenly and many questions are still left unanswered. Apparently to my surprise, the story doesn’t end with this book. There is a sequel to the book called “Whatever Happened To Janie?” AND then it goes on to a third book called “The Voice On The Radio” and concludes this series (4 books now… it is a series) with “What Janie Found“.

I never knew about the other books so that was interesting. Also interesting is that none of the other books are on the challenged or banned lists.

Why was Caroline B Cooney’s Face On The Milk Carton Banned?

The faintest reference to the idea of sex (a possible first encounter) was all that it took for a challenge to be made to this book. Subsequent protests involved a perceived “challenge to authority” that occurred when Janie becomes to determined to establish her true parentage.

The Kite Runner ~ two more reviews

2010-09-26T13:09:00.001-04:00

Wendy reviewed The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini (2003) a couple of years ago. I never wrote about it because I read the book years before I started reviewing books on my blog. Joy Renee wrote a review of the book in 2008, and yesterday she had this to say about about book banning on her Joystory blog:

"I have learned from experience beginning in early grade-school that story was the most effective, the most powerful, the most immediate method for developing an understanding of a person, culture or event--even those seemingly too alien or incomprehensible and especially those triggering any anxiety, disgust or fear. This is why I am fiercely in favor of freedom of speech and thought.

"But I have not forgotten what it was like to be a fervidly puritanical fundamentalist and so I also understand that it is that very power of story to change minds that is at the root of the challenges so the necessity of staying vigilant and proactive on this task of defending the challenged books and the right to intellectual freedom will remain for generations to come. Thus the ALA and the other organizations dedicated to this service to democracy and liberty have my gratitude and admiration."

Now you should go read Joy Renee's review (she calls it a "musing") of The Kite Runner. Read Sheila's review as well, since it was discovering Sheila's that convinced Joy Renee to write her own review. Sheila of Book Journey, who is one of the contributors here on Banned Books, also has a SPOILER page, in case any readers want to discuss that defining moment in the book. It's on a separate page, so the story won't be spoiled for anyone who has not yet read the book.

Joy Renee commented on Sheila's "spoiler" page about the family secret in The Kite Runner: "It could be said that the secrecy was more damaging and thus more damning than the original ‘sin’." I [Bonnie] agree that family secrets cause a lot of unintended harm. Please share what you think, especially related to this book.

Jumping on the "banned wagon"

2010-09-25T10:54:00.003-04:00

First edition cover

Mark Twain once said of his detractors: "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."

Twain knew about censorship. His Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most challenged and banned books ever. Most object to the language, though the original detractors weren't bothered by the racial slur that people today find offensive.

Banned Books Week, sponsored annually by the American Library Association since 1982, starts today. The title for this post comes from Sheila, who used it on her Book Journey blog this morning.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2010-09-08T22:05:00.006-04:00

Last week I read and reviewed To Kill A Mockingbird, easily naming this as one of my now all time favorite reads. The book was so well written, so smart, so engaging…. I just fell in love with it and I am so impressed with Harper Lee’s writing style and the story that she tells.

After finishing the book, I knew I wanted to see the movie and was lucky enough to find it at one of our few remaining video rental stores (uhhh yeah… whats with all the Red Boxes anyway?). I brought the movie with us camping this weekend and watched it with my husband as well as with our company which included two young girls ages 9 and 12. It is fair to say that i was actually a little jealous that they were able to experience this show at the ages they are where I am currently in my 40′s and seeing it for the first time.

The movie was… well, wonderful. Gregory Peck made an incredible Aticus and listening to him was just as I had pictured he would be, evenly tempered, wise in his speech, and gentle in his manner. It was wonderful to watch the book come alive before my eyes, and having just finished the book I enjoyed watching how it all played out on the screen.
As in all movies, parts of the book are lost. One of my favorite parts in the book was the end when Scout is walking home in the turkey costume and while that is in the movie, they cut out a lot of the story behind that part of the book, which I missed.
Over all I would highly recommend that everyone first read the book – you will not be sorry, and secondly, watch the movie, both are worth your time and you will forever have this wonderful piece of culture known as To Kill A Mockingbird.

Did you know that To Kill A Mockingbird was a banned book?

Fact: Challenged in Eden Valley, Minn. (1977) and temporarily banned due to words “damn” and “whore lady” used in the novel. Challenged in the Vernon Verona Sherill, N.Y School District (1980) as a “filthy, trashy novel:” Challenged at the Warren, Ind.Township schools (1981) because the book does “psychological damage to the positive integration process ” and “represents institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature:” After unsuccessfully banning Lee’s novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory council. Challenged in the Waukegan, III. School District (1984) because the novel uses the word “nigger.” Challenged in the Kansas City, Mo. junior high schools (1985). Challenged at the Park Hill, Mo. Junior High School (1985) because the novel “contains profanity and racial slurs:” Retained on a supplemental eighth grade reading list in the Casa Grande, Ariz. Elementary School District (1985), despite the protests by black parents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who charged the book was unfit for junior high use. Challenged at the Santa Cruz, Calif. Schools (1995) because of its racial themes. Removed from the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, La. (1995) because the book’s language and content were objectionable. Challenged at the Moss Point, Miss. School District (1996) because the novel contains a racial epithet. Banned from the Lindale,Tex. advanced placement English reading list (1996) because the book “conflicted with the values of the community.” Challenged by a Glynn County, Ga. (2001) school board member because of profanity. The novel was retained. Returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, Okla. High School (2001) despite complaints over the years from black students and parents about racial slurs in the text. Challenged in the Normal, ILL Community High Schools sophomore literature class (2003) as being degrading to African Americans. Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, N.C. (2004) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the word “nigger.”
Review by Sheila (Bookjourney)

Review: Animal Dreams (Barbara Kingsolver)

2010-09-06T10:59:00.000-04:00

Title: Animal Dreams

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Genre: Adult fiction

Pages: 342

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

FTC Disclosure: I bought this one with my own money WAY BACK in the early 1990s!

Summary (from the back of the book): Animals dream about the things they do in the daytime, just like people do I you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her hometown, Loyd's advice is painfully out of her reach. Dreamless and at the end of her rope, Codi comes back to Grace, Arizona, to confront her past and face her ailing, distant father. What she finds is a town threatened by a silent environmental catastrophe, some startling clues to her own identity, and a man whose view of the world could change the course of her life. Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American legends, Animal Dreams is a suspenseful love story and a moving exploration of life's largest commitments.

Review: I was nervous to re-read this book. I first read it in the early 1992; I had recently finished my Masters Degree and had just figured out that I wanted to be a teacher. I needed a job for a year or so until my credential program began and applied to work for our State Senator. In my interview the woman asked me what my favorite book was and I easily answered "Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams"! She had just read it and loved it so hired me on the spot! For almost 20 years I have said this is one of my favorite books. I was so afraid it wouldn't live up to my memories of it.

Well, honestly, for the first 6o pages or so I thought I was going to rate this book a 4 or 4.5. A good rating, but not what I remembered. But by the time I was done it was a 5! The books glides and is graceful in its storytelling. Each character is separate and distinct, yet connected to the whole in the way that we all are in our real lives; they are believable and likable. I felt like I was reading real life. I cried, I laughed, and I really felt for the characters as they agonized over death, their pasts, new relationships, and how to make things right.

Banning: "Parents of the Blue Valley School District in Kansas are currently petitioning for this and 13 other books to be removed from all high school classrooms in the district due to 'vulgar language, sexual explicitness, or violent imagery that is gratuitously employed.'" (American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression)

Review: Whale Talk (Chris Crutcher)

2010-09-06T10:52:00.001-04:00

Title: Whale Talk

Author: Chris Crutcher

Genre: YA fiction

Pages: 220

Rating: 5 out of 5

FTC Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my school's library

Summary (from the inside flap): There's bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don't have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway. A group of misfits brought together by T.J. Jones (the J is redundant) to find their places in a school that has no place for them, the Cutter All Nigh Mermen struggle to carve out their own turf. TJ is convinced that a varsity letter jacket--unattainable for most, exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as TJ is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High--will be an effective carving tool. He's right. He's also wrong. Still, it's always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets--piloted by Icko, the permanent resident of All Night Fitness soon becomes the cocoon inside which they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to bloom.

Review: No student should finish high school without reading Chris Crutcher! This is the second book by him that I've read in the past 3 days and I loved this one as much as Angry Management. Crutcher has a way with characters, plot, emotion, and finesse.

Characters--All the characters are so real in this book. From the small bi-racial girl who is warped by her bigoted "father" to the main character who wants to fix all the wrongs in the world to the cast of the swim team, all outsiders who just want to be accepted and not have to hang out alone. I believed every one of them and could understand where they were coming from. Well, not the racist a**holes, but I have met people like them and Crutcher did a great job at portraying their anger and fear.
Plot--I swam in high school and part of college so the swim team stuff was great for me. But, even if you never swim, you'll like this one. A swim team is just the vehicle for the rest of the story: hatred, fear, family, loyalty, overcoming obstacles, and more.
Emotion--I love it when a book makes me feel something. While reading this book I was angry, disgusted, afraid for the characters, sad, and hopeful. What a ride!

Banning: This book was "removed from library shelves and a district-wide school reading list in Athens, Alabama, despite the Superintendent of Schools' recommendation that it remain. Opponents of the book claimed it contained offensive language. Whale Talk was also banned from another district-wide reading list in Georgetown, South Carolina." (American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression) To read a letter from Chris Crutcher about the banning, click here.

Coming up ~ Banned Book Week

2010-09-06T04:16:00.001-04:00

September 25−October 2, 2010

C'mon, book bloggers!

How many challenged books can we review
between now and October 2nd?

The Catcher in the Rye - Wendy's Review

2010-06-20T14:00:00.002-04:00

She was right, though. It is “If a body meet a body coming through the rye.” I didn’t know it then, though.

“I though it was ‘If a body catch a body,’” I said. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.” – from The Catcher in the Rye, pages 224-225 -

J.D. Salinger’s classic novel The Catcher in the Rye is narrated entirely from the point of view of sixteen year old Holden Caulfield – a boy on the cusp of manhood who is trying to find his way in the world of adults. Holden’s ambivalence about becoming a man is evident from the beginning. He is a cynical, immature teenager who is full of angst. The novel is really a retrospective covering a narrow time frame that begins when Holden is kicked out of an expensive prep school and extends over about four days as he takes the train back to his home in New York City and encounters various other characters. Holden Caulfield is not likable – he is antagonistic, smokes incessantly, and uses foul language in nearly every sentence. He is also a rather unreliable narrator, a boy who overcompensates for his insecurities by being jaunty and full of himself.

Thematically the novel covers issues of isolation, sexuality, and teenage angst. Caulfield’s struggle to understand mature sexual relationships plays a large role in the story. Faced with the terrifying leap over the cliff into adulthood, Caulfield sinks into a depression as the novel progresses.

The story has a rambling style of run on sentences filled with pithy dialogue. There were times when I grew tired of Caulfield’s negative voice. If I had to live with this kid I would probably want to shake him until his head snapped back and forth on his scrawny neck. Despite those moments, there were times I wanted to like his character – he is a boy who loves writing and reading, and beneath his tough exterior is a sensitive kid who has no idea how to grow up.

The Catcher in the Rye has been a controversial novel since it was first published in the mid-twentieth century. Censored and challenged as part of high school reading lists, it has come under fire for its profanity, sexual themes, and teenage rebellion. I thought it rather tame compared to some of the other literature I’ve read.

I can’t say I really enjoyed this book. It is a quick read, but grew tiresome for me. I can see how it would appeal to teens – especially boys. I don’t really understand the idea of censorship or challenges for books like this…to me they are great places to start a dialogue with teens. Although I’m glad I finally got around to reading The Catcher in the Rye (for some reason I never read this novel as a teenager), it isn’t a tome I could recommend to other adult readers.

Just an average read that some might like –

Helen's Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Chbosky)

2010-05-30T20:25:00.001-04:00

Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Genre: YA, LGBTQ
Pages: 213
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
FTC Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my school library
Summary (from the back of the book): This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Review: I have heard so much about this book, especially since it is always on the Banned Books List. I'm always up for a banned book reading! Don't people who try to censor or ban understand that the act of banning makes something more interesting, intriguing, and sought-after? Anyway...

I really enjoyed the letter format of this book as the letters truly reveal Charlie's experiences, thoughts, and feelings. At first I really wanted to know to whom he was writing, but about half way through realized it didn't matter. Charlie pours out his everything into these letters, giving the reader great insight into his freshman year in high school. And what a year it was: experimenting with drugs and drinking (though not thinking of it as experimenting), starting to like girls and go on dates, learning to love reading and writing and having a teacher who really cares.

From page one I was swept up in Charlie's life and wanted things to go well for him. It isn't that Charlie is the biggest nerd over or that he is hugely socially awkward (ok, maybe he is), it's that he is just beginning to navigate all the ins and outs of socializing. Meeting up with an accepting and tolerant group of seniors is just what he needed to feel accepted and okay with himself. He doesn't totally get there, but by the end of the book he is certainly on his way.

I thought the situations and friendships as well as the difficulties the characters experienced were really true-to-life and handled well by the author. I found myself rooting for Charlie, that he would figure out that he is a good guy and really can get through it all without too many stumbles along the way.

Uncle Tom's Cabin: Paul's Review

2010-05-18T12:44:00.002-04:00

When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he reportedly said "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war." It's impossible to overstate the impact Uncle Tom's Cabin had on mid-19th Century America, indeed the world. Lincoln was dead on.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a barn-burner, even today. What a story it tells! By following the lives of a small cast of black and white characters over a five-year period, it rubs salt in every societal wound: those that were open to public debate, those no one dared speak of, those that live on today.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is about slavery, forced miscegenation, eugenics, the destruction of families. It's about the underground railroad. It's about the still-shocking collusion between the federal government and slave states in passing laws not only making it illegal for citizens of free states to help fugitive slaves, but mandating their cooperation in returning slaves to their masters. It's about the pervasive white fear of slave uprisings. It even brings up the idea of reparations, a subject that to this very day causes brains to explode.

When Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, in 1852, it was immediately banned in the South as abolitionist propaganda. Throughout the 20th century and up to the present day, conservatives and liberals continue to challenge the book's inclusion on school reading lists, citing objectionable language: niggers (house & field varieties), darkies, "the despised race," mulattoes, quadroons, octoroons, pickaninnies, mammies, Sambos . . . language that frankly makes me squirm . . . but what leaps out even more forcefully is Harriet Beecher Stowe's condemnation of Christianity as practiced by white preachers and congregations. There's no doubt in my mind this is the unvoiced reason behind contemporary objections and challenges.

Reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, I'm uncomfortably reminded that I grew up with people who used the same words and held the same benighted beliefs. I attended churches where racism and an implicit approval of slavery was still espoused from the pulpit. Sadly, there's plenty of evidence the kids I grew up with passed the poison on to their children and grandchildren.

Uncle Tom's Cabin hasn't lost its mojo . . . it still has the power to stir. But great parts of it are offensively unbelievable to modern readers, probably the result of Harriet Beecher Stowe pulling her punches, not wanting to completely alienate her intended white audience, too timid to say all the things that were in her heart. In 1852, it was perfectly conceivable that little white girls could literally die of excessive sensitivity, waving lace kerchiefs to devoted sobbing slaves as they drift away. Little black girls, on the other hand, torn from their mothers, forcibly impregnated by white masters, their own children in turn sold downriver for other white man to rape, worked almost to death in the cotton fields once they lose their looks, whipped and kicked like recalcitrant mules . . . it was simply inconceivable that they should be much more than annoyed by their experiences, coarse and uneducated creatures that they were.

And Uncle Tom . . . I thought I knew what it meant to call someone an "Uncle Tom." I didn't know the half of it. Tom loves his white masters. He'll do anything for them. When he's taken from his wife and children and sold downriver, he goes willingly, hoping for the best. He embraces the white man's Jesus, the cruelest character in the book: absent, uncaring, the emptiest of empty promises. Even as Tom exhales his final breath, the life literally beaten out of him, he cannot imagine raising a hand against a white man. Brother, you call someone an Uncle Tom, you're really calling him something!

Condemned and praised, Uncle Tom's Cabin is everything it's accused of: horrifying, upsetting, offensive, thought-provoking, moving. It started a war. It ended slavery in this country . . . at least for now.

Note: I read an illustrated and annotated version. The 150 black and white illustrations and 32 pages of color artwork are of interest and may be worth the extra expense. The notes and commentary, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Hollis Robbins, are trivial and distracting . . . they read as if written by fussy 12-year-olds. If you're considering buying a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, skip this annotated version and just buy the real thing.

- Read more banned book reviews at my blog, Paul's Thing

Banned Book News Roundup

2010-05-14T11:26:00.001-04:00

Here's another roundup of banned book news:

First, some small victories:

Washington state library board stands up to censors
Wisconsin mother who challenged school library books overruled by board of education
Graphic novel Bone survives school library challenge

Still, there are miles to go before we sleep:

Mom checks out teen books, keeps them to prevent kids from reading them
Mom gets her 15 minutes of fame, takes the books back
School library/curriculum book censorship alive & well in the Ozarks
Childrens' book author Dan Gutman discusses censorship attempts and what to do about them
Cool graphic depiction of our most targeted books
Complaining about nudity in a novel that contains no pictures is like complaining about there being too much sound in a sandwich
iBooks' word filter rejects "sperm"; Moby Dick rams Pequod in protest

Body Drama causes a stir

2010-04-21T23:15:00.000-04:00

I'm Helen and I have been a high school Teacher Librarian for only two years. Before that I was a history/government classroom teacher. When I took over the library position I asked if a book had ever been banned from our school library and was so pleased to hear that none had been.

Last year I bought a copy of Nancy Redd's book Body Drama (the link will take you to a review of the book on my personal blog) and meant to read it myself. I finally did a few weeks ago and was really pleased with the book. It has chapters on skin, boobs, buying a bra, dealing with acne, body image, how the media airbrushes photos, etc. The book's goal is to demystify women's bodies, help girls to know and love their bodies (whatever the shape or color), and to educate. Lofty goals in this day of air-brushed media beauties!

I thought the book was so useful for high school girls that I put it on the "New Book" shelf hoping girls would see it and check it out. What happened is that yesterday a group of boys looked through the book and started giggling and making comments (there are naked photos of women's boobs and vulvas). Apparently there was a girl right next to them and their comments really upset her. I wish I had been there to stand up to them for her, but I was teaching. Instead she complained to the administration that she wanted the book gone. I think the boys' actions made her feel vulnerable.

I got called into the administration's office and went down today, book in hand, ready to argue about censorship, intellectual freedom, and the importance of this book. Turns out I didn't need to. The administrator didn't even look at the book. I said I'd put the book on the shelves in it's proper spot and he was fine with that. So, crisis averted, but boy was I ready!

Catcher in the Rye

2010-04-12T08:40:00.000-04:00

Hey! I'm Kimber.

This is my first post here at Banned Books. One of the books on my Banned Books challenge was "Catcher in the Rye". It is a 'coming of age' novel that has be compared to "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". I don't think that is too much of a stretch.

The main character in "Catcher" is Holden, a 16 year old boy/man. Holden seems to be going through many of the changes that come with adulthood, but they seem especially challenging for him. He seems to be searching for something, some companionship, some comfort, but he also seems to be pushing away every person he comes in contact with through his socially misfit ways.

The two people Holden seems to love and seems to find no fault with are his older brother, Allie, who is dead, and his younger sister, Phoebe.

"Catcher" was on the Banned list from the early 50's for its "excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, things concerning moral issues, excessive violence, and anything dealing with the occult." Of course, we are much less restrictive about such things in 2010... aren't we?? I don't know.

JD Salinger says, about his book being banned: "Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach."

"Catcher" is disturbing and dark and depressing. Holden never seems to get a break. I found myself constantly pulling for him to just go home or to stop being so bleak. In the end, Holden does get his break...

But you'll have to read the book to find out how!

Beloved, by Toni Morrison: Paul's Review

2010-04-09T12:23:00.003-04:00

Toni Morrison's Beloved is a difficult read. Difficult, at first, for mundane reasons. Names you don't know how to pronounce (Sethe, Halle). Irritating, non-standard diction (whitepeople, blackpeople). A narrative structure that jumps without transition from character to character, time to time, location to location, leaving you to catch up as best you can. A general lack of clarity, for the first few chapters, on who the characters are and how they are related to one another.

Tempted to put the book aside, I pressed on. They didn’t give Ms. Morrison a Pulitzer and a Nobel for nothing, after all.

And suddenly, halfway through, it all began to make sense (except for the unpronounceable names and odd diction, which continued to trip me up to the very last page). Beloved is a ghost story. And the character of Beloved, the infant daughter Sethe murdered to keep her from falling into the hands of Schoolteacher, Sethe’s former owner, is only the proximate ghost. The real ghost of Toni Morrison’s novel is the history of slavery in America. It’s a good ghost story. It is also a shocking, disturbing look at the horrific part of our history we try to forget.

Beloved, of course, has been subjected to challenge after challenge, mainly from parents’ groups trying to have the book removed from high school libraries and reading lists:

Challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine, Fla. (1995). Retained on the Round Rock, Texas Independent High School reading list (1996) after a challenge that the book was too violent. Challenged by a member of the Madawaska, Maine School Committee (1997) because of the book's language. The 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning novel has been required reading for the advanced placement English class for six years. Challenged in the Sarasota County, Fla. schools (1998) because of sexual material. Source: Source: 2007 Banned Books Resource Guide by Robert P. Doyle. [link]

Beloved contains incest, rape, pedophilia, graphic sex, extreme violence, sexual abuse, physical/emotional abuse, infanticide, and an extensive amount of profanity. The first two chapters contain five references to sex with cows in addition to other types of sex. [link]

They cite violence and sex, but I suspect the real reason behind continuing challenges to Beloved is that it confronts us with our sins.

When authorities banned Uncle Tom’s Cabin they weren’t shy about stating their reason: the book espoused abolition and made whites look bad. When parents’ groups challenged The Color Purple and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, white and black parents alike were frank about disliking the authors' negative depictions of their own races. With Beloved, however, book banners hide behind sex and violence.

Americans never set up a truth and reconciliation commission on slavery. We don’t want to hear the truth about slavery, we don’t want to reconcile with our shameful past. Toni Morrison forces us to confront those aspects of slavery none of us, white or black, want to face: the brutality, the rapes, the taking of children, the impossibility of marriage and family life, the killing of slaves for sport, the feelings of utter helplessness experienced by escaped slaves even decades after they’d gained their freedom, the impossibility of trust or reconciliation between the races.

And that is the true, lasting difficulty this novel presents to readers: the mirror it puts up to our own nature. This novel will disturb and reward you. It's painful . . . and it's brilliant.

Read more of Paul's banned book reviews and posts.

Roundup

2010-03-19T15:44:00.004-04:00

Image courtesy Atom Smasher

I recently set up a news feed to follow reports of book banning, challenges, and censorship. This is a roundup of current book banning news from the USA:

Good news for kids who've been missing Captain Underpants
Why they're still freaking over Catcher in the Rye
RIP Bruce Roberts, a champion of banned books
Come on, you know you want it
Infamous suppressed kids' chemistry do-it-yourself book now in the public domain (and downloadable)
Protecting the place of (some) white Christian men in American history . . . thanks, Texas Board of Education
Two more links on the Texas school textbook fiasco: here and here

Banned Book News

2010-02-26T18:08:00.000-05:00

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

Intro Post

2010-02-05T13:24:00.001-05:00

Bonnie very kindly invited me to contribute here, so I thought I should probably introduce myself. My name is Laura (Mad Flippess - madly flipping through the pages). As my New Year's Resolution, I decided to read through ALA's top Banned and Challenged Book list, plus several banned and challenged books from other lists. I've given myself one year to finish all the books. I've finished two books so far ("Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "Winnie-The-Pooh").

My blog is here, and Bonnie has kindly agreed to let me type up reviews/little mentions of each book that I go through.

Thanks!

~ L.

More Book Banning News

2010-01-29T11:57:00.002-05:00

This time they're after Anne Frank's Diary (again).

Another Banned Book?

2010-01-26T10:53:00.001-05:00

Hat tip to one of my favorite bloggers, Radley Balko at The Agitator:

“It’s just not age appropriate,” said Cadmus, adding that this is the first time a book has been removed from classrooms throughout the district.

The book? Click here.

Rabbit, Run by John Updike: Paul's Review

2009-12-10T13:17:00.003-05:00

I read somewhere that Updike wrote Rabbit, Run at least partially in response to Kerouac's On the Road. If he did, Rabbit, Run is On the Road's evil twin.

Maybe the fact that I read Kerouac as a teenager, whereas I didn't read Updike until late middle age, accounts for the difference. When I was 15, On the Road filled me with a sense of free-falling exhilaration. As a 60-something adult, Rabbit, Run makes me reach for the nearest bottle of pills, depressed to the point of suicide. But stick with me -- this doesn't mean Rabbit, Run isn't a brilliant, important book.

The characters in On the Road are running, but not from responsibility -- they don't have any responsibilities. Harry Angstrom, the "Rabbit" of the title, has responsibilities and is running from them. He is an immoral craven, a mere coward, the very definition of an anti-hero. And yet you can't help liking him, just a little.

I grew up in a military family, moving every three years to different parts of the USA and Europe. I loved the promise of new horizons and couldn't wait to go to college, grow up, and see what the future may bring. Rabbit saw his future as soon as he opened his infant eyes, because it was all around him, stifling and inescapable. He grows up in a small Pennsylvania town, goes to high school there and is a bit of a basketball hero, and now lives and works within blocks of everything he's ever known. He's married to his high school sweetheart, who's nearing the end of her second pregnancy and has become a sexually unresponsive alcoholic. He's uneducated, has a crap job, isn't going anywhere, and is utterly stuck. Given my background, right there I'm ready to slit my wrists! Is it any wonder Rabbit runs?

But Rabbit only runs from one squalid situation to another, ruining the lives of those he leaves behind. He tries to straighten out, but his despair keeps overwhelming him, and off he runs, over and over. As the book closes, he's on the run yet again. Harry Angstrom, though the word didn't exist then, is a sociopath, a user of people, a loner who deep down doesn't really believe other people exist in the same sense that he himself exists. But he is a sociopath you can at least partially understand, and that is where Updike proves himself a master.

I read Rabbit, Run as part of my personal banned books project. As with the other banned books I'm reading, I try to find out why each individual book was controversial. Updike wrote Rabbit, Run in the late 1950s; it was first published in 1960. In those days, sex was not a subject for open discussion. Lady Chatterly's Lover was still banned in most communities in the USA, the birth control pill did not exist, Vatican II had not yet occurred, girls who got knocked up in high school simply went away to who knows where. So what does Updike decide to write about? Ah, you guessed it.

John Updike is famous for his unashamed, fearless exploration of sexual relationships between men and women. Even today, his writing retains the power to make readers squirm. Secret pimples and warts, smells, secretions, wet spots, the most intimate secret desires, the involuntary noises we make as we come -- all this is grist for Updike's mill. Can you even imagine how shocking his writing must have been in 1960? Indeed, upon it's publication Rabbit, Run was widely banned in the Americas and Europe, and as late as 1986 parents in Medicine Bow, Wyoming demanded its removal from a high school reading list. With the resurgence of right-wing Christianism in the USA, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it is being challenged all over again.

Rabbit, Run is many things -- depressing, embarrassing, thought-provoking -- but above all, it is real. Many books are banned for trivial, merely prudish reasons. This one was banned because it tells powerful truths about the fundamental facts of life.

James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl: Paul's Review

2009-11-30T13:21:00.005-05:00

I can already hear you asking why anyone would want to snatch such a cute book from childrens' hands. My god, have you read the thing? A malingering boy, shirking his chores, meets a rain-coated pervert and accepts from him a bag of body parts harvested from endangered species, then uses the illicit gift to create hideous genetic mutations. He runs away with giant insects, murdering his legal guardians in the process. And not one mention of Christ, never mind any hint of remorse, punishment, or eternal damnation. I weep for the souls of children corrupted by this work of Satan.

By the way, I'm Paul. Bonnie graciously invited me to join this blog and cross-post some of my banned book reviews. I normally blog over at Paul's Thing. I began reviewing banned books earlier this year; naturally enough, I'm starting with childrens' books. You can read about my own banned books project here and read some of my other banned book reviews here.

Be(a)ware

2009-11-29T18:13:00.004-05:00

"So, in Kentucky at the Montgomery County High School there is an English teacher named Risha Mullins. Mullins does amazing things at her high school to encourage reading and literacy. ... So, an energetic, dedicated professional who is getting positive recognition locally and nationally. Who brings money in, even! What's a school superintendent to do? Why, micromanage her classroom, telling her what books she can and cannot use."

You may want to hop over to Liz B's cozy blog and read all of what she posted today about this Kentucky school situation. Her post is entitled, What Do You Think?

Quote

2009-11-10T17:15:00.001-05:00

I really LOVE the following quote:

"Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them."
- Anna Quindlen

Anyone who knows me at all, will know that I am very against banning books. In fact, I have gone to the extreme of choosing books to read off of the most frequently banned book list. In my opinion, these books really inspire people to THINK. More specifically, they inspire people to think outside of the nice, comfortable, little box that we are all suppose to fit in. I am proud to say that I have never, and will never fit inside that box.

I am also against censoring books from our children. We cannot shelter them from real life. And by attempting doing so, we are sending them the message that we don't really trust them, and we don't really believe that they are capable of thinking. Open and honest and constant dialog with our children is the ONLY way that we can show them who we really are - our beliefs, our morals, our values. I really believe that opening their eyes to the horrible things in our world and discussing it with them, will not encourage them to be bad people - it will encourage them not to be.

Lolita - Jessica's Review

2009-11-10T17:03:00.003-05:00

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita is the story of Humbert Humbert, a pedophile, a murderer, and a European who has migrated to America. He falls in love with his landlady's 12 year old daughter, Dolores Haze aka Lolita. He ends up marrying the landlady, whom he despises, to be closer to the child. After the accidental death of his new wife, he becomes the sole custodian to Lolita, since she has no other living relatives. They then spend the next two years traveling across the entire United States in order to hide their relationship. She eventually leaves Humbert, and he spends three years trying to locate her. When he finally does find her she is 17, married, and very pregnant. Lolita ends up moving to Alaska with her husband and Humbert ends up on death row for killing the man (another pedophile) who originally stole her away from him.

Despite the story line, the book is beautifully written! I honestly think that it is the language of the book that keeps Lolita on lists such as the 100 Best of the Century. However, the subject matter keeps it on the most frequently banned list. It was a definitely a book worth reading, and although it was very disturbing, the author does not give an overly descriptive account of Humbert and Lolita's relationship. It is by no means pornographic. The author tackled the subject very tactfully. And even though a large part of me wanted to throw the book in the trash, the language kept me reading. Although the book is based on the subject of pedophilia, and is narrated by a confessed pedophile, it does not advocate the practice at all. Humbert himself, thinks that he is disgusting and knows that there is something wrong with him. He expresses an incredible amount of guilt for stealing Lolita's childhood.

This book is very hard to read because of what it is about. But if you do choose to read it, read the entire thing or else you will be left with the wrong impression.

Little Black Sambo ~ Bonnie's review

2009-10-17T01:25:00.003-04:00

Little Black Sambo was written by Helen Bannerman, a Scot who lived for 30 years in Madras in southern India. Many people have challenged this book for being racist. But let's look closer. This drawing for the original 1899 edition was made by Helen Bannerman herself. Yes, the boy has dark skin, but remember that this woman spent her life in India. Tigers, which are a major component of this story, are in India. People in India have dark skin. The boy is wearing shoes with curled-up toes. In no way does this book depict racism directed against blacks in the United States.

Aside from the drawings, the story itself is very positive, showing a child outwitting wild animals. This little boy is brilliant! He figures out all sorts of really clever ways to save himself from the tigers, who want to eat him. He gives one his beautiful little red coat, another his beautiful little blue trousers, a third gets his beautiful little purple shoes with crimson soles and crimson linings, and the last one takes his beautiful green umbrella. (It's a colorful book!) But wait! What would a tiger do with two shoes?

And Little Black Sambo went on, and by and by he met another Tiger, and it said to him, "Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!"

And Little Black Sambo said, "Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful little Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings."

But the Tiger said, "What use would your shoes be to me? I've got four feet, and you've got only two; you haven't got enough shoes for me."

But Little Black Sambo said, "You could wear them on your ears."

"So I could," said the Tiger: "that's a very good idea. Give them to me, and I won't eat you this time."

Ah, clever young man! Little Black Sambo escapes tiger after tiger and then watches as the tigers argue about which one is the grandest tiger in the jungle. The tigers, in a frenzy, chase each other around a tree in such a blur they turn into butter. Or "ghi," as it is called in India. What a smart little boy! There's no reason this book should be banned.

But let's look at changes to the story over the years. I have a copy of the book from my library with three copyright dates: MCMXXV (1925), MCMXXVIII (1928), and MCMLV (1955). The boy's looks have changed, as you can see in this picture, captioned, "Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up." The little blue pants are longer, and the toes of the little purple shoes with crimson soles and crimson lining no longer curl up. But his mother does, even in this version, make pancakes.

And she fried them in the melted butter which the Tigers had made, and they were just as yellow and brown as little Tigers.

This version has cute drawings, but something's off about these pictures. When Sambo hides behind "a palm tree" to watch what the tigers do, it is so very obviously NOT a palm tree, as you can see in this illustration. Maybe it's an oak tree, like those we have here in the southern part of the United States, but in no way is it a palm tree. Who made these changes? The artist? The publisher? Why? I have no idea, but this may be the version that seems racist to some. The problem is the drawings, not the story itself, which is STILL about a clever boy who saves his own life from four ferocious tigers. Not a mean feat, you know.

My verdict? Helen Bannerman's Little Black Sambo (1899) is not racist. A Scottish librarian agrees with me. Since she says the book is "one of my childhood favourites," she may even agree with my rating of the book: 10 of 10.
__________

NOTE: This is cross-posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

On My Honor ~ Bonnie's review

2009-10-09T00:31:00.005-04:00

On My Honor ~ by Marion Dane Bauer, 1986, YA fiction

How serious are you, really, when you promise something? Your honor is at stake when you promise, as Joel learned after he and his friend Tony swam in the river. Joel's father had said:

"On your honor? ... You'll watch for traffic and you won't go anywhere except the park? You'll be careful the whole way?"

"On my honor," Joel repeated, and he crossed his heart, solemnly, then raised his right hand (p. 8).

On the way to the park, however, Tony dared Joel to swim in the river they had promised never to go near -- and Tony disappeared in the water. Joel tried to find Tony, even got help from a passing teenager. But Tony could not be found.

Joel was devastated, but he was also terrified at the thought of having to tell his parents and -- worse -- Tony's mother. So he didn't tell. And the longer he waited, the harder it was to admit what they had done. Joel tried to carry on that afternoon, rolling and delivering newspapers on his route, pretending he didn't know where Tony was, but he wanted to yell at Tony and struggled with his feelings:

Why did he feel so responsible, as though he had pushed Tony in? Why did he always have to feel responsible for everything that happened? If they had gone climbing on the bluffs and he, Joel, had fallen, Tony wouldn't have blamed himself. Would he? (p. 66)

Yet Joel was also feeling protective of his little brother, thinking he "would have to teach Bobby how to swim" (p. 67). Near the end of that awful day, Joel learned something he hadn't known when Tony's mother said,

"Tony can't swim. He'd know better than to go near the river."

"He can't swim?" Joel asked... "Really?" (p. 71)

When he got home, Joel wondered:

Why hadn't Tony thought about his mother, about the way she worried, before he had decided to go for a swim? (p. 72)

But he still couldn't bring himself to tell the adults what had happened. This wasn't the first time I'd read this book. Both times through the book I was thinking like any parent:

"It's the not-knowing that's the worse" (p. 70).

"Nothing could change what had happened ... ever" (p. 82).

What Joel's father said, after everyone knew what had happened, are the words I'll remember:

"But we all made choices today, Joel. You, me, Tony. Tony's the only one who doesn't have to live with his choice" (p. 88).

I rate this Young Adult novel 10/10, a book I couldn't put down.
__________

I have seen this book on lists of banned or challenged books, but I can't find out why. If anyone knows, please leave me a note so I can update this post. Thanks.

Find more challenged books

2009-10-03T18:59:00.009-04:00

On this last day of Banned Books Week, let me suggest an additional way to learn about books that have been challenged. Laurie Halse Anderson knows what it's like to deal with challenges. Her sites document not only challenges to her own books, but also others that are being singled out. Here are links to some of her online writings, where you may find something interesting to read:

Her official site.
Her blog, entitled Mad Woman in the Forest.
She's on Facebook, if you want to become a fan.
Here's one of the Facebook notes where she lists other books challenged along with her own.

Where's Waldo? Too racy for the library...

2009-09-28T17:47:00.003-04:00

I've seen lots of blog posts about it this week due to the Banned Books Week buzz, and people asking, "Why? Why would they do this to him?"

Who is "him?" Why, it's Waldo, of course. Our favorite time-traveling, globetrotting, striped-shirt wearing everyman. Who would attempt to ban Where's Waldo?, and why? Can anyone explain this?

I can!

Well, I can at least provide some assurance that yes, it is true that Where's Waldo? is one of the most challenged books of the 1990s. I did a little research at the library this afternoon and found printed corroboration of one particular story of the book's removal from a public school library in New York, and the reasoning behind it.

As reported in both the New York Times and US News & World Report, as well as confirmed by the American Library Association's lists of the most challenged books in the United States, Where's Waldo? is a problem for libraries all over the country. The usual concern is that on the beach page of the original Where's Waldo? book, there is a topless woman lying face down on a beach towel, one extremely tiny illustrated breast partially exposed amidst thousands of other illustrated beach goers.

Author Anna Quindlen responded to the book's removal from the Springs Public School library in Long Island (and expressed frustration over challenges of other books) in her New York Times column, saying, "Winnie the Pooh does not wear pants. Just a warning."

It's been a long time since I've opened a Where's Waldo? book. However, what I remember about them was that I had a great time searching for the bespectacled world-and-time traveler in scenes from around the world. I never found anything about it offensive (and indeed, never noticed the topless woman on the beach page). High art they are not (there were no words, so fine literature is out too), but they were well-drawn in a cartoony style appealing to kids. The settings were always new and interesting, and every time you looked at a page it was possible to find something new in your search for good old Waldo.

Where's Waldo? was a perennial favorite in my elementary school library, and I hope kids today have the chance to search for him, too.

Cited:
ANNA QUINDLEN. (1993, April 7). The Breast Ban. New York Times (1857-Current file),A23. Retrieved September 28, 2009, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2006). (Document ID: 116337167).

Speak up about SPEAK

2009-09-27T09:00:00.007-04:00

"A good education depends on protecting free speech and the right to read, inquire, question, and think for ourselves."

You should read the whole letter that comes from.

You can also listen to a video of Laurie Halse Anderson reading a poem that includes words written to her by a lot of young people after reading her book Speak. One sentence stood out for me: "Your book cracks my shell." Because the book is entitled "Speak," Laurie entitled the poem "Listen." You should. You should listen to her poem. She reads it well, though the words may be hard to hear.

And if you are on Facebook, read Laurie's notes, a continuing series of reports about what's happening to her books. Just this past week Twisted was one of several books challenged by a parent.

To read what some of us have posted here on this blog about Speak, click here. If you've read the book, tell us about it in the comments.

Banned Books Week 2009

2009-09-24T10:13:00.002-04:00

During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2009 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 26 through October 3.

And Tango Makes Three has topped the list of banned and challenged books three years running. Cady and I reviewed this book last year. Click on this link to read what we said about it.
http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2008/04/and-tango-makes-three-cadys-review.html

Here's another link, this time to a librarian's answer to a patron who wanted the book Uncle Bobby's Wedding removed from the shelves. These sections seem to me especially pertinent:

"It seems to me – as a father who has done a lot of reading to his kids over the years – that that kind of decision is up to the parents, not the library. Because here's the truth of the matter: not every parent has the same value system."

"Our whole system of government was based on the idea that the purpose of the state was to preserve individual liberties, not to dictate them."

"I believe that every book in the children's area, particularly in the area where usually the parent is reading the book aloud, involves parental guidance."

"Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life."

Let's celebrate our freedom to read!

To learn more:

The Kids' Right to Read Project interviews the author, Chris Crutcher. Watch the four-minute video or read the transcript of the video.

This map shows where books have been censored. This site also links to details about specific books that have been banned or challenged.

How can YOU celebrate Banned Books Week?
How about reading a banned book? And if you have a blog, write something about the book you read. Or at least tell us you read it. I would love for you to come back here to comment and tell us which book you read. Let's do it!

Who's afraid of the big, bad book?

2009-08-20T07:11:00.004-04:00

Are library books bought to be circulated? Or to be hidden away so as not to offend anyone? Click on the title of the article to read what was in yesterday's New York Times about books that a patron or a librarian may have found offensive in some way.

A Library’s Approach to Books That Offend

Quotes from the article:

The 11 written objections to Brooklyn’s collection include complaints about “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison (sexual content), and “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green (obscenity and denigration of religion).

Twenty-seven books were banned, including Kay Thompson’s “Eloise in Paris,’’ whose heroine visits a museum with nude artwork.

Unreturned library book leads to woman's arrest

2009-01-26T21:05:00.002-05:00

Unreturned library book leads to woman's arrest (copied below) was published online day before yesterday (January 24th), but I didn't get around to reading it until just now. I was surprised to learn the book she failed to return was one of the books we discussed here: The Freedom Writers Diary. (Click on the title to read our posts about the book, or click here to read what we said about the book on my Book Buddies blog.)

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa – An Iowa woman has been arrested because she failed to return a library book. Thirty-nine-year-old Shelly Koontz was arrested Thursday night on a fifth-degree theft charge. She is accused of keeping "The Freedom Writers Diary," which she checked out from the public library in nearby Jesup in April. Police say the book — which is about a high school teacher's effort to inspire students to write — is valued at $13.95. Court records show library employees tried repeatedly to contact Koontz by phone and mail. A police officer even visited her home last September. Officials at the Buchanan County jail say Koontz was released after posting $250 bond.

It appears to me this woman "borrowed" the book in order to take it out of circulation, which may be the REAL reason she was arrested. What do you think?

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

2008-12-19T19:31:00.001-05:00

Originally published in 1974.
Unabridged audio book published in 1993;
narrated by George Guidall.

This book has been described as "a brilliant, unflinching portrait of vicious mob cruelty and conformity in an exclusive prep school."

I think my expectations of The Chocolate War were too high. Although I found parts of the novel to have been brilliantly conceived - particularly the idea that something as banal as chocolate could be the cause of so much violence - the whole thing just didn't come together for me. I wanted to go away with some new insight or having been changed in some way. That just didn't happen.

The book has been widely challenged over the years. The book is second on the American Library Association's list of the 10 most challenged books of 2007. The reasons given are as follows: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence.

While I didn't find The Chocolate War to be all I wanted it to be, I'm still glad I read it. First, I think it's worthwhile to read books that are considered to be "classics." Second, it's important to me that I be allowed to judge a book for myself and not let those who would decide what is "good" or "appropriate" for me - and the rest of us - to do that.

(Cross-posted from my book blog.)

NOTE to Language Arts Teachers

2008-10-27T19:43:00.002-04:00

Today I got an email from a language arts teacher whose class recently finished reading banned books of their choosing. She wrote:

I was wondering if you would mind if they posted their responses on your banned books blog. There are 30 of them, so it might flood your blog a little. I would just like them to know that this cause isn’t contained to our class, and that it’s an issue that inspires passion in many.

That's a great idea, isn't it? I wrote back:

I would be delighted for them to share their responses, and you may tell them I said so! Flooding the blog is NOT a problem. All of us have one or more other blogs, and most of us review all sorts of books -- banned or not.

If you send me their email addresses (which I would never share with anyone else), I will happily invite each one of them to post under their own names. If that isn't acceptable to you, let me know how you want to do it. Please include your own email, and I'll invite you as well. Then you would be able to tell the world about your class's project and introduce us to your students. (The most recent posts are at the top, so we may have to plan it if your post comes before theirs -- by having all thirty of them get their posts up before you add your own.)

After that, it's up to you how long you want them to continue to have access to the blog. As far as I'm concerned, they are welcome to remain as permanent contributors. That means in the coming years, as long as neither they nor I delete their names from the list, they will be able to post about other banned books they read. Each contributor has the option of choosing to end her or his participation at any time. It can be done without telling me, though I wouldn't mind knowing if you decide to quit. I'm sure at least SOME of the students will be excited enough to want to continue reading banned books because of your efforts to enlighten them. Thanks for the work you do.

It may interest you to know that, even a month after Banned Books Week 2008, this Banned Books blog is still my most visited blog.

Are any of you readers wondering why I'm posting this here? I responded to the teacher immediately and clicked "REPLY" to let her know how pleased I am, but Yahoo can't get the email through to her, for some reason. I hope she'll see this post and the invitation to post that I sent her, if Blogger is able to use that email address. Email me again, teacher (whose name I'm not using without permission). Other teachers who assign banned books to your students, please consider letting your students post here as well. Then email me for invitations: emerging DOT paradigm AT yahoo DOT com.

Catch-22: book & film

2008-10-05T21:43:00.001-04:00

I've had a long and tumultuous relationship with the novel Catch-22. As an undergrad, I was an English major, and it seemed to me that every male professor I ever had assigned Catch-22. The first time I read it, I felt pretty lukewarm about it. I enjoyed the humor and the structure, but I just hate war novels. Any war novels. There are even books I claim to love whose war chapters I skipped. Even if an author (like Joseph Heller) agrees strongly with me that war is the stupidest, most absurd and insane thing human beings do, I probably don't want to read his novel. I say his because women rarely write war novels.

By the third time the novel was assigned, I didn't even read it again. I was annoyed because I'd sold my first and second copies back to the bookstore and wasn't about to buy it again. The really irritating thing about all this was that none of the professors assigned even remotely similar topics for their papers, so I couldn't even recycle my writing.

In grad school, I took a course called The Comic Novel. It started out well, with Candide (the only other novel I was ever assigned more than once) and Tristram Shandy. Did you know they were both published in the same year, 1759? But when the time for Catch-22 rolled around, I was really starting to identify with Yossarian, and I wondered if my university had raised the number of times the book had to be read to 80.

When my husband and I began our tradition of reading aloud to each other (a habit we formed in our first week together), guess what was the first novel he wanted to read together? It was his belief that I really would love the book, if I could just form a positive association with it instead of having the number of ~~missions~~ papers I had to write about it raised every time I thought I'd written my last paper.

But it was our first week together, and I had little hearts dancing around my head, so I agreed. I was just smitten enough to believe that hearing it read in his voice could change my feelings about it. I did appreciate it a bit more, whether that was because my husband read it to me or because I didn't have to write papers about it or whether I just wasn't annoyed this time. I actually laughed out loud in places. But, you know, it was still a war novel.

And then yesterday I saw the 1970 film for the first time. And, well, it was a war film. But pretty good as war films go. I especially liked the camera angles. Unfortunately for the people involved in making the film, MASH was released the same year. I haven't seen that movie, either. War film. I've seen a couple episodes of the TV series by accident, but not many. War series.

Here's a page of trivia about the Catch-22 film.

There are almost as many different covers of the novel as the number of times I had to read the book for college.

You can read an excerpt here.

Celebrating Banned Books Week

2008-09-29T12:58:00.002-04:00

September 27 - October 4, 2008

Banned Books week is celebrated each year in the Fall by the ALA. In honor of the women who have had their works banned or censored, why not read a banned book by a talented woman writer? I've posted some choices at my blog Women Writers here.

You might also be interested in reading about women around the world who are in peril because of what they write. That post is here.

Banned Books Week

2008-09-12T12:55:00.003-04:00

Banned Books Week is September 27 – October 4 this year. Why not plan to read a banned book to celebrate our freedom to read? Then come back here and tell us which book(s) you read. Click to enlarge this poster so you can read the words, such as "Marvel at the threatening Anastasia Krupnik." See that 25 down in the corner? It's the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week. Now, what would you like to read?

Here are the Ten Most Challenged Books of 2007:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3. Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism

6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

7. TTYL (Talk To You Later) by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit

9. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the top-ten list this year are two books by author Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye and Beloved which were both challenged for sexual content and offensive language. They were on the 2006 list.

Freedom to Read - Individual Rights vs. Government Control

2008-09-06T14:03:00.001-04:00

The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label “controversial” views, to distribute lists of “objectionable” books or authors, and to purge libraries. -From The Freedom to Read Statement, ALA Website-

Banned Books Week is September 27th - October 4th.

Shi Huang, in 213 BC, started the ritual of burning books when he ordered books destroyed which he perceived as a threat to his rule as the first emperor of China.

On May 10, 1933 German students from renowned universities gathered in Berlin and other German cities to burn tens of thousands of books with “unGerman” ideas. Books by Freud, Einstein, Thomas Mann, Jack London, and H.G. Wells along with others written by gifted writers went up in smoke.

In 1980 a cultural revolution was launched and bands of Hezbollahis and Islamists attacked, destroyed and burnt libraries in Iran.

What do each of these examples have in common? They are an expression of a Government’s power to impose its own ideology on a people. Most Americans will read this and believe that what happened in 213 BC China, and 1930s Germany and 1980s Iran is far removed from their own experience in 2008 USA. But they would be wrong.

Americans freedom to read is challenged daily - often by local governments or fundamentalist religious groups. Books in the United States have been censored, banned, removed from libraries and taken out of schools. Often books come under attack because they conflict with somebody’s religious beliefs or they express a point of view which someone deems amoral. When we interfere with someone’s freedom to read we are imposing our ideology on that person.

I believe people have a right to pursue (or not) their own spiritual or religious path; they have a right to voice their thoughts on morality, politics, or world view. But I do not believe they have the right to tell someone else what to believe and then impose that by removing from society any reading material which does not support their ideology. That is why I track all the books I read which have been banned or censored. That is why at one time I moderated a Banned Books Group on Yahoo. That is why I contribute to Bonnie’s Banned Books Blog. And that is why when I read this article, I was alarmed enough to do something I do not normally do - introduce politics.

I’m not here to discuss my thoughts on Sarah Palin’s religious views because those should not have anything to do with her job as Vice President if the McCain/Palin ticket were to be elected in November. I do not want to know about Sarah Palin’s religious views. And I do not want her religious views and her sense of what is or is not moral imposed on me or any other American. I am appalled to think that Palin tried to do just that in her position of Mayor of Wasilla by pressuring the City librarian to remove or censor books from the library. Her letter to said librarian “requesting” her resignation was (according to Palin) just a test of loyalty. To me it smacks of bullying.

Here’s a good question - shouldn’t a Mayor be more concerned with crime, transportation and housing…rather than censoring books? Is Palin’s sense of righteousness so much a part of who she is that she could not separate her own personal beliefs from doing her job as Mayor? Do we really want our elected officials telling us what we can and cannot read?

Thomas Jefferson introduced the concept of Separation of Church and State as an inherent part of our First Amendment Rights. Although there is much discussion about this concept, it is clear that our Founding Fathers meant for religion to be removed from the act of governing our country. Does anyone think they would have approved of the government (local, state or federal) censoring or banning books as a way of imposing religious ideology on others? I don’t think so.

Sarah Palin’s brief tenure as a Mayor of a small Alaskan town (population approximately 9000), and her even shorter stint as Governor of Alaska (where she is currently under investigation on ethics charges) may be the only way for Americans to measure her ability to separate her strongly held fundamentalist beliefs from her sought after position of Vice President (and potentially President) of the United States. We should all consider this before entering the voting booth in November.

**Please be respectful in your comments. I welcome dialogue on this issue of BANNING BOOKS. Any disrespectful, flame-type comments will be immediately deleted.

**This article is cross posted from my personal book blog Caribousmom.

Connie and Tom Heermann ~ this post is for you

2008-08-24T02:18:00.006-04:00

I have been posting information about The Freedom Writers Diary ... and about your situation ... on several of my blogs. Tom, I'd be happy for you to comment on any or all of them, as they are for different groups of people:

Bella Novella ~ my face-to-face book club in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This group has already chosen to discuss the book on September 16th.

Book Buddies ~ my online book discussion group with people from all over the world. I suggested we read this one for September, and one has already expressed an interest. (Most accept whatever is suggested.)

And of course here on Banned Books, which you have already seen.

When I read, I take notes. Lately, I've been posting my notes online at my Notes, Quotes, and Questions blog, which is open for anyone anywhere in the world to read. As you see, I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but I'm really enjoying it.

Now for my big questions:

(1) Is there any chance I could call you on September 16th, Connie, to talk for a few minutes with my Bella Novella group? We meet at 7:00 pm Eastern Time, but it would be better if we could talk for maybe an hour and have our questions ready for you about 8:00 pm Eastern Time.

(2) Is there any chance you could say something to the online Book Buddies group during September? This group discusses a book for a whole month, posting thoughts about once a week, so halfway through the month (at your discretion) would be wonderful.

(3) Could you ask Erin the same questions? Maybe I should go to the web site and see whether I can reach her that way, but if you talk to her, it would be nice if you mention me.

Here's my email address (use the named symbols): emerging (dot) paradigm (at) yahoo (dot) com. I will happily email you my phone number, but I don't post it online. Here's my profile ... with this photograph of me.

If any of these would compromise your job or anything, please tell me "no" and I won't bother you any more. However, both groups are very informal and would be excited to hear from you.

Suspended teacher ~ The Freedom Writers Diary

2008-08-21T01:43:00.002-04:00

You may also want to read the July 12, 2008 Newsweek article Write and Wrong by Anna Quindlen.

The Freedom Writers Diary by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell

2008-08-17T20:15:00.006-04:00

I read The Freedom Writers Diary last fall. In light of the current controversy about the book, I'm cross-posting the review I posted on my book blog in October.

Published in 1999. 292 pages.

I had heard good things about and planned to view the movie version of this book before I even knew that it was based on a book. It was when I discovered (through BookGal) the Book to Movie Challenge (hosted by Callista) that I learned about the book - and I definitely wanted to read the book and view the film for the challenge.

I am so glad I read this book! A compilation of anonymous diary entries, the book describes the successes newbie teacher Erin Gruwell had with a group of 150 students at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, following the Los Angeles riots of 1992. More than anything, I think the book is a testament to the power of words - both those read, such as when Gruwell's students read The Diary of Anne Frank, and those written, as these young people's lives were changed through the keeping of diaries, by being able to tell their stories.

I liked the movie too. I generally enjoy Hilary Swank - Iron Jawed Angels is an all-time favorite - and I loved being given some names and faces for the "freedom writers." I wish the movie had told more of the story - it ended after the student's sophomore year - and a subplot about Gruwell's husband was completely unnecessary (and was not part of the book). (By the way, Patrick Dempsey played the husband, and he also played a love interest for Swank's character in Iron Jawed Angels, a superfluous subplot, not based on the historical account of Alice Paul's life.) But I still was moved by the film, a tribute to the ability of one teacher to change the lives of a group of children.

I plan to read Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers next year for the "In Their Shoes" Challenge.

You might be interested to know that BookGal did not like either the book or the movie, and you can read her thoughts here.

The Freedom Writers Diary ~ by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell

2008-08-16T14:53:00.008-04:00

Connie Heerman, a 27-year veteran teacher of Perry Township in Indiana, has been suspended for a year and a half for using The Freedom Writers Diary in her classroom. So what kind of book IS this?

As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of "unteachable, at-risk" students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust — only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the "Freedom Writers" in homage to the civil rights activists "The Freedom Riders." This book they produced has powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by their teacher.

The book deals with violence, homelessness, racism, abuse and other topics that this group of urban California students lived with. When Connie Heerman (pictured above) allowed her students to read the book, her supervisor -- unhappy with the language and content in the book -- asked her to stop using it in the classroom, even though her students had signed permission slips. When she refused, she was charged with insubordination and eventually suspended through the end of the 2008-2009 school year.

So what do you think? Was she really suspended for insubordination? Or is this an issue of intellectual freedom?

(If you've read the book, please tell us what you thought about it. I haven't ... yet ... but I have put it on hold at my library.)

The Kite Runner - Wendy's Review

2008-06-14T11:41:00.004-04:00

Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name. Looking back on it now, I think the foundations for what happened in the winters of 1975 - and all that followed - was already laid in those first words. -From The Kite Runner, page 11-

The Kite Runner is the story of two boys - Hassan a Shi’a, Amir a Sunni; one from wealth, the other a servant - who grow up in Afganistan the best of friends, until one fateful day when Amir is twelve in the winter of 1975. What Amir witnesses changes the boys’ friendship forever, and sets events in motion which will have lifelong consequences.

Khaled Hosseini begins his novel in Afganistan, then takes the reader across the ocean to San Francisco where Amir and his father begin a new life as immigrants. A telephone call one day from his father’s old friend summons Amir back to an Afganistan which has changed - a place where Taliban soldiers patrol, where people are hung in the street or stoned to death during an intermission at a soccer game, and where children are no longer children. It is here where Amir must face his demons and where lies, betrayal and secrets will be uncovered.

This is a novel which explores many themes: family loyalty, the rigidity of religious division, the cruel effects of war, and the power of love and redemption. Hosseini’s writing is simple and powerful; a no frills, spare style which stuns. Readers should be warned - there are graphic scenes which involve child rape and molestation. The violence in the book is painful to read…and heartbreaking.

Earlier this year I read Hosseini’s second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns (reviewed here), and so comparisons between the two novels was inevitable. I thought Hosseini’s writing matured from the first book to the second, and A Thousand Splendid Suns affected me more strongly on many levels. Flaws with The Kite Runner include some plot twists which bordered on the unbelievable, and so parts of the book felt contrived to me.

Despite this, The Kite Runner is a impressive first novel which reveals the horror of what has happened, and continues to happen in Afganistan.

This is a book which leaves a lasting impression. Highly recommended.

Why Was It Banned?

The Afghan government banned the film because of a rape scene of a young boy and the ethnic tensions that the film highlights. "It showed the ethnic groups of Afghanistan in a bad light," Mubarez said. Din Mohammad Rashed Mubarez, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Information and Culture said: "We respect freedom of speech, we support freedom of speech, but unfortunately we have difficulties in Afghan society, and if this film is shown in the cinemas, it is humiliating for one of our ethnic groups."

The ACLU Foundation of Texas lists The Kite Runner on a list of banned or challenged books in Texas.

Farenheit 451 lists The Kite Runner as a banned book on its blog and at Library Thing.

And Tango Make Three - Olivia and GrammaMary

2008-06-03T22:00:00.003-04:00

Olivia and I finally received our order of Tango from B&N and we eagerly read it! We both enjoyed it very much and I told O that I had seen movie about penguins in Antarctica which showed the dad penguins taking care of the egg while the mom penguins made a long trek to the ocean to eat in the coldest winter. O and I agreed that it is normal for dads to take care of babies, and we are glad that her dad does such a good job of that. Someday she may meet a family of two dads and a little boy or girl. We hope they will all be good friends!

Cousin Maddie will read the book when she comes this summer and will also review it here.

Olivia and GrammaMary(Zorro)

And Tango Makes Three ~ Bonnie's review

2008-04-21T15:06:00.007-04:00

My granddaughter, who is in the second grade, has been helping me review children's books. Here's what she said about And Tango Makes Three:

Grandma Bonnie,
I liked your books. Here are my book reviews.

Love,Cady XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

As you can see, she didn't have a lot to say about this one, except that it was about penguins and it was very good. Cady, who will be eight years old tomorrow, didn't notice the "salient" point that alarms some folks, that Tango has two daddies.

New York City's Central Park Zoo has all sorts of animal families, but there's one that's different. Roy and Silo, both male penguins, "did everything together. They bowed to each other. ... They sang to each other. And swam together. Wherever Roy went, Silo went too." The two noticed other penguins had eggs, so one found a rock the right size and they took turns sitting on it. That's what penguin fathers do, after all. No big deal to Cady, apparently, not even when their keeper thought to himself, "They must be in love." The keeper discovers an egg that needs tending and gives the egg -- which will otherwise die -- to Roy and Silo, who have been trying so hard to hatch their rock. As one B&N reviewer said, "It's an adorable book with a great message: families come in all shapes and sizes, but they're still families."

Title, author, copyright date, and genre?
And Tango Makes Three ~ by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and illustrated by Henry Cole (ah, but Cady already told you that, didn't she?), 2005, children's book (ages 4-8)

Why was this book challenged?
For "homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group"; or, as I said on my other blog, for presumed penguin homosexuality, which my reviewer didn't notice (and neither did I)

How would you rate this book?
Rated 8/10, a very good book, according to Cady

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

2008-04-18T14:38:00.003-04:00

Originally published in 1966.
Co-winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
Audio book performed by Jeff Woodman.

Although I remember friends reading Flowers for Algernon in high school, for some reason, I never did. But earlier this year, I decided to put it on my What's in a Name? challenge list. Because I recently had to make a three-hour-plus drive to do some training, I decided to get the book on tape from the library so I'd have something to listen to while I drove. I ended up listening to the other six hours a little at a time while commuting, traveling to my dentist (about 30 miles from my home), and driving the "mom taxi" to pick up my kids.

If you are not familiar with the premise of the book, the plot is basically that a 32-year-old retarded man named Charlie Gordon undergoes a surgical experiment to increase his IQ, as it has for the lab mouse, Algernon. Charlie keeps a journal of progress reports to record the changes this experiment creates in my mind and in his life.

I'm very glad I've now "read" this book. I think it's an important one, and I would recommend that everyone read it. It made me incredibly sad, however. This was both because of the treatment Charlie receives from his family when he was a young boy and from his co-workers now that he is an adult and because of the difficulties his new-found intelligence brings and the ultimate outcome of the experiment. A review at amazon.com summarizes my response well: "Flowers for Algernon is a timeless tear-jerker with a terrific emotional impact."

Flowers for Algernon is on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. The most frequent reason for the challenges relates to Charlie's sexuality. For a thoughtful review of the book by a mom who recommended it to her twelve-year-old daughter despite the "distasteful sexual scenes" (in the words of some censors), click here; even the title of the review is terrific: "Flowers for Algernon, Stinkweeds for the Censors!"

Originally posted on my book blog on April 18, 2008.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

2008-04-18T12:26:00.006-04:00

Bonnie has already posted about Speak and about author Laurie Halse Anderson's efforts to oppose censorship. I'll just add a couple things:

First, I really loved this book. I'd rate it 4 1/2 of 5 stars. My complete review is here.

Second, in the section at the end of the Platinum Edition of Speak, which some of the members of my IRL book club had with them at our recent meeting, Anderson speaks out against censorship. She wrote:

But censoring books that deal with difficult, adolescent issues does not protect anybody. Quite the opposite. It leaves kids in the darkness and makes them vulnerable. Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them.

I whole-heartedly agree!

Uncle Tom's Cabin - Wendy's Review

2008-03-22T10:08:00.004-04:00

So long as the law considers all these human beings, with beating hearts and living affections, only as so many things belonging to a master, -so long as the failure, or misfortune, or imprudence, or death of the kindest owner, may cause them any day to exchange a life of kind protection and indulgence for one of hopeless misery and toil, -so long it is impossible to make anything beautiful or desirable in the best-regulated administration of slavery. -From Uncle Tom’s Cabin, page 8-

When Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1851, it outraged people in the American South and was criticized by slavery supporters. The novel was declared ‘utterly false’ by Southern novelist William Gilmore; others referred to it as criminal and slanderous. A bookseller in Mobile, Alabama was driven from town for selling the novel and Stowe received threatening letters, including a package containing a slave’s severed ear.

Any book which garners such reaction is bound to be a powerful work.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is set in the South in the 1800s and begins with the story of Tom, a slave from Kentucky, just before he is sold by his “mas’r” to settle a debt. A parallel story follows the life of Eliza, her husband George and their young son, Harry, who flee to Canada when they learn that Harry will be “sold down the river” and separated from his family. Stowe’s writing is accessible, albeit a little preachy at times. She creates characters which resonate with the reader - pulling them from the comfort of their 21st century lives back to the days when American law allowed the brutalization of other human beings.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin has faced recent bans and challenges in Illinois schools and Southern States, and has been challenged by the NAACP for its alleged racist portrayal of African Americans and the use of the “N” word. Many people find the work offensive. But, I believe those sentiments are misplaced. The novel is not offensive - what is offensive is that it is a true portrayal of one of the most shameful periods in American history; things like this actually happened. It is offensive that white individuals were allowed to buy and sell blacks as though they were livestock; that the law allowed murderers to avoid justice because the victims were black; that families were ripped apart and children as young as two years old were taken from their mother’s arms to be sold. This novel is painful and powerful. It is not racist, but exposes racism for what it is - a crime against humanity. It is a slap of reality when a character is murdered, and a slave owner say: ‘It’s commonly supposed that the property interest is a sufficient guard in these cases. If people choose to ruin their own possessions, I don’t know what’s to be done.‘ OR when a wealthy, white plantation owner’s wife justifies separating a black mother from her babies by saying: ‘Mammy couldn’t have the feelings that I should. It’s a different thing altogether, - of course, it is,-and yet St. Clare pretends not to see it. And just as if Mammy could love her little dirty babies as I love Eva!‘

Stowe notes in the final chapters that although Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a work of fiction, it is based on actual events and the characters are created from people she knew or were told about. Perhaps this is why her prose rings true and clear, and the characters spring to life on the pages. Stowe’s portrayal of the black characters is stereotypical in many ways, a sign of when this work was written. Despite this, Stowe seems ahead of her time, exposing the hypocrisy of the “good masters” and the religious people (including the Northern abolitionists).

“…You loath them as you would a snake or a toad, yet you are indignant at their wrongs. You would not have them abused; but you don’t want to have anything to do with them yourselves. You would send them to Africa, out of your sight and smell, and then send a missionary or two to do up all the self-denial of elevating them compendiously. Isn’t that it?” - From Uncle Tom’s Cabin, page 176-

If Stowe has one fault with this novel, it is that she wraps it up a little too perfectly in the end. Her optimism in happy endings is perhaps her one denial of how terrible things usually turned out for slaves.

This is not an enjoyable book, but it is an important one. As philosopher George Santayana said: “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.”

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is as relevant today as it was when it was published more than 150 years ago. When I look at our current world with genocide in Darfur; genital mutilation of women in certain parts or the world; “hate” crimes; and other atrocities…some perfectly legal or (even worse) ignored…I realize we still have a long way to go before we have equality or justice. Reading Stowe’s novel should be required.

Highly recommended; rated 4.5/5.

Speak ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson

2008-03-05T07:49:00.004-05:00

Title, author, date of book, and genre?
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, 1999, young adult (YA) fiction

What made you want to read this book?
It's been chosen Chattanooga's A Tale for One City book for 2008, which the whole town is invited to read and discuss during the year. And I'm on the committee to arrange book discussions, reason enough to read it early. The book is also an award winner:

1999 National Book Award Finalist
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
Booklist Editors' Choice

Summarize the book without giving away the ending.
Melinda is a friendless outcast at Merryweather High. She busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, and now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether.

From whose point of view is the story told?
Melinda, the main character. She's the one I related to the most, and I felt depressed and discouraged right along with her.

Share a quote from the book.
Nobody, it seemed, would listen to her ... or really hear her cry for help. Here are some examples of how she saw her life:

About her parents: I bet they'd be divorced by now if I hadn't been born. I'm sure I was a huge disappointment. I'm not pretty or smart or athletic. I'm just like them -- an ordinary drone dressed in secrets and lies. I can't believe we have to keep playacting until I graduate. It's a shame we can't just admit that we have failed family living, sell the house, split up the money, and get on with our lives. (p. 70)

About herself: Maybe I'll be an artist if I grow up. (p. 78)

Mr. Freeman, her art teacher: "When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside -- walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It's the saddest thing I know." (p. 122)

About her family: I got my "I don't want to know about it" gene from my dad and my "I'll think about it tomorrow" gene from my mom. (p. 148)

About high school: Sometimes I think high school is just one long hazing activity: if you are tough enough to survive this, they'll let you become an adult. I hope it's worth it. (p. 191)

Why was it banned?
The book is about sexual assault, and some parents apparently hope to shield their daughters from it by keeping them ignorant of the kinds of things that happen to some girls their age. Read Laurie Halse Anderson's commentary on a current challenge to this book.

Rated: 8/10, a very good book.

More books for our lists

2008-03-05T07:19:00.002-05:00

Laurie Halse Anderson recounted wonderful stories Tuesday evening here in Chattanooga about her books and her writing life, and she mentioned that her YA novel Speak had been challenged. I found this in her February 4th post:

What a way to start the month. First, John Green's Looking for Alaska is under fire for being "pornographic."

And now, some parents are going after Speak. The teacher involved has asked me not to name the school because she wants the process and policies of the district to unfold away from the glare of any spotlights. I respect that. I am allowed to say that it's a middle school in suburban Detroit. For the record, this has also happened in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Washington, New York, Maine, and California. (As a result of the challenges, the book was embraced, not banned. Which does make an author feel good and a teacher feel even better.)

I sent her a note with teen sexual assault statistics and shared the feedback I've had from readers and their parents, who are grateful for a story that allows them to broach a difficult subject.

This teacher could use some professional support. If you teach Speak, can you please leave a note in the comments section for her? Tell her why you use the book. Tell her about your classroom experiences and your professional opinion about the place of the book in the curriculum. Or just give her a pat on the back. If you are a teen, tell her what the book meant to you.

Thank you very much and spread the word.

While reading the posts and comments on Laurie's blog, I learned that Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher (an oft-challenged writer) is about censorship. Some of us may want to add that book to our reading lists. Since I've already reviewed Speak on my blog, I am posting it here as well.

Note to Laurie Halse Anderson: I'm spreading the word just as far as I can shout it, not only here, but also on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Note to my readers: You may be interested in ALL of Laurie's posts about censorship, which you can find if you click here.

Another note: AS IF = Authors Support Intellectual Freedom = another place for us to discover titles of banned and challenged books.

Song of Solomon - Wendy's Review

2008-02-26T15:07:00.004-05:00

The song of songs, which is Solomon's. -From Chapter One, Song of Solomon, The Bible-

With her father as her muse, Toni Morrison has created a memorable African American family with strong male characters in her novel The Song of Solomon. The novel opens with an insurance agent attempting to fly and therefore diving to his death off of Mercy (referred to as No Mercy) hospital in 1931. This sets the tone for the rest of the novel - a novel about flight and self discovery...mystical, triumphant, and disturbing.

Morrison's story centers around the Dead family composed of Macon (the abusive, yet savvy father), Ruth (the mother - a sad woman whose grief for her dead father defines her life), First Corinthians (a daughter both beautiful and educated who stumbles in her search for a lover), Magdalene called Lena (the second daughter), and finally Milkman (Macon's son). There are other important characters as part of the extended family - namely Pilate, Macon's free spirited sister who lives with her daughter Reba and Reba' daughter Hager.

There are many themes and much symbolism throughout the book, and I found myself marking passages and re-reading paragraphs to make sense of them. First and foremost, the novel is about discovery of one's roots, and the painful search for love. Milkman starts his life fighting to avoid murder at the hands of his father, and this theme continues through the book ending with Milkman's protracted journey from his home in Michigan to his grandparent's home in Virginia. Along the way, Milkman's views of life are challenged and his connection to his roots are strengthened. Another strong theme in the novel is that of racism and the struggle of blacks in American to overcome the history of slavery. Finally, the idea of taking flight and finding oneself is replayed over and over in the book. In one memorable scene, Milkman and his friend Guitar observe a white peacock. Milkman asks why the peacock struggles to fly and Guitar says:

"Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." -From Song of Solomon, page 179-

I avoided reading a Morrison novel for a long time because I had heard that Morrison's books were often difficult reads with weighty themes. And this is certainly true. But despite this, I found myself looking forward to picking up the book. Morrison writes beautifully and is a superb storyteller. Although she is sometimes heavy handed with the symbolism, I didn't find it distracting from the story. I found myself caring deeply about the characters in Song of Solomon, even those who were not terribly likable.

Song of Solomon has been banned in the United States for "language degrading to blacks," violent imagery, sexually explicit and profane language and depictions of sexuality. It has been accused of promoting a "homosexual agenda." There is profanity, violence and sex in the novel, but it is not gratuitous.

Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 for her body of work, and I can certainly see why based on this book alone. I will be reading more of Toni Morrison in the future.

Song of Solomon is highly recommended; rated 4.5/5.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Singsby Maya Angelou

2008-02-07T19:07:00.002-05:00

Originally published in 1969; 281 pages.

This is the first volume of the autobiographical series of poet, educator, dancer, actress, civil rights activist Maya Angelou. I was mesmerized by Angelou's lyrical presentation of the high and low points of the first eighteen years of her life. Poignant and meaningful, each chapter recounts part of the life experiences that made Angelou the adult she became. These experiences include being raped at age eight by her mother's boyfriend, learning to love books through the encouragement of an adult friend, being subjected to numerous acts of racism, and working as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

First sentence: "What you looking at me for?"

Two favorite passages:

[Bailey, Maya's brother, in recounting the discovery of a black man's corpse and the pleasure a white man took in seeing it:] "The colored men backed off and I did too, but the white man stood there, looking down, and grinned. Uncle Willie, why do they hate us so much?"

Uncle Willie muttered, "They don't really hate us. They don't know us. How can they hate us? They mostly scared."

Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute the lonely nights made less lonely by your songs, or the empty pots made less tragic by your tales?

If we were a people much given to revealing secrets, we might raise monuments and sacrifice to the memories of our poets, but slavery cured us of that weakness. It may be enough, however, to have it said that we survive in exact relationship to the dedication of our poets (include preachers, musicians and blues singers).

Bans or challenges faced by the book: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is third on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. According to this site:

Since 1983 schools throughout the United States have tried to ban I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings even though it is celebrated for its elegant prose. Parents, schools, and related organizations have argued that the book encourages deviant behavior because of its references to lesbianism, premarital sex, cohabitation, pornography, and violence. The book's profanity has also caused its removal from school curriculum and library shelves. The Alabama State Textbook Committee accused it of encouraging "bitterness and hatred toward white people." Some schools have removed the book from their classes and libraries; however, many have decided to retain the book. Today the book is still among the most challenged books in American schools.

Originally posted on my book blog on February 7, 2008.

The Lorax ~ Bonnie's review

2008-02-05T01:10:00.001-05:00

I've already checked out The Lorax by Dr. Seuss from the library twice, without getting this review written. The due date is fast approaching, again, so I'm just gonna get this thing done! Debi at nothing of importance chose this as the book she would be willing to reread once a year for the rest of her life. I could do that, too. But first, some details:

Title, author, date of book, and genre?
The Lorax ~ by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Suess Geisel), 1971, children's picture book

Summarize the book without giving away the ending.
Seuss takes us on a trip to the far end of town to see where the Lorax once stood. If we really want to know what the Lorax was and why it was there, we need to check with the old Once-ler, who still lives there ... because he knows. One thing you should know, though, is that you must be willing to pay! When the bucket is lowered on the end of a rope, toss in fifteen cents and a nail and the shell of a great-great-great-grandfather snail. That's when the adventure begins ... I mean, the story of the Lorax as told by the Once-ler.

What did you think of the main character?
When the Once-ler found the Truffula Trees, he built a small shop, chopped down a tree with one chop, and taking the soft tuft, knitted a Thneed. All well and good, you may say, but then out of the stump of that tree popped the Lorax to speak for the trees, those Truffula Trees. The Lorax kept speaking for the trees, the Once-ler kept chopping them down and using their tuft to knit Thneeds, which no one needs.

Were there any other especially interesting characters?
The Once-ler called in his whole family, and the Thneed business boomed. Chopping down Truffula Trees was mechanized by the Once-ler:

"So I quickly invented my Super-Axe-Hacker
which whacked off four Truffula Trees at one smacker."

Did you think the characters and their problems were believable?
Oh, yes! The Lorax returned to confront the Once-ler, explaining that the Brown Bar-ba-loots who played in the shade were feeling crummies in their tummies because they no longer had Truffula Fruits to eat. It was very clear, according to the Once-ler, that

business is business!
And business must grow
regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.

From whose point of view is the story told?
It's told from the Once-ler's point of view, but he frequently quotes the Lorax. I guess he heard the words, but missed the message from the Lorax:

"Once-ler!" he cried with a cruffulous croak.
"Once-ler! You're making such smogulous smoke!
My poor Swomee-Swans ... why, they can't sing a note!
No one can sing who has smog in his throat."

The Lorax continued to complain, this time about the water:

"You're glumping the pond where the Humming-Fish hummed!
No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed.
So I'm sending them off. Oh, their future is dreary.
They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary
in search of some water that isn't so smeary."

But the Once-ler was determined to continue biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING, until the inevitable day when ... "we heard the tree fall. The very last Truffula Tree of them all!"

What about the ending?
You do remember the Once-ler is telling this story to the reader? When you tossed that fifteen cents and a nail and the shell into the Once-ler's bucket, he began telling this story. The Once-ler points out one single word left by the Lorax: "UNLESS"

UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It's not.

It's up to you! And the Once-ler tosses out of his window a Truffula Seed, the last one of all.

"Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back."

Oops! I think I just gave away the ending, but maybe that's okay ... maybe you are a tree-hugger like me.

Why was this book banned?
The Lorax was banned in parts of the United States for being an allegorical political commentary. Specifically, it was banned in the Laytonville, California School District on grounds that this book "criminalizes the forestry industry." Nothing has changed, though, and the government is still selling out the people and the land, all in the name of big business. Don't get me started! (This book review is cross-published on my Bonnie's Books blog.)

How would you rate this book?
Rated 10/10, couldn't put it down ... couldn't resist picking it up again and again.

The Giver - Wendy's Review

2008-01-19T11:54:00.000-05:00

"Well..." Jonas had to stop and think it through. "If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! ..." -From The Giver, page 97-

Jonas lives in a Utopian society where everything is managed and everything is safe - a world without color, or music, or even love. The year Jonas turns twelve, he is selected to become the Receiver of Memory...and as his training progresses, life for Jonas forever changes.

The Giver is a book about keeping the world we live in safe and sanitary vs. the value of freedom...and ultimately about the power of hope and faith. Lowry's writing is rich and provocative and stimulates the reader to think about what is truly important in our lives. This is children's literature at its best. Through the power of simple language, a tightly woven plot, and characters who come to reside within the reader's heart, Lowry makes us take notice of our world and to appreciate the simple things we often take for granted.

Lowry won a number of awards and accolades for this slim volume - not the least of which was the Newbery Medal in 1994. The Giver is worthy of this prestigious award.

Highly recommended for children aged nine to 100 years old; rated 4.5/5.

Why Was It Banned?

The Giver is one of the most frequently challenged and banned books in middle schools across America. It has been referred to as "the suicide" book by some groups because it portrays a Utopian society that relies on euthanasia and suicide to create the perfect community. Read this article published in 2001 by USA Today. Despite the controversy, this is a beautifully written and conceived book. My view was that rather than support euthanasia and suicide, it shows the horror and devastating results of those acts. This is a great book for parents to discuss with their children.