Banned Books Week ~ reasons for banning

How many of these banned characters can you name?

Cross-posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Day Two ~ banned classics

According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts.  For more information about this list, read this ALA post.

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Cross-posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Banned Books Week ~ Sept 27 to Oct 3

It's Banned Books Week, so what are you reading?
Cross-posted on my Bonnie's Books blog.

Lethal ideas

"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

Dangerous Words

Judy Blume has her own page about censorship.

Mighty Girl has a great article on banned books, naming books in several categories:

Children's ~ inappropriate for age group

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (age 9 -12)
Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry (age 8 - 12)

Too scary ~ books banned for violent content

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (age 10 and up)
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay (the Hunger Games trilogy) by Suzanne Collins (all age 12 and up)

Prejudiced ~ books banned for racism

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (age 10 and up)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (age 10 and up)
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (age 15 and up)

Irreverent ~ books banned due to religious objections

The Golden Compass  by Philip Pullman (age 10 and up)
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (age 9 - 13)

Too sexy ~ books banned for sexuality

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden (age 13 and up)
The Color of Earth graphic novel by Kim Dong Hwa (age 10 and up)

Hiding the truth ~ banned nonfiction

It’s Not The Stork by Robie H. Harris (age 4 - 7)
It’s So Amazing by Robie H. Harris (age 6 - 9)
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris (age 10 and up)
Let’s Talk About You And Me by Robie H. Harris (age 3 - 7)
The What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Girls by Lynda Madaras (age 9 to 15)
Ready, Set, Grow by Lynda Madaras (girls, ages 8 - 12)

The article adds a couple of other helpful categories:

Dangers of censorship
Recommended resources

One commenter thinks the best line is...

"A Mighty Girl believes that most topics can be introduced even to the youngest age groups, provided it is done with care and that parents or teachers help children discuss their reactions to these concepts."

Banned Books Week ~ begins today

Last Monday, a school board in North Carolina banned the novel Invisible Man from its reading list.  Although one board member said at the meeting, "I didn’t find any literary value ... I’m for not allowing it to be available," Ralph Ellison won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1953 for this book.  In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

Invisible Man ~ by Ralph Ellison, 1952 As a first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.  The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.

They banned the book just in time for Banned Books Week, which begins today.  If you have a review of a banned book you'd be willing to share here, let me know.  Leave a comment, or email me (Bonnie) at emerging DOT paradigm AT yahoo DOT com

Bridge to Terabithia ~ Bonnie's review

Did you know...?

...that the Bible has been banned at various times, editions, and places in the world?
...that Black Beauty by Anna Sewell was banned in South Africa because of the use of the word "Black" in the title?
...that Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson was banned from some libraries in America due to its content relating to death?

The movie version is as good as the book, probably because it was directed by the author's son, whose friendship with a girl in the neighborhood inspired the book in the first place.  Here's a summary of the book:

Jess Aarons' greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in his grade.  He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all.  But on the first day of school, a new girl boldly crosses over to the boys' side and outruns everyone.  That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable.  Together they create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits.  Then one morning a terrible tragedy occurs.  Only when Jess is able to come to grips with this tragedy does he finally understand the strength and courage Leslie has given him.

You are probably wondering why this book would be challenged.  Because of its content related to death, profanity, and "language."  While critics have wondered whether its themes are too heavy for children, Katherine Paterson said that books we read in childhood are a rehearsal for experiences later in life.  She was inspired to write this book when her son's childhood friend was struck and killed by lightning.  Read more about the author's inspiration.  That link also includes an excerpt from Chapter One.

I highly recommend Bridge to Terabithia, a Newbery Medal-winning novel.  I rate it 9/10, an excellent book.

Paul's Review of The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

Holden Caulfield kills me. He really does. He's a goddamn mess, that's what he is. I hate him. You know what really annoys me? When you read a book as a kid and then read it again a hundred years later and the crumby thing holds up.

I read The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager in the early 1960s. I never bothered to check the publication date; for 50 years I believed it came out just about the time I first read it. I was wrong: Salinger wrote it just after WWII; it was published in 1951. It had been an instant best-seller and was already an established classic by the time my rebellious schoolmates and I read it.

My primary reason for re-reading Catcher in the Rye was to learn why it's such a controversial book, why it so infuriates the book-banning crowd. I didn't expect to enjoy the experience: I assumed I'd outgrown the book in the same way I outgrew Kerouac's On the Road, which I thought life-changing as a 14-year-old but squirm-inducingly embarrassing as a senior citizen.

As it turned out, I loved reading Catcher again. Though I no longer share Holden Caulfield's teenaged angst and alienation, I still feel for him. He doesn't come across as some historical artifact, but as a flesh and blood kid, vivid and fresh, totally believable. Which, I guess, validates what I earlier said about assuming the book had just come out in the early 1960s when I initially read it. Even though Holden's story takes place in the 1940s, a reader in the 1960s could be convinced Holden was a contemporary, and even today, in 2013, Holden feels part of the here and now.

I remember being struck by Holden's swearing when I read the book as a kid. My classmates and I used the same language (and worse), but seeing it in print was shocking ... and liberating. Curiously, I remembered Holden saying "fuck" on almost every page, but that turned out to be another false memory. He doesn't use the word until the very end, and then only to deplore the fact that some unknown vandal has carved "fuck you" into the wall of a stairwell at his little sister's school. What Holden does say, and say often, is "goddamn," "bastard," "bitch," and "hell." That's mild language by today's standards, but it doesn't date the novel ... you feel like you're listening to a troubled but essentially polite and well-bred young man, someone who'd open up in a private conversation with a friend but never cuss in front of strangers. The language doesn't come across as quaint or outdated, and that's another reason the novel holds up.

As with the swearing, I remembered Holden talking about sex more than he actually does. He thinks about girls all the time but he's a virgin, and the one opportunity he has to get it on with a room-service prostitute, he's too shy to do anything and pays her to put her clothes back on and leave. He worries that the girls he knows will succumb to his older, more experienced, classmates' advances. He's aware of the existence of homosexuals and disdains them. That's as explicit as Holden ever gets about sex; what little he does say about the subject is abstract and non-pornographic.

So why does Catcher in the Rye push so many blue-nose buttons? It's hard to believe, but as recently as 2005 Catcher could still make the American Library Association's top ten list of challenged and banned books. When parents demand school administrators pull the book from library shelves and English class reading lists today, they cite Holden's language and vague talk about sex. They also cite his smoking and drinking, his lack of religious faith, his poor study habits, his overall negativity. They don't think he's a good model for their kids. I suspect that somewhere in there is some rural resentment of snobby upper-class New York City folks. That pretty much sums it up: they don't like Holden Caulfield and therefore they don't want anyone reading what he has to say. Maybe they're afraid their kids will feel as validated and liberated as I did when I met Holden in 1962.

You know what, though? Even though it's one of the most challenged, banned, and censored books ever taught in American high schools, it's also a best-seller and one of the most-taught books in American high schools, a beloved book to millions, a classic.

Holden Caulfield's still out there somewhere. I hope he didn't grow up to be just another goddamn phony. That would kill me, it really would.

The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a compilation of short stories revolving around a platoon of soldiers during the Vietnam war. These short stories revolve around life before, after, and during the war; what these men carried, physically, mentally, emotionally, and invisibly.

This book was challenged and banned due to moments of profanity, which surprised me, because of how graphic parts of this book are. I am completely against censorship, but the reasoning to ban this novel seemed weird considering the other subject matter. I am not new to war stories or materials, but parts of this book did make me cringe. The raw truth that can only come from a soldier's mouth can sometimes be hard to take in. Being an avid lover of M*A*S*H and being the daughter of a history buff, I have had many a conversation and lesson of the personal experience of war, and every adaptation and different storyteller manages to teach something new. O'Brien did not fall short.

I loved these stories, I didn't always love the characters, but I think that O'Brien did a great job in bringing in his own voice and own renditions of the war to help the reader understand a little better what war is all about. This book reminds you that you can never understand, because even those in the trenches cannot fully understand it either.

I fully intend to read Tim O'Brien's other works, I appreciate his raw sincerity and ability to convey meaning in places that are usually foggy. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, especially those who are trying to understand society as a whole, or who are struggling with dealing with realities of life.

Would you call this censorship?

A Canadian publisher has taken away Santa's pipe — and thus the smoke curling around his head — in a new version of an old favorite.  Twas the Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Elena Almazova and Vitaly Shvarov, was published in September and has already caused quite a ruckus.

"The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."

While some complain that taking out a line that Clement Moore wrote a hundred years ago is censorship, the author wanted to help Santa kick his smoking habit.

"I'm not telling people not to read books, and anyone is free to go out and buy one of the many other editions of this book. But smoking is going to kill one billion people in this century, and that needs to be discussed."

On the other hand, the publisher easily found this in a child's email letter to Santa:

"I also want my Mom and Step Dad to stop smoking.  Pretty Please."

What do you think?  Read the article (or any of the many others online — just google "Santa smoking" to find them), and let's talk about this change in a classic book.  Is it censorship, or is it a good idea?

Censorship

On this second day of Banned Books Week, Jan @ Yearning for God wrote about censorship, refuting this quote by George Bernard Shaw:

Censorship

will Rage

until it reduces itself to

Absurdity;

and even then

the best books will be

in Danger still.

Jan took part in a Read-Out on Saturday.  She read from Shel Silverstein's challenged book, A Light in the Attic, and shared one of his whimsical illustrated poems on her blog.

The Bane of Banned Books

Bill Moyers, honorary co-chair of Banned Books Week, talks about how libraries provided his first opportunity to indulge his love of reading and learning.  He shares his dismay over efforts to remove books from schools and libraries in modern times in this video essay entitled, "The Bane of Banned Books."  (If the video quits working, click on the link to view it on YouTube.)

Banned Books Week ~ starts tomorrow!

"Many people are amazed to learn that books are still banned and challenged in libraries and schools across the United States of America.  Join us in spreading awareness about censorship by participating in the American Library Association's Banned Books Week 2012.  Banned Books Week runs September 30th through October 6th."

 This thought that flashed across the screen (at 0:44) is oh-so-true!

People ban books because

they can't ban thoughts.

If the video quits working, see it on YouTube here:  50 State Salute to Banned Books: Massachusetts Library Association.  Many thanks to A.M. for sharing this link.

Calling all bloggers!

Sheila @ Book Journey is "looking for bloggers to participate in Banned Books Week by choosing to read one or more of the Banned Books on the list or to write a post about banned books week.  All participants will go into a drawing for a $20 Amazon gift card as my thank you for participating in a week that is near and dear to me."

Here are the books Sheila has reviewed (so far) on this Banned Books blog:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ by Sherman Alexie
• Are You There God?  It's Me, Margaret ~ by Judy Blume
• Beloved ~ by Toni Morrision
• The Face on the Milk Carton ~ by Caroline B. Cooney
• Fahrenheit 451 ~ by Ray Bradbury
• Freedom Writers Diary ~ by Erin Gruwell and her students
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ~ by J. K. Rowling
• Hunger Games ~ by Suzanne Collins
• To Kill a Mockingbird ~ by Harper Lee
• Mrs. Dalloway ~ by Virginia Woolf
• Night ~ by Eli Wiesel
• Speak ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Speak (The Movie)

Sept 30—Oct 6 is Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week 2012
September 30 — October 6

I hope you'll have a book review or two
that we can post around that time.

Mapping censorship.
Resources.
ALA Banned Books Week.

Paul's Review: Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl (Gossip Girl #1)
by Cecily von Ziegesar

I read Gossip Girl because it keeps appearing on the American Library Association's annual top ten list of frequently challenged books. These are books that are challenged by parents and religious groups who want them removed from school libraries and reading lists, often for brief mentions of sex or masturbation. Generally, when I read such a book, I find it to be honest, well written, and moral. Many are written with a young adult audience in mind and are meant to teach teenagers to think critically. They abound with valuable life lessons and are just the sort of books I wish I'd have read back in junior high ... I come away scratching my head, wondering if these parents and religious groups ever read past the offending passage.

Alas, this is not the case with Gossip Girl. I read this slim volume, the first in a series aimed at young adult readers, in six hours. Finishing it, I felt as if I'd emerged from a hellish wait in a dentist's office with nothing to read but back issues of People and Teen Beat. Shallow? My god, if you took out the celebrity name-dropping and references to expensive brand name products, glamorous vacation destinations, and tony Manhattan addresses, what you'd have left would be a pamphlet.

And what would be in that pamphlet? Bitchy WASP prep school girls and their date-rapey WASP preppie boyfriends, gossiping, cutting each other down to size, plotting vengeance over minor slights, drinking, taking drugs, cutting school, lying, having sex, and having intimate parts of their bodies photographed. No wonder this book gets parents and religious groups riled up ... it's nihilistic, bereft of a moral compass, dedicated to greed, vindictiveness, and physical pleasures.

I kept asking myself if there was some joke I wasn't getting. Was I supposed to hate these characters? Were my lips meant to curl in disgust? Is Gossip Girl a subversive tract to be studied by proletarian youth so they'll know who to drag to the guillotine, come the revolution?

Who reads this stuff? If J.K. Rowling's heroes had been Draco Malfoy and his band of pureblood bullies, she'd still be languishing in obscurity. Yet the Gossip Girl books are quite popular, I understand, mainly with young girls. Are girls really this shallow? Well, someone must buy those celeb lifestyle magazines!

I suspect parents and religious groups go after the Gossip Girl books because they depict teenaged kids having sex and taking drugs. Personally, I'm far more upset by the characters' lack of values and the absence of moral direction from the author. Would I want copies removed from the local junior high school's library? No, of course not. But if I had a teenager at home, this is the last book I'd recommend.

Whoopi Goldberg reads banned books

Shel Silverstein and Whoopi Goldberg? A good combination.

Helen: Banned Book Week at work

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.

A Day No Pigs Would Die ~ Bonnie's Review

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

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”.