Banned Book Week

I have a professor that says, "Ban a book and enhance the readership!" This means if you ban a book, the more people who want to read it!

The same professor says, "It's so annoying when people want to protect ME by restricting what I read!" Humans (Free Will) + Freedom (Free Choices) = a Democracy.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally posted by lovelyivy84
How could they ban A Light In The Attic? That was a staple of my childhood! And A Wrinkle in Time???? WTF! They objected to Charles Wallace or something?

Actually, I'm a big Madeleine L'Engle Fan (she wrote A Wrinkle in Time), and growing up I read the majority of her books, including much of her adult fiction and some non-fiction when I was in late middle and high school.

In one of her semi-autobiographical, semi-theological books (can't remember the title--something about silence or quiet--maybe A Circle of Quiet) she discusses people's reactions to A Wrinkle in Time.

She was disturbed that most kids seemed to "get" the book and really enjoy it. She viewed the book as very religious and moral and as a hymn of praise. However, a lot of adults freaked out because they thought the book was occult with time travel/space travel and that Ms. Who, Ms. Which, and Ms. Whatsit were witches. It was kinda the same "occult" labeling that Harry Potter gets. She was really sad that people reacted in that way to the book, but it's still continuing today.

In short, adults are stupid and kids are smart.

[Lady Pi Phi]

Originally posted by honeychile
I've read 21 of the books, seen the movies of at least 10 others. I don't believe in banning books (even the Bible or the Koran), but some books really should be read with some sort of discussion. Do you really think that the average 8-year-old who reads (for example) My Brother Sam Is Dead gets it without discussing it, or at least expressing the fears behind it?

I agree. Some of the books are too mature or innappropriate for younger children, but that does not mean they should be banned.

[moe.ron]

Originally posted by ztawinthropgirl
I have a professor that says, "Ban a book and enhance the readership!" This means if you ban a book, the more people who want to read it!

The same professor says, "It's so annoying when people want to protect ME by restricting what I read!" Humans (Free Will) + Freedom (Free Choices) = a Democracy.

That's so true. Remmember the PMRC debacle with explicit lyric stricker. It made some band more famous because they had the sticker. I wonder how Tipper Gore feel about enhancing 2 Live Crew's career, at least for a while.

I have read 23 books on that list! Guess I am corrupt! This list gives me a good summer 2004 reading list! Thanks Book Banners of America! It's made my life easier!

Arya: I remember the whole Tipper Gore thing! I mean if people didn't make such a big deal of things then it'd just die out and nobody would even care. Now that those people that have their panties in a wad bring everyone's attention to it, of course, anyone with any little bit of curiousity is going to check it out.

[cash78mere]

my brother sam is dead is my all time favorite book!!!

think about who usually calls for a book banning--ridiculously religious freaks who want god to save the world and not condemn us to a life of sin whatever---if reading a book means i'm going to hell, then so be it!

[AlphaGam1019]

I am a God-believing, Christian person but this book banning is ridiculous because I also believe every single person in the world was born with a free will. A free will that enables everybody the right to choose what's best for them, and if they want to read these books, then so be it. They're the ones with the free will and the ability to live with their own conscience, not that many of these books are bad or "evil".

[KillarneyRose]

I've read 71 of these books. I guess that makes me the most subversive soccer mom on my street!

[kateshort]

A couple of things to keep in mind...

First of all, some of these books are banned in some schools but not others.

* "Banned" could mean that it was banned from a 6th grade mandatory reading list, but allowed to remain in the library for students to check out (such as with Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels ).

* Or maybe, that it was banned from a middle school library because it was deemed inappropriate, but still allowed to remain on-shelf in a district's high school libraries (such as Judy Blume's Forever, which I hated and would never put in my middle school library because it read like a sex manual with a whiny, flat main character, and I didn't see anything that would cause it to even be marginally appropriate for middle grades... high school kids is another reading and maturity level than 6th graders!)

* Or maybe, not because it has violence or sex or profanity, but because people think it doesn't portray a certain group of people correctly (such as a book with a wishy-washy gay character, or a book where African-Americans in African-American heaven are shown exclusively eating fried chicken and watermelon).

Not that I always agree, and not that I always disagree. But it isn't always the conservative religious people banning books.

That said, I've got my BBW display up:

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
14, The Giver by Lois Lowry
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
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
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
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

Woo-- 37 out of 100! That's awesome. Not that I've read all of them... but they're on my school shelves. (There were another 4-5 that I can't remember whether we have...)

[Rio_Kohitsuji]

Sheesh..one of my all time fav kiddie books is on there! "How the heck did "How To Eat Fried Worms" get on there??

Now..the book "The Day When No Pigs Would Die"..well..I absolutely hated it..didn't see the point..I'm thinking the only reason it's really on there is because it describes umm..the "union" of some pigs...

[Taualumna]

I think Freckle Juice should be banned (or maybe not, since the kid learns his lesson not to mix stuff around the kitchen....anyway, I don't remember too much of the story)

There was a book that I read in Grade 5 about slaves escaping to the north called "Underground to Canada" (I think that's what it's called, anyway), and apparently some schools in Nova Scotia want to ban it because of the use of the "n" word. I was like, ummmmmm, that's part of the story??? And the the kids who read these books (which I would put at Grade 5/6 or so, or 10/11 years old) are listening to hip hop which may or may not contain The Word.