I came across this article this morning and I'm glad I did because I discovered that it's Banned Books Week! That. Is. So. Cool! I'm sorry I happened to come across it at the tail end (Banned Books Week is Sept 23-30), but I am an ardent supporter nonetheless.
Most of the books on the list below I would consider classics, and many of them even played a part in making me who I am today. Censorship is such a touchy and gray area that it's hard to take a stand--because it's so subjective. It's close to my heart, though, having dealt with it personally as an editor. Books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men and James and the Giant Peach, are so much more than offensive and obscene or racial slurrs. Oh...it just breaks my heart. These books are my friends (except the scary ones--I am not friends with scary stuff).
What it comes down to is discretion. If you don't want to read Harry Potter (though I don't know who wouldn't), don't. But don't try to take it away from someone who might be looking for a new friend.
Please note, I'm leaving the incorrect quotations as the author of the article published them.
A Long Shelf Life
By Vera HC Chan
Fri, September 22, 2006, 3:41 pm PDT
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."—Harper Lee, "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Compelling as they are, some folks would rather you didn't read the words above. The quote comes from a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that's been denounced for so-called racial slurs and profanity, and banished from school library shelves.
Irony never ceases, nor does the impulse toward censorship. But now is a perfect time to celebrate books such as Lee's masterpiece, "Ulysses," and "Heart of Darkness." Banned Books Week is here and thumb-nosing librarians and freedom-loving bookstore owners are celebrating the 25th anniversary of reading verboten material.
The American Library Association keeps an accounting of objectionable reads. We curled up with a good computer to check which forbidden pages still beckon readers and searchers.
"Harry Potter" (Series) (J.K. Rowling)*!
"To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)*
"The Color Purple" (Alice Walker)**
"The Outsiders" (S.E. Hinton)*
"Lord of the Flies" (William Golding)**
"Of Mice and Men" (John Steinbeck)*!
"Goosebumps" (Series) (R.L. Stine)
"How to Eat Fried Worms" (Thomas Rockwell)*
"The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger)*
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Mark Twain)*
"The Giver" (Lois Lowry)*
"Brave New World" (Aldous Huxley)*
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (Mark Twain)*
"Captain Underpants" (Dav Pilkey)
"The Anarchist Cookbook" (William Powell)
"Carrie" (Stephen King)
"Flowers for Algernon" (Daniel Keyes) *
"The Dead Zone" (Stephen King)
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (Maya Angelou)**
"Go Ask Alice" (anonymous)*
"American Psycho" (Bret Easton Ellis)
"The Chocolate War" (Robert Cormier)*
"James and the Giant Peach" (Roald Dahl)*!
"The Pigman" (Paul Zindel)
"A Wrinkle in Time" (Madeleine L'Engle)
*Erin's recommended reads
*!Erin's REALLY recommended reads
**Recommended even though you'll hate it. It's good for you.
Please note--not all, but most of these books can be found on my bookshelves at home. So there.
5 comments:
I can't BELIEVE that these book are banned! These are the books I grew up reading-- IN SCHOOL (even though my school was at home...that still counts right?) Anyways, I am with you. I would like to see what they are replacing these classics with!?
Maya Angelou is banned? For what? OK, I'm embarrassed but I'll admit that I have not read all of Why the Caged Bird Sings. My freshmen are reading an excerpt right now (and I've read a few more excerpts than they have), and they will be writing papers on their excerpt next week. I see nothing objectionable, and anything truly objectionable/gratuitous would be a terrific breach in style and content. It just wouldn't work in that book, I don't think. Banning books is lame.
None of these books have been "banned" although they have been challenged by parents in public libraries across the nation. There has not been one book taken off the shelves of a public library. Concerned parents have challenged books in the kids section about homosexuality, pornography and other sexual issues. And rightly so. The books have been moved to adult sections of libraries. My source?
Focus on the Family.
I agree with Carla--like I said, it all comes down to discretion. Make smart choices for yourself and let other people make their own (dumb) choices.
And hey, I never said they were banned. I was talking about censorship. ;)
My 7th-grader just brought home The Pigman and I didn't recognize it from the list. I got an email saying that parents of students in the class were not letting their children read it. So I did. Last night. Sure, there were a few (three) comments that I would've left out - they had no real impact on the story - but it was a great book on relationships and how each of our lives touches someone else's, whether we intend to or not. I told my son to come and talk to me after he'd finished it (he was already 3/4 of the way through it!...a little too late to tell him he couldn't read it.) and we had a great discussion. He hardly even remembered the parts that I'd picked out as controversial.
All that to say, some of these are magnificent reads. If they're assigned reading, read them WITH your child. No telling what YOU might get out of it, eh? :)
My two cents.
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