Banned Books Week 2008

[Good Old Neon]

In one of my classes last fall I taught a great article by Judy Blume about how ridiculous the current crusade against the Harry Potter books is. She talks about how it seems parents and teachers are afraid to teach kids how to use their imagination. It sparked what was probably the best discussion of that entire course (and about a half-dozen treacherously boring research papers on book banning...).

 

It

[Lammycat]

Oh, and the most frequently challenged book of 2006 and 2007? And Tango Makes Three.

That's crazy. Based on a true story, too!

[John Smith]

Oh, Harry Potter is a hot topic here, too, you know because of the whole witchcraft thing. I know several people who've not allowed their kids to read the books.

 

Those same people live up here. My daughter went ot see the golden compass and invited a friend who told her she couldn't go because the movie was evil. Another was not allowed to read Harry Potter because of the witch craft & stuff, yet reads the Stephanie Meyers vampire books. A mom used the article about Harry Potter that appeared in the Onion as her basis for not allowing her kids to read it. Crazy people. And for the most part the same people who fear Obama because he is a muslim/anti-christ.

[Good Old Neon]

Mommy needs to lay off of the LSD.

 

[yermom]

For the record, any time I hear of a childrens book (or flick) being protested for reasons like those mentioned in this thread, I instantly become ten times more likely to show it to my kid because I know it must be good stuff.

[watch me fall]

Well just like most things in life, you tell a kid they can't do/watch/read something, they're going to want to do it tenfold. I remember a friend of mine "stealing" her sister's Are you There God It's Me Margaret book one night and us reading it under the covers of her bed. Good times.

[kimcatch22]

Tomorrow is the Banned Books Read-Out in Chicago. It's free!

 

Lots of YA authors reading their works and discussing censorship, including Lois Lowry, Jude Blume, Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower,) and Peter Parnell (And Tango Makes Three.)

[Griddles]

Well just like most things in life, you tell a kid they can't do/watch/read something, they're going to want to do it tenfold. I remember a friend of mine "stealing" her sister's Are you There God It's Me Margaret book one night and us reading it under the covers of her bed. Good times.

In the movie Jesus Camp one of the kids says that his mom does not let him read/watch Harry Potter, but he reads/watches it at his dad. All the other kids look at him in disgust. You never see that kid in the movie again.

[gogo]

I attended this during my lunch hour today, and it was great.

 

I heard excerpts from Kaffir Boy (banned fairly recently in the public schools in Burlingame, a suburb of SF), The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, Lady Chatterly's Lover, The Amber Spyglass (the Dark Materials trilogy), the Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Coffee Will Make You Black (read by the author, April Sinclair; I haven't read any of her books, but she was very cool, so I will be checking her out).

 

I thought Lady Chatterly's Lover was too racy to be read out in public like that, but April Sinclair just flat-out read her scene about a teenage girl losing her virginity right there in the middle of civic center plaza (I mean, she read it in civic center, not that the scene took place right there in civic center). She also talked about being banned in Alabama. Apparently, she's banned in the entire state, all schools, libraries, whatever.