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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Welcome again to another addition of Banned Book Week!






This is totally one of those things that I would be MORE then happy to not have to post about next year. Because, you see, we as human beings will have FINALLY evolved past the point of being TERRIFIED of other peoples points of view, and stop seeing people who disagree with them as the enemy. I find it absolutely unconscionable that there are people out there who feel that their point of view, their beliefs are so right, so perfect, that they have the responsibility to make the rest of us fall in line, by hook or by crook. If they can't go all Spanish Inquisition on our asses, that's okay, they'll just make sure that anything that disagrees with their world view is removed from consumption.

So shall we take a peek at what was objected to in the past year? You can click HERE for the full text, PDF file. But here is a quick list...

  1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
    Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
  2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
    Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
  3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
    Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
  5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
    Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
  6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
  7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
    Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
  9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
    Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
Sadly, I have to say I have only read one of these, the His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Philip Pullman (and didn't particularly enjoy them, but support everyone else's right 100% to read them ;) ) I guess I better add a few to my Paperback Swap queue, and get reading ;)

Because in the end, that's my job, as a parent. To read the materials before my children do, so that I can make the choice if it's "unsuited to age group" or not. If more parents took the time to make the decisions for their families, and spent less time leaving it to others to tell them what is acceptable or not, I think we might just get to that point when I won't have to post about Banned Book Week again ;)


3 comments:

TooManyHats said...

I've read The Kite Runner and highly recommend it. Yes, it has sexually explicit scenes and offensive language. I'm not sure what age group it is intended for, my guess would be adult, but if it was suggested to be read by younger than adult - yes, that needs to be the parent's decision. I listened to this book on my MP3 player - it was read by the author with his Aghani accent, it really lended a realism to the book and helped with hard to pronounce Afghani words - at one point I was doing dishes listening to it and I was literally brought to my knees in sorrow - this is an amazing book.

Guest said...

Beckie, this should not come as a surprise to you, but one of my neighbors is challenging a book on the 7th grade book list. I have no problem with her if she decides that it is inappropriate for HER son, but I sure as hell don't want her decidng what is and isn't apporpriate for EVERYONE'S kids!

I posted about BBW on my blog as well...and I'm still trying to decide which book I'm going to read and review to celebrate our freedom to read. (I'm thinking about Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume...or Captain Underpants...or Charlotte's Web...)

Alison (Alison's Book Marks) said...

My bad...that's my post above. Didn't sign in before posting my comment! DOH.

Alison