READERS! Banned Books Week 2010 is from September 25-October 2! And I want to do something fun and interactive!
Anytime this month, send me a photo of YOU reading a BANNED BOOK that I can post here on my blog. In the email include an address, and I will send you a set of two banned books buttons. They look like this:
The blue ones say COOL KIDS READ BANNED BOOKS and the pink ones say HOT CHICKS READ BANNED BOOKS.
I am super psyched about this project! Tell your friends! Tell your foes! Let’s get our read on! Send your pics to e.kristin.andersonATgmailDOTcom. (Don’t forget to replace AT with @ and DOT with .)
Here are some of the first few readers to show me their SCANDALOUS love for literature:
Jessica L. (left) from The Lovely Reader is reading TWISTED by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Personally, I loved TWISTED when I read it last year! In Montgomery County, Kentucky TWISTED was one of several novels 
“withdrawn from classroom use” after parents complained about the language as well of the content of the books. The parents also believed that the books didn’t belong in college prep classes, as they weren’t intellectually stimulating enough.
One of the great things about TWISTED is that it’s such a great book for guys, especially guys who think they don’t like to read. We’ve gotta keep it on classroom shelves!
Photographer J
ennifer Long (right) from allabouthtemusic.net is reading LORD OF THE FLIES, by William Golding.
This is one of my favorites, even though it was assigned reading and, as I’ve mentioned here before, I loathed assigned reading in high school. But the violence in the book — committed by children upon 
fellow children — is often deemed “too much” by parents and concerned citizens. LORD OF THE FLIES is no stranger to censorship, as it is the 8th most challenged “classic” according to the ALA.
Sure, it’s violent. It’s scary. It’s gonna make your guts turn inside out. But it’s classic! It’s exciting! And, let’s face it, if you miss out on reading this book, you miss out on jillions of pop culture references, including an episode of The Simpsons. And, you know, all those jokes your college buddies will make about ass-mar and the conch.
And here’s teacher and young adult author Elissa Janine Hoole and her kids “Jabber” 
and “Monkey” (left) reading NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH by Roald Dahl and THE LIGHT IN THE ATTIC by Shel Silverstein. All classics, these books have been challenged a lot of the years.
THE NAKED LUNCH is often challenged for obscene
language and content, and was involved in some serious court cases back in the 60′s, the last of which, in 1966, set a precedent for many future legal battles involving censorship. JAMES 
AND THE GIANT PEACH has been banned for language (use of the word “ass,” in particular), as well as references to snuff, tobacco, and whiskey. THE LIGHT IN THE ATTIC has been challenged and banned for poems that are dark in theme, supposedly encourage bad behavior and reference the occult.
BTW, you want to keep an eye on Elissa. Her debut novel KISS THE MORNING STAR is coming out from Marshall Cavendish Children’s in 2012! She blogs at Notes from a Knew-It-All.
So there you have it! Three readers have already sent in their pics, all reading some fabbity fab banned books! Are you reading a banned book this month? Do you want to? I bet you already have banned books in your house. There are great resources at the ALA Banned Books Week page, but the ABFFE site also has a great list of past challenges and bans.
Want more information on Banned Books Week? Check out the ALA’s resource page here!
I had no idea that James and the Giant Peach or the Shel Silverstein book were challenged at all. Crazy.
hahaha awesome! Jabber and Monkey were pretty excited to see themselves reading their dangerous books, lol. I will show to my students on Tuesday for sure!
(and thanks for the links…I should probably…uh…write something on my blog now, huh? ha!)
Kate, so many books are challenged, I bet if you compared your library to the ALA’s lists, you’d find tons! (SEND ME A PIC, GIRLIE!)
Elissa, so pleased your kidlets liked the pic! And yeah, you should totally post some banned books goodness. I had fun reading all about the NAKED LUNCH court trials.
For me, the most disturbing part of James and the Giant Peach is when it rolls over his aunts and kills them. The language didn’t bother me half so much as the manslaughter.
BUT THE AUNTS ARE EVIL!
[...] Good luck with the school year, everyone! And remember, ’tis the season to READ BANNED BOOKS. Keep sending me those pictures if you want some supacute buttons! [...]
oooh, i should do this. i have a copy of lolita and a clockwork orange next to my bed, hah. may take a few days, tho. my camera went missing awhile ago and after i locate it, i still have to find someone to help me take the photo. @__@
Absolutely! Do it! You can even use your phonecam, if you want, MySpace style. I won’t judge!
No books have been banned in the USA for about a half a century. See “National Hogwash Week.”
Thomas Sowell says Banned Books Week is “the kind of shameless propaganda that has become commonplace in false charges of ‘censorship’ or ‘book banning’ has apparently now been institutionalized with a week of its own.” He calls it “National Hogwash Week.”
Former ALA Councilor Jessamyn West said, “It also highlights the thing we know about Banned Books Week that we don’t talk about much — the bulk of these books are challenged by parents for being age-inappropriate for children. While I think this is still a formidable thing for librarians to deal with, it’s totally different from people trying to block a book from being sold at all.”
Banned Books Week is Next Week
And then there’s Judith Krug herself who created BBW:
“Marking 25 Years of Banned Books Week,” by Judith Krug, Curriculum Review, 46:1, Sep. 2006. “On rare occasion, we have situations where a piece of material is not what it appears to be on the surface and the material is totally inappropriate for a school library. In that case, yes, it is appropriate to remove materials. If it doesn’t fit your material selection policy, get it out of there.”
Lastly, remember the ALA does not oppose book burning when doing so would interfere with its political interests. Go see what Judith Krug said about Cuban librarians: “American Library Association Shamed,” by Nat Hentoff.
While I appreciate that your organization tries to protect children, your propaganda is not welcome here.
Books ARE banned, perhaps not on a large, government-controlled scale in the US, but anytime a book is removed from a classroom or library, citizens are denied their intellectual freedom.
If you have a problem with a book, fine, don’t read it, don’t let your children read it. Monitor your kids. Talk about books within your community. But don’t you dare play moral authority on behalf of anyone else. It’s unconstitutional, unkind, and unfair.
Emily I am with you!
Safe Libraries – the only way your child will be safe is if you are there and involve yourself in what they are doing/reading. Make decisions for your family not mine. Sensor your children,NOT mine! Teach your children to choose appropriate books (like the rest of us) and don’t be surprised when they pick up a book you don’t approve of.
BTW “banned” does not mean not being sold, at least not in this case. Anyone in the book industry will tell you “banned book week” is about censorship.
Keep up the great work Em!
“[T]he only way your child will be safe is if you are there and involve yourself in what they are doing/reading. Make decisions for your family not mine. Sensor your children,NOT mine!”
Great rhetoric. If that rhetoric was actually the way things are, then Board of Education v. Pico is meaningless. US v. ALA is meaningless too. Etc. Somehow I doubt these US Supreme Court cases are meaningless.
“The … elites have convinced themselves that they are taking a stand against cultural tyranny. …. [T]he reality is that it is those who cry ‘Censorship!’ the loudest who are the ones trying to stifle speech and force their moral world-view on others.”
Exactly.
Mary, A+. Thanks for your support. You’re exactly right. Thanks for being such an awesome reader/person/mom.
Again, SafeLibraries, no more propaganda. My blog is a place to support freedom to read, not a place to promote censorship. And no matter how you paraphrase it, removing books from libraries IS censorship.
Hey, Emily! I really want to send in a photo, and I’m sure I own a zillion banned books, but where can I find a list of them?
The ALA site puts out pdfs every year, and they have several lists. I think I linked to them and the ABFFE at the bottom of this post. (I’m on my phone at the mo.) Let me know if you need more info. <3