Banned Books Week

[nkjzmom]

I didn't even know we had a week for banned books. Some of the books that are banned are laughable...why couldn't The Canterbury Tales have been banned? That was a complete waste of my time in high school.

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm

 

[Crankyshank]

Lots of classic books were banned or challenged. Books you wouldn't normally imagine would be banned like Ulysses,Leaves of Grass, Canterbury Tales, The Arabian Nights, Frankenstein, Call of the Wild, and a bunch more.
IIRC Canterbury Tales was banned because of lewd and inappropriate content.

 

[mom2rb]

Well I home school and I just planned our work for that week. Everybody goes to the library and picks out a banned book for us to read.

 

[Maleficent13]

What's funny is, I don't remember sexual content in either Catcher in the Rye or The Chocolate War. Obviously, that is not what stuck with me about the books.

 

[Crankyshank]

I remember it about Catcher in the Rye because the scene with the prostitute really stood out for me. Not for the obvious reasons I don't remember it at all about the Chocolate War. I do remember a lot of bawdiness in Canterbury Tales because we giggled about it in HS

 

[Maleficent13]

I didn't read Canterbury Tales until college, but I do remember all the bawdiness. I remember one prof giving us a lecture about all the naughty words we might not recognize...he wanted to make sure we caught the jokes...

 

[nkjzmom]

Crankyshank...silly question but what does IIRC mean? I disagree with banning books (even Canterbury Tales!) but wish I'd been allowed to choose which books I would read/study.


Here's an article from Parade magazine:

Dangerous Reading?

The 25th annual Banned Books Week is Sept. 23-30. The American Library Association says each book below has been pulled from some libraries or schools. You’ll be surprised by the list. Why were Garfield and a dictionary deemed dangerous? Visit parade.com.

TThe Adventures of Captain Underpants—causes unruly behavior

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—racist language

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl—sexually explicit

The Catcher in the Rye—offensive language

Garfield: His Nine Lives—banned from kids’ section of library only: offensive language

The Handmaid’s Tale—sexually explicit

Harry Potter (entire series)—occult

Little Red Riding Hood—bottle of wine in basket for Grandma

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary—offensive language

To Kill a Mockingbird—racist language

A number of other books have been removed because of provocative pictures, racist or explicit language, or controversial ideas. Sometimes the books are “challenged”—that is, individuals request to have them removed—but the challenge is overruled, and the books remain. There have been more than 8,700 reported book challenges since 1990. Among those challenged: Mother Goose, Freakonomics, The Bible and Fahrenheit 451. “The reason more books aren’t banned is because community residents—with librarians, teachers and journalists —speak out for their freedom to read,” said ALA President Leslie Burger.

To learn more, and for details about Banned Books Week (September 23-30), visit www.ala.org/bbooks. The American Library Association says this week is a great time to read a classic book.

 

[Crankyshank]

IIRC = if I remember correctly

I'm actually reading a banned book right now for my class tomorrow night - Bridge to Terabithia.
I made it a point to read the entire 100 list of frequently banned/challenged books a few years ago. What always cracks me up is that a large percentage of those books were assigned reading in my Catholic school.

 

[NMAmy]

Our Writing Center at work does a yearly fundraiser by selling t-shirts that list banned books on the back and says "I read banned books" on the front. I have two of them and I get more comments from those t-shirts than from any other shirt I own. One woman at the airport baggage claim asked if I'd mind moving my hair so she could see the top of the list. Then we discussed it while we waited for our luggage and about 3 more people got involved in the conversation.

 

[Maleficent13]

Oh, I want one of those shirts!

 

[Robmom]

I don't even remember bawdy material in Canterbury Tales. I guess I wasn't paying attention! Which was not unusual in my high school years.

 

[RSoxFan]

I don't remember anything sexual in Anne Frank I'm gonna have to go back and read it again.

For one of my seminars in college, our major paper was to pick a banned book and write about it and the historical context behind its banning. I chose "Peyton Place." It ended up being really interesting. The woman who wrote it was basically shunned by her entire town and died alone and alcoholic. Her husband left her, and no one would even bury her body when she died.

 

[maleficent1959]

...
I made it a point to read the entire 100 list of frequently banned/challenged books a few years ago. What always cracks me up is that a large percentage of those books were assigned reading in my Catholic school.

I've been working my way through the list too, and my 6 year-old reads the kids books.

My guess on the Chocolate Wars is the bullying, the name-calling, and the characterization of the religious leaders in the school.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Looks like I have read a lot of the banned and most challenged books. I would like to do that list of 100.

Banning books makes me

That T-shirt sounds very neat!

 

[amy4bruce]

Anybody remember the Island Trees School District on Long Island? I didn't attend, but I was in another LI school district (Herricks) at the time when they banned 11 books, back in the 1960s. Some of them were for usual reasons - for example, banning Go Ask Alice for bad language, even though she was a junkie, living among other junkies, and the whole point of the book was to portray the world realistically in order to scare the readers. I never understood why Slaughterhouse Five was considered anti-Christian. The one that really got to me was banning The Fixer by Bernard Malamud because it was anti-semetic. It seems that someone had read one paragraph of the book. That paragraph was anti-semetic. The book, of course, is about a Jew in czarist Russia who is unfairly prosecuted for killing a Christian child. Some of the characters would have to be anti-semetic. And yet, this paragraph got the book labeled anti-semetic. By the end of the year, the school board was thoroughly embarrassed, and all books were returned to the shelves.

Of course, years later, I read that someone out there wanted The Wonderful Wizard of Oz banned because it taught children that there could be good witches. Books are not dangerous, people are.

 

[Rajah]

Okay, call me clueless, but how do you find this year's 100 banned books? I can only find the top 10 challenged, or the 100 of the decade 1990-2000?

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

<I>Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey for anti-family content, being unsuited to age group and violence; </I>

Wait a minute...Capt Underpants is a challenged book? Some of them I can understand why they were challenged/banned, but Capt. Underpants?

TOV

 

[NMAmy]

Oh, I want one of those shirts!

If they offer them again this year, I'll get you one, pal!

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Not the top 100 but here's a list for 2005-2006:
http://www.ila.org/pdf/2006banned.pdf

 

[Brianne]

I'm surprised by how many of those books I happen to own. Never mind the fact that I just bought my 10 yr old DD the Anne Frank book because I remember reading it at her age. I guess I've finally made the "bad parent" list.