"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Monday, September 25, 2017

Banned Books Week Sept 24-30---Celebrate the right to read!

This week I am going to read a banned book.

Why?

Because I can and because I think censorship hurts us all.

To make my selection I visited the American Library Association's frequently banned or challenged lists from the past few years. From these lists, I will select a book I haven't read before. 
Which of these should I select? 
  • Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
    Reasons: challenged because it includes LGBT characters, was deemed sexually explicit, and was considered to have an offensive political viewpoint
  • Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
    Reasons: offensive language, unsuited for age group
  • Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reason: political viewpoint, racism, violence
  • A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard
    Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
  • And Tango Makes Three, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
    Reasons: anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “promotes the homosexual agenda”
  • Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
    Reasons: homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”)
  • Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
    Reasons: religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence
  • The Holy Bible
    Reasons: religious viewpoint
All these books have been on the top ten banned/challenged books list at least once in the past five years. Ridiculous!

I always told my students, if they don't like a book that they checked out, bring it back. But don't make a fuss about it. Just because you don't like doesn't mean it isn't a good one for someone else.

In addition to reading one or more of the above books, I will listen to an audiobook of Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. It was the 46th most challenged book of the decade, 2000-09.

Join me. Read a banned book this week!

4 comments:

  1. Ohm shoot - Banned Book Week already? Looks like I will miss it this year - too much going on.

    Drama was excellent - and insane that it's been banned!

    Vonnegut has LONG been on my can't-believe-I-haven't-read-must-get-to-it-soon list! Maybe this fall I can fit one in. I also have Slaughterhouse Five on my shelf.

    Enjoy BBW! Celebrate for me, too!

    Sue

    Book By Book

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  2. My parents let me read whatever I wanted. :) I'm thankful to them for that because I explored many different genres and topics and learned from them.

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  3. I say read And Tango Makes Three. It's one of the first books I heard of begin banned many years ago.

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