A book is a loaded gun in the house next
door.
Burn it.
Take the shot from the weapon.
Breach man's mind.
Who knows who might be the target of the
well-read man?
Yep, it’s time for one of my favorite celebrations
of the year –
Banned Books Week!
So let’s take a moment to honor some of the
big baddies that have been removed or restricted from libraries or schools
across the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen has been banned by some schools because it has descriptions of
trauma and injury that are just too… well, realistic. Yes, you can get banned for good writing.Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl has been banned for being too depressing. Gee, genocides usually are.
James
and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl contains
mild profanity. It is also anti-authority and anti-aunt. Apparently SOMEbody’s
aunt got her knickers in a twist over it.
The first Where’s Waldo by Martin Handford reveals a topless sunbather’s
partially exposed breast. Perhaps the entire series should be renamed Find Frontage (trust me, it’s a LOT
harder to locate than the big W).
How
to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell has been banned
for encouraging children to engage in socially unacceptable behavior (like
looking for breasts in the Waldo series, perhaps?). It is also
said to promote gambling and profanity.
By
the way, my 4th grade teacher spent weeks of class time reading this
one to us (with pretty apparent delight)… Yeah, I know – that explains a lot.
The sweet picture book And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson made
the top of the Banned List in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 for the shameful act
of telling a true tale. Back in 2000 at New York’s Central Park Zoo, two
penguins hatched an abandoned egg. The problem? The penguins were both male.
A
Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein has been given
the ax more than once for encouraging disobedience and (gasp!) messiness.
And finally, there’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, a
charming book about a donkey who collects pebbles. Well, this one has been
banned in some schools and libraries because it
portrays policemen as pigs. And yet –
Nobody seemed to mind that the story’s main
character was actually…
an ass.
PROMPT:
Read a banned book this week just to celebrate your freedom to do so. Then get
to work on authoring your own awesome list-maker. Oops! Did I just encourage deviant, defiant, and disobedient behavior?
Yep.
(Says the soon-to-be-banned blogger)
Love this post! Thanks for the laugh. ^_^
ReplyDeleteThank you, Angi, for stopping by the blog today!
DeleteFun post! I love Banned Books Week, too!
ReplyDeleteI'll see you at the October meeting! You'll be there, right? I hope so!
Thanks, Dawn! Yes, I'm planning to be there for some SCBWI fun. See you then!
Delete