Banned Book Week - The Other Kind of BBW

[baaaaadgoatjoke]

Banned Book week is Sept 25-Oct 2
http://ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/ba...week/index.cfm


Top Ten Challenged in 2009
http://ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/ba...2009/index.cfm

Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books 2000-2009
http://ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/ba...2009/index.cfm

Banned/Challenged Classics
http://ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/ba...sics/index.cfm

22. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne ????????????????


Scroll to the bottom and click on the links to find PDFs with the why's and where's of the challenges for each year.
http://ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/ba...oads/index.cfm

[the facade]

I find it quite ironic that Fahrenheit 451 should find itself on that list

[OrphanPip]

One book that continually confuses me that sometimes appears on those list is Where's Waldo?, why on Earth people object to that is beyond me.

Uppity prudes getting upset about homosexuality, or even acknowledging issues of sex in books for teens, is to be expected.

[baaaaadgoatjoke]

The Where's Waldo that was banned has a puzzle with a topless lady in the middle.

http://www.babble.com/cs/blogs/strol...e-s-waldo.aspx NSFW? because of cartoon breast

[spookymulder93]

The Where's Waldo that was banned has a puzzle with a topless lady in the middle.

http://www.babble.com/cs/blogs/strol...e-s-waldo.aspx NSFW? because of cartoon breast

Giggity!

[Jassy Melson]

Are these lists of books banned or challenged in the U.S. alone? The Bible is the most banned or challenged book worldwide.

[Drkshadow03]

Are these lists of books banned or challenged in the U.S. alone? The Bible is the most banned or challenged book worldwide.

I'm pretty sure this is just the U.S. because the ALA is the organization in charge of libraries in the U.S.

[AuntShecky]

I was going to use this topic for a LitNet Forum Games Quiz of the Week*, but it was just too darned depressing.

I've just finished reading the list of the challenged books and the ones in which school boards and parents foundobjectionable are the "usual suspects," notably The Catcher in the Rye. What really surprised me, however, were the reasons given for some of the books that were
challenged.

The reason most cited for banning/restricting access to many of the books for high school literature classes was "explicit language and sexuality." For instance, a unified school district in California (!) -- a place we often think of as free-wheeling -- banned Brave New World by Aldous Huxley because parents believed the "characters' sexual behavior directly opposed the health curriculum which taught sexual abstinence until marriage."

Surprisingly enough, objectionable language and scenes depicting sexuality are the reasons given for challenging books such as Catch-22, 1984,The Sun Also Rises, and The Grapes of Wrath. I suspect that the obscenity clause may be a pretext, a smokescreen for what it is that really bothers parents and school officials, and that is the political and social themes of these books. Yet, few school boards want to risk a prolonged court case on constititutional grounds. Hence, the obscenity card.

For some reason, school boards and communities come "clean" so to speak when objecting to John Steinbeck's works. One entity cited Of Mice and Men for its "anti-business attitude" and another banned The Grapes of Wrath for "spreading propoganda unfavorable to the State." But it's back to the "explicit sexuality and language" ruse to object to books such as Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and two celebrated novels by Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon and Beloved.

Why, one may ask, do school boards --including but not limited to the southern states of the U.S.-- find important books by minority writers not appropriate for high school students? And if Nobel laureates (Steinbeck, Hemingway, Morrison) don't meet their standards, who does?

"No girl was ever corrupted by a book," Mark Twain said, and he was absolutely right. The whole point of teaching literature is to open minds, not to close them. On the other hand, teenagers are prey to every kind of trend that comes down the pike as well as what we used to call the Information Superhighway. Just this morning I read that kids are imitating vampire behavior found in the Twilight books and movies-- literally biting each other and licking their blood. Don't know if this fad will lead to a nationwide ban on the Stephanie Meyer cash "cow" (or "bat.")


*contribute a quiz directly in the thread or send me a topic via PM:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...687#post951687

[Scheherazade]

A BBC article on the topic: "Why are parents banning school books?"

[keilj]

fml.JPG

...............

[DanielBenoit]

People need to grow up. It's pitiful how over-protective parents are of their kids when it comes to books but when it comes to television and video games, most really don't seem to give a crap if they sit there for hours wasting their intelligence.

[Mr.lucifer]

People need to grow up. It's pitiful how over-protective parents are of their kids when it comes to books but when it comes to television and video games, most really don't seem to give a crap if they sit there for hours wasting their intelligence.

Do you even pay attention to the modern world? VIdeo games are more challenged than any other medium today. In fact, theres a case in the supreme court on whether the californian law on the regulation of content of video games are constitutional. Parents are also extremely worried by the content of television. In fact most parents would prefer their children to read books than watch tv or play video games.

Video games are the most criticized medium by parents.

[keilj]

Do you even pay attention to the modern world? VIdeo games are more challenged than any other medium today. In fact, theres a case in the supreme court on whether the californian law on the regulation of content of video games are constitutional. Parents are also extremely worried by the content of television. In fact most parents would prefer their children to read books than watch tv or play video games.

Video games are the most criticized medium by parents.

A few wacky fundamentalist parents and few censorship groups do not outweigh the vast, vast majority of parents who sit their kids in front of TV and video games and let those things be their baby sitters. Tons of people let their kids become TV zombies without thinking twice - same when they go on plane trips or when they are in their cars

Nice smug post by you though - especially your first sentence

[DanielBenoit]

Do you even pay attention to the modern world? VIdeo games are more challenged than any other medium today. In fact, theres a case in the supreme court on whether the californian law on the regulation of content of video games are constitutional. Parents are also extremely worried by the content of television. In fact most parents would prefer their children to read books than watch tv or play video games.

Video games are the most criticized medium by parents.

After being around kids and their parents for so often, yes I can say that I pay attention to the modern world in which parents fail to raise their kids properly. Also, I'm not talking about violent video games, nor am I talking about censoring them; I'm talking about the negative effects that come upon a growing child who has been sitting in front of the tv all day instead of reading a book.

And yes a majority of American parents I can assume, do want their kids reading books, though that doesn't mean that they actually make them.

(Btw, this isn't a smear on parents. In today's economy it is hard enough getting by financially and it's totally understandable that parents would resort to turning on the tv so that their seven year old can shut-up.)

[Mr.lucifer]

A few wacky fundamentalist parents and few censorship groups do not outweigh the vast, vast majority of parents who sit their kids in front of TV and video games and let those things be their baby sitters. Tons of people let their kids become TV zombies without thinking twice - same when they go on plane trips or when they are in their cars

Nice smug post by you though - especially your first sentence

Sorry I overreacted.