Banned Books Week: Celebrate the Power of the Written Word September 30, 2009

One way you can celebrate Banned Books Week is by reading one of the many books that were challenged in various parts of the country in 2008-2009. But, then I got to thinking, another way you can ring in this event would be to pick up one of the many top-notch books out there that haven’t necessarily been challenged recently, but really resonate with the spirit of the week. I’m talking about daring, inspiring (and inspired) books that celebrate the power of literature and depict the struggle to protect the written word against the people and forces that would censor it. These are books that wrestle engagingly with the big questions, questions about the potential of the human mind, the human heart, the human everything, and the deep, powerful fears that drive many book challenges (and burnings) in the first place.  Here are a few outstanding titles that come to mind:

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

It’s just a small story, really, about: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery… Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s emotionally wrenching novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Brave, tough Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in the cellar. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul and the unlikely, beautiful relationships you find when your heart is as big as a zeppelin. Oh, and it’s narrated by Death.

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The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher.

Do you think you know where you go when you die? What if you could stick around, hover above the people you love and try to get inside their heads? Would you choose to do it?

The two main characters in Chris Crutcher’s book, The Sledding Hill, have an unconventional relationship. One of them, Billy, is dead. He was killed by a sheet rock wall when it fell on him and crushed the base of his skull. The other one, Eddie, has gone mute since the accident and keeps seeing his dead friend peering in at him through his windows, hears him rustling around in his closet late at night, and speaks to him in his dreams. What does his dead friend want? Is Eddie going stark, raving nuts? When a feared local preacher moves to ban from school the one book that gives Eddie comfort during this traumatic time, Eddie makes peace with Billy’s spirit and goes undercover in his community to defend his right to read, think, and be whatever he wants to be. Together the dead and the undead discover that freedom is an ideal more important than life and death and that real friendship lasts beyond the grave.

(Ironically, despite the intentional lack of profanity in Crutcher’s book – and a plot that revolves around a book challenge! – The Sledding Hill was challenged at a middle school in Delaware in 2008 for its representations of religion and authority figures. According to Crutcher’s site, the book only partially survived the challenge: it remains at the school, but interested students must get parental permission before they can read it).

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Libyrinth by Pearl North.

In a distant future where Libyrarians preserve and protect the ancient books that are housed in the fortress-like Libyrinth, Haly is imprisoned by Eradicants, who believe that the written word is evil, and she must try to mend the rift between the two groups before their war for knowledge destroys them all.  On June 15th, 2009, Kirkus published a review of the book that concluded, “The page-turner plot and themes of the abuses of authority, the nature of prejudice and the power of the written word provide the primary focus. The main characters, all strong, individualized young women, are convincingly drawn…  The dramatic, satisfying climax and deftly handled resolution of the many plot threads will convince and exhilarate readers.”

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

In Ray Bradbury’s classic book, you’ll experience a frightening vision of the future where firemen don’t put out fires – they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury’s vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal – a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Published in 1953, Bradbury’s book endures as one of the greatest works of art detailing just how impoverished our minds become when our access to ideas is restricted.

(Don’t) Watch Your Tongue: It’s BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2009 September 28, 2009

September 26th – October 3rd, 2009 is Banned Books Week.  This annual event was founded to celebrate the freedom to read and to raise awareness about the book challenges and bans that threaten that freedom.  Banned Books Week serves as a reminder that we must protect the availability of unpopular, even radical, viewpoints to all who wish to read them if we are to preserve our basic rights to speak, to pursue knowledge and to express ourselves – whatever the content.  So, celebrate with us – pick out a title from this list of banned and challenged books, check out this national map showing the locations of book bans and challenges that occurred in 2007-2009, read about the Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins book challenges going on right now, stop by the Loft to pick up a free “I Read Banned Books” button or to hear an impromptu “banned book reading” by one of our staff, and, above all else, speak your mind.

 

 

“The truth screams to be told in its native tongue.”

-Chris Crutcher

(one of the most censored writers of all time).

 

 

Whatever You Do, Don’t Read These Books June 22, 2009

 

WARNING: ACCORDING TO SOME  PARENTS IN TOWNS ACROSS AMERICA THESE BOOKS ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR YOU

“Vulgar…”

“Inappropriate…”

“Damaging…”

Summer: for some it means a time to work, for others a time to play, and for many it’s a time, after 9 months of assigned school reading, to choose your own books, to decide what you want to read.

Unfortunately, if the last week is any indication, summer is also a time for some parents in towns across the country to challenge young adult literature, a time to fight to ban books from schools and public libraries.

Today the Chicago Tribune reports that some parents in Antioch, IL, just outside of Chicago, want Sherman Alexie’s National Book Award-winning novel, The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian, eliminated from the incoming freshman summer reading curriculum (even though an alternate book is offered).  Meanwhile, down in Leesburg, Florida last week, two moms were interviewed on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” morning show because they want the Gossip Girl series removed from the young adult section of their local library (a request which was rejected by the library’s board). In New Hampshire a group of parents succeeded last week in dropping short stories by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and David Sedaris from English curriculum while the D.C. public school system, working below the radar, yanked every single LGBTQ-themed book from summer reading lists. And, in West Bend, WI, a group of citizens are  fighting for their right to burn – yes, burn – their local library’s copies of Francesca Lia Block’s Baby Be-Bop, a book that is part of the Weetzie Bat series, and, according to Block, “a very sweet, simple, coming-of-age story about a young man’s discovery that he’s gay.”

 

Books and stories for young adults have a long history of being challenged. (Check out Chris Crutcher’s website to see how  many times his books have been challenged in the last year). But, does the spate of book challenges across the country in dicate a growing trend towards more censorship of books for young adults or are these situations a cluster of isolated incidents?

In almost all these instances parents object to the “vulgar” language in these stories, claim the books are “racist,” and are offended by the description of (or reference to) sexual acts included in the books. Often times in these situations, as in West Bend, WI, the protesters claim that the book(s) defy Christian principles.  (Read an interview with one of the people fighting t o protect Baby Be-Bop from these attacks.) Some parents claim they don’t want to ban the books, but want warning labels affixed to their covers (like those on movies, video games, and music). What do you think? Is a warning label a form of censorship? Is it censorship if a young adult librarian is forced to remove books from her collection to another part of the library? Should a small group of parents get to decide what a library’s patrons or a school’s student body can and can not have access to?

 

LATE UPDATE: The Tribune reports that the Antioch school board has decided to keep Sherman Alexie’s book  on the reading list. The board reached this decision in part because many parents voiced their support for the book.

LATER UPDATE: For those curious, none of the embattled books pictured above were removed from schools or libraries as a result of their challenges.  In all cases both school boards and library boards stood by the books and kept them on the shelves.

 

Deadline by Chris Crutcher May 20, 2009

What would you do with your life if you knew you only had a year to live? That’s the question Ben Wolf, the hero of Chris Crutcher’s excellent novel, Deadline, must ask himself when, during a routine physical before the start of senior year, he is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. His answer? Tell no one, go out for varsity football (despite being rail-thin, short, and the brother of the star QB), and pursue Dallas Suzuki, the tallest, most confident, athletic, and beautiful girl in school. Oh, and tirelessly challenge (and make a fool out of) that thoughtless, authoritarian American Government teacher who’s always getting on his nerves.

This funny, touching, and compassionate book is that rare beast: a gripping, plot-driven read that weaves in controversial turns without once feeling didactic or forced. As Ben sets down the new path he’s set for himself he begins succeeding wildly. He is an unexpected animal on the ballfield with a sharp eye for strategy, and becomes the team’s secret weapon. He ends up in Dallas’s welcoming arms so fast and so early on that his head spins. But with each success he develops new, unexpectedly meaningful relationships – with his brother, with Dallas, with the coach, even with the town drunk. These relationships deepen as the novel progresses and force him to wrestle with his decision to keep his fate a secret. It also makes his impending death that much harder to bear: How can he leave these amazing people he loves behind? How can he not tell them how little time he has? Was it up to him to “protect” his family and friends from his fate? And why can’t he find the courage to tell Dallas even when, after they fall in love, she reveals two dark, shocking secrets of her own?

Crutcher’s book is packed with memorable characters, complex relationships, and philosophical and moral hot potatoes you’ll be turning over for days. He is as unflinching here about the ugly side of human nature as he is certain, ultimately, in the basic goodness of most people. Ben’s voice is irreverent, sarcastic, and fiercely independent, but he’s rattled by how much he doesn’t know. He’s in a race to make life mean something, and, in only a short while (because that’s all he’s got), he learns about the central importance of love, about his own weaknesses, about the power of selflessness, and the possibility of compassion for even the lowest of God’s creatures. His story exhorts us to make the most of our own short time on this planet. This is Crutcher at his very best.

(Jarrett, The Loft)