Banned Books Week 2009

September 26-October 3, 2009 is Banned Books Week.  Celebrate your freedom to read by picking a book that makes you cringe, cry, squirm, angry, sad, uncomfortable, happy.  Challenge yourself.  Challenge your beliefs.  Think.  Be thankful you still can.  Breathe.  Love.  Read. 

It's interesting looking over this list of books and the reasons why they were challenged.  As a mother, I have certainly felt some of the same concerns about the books my three daughters read (or the TV programs or videogames they watch and play).  And I have withheld certain materials from my girls because I felt they were inappropriate.  To me that's good parenting.  But that ban didn't extend to my friend's or neighbors kids or the entire school district. 

Now that my kids are older and I have less control over their world, I will occasionally find them reading or looking at something online or listening to music with lyrics that surprise me.  Having been raised Catholic, my first reaction is, oh, they shouldn't be reading that!  Old habits die hard.  It's easier to control someone if they don't ask questions.   It's easier to forbid something than to examine or discuss it.  Heaven forbid you might actually change your mind.  Your belief system.

The funny thing is when I do look a little deeper into what my kids are reading, listening to, and thinking, it has generated some great discussions with them.  Brought me closer to them.  Introduced me to lots of new music and books I never would have picked up on my own. LIke Richard Siken's Crush, collection of poems about longing, love and pain.  I can't wait to read it.

American Library Association’s Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008 (out of 513 challenges as reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom--love that name!):

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
   Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
   Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence.  Retained by the publicly funded Dufferin-Peel Catholic School District in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada in 2008 with a sticker on the inside cover telling readers "representations of the church in this novel are purely fictional and are not reflective of the real Roman Catholic Church or the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence. Banned from the Orestimba High School's English classes in Newman, California in 2008 by the superintendent after complaints that the book is profane and anti-Catholic.  Teachers claimed that the superintendent circumvented the district's policies on book challenges and set a dangerous precedent.  The book is about a boy maturing, asking questions about evil, justice, and the nature of God.  
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
   Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
    Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Comments

[H]

i absolutely love the images you pick and take for your blog. i of course commend the social points you make as well, but the pictures have a way of drawing ppl in. just thought you might want to know. kind of like when someone tells you that your hair looks awesome in the elevator...

[Angie]

Dear H:

Thanks for your kind words. Of course, I spend a lot more time on my food than my hair and, you're right, it's nice when someone notices.

Glad you stopped by and left a comment. Welcome to the San Diego food blogging community. :)