Book Spotlight: Banned Books, Crop Tops, and Other Bad Influences

 

Rose is used to be a "good" girl; she doesn't question anything. But when Talia arrives in town, she starts asking all sorts of questions. They're not friends. But after meeting at the local synagogue, they have a conversation. Talia understands things like no one student at school.  Talia gives Rose a book to read. Rose gets in trouble for having the book in school; the book is on a list that's being potential banned book list at their school. Rose didn't even know about the list. Why are the books being banned from the school library? Why is her best friend's mom leading the charge? Rose joins a Banned Book Club with Talia and some classmates. How can Rose reconcile her new thoughts within her world? Will she have the courage to speak up?

I haven't finished this book. It makes me angry that both Rose and Talia have to deal with adults trying to stifle their learning. I'm glad that they've become friends. There's a lot of jokes about Talia being too much for Rose's mom. I'm curious to see where that goes. I'm curious to see how the book club turns out. I can't wait to see where this book ends. 

* Book sent for review

Banned Books Week

 As a young librarian, I used to think Banned Book Week was something to celebrate. But now that I've been through a serious book challenge, I know that it is not. 

After a complaint brought against one book, the First Selectmen in the town where I work wanted to close the Children's Department and do an inventory of the entire collection during Summer Reading, the busiest time of year.

The summer of the incident was so stressful. Ultimately, the town came together to support the library and it's one of the best things to come out of that horrific experience. 

No one should have the power to decide what kids/teens read except for their families.

As public librarians, we are not gatekeepers. If you ask me for a book, I'm going to give it to you. I might recommend others that I also think you'd enjoy as well. 

The conversation about Banned Books has changed recently. People have organized to ban books. People have become scary. Librarians are scared. They don't always have the community support. They don't always have their boss's support or the administration support. It's a tough world out there, but as librarians it is our job to fight for the freedom to read.

Over the years, I have tried to make sure the library's collection is diverse. We want people to see themselves and more importantly other people in books. It's one way to create empathy.

We NEED empathy in the world right now. The world is on fire and has been for a while. 

Here are the most challenged books reported from last year. Not all challenges are reported to ALA.

Notice anything similar about them?

Go here for more information about Banned Books and book challenges.

Don't forget to vote - because often times (as it did in the town where I work), that's who is making these important decisions. 

Banned Book Week

In the past I've talked A LOT about Banned Book Week - so I'm just going to point you to some of those posts because they're still important and still valid.
Banning books still happens. It's not ok. It's fine if you want to decide not to read a book, but no one has the power (expect your parents if you're a kid) to tell you what you can or can not read.

ALA Poster

Censorship: My post from 5 years ago
Favorite Banned Books
Game: A few years ago, my co-worker and I made this Banned Book Bingo
Quiz on the history of Banned Books
Poem from Ellen Hopkins

* Read more about banned or challenged books

Banned Book Week 2012

This week marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Book Week, where bookish people celebrate their freedom of choice in choosing what to read.
This week brings attention to books that people frown upon and try to remove from certain libraries, book stores, or burn them so no one can read them. While it's great that this week makes people aware of those wanting to curtail their reading habits, it's still sad that people are challenging books.
You can read my rant from last year - about censoring teen books.

Here's the display at Otis Library this year. We decided on a jail cell this cell - cell 451 to be exact.

All a close up view

Here's a list and graphics from the ALA site about the books reported last year - 326!!

2011

Out of 326 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2. The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
   Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3. The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
4. My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
   Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
   Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
   Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8. What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
   Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
   Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
    Reasons: offensive language; racism

Banned Book Quiz:

Celebrate the freedom to read, to choose your own reading material based on your interests, and to find those interests at any library!

Readers should be choosers

My co-worker and I created this banned book bingo, which we used in our 4th and 5th grade book club last year. They had to match book covers with these clues.

How many of these can you name?

Which book is filled with wacky and very funny poems?
Which book series, features a girl growing up without her mother?
What book features a unique family of penguins in a zoo?
What book has a new girl changing the life of one boy when they become friends?
What book features a haunted house in the dead of the night when the clock strikes twelve? Which book forces a boy to choose sides and go against either his brother or his father in the American Revolutionary War?
What book features George and Harold who love playing practical jokes and creating their own comic books?
Which book features a young boy discussing his divorced father's new living situation
Which book features a young artist who draws about the possibilities of life?
Which popular series just wants to scare the pants off you with each new boo – and there are a lot of books?
What popular series features a boy learning about a magical new world?
Which book features a little boy cooking?
Which book talks about growing older?
What first book in a series features a girl who’s scared of a school bus?
Which book features a piece of land so important to one family?
What book features short stories about ghosts?
What book features a mischievous boy who gets other people to do his work?
Which book features a young boy in a futuristic world receiving special training.
Which book series features a family who isn’t very bright?
Which book features a boy who was turned into a mouse?
What popular series features a girl who falls in love with two different boys – who aren’t quite human.
What book features a hunt for one particular boy?

Highlight below for the answers

The Light in the Attic
Alice (Series)
And Tango Makes Three
Bridge To Terabithia
Bumps in the Night
My Brother Sam is Dead
Captain Underpants
Daddy’s Roommate
Draw Me A Star
Goosebumps (series)
Harry Potter
In the Night Kitchen:
It’s Perfectly Normal
Junie B. Jones
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Scary Stories
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Giver
The Stupids (series)
The Witches
Twilight
Where’s Waldo?

Banned Books: Teen Books

Happy Banned Books week - where we all chat about books OTHER people don't want us to read. You can view my previous posts on the subject here

There are a number of teen books that someone doesn't want you to read. Here are my favorites

Harry Potter
Forever
TTYL
Speak
Twilight novels
Gossip Girl series
Twenty Boy Summer

The only people who have the power to stop you from reading a certain book are your parents.

Otherwise read freely and often.

Challenge your mind - think for yourself - stand up for your reading rights.

Ten Things: Natasha Friend

Natasha Friend came to Otis Library this week. We had a great time chatting with her. I met her while at a Sarah Dessen signing at R.J. Julia's Bookstore. She was behind me in line with her newborn girl. I immediately asked her to come to my library and we finally found at date that worked. She was the teen author for our stop on the Connecticut Author Trail. It was a rainy night, but those who came out had a GREAT time!

Chatting about her ideas

The Book Table

Books and Goodies

The Goodies

Reading from Bounce

Here's ten things I learned about her:

1. A lot of people compare her latest book For Keeps to Gilmore Girls (not just me- read my review)

2. For Keeps is actually based on her moving during high school and a rumor started about the reasons for the move
3. She has a pretty good idea who started that rumor.
4. Judy Blume is her HERO and role model. Her story of meeting Judy Blume is hilarious.
5. She passed around Forever to her fellow classmates with the "good" pages marked.
6. She didn't have a TV growing up, which fostered her love of reading.
7. She was the girl who took stacks of books out of the library
8. Her book LUSH was number 6 on the books most challenged in 2010
9. She loved the book The Help - but waited to read it because of all the hype. She was sure she wouldn't like it as much, but she was wrong.
10. She has a new book coming out next year called My Life in Black and White - it's about a beautiful girl who was in a very serious car accident. Her face has massive scarring. She has to figure out who she is now that she's no longer beautiful.

Displays in the library

I've been slacking about posting these but here they are

Banned Book Week:

College:

Favorite Banned Books

From my Childhood:

I read this book a lot and loved it each time.


I read this book until it fell apart. I still have it. We also chose this book for our Halloween read last year for the 4th and 5th grade book club


From the college years:

I fell in love with this series at the end of the first chapter and have been hooked ever since.


From life as a teen librarian:

I'm a sucker for ANYTHING Meg Cabot writes (she's the reason I'm a teen librarian - no seriously)


This is SUCH a powerful book, every teen should read it


No only do I love this book, but I love the cover (which some bookstore refused to stock)


Hilarious series, I laughed my way through this one.


I could go on and on...but I'll stop with these

What are some of your favorite banned/challenge reads?

Banned Books: Censorship of teen books

Censorship is never ok. As a teen librarian, it pains and horrifies me to read about teen books being either banned or challenge. I hate reading that one man thought Speak had pornographic scenes. That's wrong on so many levels and so many of us in the book world have expressed outrage. I'm not going to talk about that.

Instead I want to talk about decisions. The reasons behind the banning/challenging teen books consist mainly due to sex, drug, language, or topics too mature for teens to handle. I don't think any of these "reasons" gives any one person or a group of people the right to revoke someone else's reading privileges.

Teens struggle every day with making decisions. It's awesome that they have SO many books to read to help them identify in their struggles. Teens can't always talk to their mom, their BFF, their boyfriend, or anyone else. They might be embarrassed or shy or not really sure how to put their feelings into words. Books can help guide someone through a tough decision or a tough time. Books can help. Books can heal. Books can work miracles.

And when that right book comes around at the exact moment it's needed, it could change someone's life. It could help them SPEAK. It could help them make an amazing decision. It could give them courage, hope, or the ability to dream.

How could you think of taking that away from someone else?

Banned Book Week Display @ Otis Library

So this is my first attempt at using the Flip Camera...obviously I need to play around with it more as its sideways and a bit shaky...

And it's in two parts



Part 2....

Spotted: Tera Lynn Childs talking about Banned Books

Check out her posts for the week on the 10 most challenged Classic books, recent books banned, how you can help stop the banning of books, and the right to read.

Here's her post a piece of her post at Books, Boys, and Buzz:

"My mom, a fairly politically vocal person and one with extremely strong beliefs, always says:

I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

I think that sums up the essence of Banned Books Week pretty well. It's not about what the books say or why they say them or who the authors are, it's about the right to say and write and read whatever we want. It's about the choice."

How awesome is that? I LOVE that quote. And it sums up the essence perfectly.

Spotted: John Green MAD

He says it all awesomely

Banned Books: Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Hopkins is no stranger to banned books, but lately, it's been crazy. If you haven't heard about her canceled school visit and the rest - take a look here.
Yes, Ellen writes about hard topics, but they're topics that

A. Matter to teens
B. Help teens in their struggles
C. Rock

Here's a little something she wrote in honor of the FREEDOM TO READ

Manifesto

To you zealots and bigots and false
patriots who live in fear of discourse.
You screamers and banners and burners
who would force books
off shelves in your brand name
of greater good.
You say you’re afraid for children,
innocents ripe for corruption
by perversion or sorcery on the page.
But sticks and stones do break
bones, and ignorance is no armor.
You do not speak for me,
and will not deny my kids magic
in favor of miracles.
You say you’re afraid for America,
the red, white and blue corroded
by terrorists, socialists, the sexually
confused. But we are a vast quilt
of patchwork cultures and multi-gendered
identities. You cannot speak for those
whose ancestors braved
different seas.
You say you’re afraid for God,
the living word eroded by Muhammed
and Darwin and Magdalene.
But the omnipotent sculptor of heaven
and earth designed intelligence.
Surely you dare not speak
for the father, who opens
his arms to all.
A word to the unwise.
Torch every book.
Char every page.
Burn every word to ash.
Ideas are incombustible.
And therein lies your real fear.

— Ellen Hopkins,
bestselling author of Crank and newly published Tricks

Happy Banned Book Week

Test your knowledge with a quiz and see what you know...and what you don't

I got 9/10 right (missed the last question)
How did you do?