It's Banned Books week...

[miss pretentious]

...so read something already.
 
 "The Office for Intellectual Freedom tracks challenges to this literary aspect of our Civil Liberties, and while it currently updating totals from its 2000-2005 records, it offers some surprising and under-reported statistics for the ten year period that covered the 1990�??s.
 
 OIF recorded at least 6,364 challenges to shelved books available in America�??s schools and libraries. The number of challenges and the number of reasons for those challenges do not match, because works are often challenged on more than one ground. Here�??s a rundown of those objections:
 
 1,607 were challenges to �??sexually explicit�?� material ;
 1,427 to material considered to use �??offensive language�?�;
 1,256 to material considered �??unsuited to age group�?�;
 842 to material with an �??occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism�?�;
 737 to material considered to be �??violent�?�;
 515 to material with a homosexual theme or �??promoting homosexuality�?�;
 419 to material �??promoting a religious viewpoint.�?�
 
 Also, how many of these have you read/re-read and loved? The top 100 banned books can be found  here.
 
 My favorite banned book is "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" but I also love "Of Mice and Men," anything by Shel Silverstein and "To Kill a Mockingbird." Same with the Harry Potter series... etc...

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Why were Shel Silverstein books banned?

[miss pretentious]

Originally posted by Julian, good manners AFICIONADO:
  Why were Shel Silverstein books banned?

I'm really not 100 percent on that...I think it was mainly "The Light in the Attic" that was banned, but here is what I was able to find out about it...
 
 * A Light in the Attic. Shel Silverstein. Harper. Challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School in Beloit, Wis. (1985) because the book "enourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them." Removed from Minot, N.Dak. Public School libraries when the superintendent found "suggestive illustrations." Challenged at the Big Bend Elementary School library in Mukwonago, Wis. (1986) because some of Silverstein's poems "glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient."
 
 * Where the Sidewalk Ends. Shel Silverstein. Harper. Challenged at the West Allis-West Milwaukee, Wis. school libraries (1986) because the book "suggests drug use, the occult, suicide, death, violence, disrespect for truth, disrespect for legitimate authority, rebellion against parents." Challenged at the Central Columbia School District in Bloomsburg, Pa. (1993) because a poem titled "Dreadful" talks about how "someone ate the baby." On the other hand, this book does present the negative consequences of not taking the garbage out.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by miss pretentious:
  On the other hand, this book does present the negative consequences of not taking the garbage out.

Awesome.  
 
 And my kids will read every book on that list.

[Cali]

i never understood that list. i'm sure i've read many of those books, from a quick glance i remember...
 
 Of Mice and Men
 The Bluest Eye
 The Outsiders
 A Light in the Attic
 Brave New World
 Mark Twain and Huckelberry Fin
 
 i can understand if they dont want an elementary child to read some of these, but highschool?
 
 many of those books are soo relevant now like brave new world

[Samantha]

I am reading a book with pictures of naked people in it, does that count?

[Venerable Bede]

Originally posted by Cali:
  i'm sure i've read many of those books, from a quick glance i remember...
 
 Mark Twain and Huckelberry Fin
 
 i can understand if they dont want an elementary child to read some of these, but highschool?
 

well, twain has problems in his word usage; while using the "n" word may have been accepted in the course of normal conversation in the 1880s, we are far more advanced in our ability to place modern viewpoints upon novels at the exclusion of considering a word in its historical context.

[pj]

In a strange coincidence, I resolved the other day to read "Catcher in the Rye" - that surely has to be on their list.

[xneverwherex]

im always amazed when i see a good chunk of judy blume's books on the list. what girl didnt read 'are you there god, its me margaret?' at some point in her life. and everyone i knew owned 'go ask alice' - anonymous. sad how a good chunk of the books on the list involve women and sexuality.
 
 im somewhat surprised 'girl, interrupted' didnt make the list.

[Samantha]

I didn't.  I've never read a Judy Blume book.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Samantha:
  I didn't.  I've never read a Judy Blume book.

Really?  Even I've read a couple...

[taperkat]

Read every single book on that list... no wonder my boss loves me  

[Samantha]

It just never occurred to me to read her.
 
 I haven't read very many of the banned books on the list.  I guess I'm just not very controversial  :p

[Frank Gallagher]

If they ever ban Curious George my Rory will go postal on them!!!!
 
 I'm betting the same idiots who tried to ban JK Rowling also dress their kids up for trick or treating come Oct 31st.

[Brian_Wallace]

I never understood the furor over banned books.  Public/Private schools have a right to restrict what's in their libraries.  Once you say all those books are OK, it will lead to others...it's a slippery slope.  It's a waste of time.  Pick your battles.  They're not BURNING books (cue someone saying that Bush will soon advocate THAT) or even telling them they can't read them.  They're just telling them they can't check them out of the school library.  Big deal.  This isn't a huge censorship issue.  I couldn't check out Judy Blume books at my school library.  I couldn't read Hustler either.  Never harmed me.  It didn't cause me to set my alarm at times that don't end in 0 or 5 or insist that my food not touch.
 
 Brian