Happy Book Banning Week!

Sept. 30 through Oct. 6. is Book Banning Week!

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom hosts events throughout the week to celebrate our freedom to read whatever we want - especially banned books.

The most challenged book of 2006 is "And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson. This children's book (which has won numerous national awards) is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins from NYC's Central Park Zoo that made headlines when they tried to hatch a rock that looked like an egg. The zookeepers gave them an egg from a hetrosexual penguin family that was having trouble hatching two eggs at once, and they are now the proud parents of a female penguin named Tango. The book's message is that it's ok to have an alternative (ie. non-taditional) family.

Richardson is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia and Cornell Univeristies and is considered an authority on kids and sex. Who better to write this book? I'm sure many people would rather ignore the fact that there are same sex parent families thriving in our country, however, this is a gentle way to bring the subject "out" for discussion. We're talking about penguins here.

Some former banned books include The Adventuresof Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye and Of Mice and Men. Offenses include sexual content, anti-family statements, homosexuality, unsuitable for the age group and political or religious views. Other notable authors on the "Do not read because they tell the thruth to kids and give them ideas that will send them to hell" are: Maya Angelou, Judy Blume, Maurice Sendak and, of course, J.K. Rowling.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I love the Harry Potter series and have huge problems with anyone saying (with a straight face) that they're promoting witchcraft. Aside from telling the classic story of good versus evil in a new and fantastic way (while drawing kids away from video games and the internet with a renewed interest in reading), Rowling also, with poetic license, touches on world history in the Hitler-esque leanings of Lord Voldemort and his Klu Klux Klan, hood-wearing Death Eater followers. (Ok, I'll admit this one is a stretch, but having the world turn dark, cold, gray and taken over by plague, disease and evil really doesn't sound that far off from today's world with famine, poverty, AIDS, terrorism and global warming, does it?)

And, come on -- Judy Blume? That woman taught me about how cruel children can be and classroom dynamics (Blubber), the female adolescence issues of being a "late bloomer" (Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret), and first time love with sex (Forever). I'm still a bit naive when it comes to the love/sex thing, but I would've been completely clueless if I hadn't read her books.

So, go out and get your favorite banned book to read.

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.htm


"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person
were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in
silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be
justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession
of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment
of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference
whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But
the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that
it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing
generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those
who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the
opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what
is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier
impression of truth, produced by its collision with error." — On
Liberty, John Stuart Mill

Celebrate the Freedom to Read!