Banned Books Week - Wrap-Up

Okay, well I've talked about Banned Books Week, listed banned books, reviewed banned books, and seen what other folks on the web and in the world are doing for the cause of free speech and access to information. As the week wraps up, the question arises- what next? What can we do for the other 51 weeks of the year to protect our freedom to read? For today I've compiled a list of organizations that we can turn to and to whom we can offer our support.

First off, ALA. The American Library Association is one of the most important voices when it comes to advocacy. Join ALA, support ALA, and get involved with ALA.

The American Civil Liberties Union is another important partner in the ongoing battle for free speech.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. They're big on digital freedom and issues pertaining to the online world.

ChillingEffects.org, an organization dedicated to helping people understand their rights in the online environment.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund exists to "defend the First Amendment rights of comic book professionals throughout the United States."

The Media Law Resource Center, for law nerds, provides bibliographies and case information about First Amendment and intellectual property cases nationwide.

All of these resources themselves contain extensive links and information about other resources. So look them up and support the ones that do the things that matter to you.

Banned Books Week - Other Web Sites and Happenings

So, you're interested in Banned Books Week but my humble little blog isn't satisfying your craving for information and involvement. Okay. So I've assembled a list of resources and articles to give you more information.

I Love Libraries.org. A website run by ALA for non-librarians, this site has a feature on Banned Books Week and lots of links on advocacy, library issues and "Ask the Librarian" to answer your questions.

The Forbidden Library. A website run by an anti-censorship person, listing various banned books and the reasons they were challenged including specific instances. I couldn't quite figure out the creator's background/qualifications but the site looks like it's informative.

Google Book Search has a page on Banned Books Week too.

Amnesty International uses Banned Books Week as an opportunity spotlight the plight of those "who are persecuted because of the writings that they produce, circulate or read."

Surfing the Net with Kids has produced a kid-centric feature on Banned Books Week.

The Online Books Page has an information-rich feature on banned or censored books with an emphasis on classic literature including Shakespeare and Whitman and others not on lists of more recent banned or challenged works.

There are more sites and resources out there, too, of course; these are just a few. Happy reading!

Banned Book Week REVIEW: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

First published: 1985. Click on the cover to buy from your local independent Indiebound-affiliated bookstore.

I first read The Handmaid's Tale for Banned Books Week in 2003; I finished it in about a week and it freaked me out.

The plot concerns a young woman called Offred, living in Boston, Massachusetts, whose American society has disintegrated and been rebuilt as the hyper-Christian Republic of Gilead following the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Her husband has disappeared and she has been forced into sexual slavery as the "handmaid" of a government official. Her only task in life is to give birth to his child and her life depends on her ability to carry out this task. This is her last chance. If she fails, she faces becoming an "unwoman" and being sent to clean nuclear waste. If she succeeds, she gets to live.

Like many Atwood novels, the narrative goes back and forth between the past and the present, or rather several pasts and a singular present that she alludes to only subtly every now and then. It takes getting to the end of the book to find out what her real present tense is, and what exactly the novel is. I won't spoil it.

Also like many Atwood novels, the theme centers on women, sex and power. I can't say I'm surprised that the book was challenged so much, given the sexual content and the extremely unfavorable portrayal of the Christian right-wing. According to Atwood in this novel, what they had in mind in the 1980s is eerily similar to Afghanistan under the Taliban. Women aren't allowed to work, own property, handle money or even learn to read. All they're good for is a functioning uterus.

The Handmaid's Tale was one of the toughest, most powerful books I've ever read. I remember sitting across from friends at my bachelorette party the day after I finished it, shellshocked trying to describe the impact the book had on me. That night my best friend and I went to a bookstore to find a "light read" and I actually bought a copy of a Harry Potter book. Anyone who knows me knows that means I was extremely desperate for something to take my mind off what I'd just finished. It's an amazing book. I don't think I could re-read it but I went on a three-year Margaret Atwood binge as soon as I could keep down heavy books again. She's an incredible writer and The Handmaid's Tale is one of her most powerful books. Wow!

Banned Books Week REVIEW: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

This edition published: May 2007. Click on the cover to buy from your local IndieBound-affiliated independent bookseller.

I should have read A Wrinkle in Time as a child- it's ostensibly written for children, and it's a classic, and lots of people recommended it to me. But there were two things that kept me from reading it. The first was that it is science fiction and I have always had a strong bias against reading science fiction. Cause, you know, I'm a literary snob. And secondly, it was my mother who recommended it to me, and who reads what their mother tells them to read?

My loss.

It's a great book, a sweet book, a satisfying read and a book that deserves to be the classic that it is. What surprised me the most was that although it's a children's/young adult book, it's not written like it's written for kids- the prose isn't dumbed down or noticeably simplified, the way that, you know, certain wizardy-trendy books are. Actually I can't talk authoritatively on wizardy books because I only read the first few chapters of the first wizardy book before I got bored and threw it down. But I digress.

The story centers on young Meg, her baby brother Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin, searching for Meg's and Charles Wallace's father, a scientist who has disappeared. Their search takes them to faraway planets and puts them in the middle of an interplanetary battle between good and evil. The battle continues through the next three volumes of L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time Quartet series.

I loved A Wrinkle in Time. I thought it was charming, sweet, suspenseful and thoroughly enjoyable. The writing is excellent; maybe a touch on the light side for an adult but really, really well-written. And the point is that it never sounds like it was written to be an easy read. It's also one of the top 100 most-challenged books of the 1990s, due to witchcraft content (always sure to irk certain types of "readers") and because of L'Engle's rather liberal Christianity as expressed in this book by listing Jesus alongside important secular artists and thinkers. A couple of other things caught my attention that might also have made the book vulnerable to challenges- one, the portrayal of a society that mandates conformity in order to make the point that individualism is a positive, and secondly, that Meg, the main character, loses faith in her parent and ceases (at least temporarily) to accept him as an authority figure. We can't have children thinking their parents aren't all-powerful, now can we?

A Wrinkle in Time is a wonderful book. A classic forever.

Tuesday Thingers: Banned Books Week: The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000

 For this week's Tuesday Thingers, I've copied the list of the most-challenged books of the 1990s straight from the ALA website. I've highlighted the ones I've read. Highlight what you've read, and italicize what you have in your LT library.

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Interesting, no? This list always reminds me of those classics that somehow I never got around to, and then I want to run right out and read them all right away. And then I look at my reading chair and the big pile next to it. Sigh! Celebrate your freedom to read by buying or borrowing one of these books.

Banned Books Week: Q&A

All of this information comes from ALA's pages on Banned Books Week.

Q: When did ALA begin observing Banned Books Week?
A: 1982

Q: What is listed as the #1 most-challenged book of the 1990s?
A. Scary Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz

Q: How many challenges were reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom in 2005?
A: 405.

Q: Was this number up or down from 2000?
A: Down. In 2000, the OIF reported 646 challenges.

Q: What was the #1 reason books were challenged between 2000 and 2005?
A: Offensive language.

Q: What types of institutions were targeted most often for challenges between 2000 and 2005?
A: School libraries and schools.

Q: What type or category of person initiated the most challenges in the same time period?
A: Parents.

Q: Where is J.K. Rowling on the list of top ten authors challenged 1990 to 2004?
A: #4.

Q: What is the most-challenged book by an author of color, and where did it rank in the overall standings for 1990-2000?
A: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou; it was #3 overall.

Banned Books Week REVIEW: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

First published: 1932. Click on the cover to buy from your local IndieBound-affiliated independent bookseller..

To kick off the 2008 celebration of Banned Books Week, I'm going to review one of the most-banned books of the last decade, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Brave New World, first published in 1932, depicts a future world in which people are created in a lab and "decanted" instead of born from mothers and conditioned to willingly fulfill whatever role in society they have been assigned, from the smart, handsome Alphas who make up the ruling class to the Epsilon "semi-morons" at the bottom. It's also the story of Bernard Marx, an Alpha who doesn't quite fit in; John, a man from outside the society who absolutely doesn't fit in, and the woman they both love, Beta-class Lenina, who wants nothing but to fit in.

Brave New World has been a classic for many years- as I chose it for this year's BBW read I was actually wondering how I'd managed to get this far without reading it. Like, why didn't they teach this in high school? And why is it on the Top 100 Banned Books of 1990-2000 list anyway? Well it turns out there is one answer to both of those questions, I think- the pervasive, unorthodox and nonchalant sexual content. And these kinds of novels- dystopian future societies- usually encourage things like subversion and disobedience towards authority. And we can't be teaching the kiddies stuff like that.

So what did I think? Well I thought the writing was amazing- fresh, lively and challenging. At least judging by this book Huxley was a master craftsman. It was also very compelling and gripping and kept me reading.

But then I also thought it was a little bit of a muddle. The book starts out with a love triangle- Bernard, Lenina and character named Henry Foster- and then switches gears into a culture-clash story about what happens when this man from outside comes into the "brave new world" and has to adapt. And we see the effect this all has on Bernard, which wasn't exactly what I expected. Which I think is a good thing, that Huxley didn't make it too predictable, but it also didn't quite gel for me. None of the characters were developed all that well, come to think of it- what kept me going was more the drama of the situation, wondering how it would play out, if there would be some dismal 1984-esque ending or if there was any possibility of something more optimistic, something the characters had to look forward to. And Huxley's beautiful writing. But I don't know. Even the ending was something of a muddle. I probably just need to re-read it but I have to admit I'm not sure what happened at all. I would recommend it as one of those culturally-important type of books but I have to admit overall I was a little let down.

Oh and one last thing. Speaking of Orwell and 1984, the P.S. edition pictured above includes some interesting features, including a letter Huxley wrote to Orwell comparing their two respective outlooks on the future as seen through their novels. If you've read both books it's worth a look.

Banned Books Week

Posted with permission by the American Library Association. Click on the photo to go to the official site.

Banned Books Week is an annual campaign launched by the American Library Association to promote awareness about the existence of censorship and the continuing challenges to our freedom to read. Lots of bookstores have displays up with books that have been challenged- my local Barnes and Noble has an excellent series of displays with a variety of books and notes about why each one was challenged, and where and why.

This year's campaign runs from September 27 through October 4. During that time, I will be posting reviews of several banned books and polls and other fun stuff that I can dig up on the subject. Please come visit the blog during the week (and before and after, too!) and let me know if you have any suggestions or comments. And thanks to the folks at ALA for letting me use the graphic!