Banned books

[magid]

This week is banned books week.

These are the most frequently reported challenged books of the last decade, the ones I've read in bold.

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 (a couple of them)
    
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 (a couple of them)
    
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 (well, pieces of, anyway)
    
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

I've read a lot of them, and I have to say, none of them strike me as so scary/horrible that kids need to be protected from them. But then, I'm a crunchy liberal type on a lot of social issues. And I think that kids should be trusted to find books in the right time for them. I know I appreciate that my parents never restricted my reading. At least, they tried to get me to do things other than read, but didn't tell me I couldn't read particular books.

Comments

[cnoocy]

Assuming you haven't read the entire end of the list, your tagging is a bit off.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Fixed.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Wow, have you really read 74 of the books on this list? Or did you forget to close a tag?

[magid.livejournal.com]

HTML tags fixed.

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

Go read In the Night Kitchen! Right up there with Where the Wild Things Are and the Nutshell Library books as Sendak classics.



I'm still baffled by attempts to ban this one for the cartoon boy being naked for a few pages.

[magid.livejournal.com]

When I make it to the library, I'll look for it. And yeah, it seems like it's parents being hypersensitive to anything having that might lead to thoughts of sex. Which is just not likely for a kid reading this.

Have you read How to Eat Fried Worms? It's icky, sure, but so what? Just because I read about something doesn't make me go out and do it.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

are worms kosher?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Nope.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

Well, I mean what's the point of eating the worm fried if you don't melt cheese over it?

[magid.livejournal.com]

And if you're going to melt cheese over it, ...

Wait! This will not turn into If You Give a Pig a Pancake!

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I *loved* that book! I was food-obsessed as a little kid, too!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Have you seen any of the "Foods with Moods" books?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Wait. Seriously? How to Eat Fried Worms is on that list???????????? That's ridiculous. That was one of my favorite (if disgusting) books growing up!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I remember reading it as a kid, then forgetting about it until I read something referencing the title when I was in Israel. I had to go out and find a copy. And yeah, it's still as disgusting (in concept) as it was before. :-)

A lot of the books on the list are there 'cause some parent (the majority of the challenges are by parents) decided they didn't want kids (not just their kids, but all the kids in that class/school) reading about things that (a) might involve sexuality or (b) give them ideas for hijinks. Really, I think it would be better to, oh, talk about books with kids, if they're that concerned that they can't separate fiction and nonfiction.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

What was wrong with The Giver? That was one of my favorite books of all time.

Of course, some people I know would ban all these books because they aren't written by religious Jews, but still...

[magid.livejournal.com]

Who the heck knows? I didn't think it had anything objectionable in it, either.

There are always going to be people who only want to read books written by One of Us (for whatever definition of Us), and though I'm not so thrilled by it, that's their choice. It's when it comes to keeping other people (outside their own family, even) from reading what they choose that I have a problem.

Btw, I remember reading some young adult book published by some frum publisher, obviously trying to fill a niche so kids wouldn't go reading all that other stuff. It was a horrible book. No people were ever mean or misunderstood or anything. The difficulty in the book came from having to make Shabbos in an unplanned place. A waste of paper, with cookie-cutter perfect people. I can't relate to that (which is why I really dislike those biographies of rebbeim in which they're always perfect; how can I relate to a paragon? How can he really be human?).

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

I remember reading some young adult book published by some frum publisher
I read ALL of those books. I love to read, and as a kid, that was all I could get my hands on. (Well, I read some non-Jewish YA books at my friend Michal's house when I should have been at a Shabbat afternoon youth group, until I got caught because my father came to study with his friend- Michal's dad. Michal was a "bad influence", you see. Of course, she's married to a kollel guy and has a bajillion kids by now, and look at me.)
The book you describe could be any one of those books. It frustrated me immensely, so I begun writing what I wanted to read. In 9th grade I showed a novel I had written (about a Holocaust survivor, omg I was obsessed with the topic) to my history teacher. The teacher told me that I should write. That it was different. But I felt like a fraud, because my book didn't have perfect people. One wasn't even religious. One was struggling with his beliefs. I mean, chas v'shalom!

Of course, later on that year I got kicked out of school because I brought up evolution in science class. Even my favorite history teacher, considered slightly renegade by some, couldn't get me out of that mess. And then my actual life began.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The Jewish fiction I remember reading growing up were either short stories (parables, the Aleph-Bet Story Book, and so on), short stories dressed as novels (Ten and a Kid, K'tonon, All of a Kind Family), or not 'really frum' (non-exclusive categories).

Do you still want to write books?

(I, too, went through a fascination with all things Holocaust. I can't deal with a lot of it now; I'm not sure if this is a consequence of the former fascination.)

What happened after you were kicked out of school? (Or is this too nosy/too long a megillah?)

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm talking Libby Lazewnik, Miriam Zakon, Hanoch Teller, and the list goes on but I can't really think of the names now. K'tonton isn't really YA material- I think it was read to me. All of a Kind Family isn't frum enough.
My staples were "Midrash Says" and "All for the Boss" (Ruchama Shain). (The adult one, because the kid one only came out when I was 8 or so, and I had already started the adult one by then.)
Then there were Hebrew YA books, (for example, Chaim Walder, and what's her name, her kid was in my class... something Friedman, I think, she had short stories translated to English in the kids Yated Ne'eman) which were a new invention when I was a kid. Until then, there had only been Tzadikim books and stories from the Midrash and Talmud.

I do want to write, but I'm really out of practice. I hope to get around to taking a fiction writing class in the spring semester, or possibly joining a writing group. Something to motivate me and get me going.

After I got kicked out of school I went to a Chardal school. (Charedi-Leumi, black kippa seruga)
I mean, in that context they were "less frum" and it was a big embarassment to my family. I got kicked out of that school for smoking pot. I did finish high school eventually, though. But that's an even longer megilla.
Oh, and could you screen this comment? =)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've read some Hanoch Teller, and "All for the Boss" (there's a kid version?). Enjoyable reads, but not brain-stretching. I haven't read any Hebrew YA books.

I agree that Ktonton isn't YA, but that's what came to mind when thinking of "Jewish books" (oh, and now I'm thinking Chaim Potok. Also not frum books.), and the list above isn't restricted to YA.

If you want to write, more power to you. I hope you find the motivation to get you started.

Wow, quite the high school saga, indeed. In my high school, you might've been kicked out for pot, but I didn't hear about it happening to anyone.
While I was there, the biggest issue was drunk driving; we lost more than a couple of kids before graduation. I still remember Jason Laraia, though he's fuzzy now, one of those golden kids, except he never made it through that bad intersection... :-(.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

You grew up in Massachusetts and escaped Twain? Lucky girl.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Maybe they did it in fourth grade?

I know I've read excerpts, but I really don't remember reading the whole way through either one.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

Had a teacher obsessed with Huck & Jim's unaccounted for time. Two men, presumably naked, on a raft, alone for days on end.

Suddenly my HS English teacher sounds a lot like an Amherst English professor.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Asking each other for help getting the sunblock on? *grin*

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Nu, I didn't have to read much of it either. I remembers bits of Huck Finn, and I think that's about it for Twain I had to read in grade school. So no, it wasn't just 4th grade.

[magid.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to see how some books that 'everyone' reads in school weren't that for me. The Twain, also Catcher in the Rye, and a couple of others. On the other hand, we read some things that are slightly off the beaten track, which I like.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I got Catcher in the Rye in high school, and I'll admit it was actually a decent book.

The lack of thought going into the list of banned books, and the lack of empathy shown toward kids in choosing those books is... disturbing.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Lack of thought going into the list? I'm not sure what you mean.

Which is to say, I don't understand why anyone would want these books kept, not only from their own kid(s), but other people's as well. It's an enforcing of one person's morality on another, which to me is against what this country stands for. So it bothers me that anyone would want to challenge a book in the first place.

The list, however, is just a compilation of known data (with the acknowledgement that it is far from complete data).