Banned Books Week blog hop

In honor of Banned Books Week, I am giving away a copy of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian which is a regular the Most Frequently Challenged list.

 

Goodreads Summary:

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

Terms and conditions:
Must be 13 or older to enter and have a U.S. mailing address
One winner will be selected
Use the Rafflecopter widget to enter
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Banned Books Week Reflections

Now that Banned Books Week is coming to a close, I wanted to talk about what an amazing week it has been.

First of all, I am so proud to have organized the first EVER #nctechat on Twitter to be for the start of Banned Books Week. Laurie Halse Anderson and Teri Lesesne were the hosts, but other illustrious authors made an appearance as well, such as Judy Blume, Stephen Chbosky, and Chris Barton to name a few. The chat was going to fast and furious that I didn't have time to read all the tweets. Thankfully the chat is archived on Storify so I was able to read through them at a more leisurely pace the next day. We were even trending #2 on Twitter for a while! How awesome is that?


Sherman Alexie Google Hangout
Sherman Alexie is such an amazing advocate for books and for getting books into kids' hands when people are trying to take them away. Alexie is so well-spoken and charming that it's hard to imagine anyone still wanting to ban his books after talking to him.


Ellen Hopkins at Literati

On Wednesday Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor hosted YA author Ellen Hopkins. I guiltily admitted to her when she signed my books that I only just started reading them this week, but I will certainly be making up for lost time. She writes about all the things that people ban books for: drugs, sex, violence, religion... You know, the usual. But her books are unique because they're written in verse and they don't pull any punches. They're raw and uncomfortable, mainly because they're real. And through that uncomfortable reality, teens can be saved from allowing their lives to go down the same path. Hopkins saves teen lives, yet there are people out there who think her books corrupt them.

Check out the body of Ellen Hopkins's work on Goodreads



Nerdy Book Club Banned Books Micro Reviews

 Earlier this week Nerdy Book Club called for readers to write micro reviews of their favorite banned books. I chose Amy Timberlake and Adam Rex's The Dirty Cowboy. 


And, as always, I like to post this video during Banned Books Week because it's John Green and I love John Green.


What were your favorite Banned Books Week moments?

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop

For my portion of this blog hop, I am giving away this special read-aloud edition of Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

It is a beautiful hardcover and it is significantly larger than a regular novel-sized book. It's about the size of a picture book (but thicker)

With the paperback for comparison

According to ALA's website, the reasons this book is frequently banned are:
occult/Satanism, offensive language, violence

Terms and conditions:
Must be 13 or older to enter and have a U.S. mailing address
One winner will be selected
Use the Rafflecopter widget to enter

Celebrate Banned Books Week 2012

Instead of writing a whole new post for Banned Books Week, I'm just going to reprise my post from last year. This is an issue that, as an English and literature teacher, hits very close to home for me. If you're an English teacher like me, just remember: fighting the good fight can be exhausting. Giving up and giving in is often easy because we can sometimes feel it's just not worth the effort anymore. Know that you have a community of teachers and authors who stand behind you, so keep fighting. The National Council of Teachers of English has an entire center dedicated to anti-censorship so use it to educate yourself and your community.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Celebrate your right to intellectual freedom this week by reading a banned book. Prove to book banners around the country that the only thing they do by challenging books is generate more revenue and publicity for the authors. Because, really, the only thing you do when you ban a book is incite curiosity and cause more people to read it than would have if you had just kept your mouth shut.

For parents out there, the temptation is very strong to challenge books that are against your morals and beliefs, but rather than inciting outrage and uproar, use the book as a teachable moment to talk to your children about right and wrong. Just because authors write books and teachers use them in their classrooms does not mean that we are condoning the sex, alcohol, drugs, and violence that appear in these books. Just because book characters behave in certain ways does not mean that we're asking you to see them as role models. I don't think there's a person out there who reads The Catcher in the Rye and thinks, "Wow! Holden is so cool! I want to be just like him." Ummm... no. Even my lack of sophistication at critical thinking when I was a sophomore in high school saw what a pathetic mess Holden was. So book banners, the fact that you're worried that kids will see these characters as role models regardless of what is taught to them in the classroom shows what little faith you have in teens to think critically. And the only thing you're going to do by attempting your sanctimonious disregard for the first amendment is make kids and adults alike want to read the book all the more.

Another thing that irks me about book banning, well besides the whole going against the first amendment thing, is that people who challenge books are putting pressure on schools to teach books that are clean and about benign topics. Obviously these people are asking literature teachers to teach something other than literature then because the very nature of literature is conflict. And the older students get, the more complicated conflicts become. That's just life. And it's precisely the reason why you saw Harry Potter get darker and darker as the series progressed. He was no longer a little kid at the end. The older Harry got, the darker and more complex the conflicts in those stories became because adult problems are more complicated than kid problems. When choosing books for teens, it is very difficult to find literature that isn't controversial because if you don't have conflict in a book, then, well, you don't have literature! So if that's the case dear book banners, what then do you suggest literature teachers teach in place of, well, literature?

I'm going to leave you with John Green's video from a few years ago where he discusses his frustration over people trying to ban his book, Looking for Alaska, in schools. He makes the point so much better than I do about authors having characters behave in morally reprehensible ways, not to say that it's OK, but just the opposite. Again, as I said before, just because authors are writing about it, doesn't mean they're saying to go out and do it! Have faith in your kids to be able to discern that.



Enter my Banned Books Week giveaway hop: 
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Other posts related to Banned Books Week: 
Stand up and SPEAK out against censorship
The Dirty Cowboy: a book review turned diatribe about book banning
My take on the Huck Finn controversy
Recap of John Green's NCTE anti-censorship session, 2011

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop

Thank you so much to the blogs I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and I Read Banned Books for hosting this giveaway hop. As a teacher, the issue of banning books is a huge one for me and something that gets me so worked up it affects my digestion and gives me chest pains. No lie. Check out my post last year during Banned Books Week. It's a post I will continue to stand behind and refer to any time this issue comes up.

For my portion of the blog hop, I am giving away a copy of:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Published: February 1999
Publisher: MTV Books and Pocket Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 209
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: Copy purchased at the used bookstore which means it's a tad beat up, but I like the symbolism of giving away a slightly beat-up book for Banned Books Week: it means someone READ it!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was the 10th book on ALA's list of 100 Most Frequently Banned/Challenged Books between 2000-2009.

Terms and conditions:
You must be 13 or older to enter
US mailing addresses only please!
Use the Rafflecopter widget to enter

Celebrate Banned Books Week

Celebrate your right to intellectual freedom this week by reading a banned book. Prove to book banners around the country that the only thing they do by challenging books is generate more revenue and publicity for the authors. Because, really, the only thing you do when you ban a book is incite curiosity and cause more people to read it than would have if you had just kept your mouth shut.

For parents out there, the temptation is very strong to challenge books that are against your morals and beliefs, but rather than inciting outrage and uproar, use the book as a teachable moment to talk to your children about right and wrong. Just because authors write books and teachers use them in their classrooms does not mean that we are condoning the sex, alcohol, drugs, and violence that appear in these books. Just because book characters behave in certain ways does not mean that we're asking you to see them as role models. I don't think there's a person out there who reads The Catcher in the Rye and thinks, "Wow! Holden is so cool! I want to be just like him." Ummm... no. Even my lack of sophistication at critical thinking when I was a sophomore in high school saw what a pathetic mess Holden was. So book banners, the fact that you're worried that kids will see these characters as role models regardless of what is taught to them in the classroom shows what little faith you have in teens to think critically. And the only thing you're going to do by attempting your sanctimonious disregard for the first amendment is make kids and adults alike want to read the book all the more.

Another thing that irks me about book banning, well besides the whole going against the first amendment thing, is that people who challenge books are putting pressure on schools to teach books that are clean and about benign topics. Obviously these people are asking literature teachers to teach something other than literature then because the very nature of literature is conflict. And the older students get, the more complicated conflicts become. That's just life. And it's precisely the reason why you saw Harry Potter get darker and darker as the series progressed. He was no longer a little kid at the end. The older Harry got, the darker and more complex the conflicts in those stories became because adult problems are more complicated than kid problems. When choosing books for teens, it is very difficult to find literature that isn't controversial because if you don't have conflict in a book, then, well, you don't have literature! So if that's the case dear book banners, what then do you suggest literature teachers teach in place of, well, literature?

I'm going to leave you with John Green's video from a few years ago where he discusses his frustration over people trying to ban his book, Looking for Alaska, in schools. He makes the point so much better than I do about authors having characters behave in morally reprehensible ways, not to say that it's OK, but just the opposite. Again, as I said before, just because authors are writing about it, doesn't mean they're saying to go out and do it! Have faith in your kids to be able to discern that.

Banned Books Week: Why Banning Books is... GOOD??!!

Author Jackson Pearce proposes that banning books can be a good thing. Here's why:

Celebrate Banned Books Week

In honor of Banned Books Week, practice your intellectual freedom and make it a point to read some of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.


Turn this list into a meme. Bold the ones you've read and star the ones you plan to read. Then do something to combat censorship: read some of those books this week!

1 Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3 The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4 And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5 Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7 Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8 His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman*
9 TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11 Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers*
12 It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13 Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16 Forever, by Judy Blume
17 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18 Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19 Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20 King and King, by Linda de Haan
21 To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22 Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar*
23 The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24 In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak*
25 Killing Mr. Griffin, by Lois Duncan
26 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27 My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier*
28 Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson*
29 The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney*
30 We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31 What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones*
32 Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya*
33 Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler*
35 Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison*
36 Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37 It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris*
38 Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39 Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40 Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank*
41 Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42 The Fighting Ground, by Avi*
43 Blubber, by Judy Blume*
44 Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45 Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly*
46 Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut*
47 The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48 Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50 The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
51 Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
52 The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson*
53 You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco*
54 The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole*
55 Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green*
56 When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
57 Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
58 Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going*
59 Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes*
60 Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
61 Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle*
62 The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
63 The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney*
64 Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park*
65 The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien*
66 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
67 A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
68 Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez*
69 Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury*
70 Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen*
71 Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
72 Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
73 What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
74 The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
75 Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
76 A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
77 Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert*
78 The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79 The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
80 A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck*
81 Black Boy, by Richard Wright*
82 Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
83 Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
84 So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins*
85 Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher*
86 Cut, by Patricia McCormick*
87 Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88 The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood*
89 Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90 A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
91 Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Graighead George
92 The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar*
93 Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
94 Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
95 Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
96 Grendel, by John Gardner*
97 The House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende
98 I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
99 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume*
100 America: A Novel, by E.R. Frank

Stand up and SPEAK out against censorship

Laurie Halse Anderson posted this article on her blog today about a professor, Wesley Scroggins, in Missouri who is calling her book Speak softcore pornography.

As an English teacher and someone who has read Speak, I am disgusted that someone could reduce this story to mere titillation. And, as Anderson stated, "The fact that he sees rape as sexually exciting (pornographic) is disturbing, if not horrifying." Speak is one of the most well-known, contemporary books taught in high schools today. It deals with a teen girl who used to be social and well-liked but has turned inward due to a violent sexual encounter. The book is in no way graphic. Shielding teens from this topic does nothing to educate them about violence against women. It is meant to spur discussion, not encourage promiscuity!

But once again, we have a book-banner here in America who is choosing to judge the merit of a book based on its parts rather than looking at the big picture. Speak is NOT about glorifying sex or dysfunctional families. It's about finding your voice. It's about how not speaking out can impact your life. It's about giving young girls the power to refuse to let men treat them like objects. And it's about showing young men that you DON'T treat women like objects.

Or is that what REALLY disturbs Professor Scorggins so much about the book?

If you, too, are appalled by this censorship attempt, write about it on your blog, and leave Laurie Halse Anderson a link on her blog. Given that Banned Books Week is coming up soon, this is a great time to SPEAK out about this issue.

ETA:
Please read author Myra McEntire's blog post about this issue. It brought tears to my eyes. Giving a DIFFERENT Christian perspective, McEntire shows just how misguided, if not downright sinful, Scroggins's logic is.

Something else McEntire proposes is to go out and purchase several copies of Speak to get it back on the bestseller list. Don't let the likes of close-minded censors prevent teens from reading books that deserve to be and SHOULD BE read!

Libarary Gets Rid of Books. What's Next? Using Them as Kindling?

This morning I was sitting at my desk taking attendance, doing my morning paperwork while my class watched Channel One, when all of a sudden, a story came on that immediately caught my attention. Have any of you heard about the high school in Massachusetts that's getting rid of all the books in their library?

I am completely and utterly appalled. Now, I don't want you to think that I am not for promoting new technologies, because I am one of the teachers at my school who embraces technology and am always finding new ways to use it in my classroom. But the idea of getting rid of books because the students don't use them, is not only misguided, it's STUPIDITY!

The headmaster's logic for getting rid of the books is that the students don't use them and, in their stead, are finding unreliable sources on Google. By giving them e-readers and access to peer-review journal databases, he seems to think that students will use more reliable sources in their research.

My contention with this idea is that he assumes that students aren't looking at books because they're "outdated" and "archaic" when, in reality, if you have a knowledgeable teacher who requires the use of book sources, and who is willing to help students find books, and gives them time in class to look, then THEY WILL USE THEM!!!!!

I have done several projects in my English and social studies classes this year and make sure I take my students through the steps of how to find reliable books, review how to use the Dewey decimal system, and then model for them how to find information from that book. Because I have done this prep-work, I find students continually carrying books around that relate to their projects.

Saying that students aren't using books is a cop out. Teachers aren't modeling for their students HOW TO USE THEM. Giving students e-readers takes away the joy of perusing through a stack of books, and also reduces your ability to find free books to borrow.

I can't think of a more misguided use of new technology than to get rid of the books in a library. Books are still relevant. And given the fact that there is not an abundance of e-books to "check-out", this seems like a very expensive endeavor. Even without the expense, whatever happened to the joy of holding a book between your hands and experiencing the new worlds between those pages? I pray with all my might that other schools don't follow this trend.

Read a Banned Book This Week

In honor of Banned Books week, there's a lot of discussion going on in the literary blogosphere about author's own personal experiences with their books being challenged and banned in schools. Both John Green and Ellen Hopkins have written some really thought provoking posts about their own experiences with this topic.

What people who are trying to ban books don't realize is that all it does is make everyone want to read the books even MORE.

When I found out the children's book And Tango Makes Three is the most banned book in the country right now, what do you think the first thing I did was? Checked it out from the library to read what all the fuss was about.

It's the same for kids and teens. You tell them of forbidden fruit and they're going to want to eat it.

What I'd like to see instead of banning books is parents sitting their kids down and having a discussion with them about why that book is so objectionable and what lessons they as a parent hope their kids will learn from the book. They should be the person their kids hear these things from rather than their friends. There's no doubt that there are obviously books that parents are justified in banning due to age appropriateness (or lack thereof), but banning it completely is what disturbs me. For example, I would be horrified if I were a parent and found out that my child was reading John Green's Looking for Alaska in the 6th grade because the themes in that book are much too mature for 11 year olds. But banning the book for high school juniors is upsetting and downright sad.