Posts Tagged ‘banned books’

Challenged Books: Captain Underpants

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

The Captain Underpants books used to be super popular in the 6-9 age range, and you can see why. A superhero that flies around in his underpants??? Sling-shotting other pairs of underpants at bad guys who have names like Dr. Diaper and the Turbo-Toilet 2000??? I mean, yeah, I would never read this for fun, but it’s obvious that, if you’re going through that phase where you think farts and underwear are the height of comedic prowess, these books have got your back. The story follows George and Harold, two fourth grade troublemakers, who create their own comic books about a hero called Captain Underpants. Then, due to a hypnosis accident, their mean school principal is fooled into believing that he is Captain Underpants and runs off into the city in his underwear to fight crime. Harold and George stop him from causing too many problems, and, due to not reading the directions on the hypno-ring, the principal is now forced to switch between his Mean Middle Aged Guy and Captain Underpants personas whenever he hears the sound of snapping fingers.

Fairly predictably, some people take umbrage with a book series where every page is basically “LOL UNDERWEAR” because what if it encourages your kids to say uncouth things, like “toilet breath”? Which they’re probably doing anyway, but whatever. Steven once told me that the movie ET was banned from his house because he wouldn’t stop gleefully shouting “penis breath”. Sadly, this intervention was too late to save him (he still shouts “penis breath” uncontrollably sometimes, it can be awkward at restaurants). So I can see why some people want to take no chances with Captain Underpants. Unfortunately, I don’t think banning all the books in the world would keep our sweet cherubs from going through a toilet humor phase, so maybe we all just need to chill and hope it passes quickly.

This series was first published in 1997, with a six year wait between books 8 (Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People) and 9 (Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers). So, yeah, Game of Thrones fans, it’s not like you have some copyright on agonizing waits for book sequels. Plus, George R. R. Martin knows that you will always love to read about lamprey pie and the uncertainty of your own mortality, but Pilkey has to worry about his audience graduating the fourth grade and getting interested in girls.

For Steven:

Challenged Books: Scary Stories Series

I was both happy and a little nervous to see the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Series on the 2012 Banned and Challenged Book list, because it meant I would have to revisit my childhood fear. These books are probably the reason I didn’t get a full night’s sleep for most of 1994.

Damn you, Alvin Schwartz!

Damn you, Alvin Schwartz!

But let’s be real, most of the credit for this goes to Stephen Gammell, who filled these books with drawings like this:

This was the exact moment my innocence died

This was the exact moment my innocence died

Oh my god were these books terrifying. Which of course meant that no one I knew could stop reading them. To be fair, not all of them end in grizzly ghost-death.

Sometimes there are also spiders.

Sometimes there are also spiders.

Yeah, these are definitely not appropriate for every kid (or every adult). Luckily there are plenty less-soul-scarring books in the library for them to read. Eventually, though, everyone has to confront their fears, and I reread all three of these books, turning the pages with trepidation at what might be waiting for me.

BOO!

BOO!

I realize now that the stories aren’t really that bad. A lot of times the protagonists live after something vaguely spooky or unsettling happens to them. Really in a lot of cases the pants-wetting terror of the illustrations seems a little over-the-top compared to the words. It makes me wonder how these books would do if Stephen Gammell’s mad genius was taken out. Probably they would never be challenged… but also a lot fewer kids would want to read them.

Previously: Challenged Books: The Ones I’ve Already Read
Next: Captain Underpants!

Challenged Books: The Ones I’ve Read Already

So every year I try to read everything on the Banned and Challenged Books list when the ALA puts it out. My dream is that one year the list will come out and I’ll have read every book on there already. This year I’m at 60%, so it’s not impossible. I’m going to be reading the four I never have and doing a breakdown as usual, but first I thought I’d cover the ones I have read.

2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This book is really funny, and also really sweet and meaningful at the same time. It’s full of cool drawings since the main character is a budding artist, but I’m not very familiar with those because I listened to the audiobook which was the best audiobook ever. It’s read by the author, and basically like he’s having a casual, semi-autobiographical conversation with you about what life on the reservation is like and how much people suck sometimes and how cool people are other times. I guess if I think hard about it I can remember some parts that had violence and sexuality which maybe someone might find objectionable, but it’s silly to judge a book based on small incidents taken out of context. This story is about so much more than that, and it’s real and beautiful and amazing. I’ve asked three separate librarians if they have any audiobook recommendations for me and all three, separately, immediately suggested this one. It made me kind of sad that I’ve already listened to it and that pleasure is behind me.

3) Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Another amazing audiobook!! It’s weird that my two favorite audiobooks ever are both on this list right next to each other. This story isn’t for everyone: it’s sad and real, but also beautifully written (and performed) and a clever premise. It’s about a boy who gets a package in the mail of 13 cassette tapes, recorded by a classmate who has recently committed suicide. Over the tapes she explains how she came to that point, and each tape is devoted to a specific person or incident. The narration alternates between what she says on the tapes to what the boy listening to them is thinking and doing, and if you get the audiobook there are two different voice actors reading these parts, so it really seems like a conversation sometimes. It’s powerful, listening to it like that, and sad. Just like how people are driven to commit suicide in reality. Taking away the book won’t take away that.

4) Fifty Shades of Grey

You know I've got this one down

You know I’ve got this one down

Yeah, I feel you, book challengers. I would be happy if no one ever read this book again based on its terrible, terrible writing, plot, characters, gender roles, themes, and the way it has somehow made bad fanfiction less shameful. If only ELJames could slither back into the bowels of the Internet from whence she came! But, as long as she’s out here in the sunlight with the rest of us, we might as well have fun laughing at how terrible this is. Occasionally with Phineas and Ferb guest appearances because I can’t help myself.

5) And Tango Makes Three

And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

A children’s book based on the true story of two male penguins raising an egg/chick together. Come on, guys, if we’re going to be offended by children’s penguins, I direct your attention to this terrible 90s monstrosity. I’m not offended by it because of it’s depressing girl-as-commodity gender roles, but because its anthropomorphic animated penguins are terrifying. Speaking of terrifying…

8) Scary Stories to Read in the Dark Series by Alvin Schwartz

We'll talk about this nightmare tomorrow

We’ll talk about this nightmare tomorrow

10) Beloved

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Yeah, book challengers, you’re right. It’s too bad slavery has to be such violent and explicit subject matter. But then, I could just make that sentence “It’s too bad slavery has to be”. I read this book in 12th grade English and found it really, really creepy, mixed with the usual tinge of annoyance that comes with reading something and writing too many essays about it. I don’t know what would happen if I read it again just to read it. Probably reincarnated murdered babies is still unsettling, though. As it should be.

Previously: 2012 List
Next: Stephen Gammell still haunts my nightmares, but I forgive him

Banned and Challenged Book List: 2012

I know it’s not Banned Books Week yet, but last week was National Library Week and the ALA put out their list of the most frequently challenged books of 2012! Apparently there was a 25% jump in challenges last year, largely because the ALA has made reporting a challenge easier. As always when such lists come out, I automatically put any titles I haven’t read on my library hold list. I am pumped to read some Captain Underpants!

Here’s the list! I’ve bolded the ones I’ve already read.

1) Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3) Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4) Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5) And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6) The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7) Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8) Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9) The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10) Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

Get ready for some awesome reviews!! And for me to decide which Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark picture gives me the worst nightmares still because you know that’s going to happen and that is why they are awesome.

Banned Books Week Redux: Revolutionary Voices

I just got this book through interlibrary loan! Not sure why my library didn’t own it; hopefully because it’s 12 years old and put out by a smaller publisher.

Title: Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology
Editor: Amy Sonnie
Challenged In: Burlington County, New Jersey public libraries; Mount Holly, New Jersey High School
By: the 9/12 Project
For: being “pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate”

I had to look up what the 9/12 Project was, because apparently they were challenging books all over the place. The ALA’s write-up of this challenge said that they are “a nationwide government watchdog network launched by the talk-radio and television personality Glenn Beck” and their website says their aim is to bring communities “back to the place we were on 9/12/2001”. I assume because they too just want to go back to a simpler time when N*SYNC was still putting out albums. I don’t know what that has to do with excising all positive information about queer youth, especially since this book was published in 2000–guys, it totally would have already been on those shelves on 9/12/2001! Especially since that was the year it was recognized by School Library Journal. Historical recreation fail, 9/12 Project. I am disappoint.

Revolutionary Voices is an anthology of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art submitted by queer youth aged 14-26 from around the world. The authors come from all different backgrounds and cultures, and their contributions don’t necessarily focus solely on sexual identity, but also on other problems or issues in their lives. Each author or artist also gets a brief biography page, usually with a picture. The book states many times that it is written and edited “by youth for youth”.

This book was pretty cool, although it felt outdated. Even though it was published in 2000, the editor first began to gather submissions in 1995. A lot of the author biographies mention multiple zines. Do people still remember zines? Does anyone younger than me even know what that is? I think most of the submissions would still resonate with today’s youth, especially since this anthology has such a focus on multiculturalism. Though there are other anthologies about sexual identity that have come after this one, I haven’t seen one with such a focus on writers with different backgrounds. As one of the authors writes in his biography: “For the first time in my life I feel no shame in telling the world I’m Hispanic and gay… Eventually I’d like to start an outreach program to educate Hispanic parents to better understand their gay kids. There are many outreach programs for English-speaking people, but in Texas the majority of Hispanics don’t speak English” (24). I love the concept of this book, and I wish the project had continued. It also made me wonder what a lot of these authors are doing now.

I’m not going to quote anything else because the only “vulgar” and “obscene” parts I could find were about homophobic abuse at the hands of friends, family members, and communities described in some of the submissions. Maybe it’s your hate that’s inappropriate, 9/12 Project. Banned Books Week is important, but it can sometimes leave me feeling drained and sad, so I’m going to cut this post short and go to the park.

Previously: What’s Happening to my Body Book for Boys

Banned Books: The What’s Happening to My Body? Book For Boys

Title: The What’s Happening to My Body? Book For Boys: A Growing Up Guide for Parents and Sons
Authors: Lynda Madaras with Area Madaras
Banned In: 21 school libraries in Buda, TX
For: being inappropriate for an elementary school library

This books gets challenged a lot, and I can see why. Any book about sexuality for children or teens is going to cause issues because everyone has a different opinion about what age is best for different information on the topic. The particular instance the ALA is reporting on here (from 2010) is actually a challenge I don’t disagree with. I know we usually concentrate on challenges that force one person’s narrow view of morality on a community, but this is a good example of how not all challenges are like that. As I’ve said before, I’m not against challenging books because I think it starts a meaningful conversation about the purpose of the library and gets more people reading and talking about books! Also, I’m pleased that someone has a strong feeling about the library–one way or the other–because it’s such a refreshing change from the passive indifference I’m met with daily. Also, sometimes librarians totally make mistakes and need patrons’ help to catch them. This case is just one such instance.

As the librarian explains in the news article I linked to above:

“That did not belong there. That really was a fluke. It really was a mistake,” said Nancy Turner, the director of Library Services at Hays CISD.

The book was immediately pulled off the shelf at Pluger and Carpenter Hill elementary schools, two schools that just opened this year.

There are two books with the same name that are geared toward different age groups.

“Just through a fluke in the ordering process, with them having the same series title, we got the one that was really aimed more for the middle school,” said Turner.

There are books that explain where babies come from to elementary age students, but I agree that this title is better suited for someone experiencing puberty or on the cusp of it. Chapters explain the changes taking place in your body, with diagrams showing the different stages. A lot of text is given over to reassurances about what’s “normal”, which can be a real worry since everyone matures differently. There’s even a chapter called “Spontaneous Erections, Orgasms, Masturbation, and Wet Dreams” which includes real (anonymous) questions from puberty-age boys and fair, honest answers about what is normal, including suggestions about how to cope with these issues in a less-awkward way.

The author suggests in the introduction that “beyond providing the basic facts, I hope that the book will help parents and sons get past the ’embarrassment barrier.’ Ideally, I imagine parents sitting down and reading the book with their sons” (xxv). I think this would be really useful for getting a basic overview of puberty before it happens to you–so you don’t freak out and not know what’s going on–and also as a kind of reference guide afterward. Maybe you won’t care that much about how to ask someone to go out with you right away, so eventually the chapter on “Romantic and Sexual Feelings” will be useful to you later on. It’s the parents’ responsibility to go through all the different “your changing body” or “where do babies come from” books available and find one that’s right for their kid at that time. Because not every family has the same beliefs about what information their kids need, and not every kid matures at the same time. Since kids, especially girls, are hitting puberty younger and younger, a greater variety of these books is necessary since something like Deal With It! would probably be too much for an 8-year-old, but you still want to give her the basic facts since with the onset of menstruation she is capable of getting pregnant.

Here are some interesting things about this book that I was not expecting:
1. In the chapter title “An Owner’s Guide to the Sex Organs: What’s Normal? What’s Not?” there was an entire section on uncircumcised penises that explained the difference, why a boy might or might not have a foreskin, and care instructions. Many of the diagrams explaining changes in the body also had uncircumcised equivalents. This more inclusive focus is something I’ve never seen before in these sorts of books, and the author explains in the intro that it was added for this latest edition because:

Today only about 60 percent of babies are circumcised in the United States. More boys than ever are reaching puberty with their foreskins still intact… Doctors in the United States often know little about the foreskin except how to remove it. The result is that all too often minor foreskin irritations are treated rather drastically–by surgical removal. I hope the new information in Chapter 3 will not only help answer boys’ questions, but will also help them hang on to their foreskins should problems arise.

What a good idea that I probably would never have thought of! Not that I’m surprised. Madaras really focuses the text of the book on reassurance. This age group is definitely one that needs a lot of it, especially since they may feel uncomfortable asking their parents/friends “What is this doing? Is this normal?” It’s good that–circumcised or not–there are books like this one available to address their worries.

2. There’s a whole chapter about what happens to girls during puberty!! Obviously there’s an equivalent book by the same author for girls, which I’m assuming has way more information, but I think it’s really important to address the similarities and differences between the sexes. Even though boys don’t have a period, they should still understand it: what it is, its biological function, how girls deal with it. Otherwise they can form misconceptions that take an oddly long time to wear off. I met guys in college who thought “it all came out at once in a big rush”.

3. There’s a section in the “Romantic and Sexual Feelings” chapter about being just friends with girls, something that often becomes more difficult with the onset of puberty. The author explains that, despite the teasing you will no doubt encounter, there’s nothing wrong with continuing your opposite-sex friendships, and suggests ways to deal with the teasing and make things less awkward between yourselves.

I don’t know if the 21 schools that this book was removed from were all elementary schools or not. I can see why this book has also been challenged in collections for older children or teens because it does deal frankly with topics like masturbation or homosexuality. The author has a great solution for this in the introduction, though:

For instance, when discussing masturbation, I explain that some people feel it is wrong or sinful and not at all a good thing to do, and I talk about why they feel that way. But the truth of the matter is that I feel very strongly that masturbation is a perfectly fine, perfectly normal thing to do, and I’m sure that this comes through in what I’ve written. You may find that your opinions on masturbation or some of the other topics covered in this book are different from mine, but this doesn’t mean you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, you can use these differences as an opportunity to explain and elucidate your own attitudes and values to your child

THIS!!! I almost want to make this my final Banned Books Week post for this year, because I think this gets to the heart of Banned Books Week, and why a lot of challenges genuinely confuse me. My reaction to a book I disagree with is not “Get away from me” but “This is so interesting, I want to understand how we could have such different opinions”. I’m not really afraid that any book or person could dramatically change my views, but I’m willing to give them a shot to at least better understand people who disagree with me. It’s the same with the middle school girl I tutor. If we start reading a non-fiction book that treats a topic differently than I would (say, it thinks Thomas Edison is a genius instead of a douchebag or glosses over the Age of Exploration’s terrible consequences for Native Americans), I don’t say “We have to stop reading this book or you will be brainwashed into believing these lies!” Instead, I present both sides and both views and let her use her critical thinking to form her own opinions. Her parents have taught her their beliefs and she’s naturally compassionate and bright, so they trust her to decide the right thing, even if she comes into contact with opinions different from their own (which she undoubtedly will in her life, no matter how vigilant they are).

Ultimately, I think it’s far more important to build up a person’s inner defenses and strength of character against all the badness in the world, because no matter how many books you challenge, how closely you monitor Internet usage, there will always be terrible things in the world. “Sometimes people are the worst,” the girl I tutor says to me, after we read about Europeans screwing over Native Americans out of bigotry and greed or the carnage of the Revolutionary War. And she’s right. I’m not happy about it. I wish we could only learn about happy things, like how awesome Queen Elizabeth I was, but then I wouldn’t be a very good tutor because we’d hardly be covering any of the real history she needs to know. It’s natural to want to protect your children–I sigh every time I have to check out another book for her about war–but ultimately it’s more important to teach your children morality and strength so that they can protect themselves.

Previously: Pit Bull and Tenacious Guard Dogs
Next: Revolutionary Voices

Banned Books Week: Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs

Title: Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs
Author: Carl Semencic
Banned in: Logan, Australia’s West Library
For: being about prohibited breeds

I wasn’t able to read this one since my library doesn’t own it (it’s over 20 years old), but here’s the write up from the ALA of the reasons why it was banned:

Banned at the Logan, Australia West Library (2011) because it contains information on restricted dog breeds. In 2001, under Local Law 4 (Animal Management) the Logan City Council placed a ban on, among others, pit bull terriers and American pit bulls. Therefore, Logan City Council libraries do not stock literature on any of the prohibited breeds. Source: May 2011, p. 120.

I think it’s interesting that the books are prohibited just because the breeds are. Libraries usually have books about drugs–for children and adults–because even though they’re illegal, people are still curious about them and want information. Having information about them isn’t against the law–possessing them is, which is why I don’t really understand this library’s decision. Restricting access to information on a topic just because you can seems like a bad precedent.

On the other hand, I am side eyeing this library a little for their 20-year-old dog manual. Is it possible that this book was weeded, not for content, but just because its condition was getting gross? Since I was once an intern in the non-fiction department, I imagine the conversation went like this:

Intern: This dog book is 20 years old and getting kind of tattered. The pages are all yellow.
Librarian: Ew, yeah, and what’s that stain?
Intern: It’s about breeds that you can’t even have here anyway.
Librarian: Weed it like a dandelion!!!!

“Weeding” is the technical librarian term for the process of taking books out of the collection for damages, general deterioration, or inaccuracy (like a book about a country that has undergone some kind of upheaval and their whole system of government has changed was always the example I was given). I can definitely see how “well, these breeds are illegal anyway” would be the deciding factor in whether or not to weed an old book that’s condition is borderline. I would probably make that call myself, especially since anyone truly interested in the breed can (presumably–I don’t live in Australia) still find that information on the internet, even at the library’s computers. However, if this is just a systematic excising of information about prohibited breeds from the library’s collection–and the sentence “Logan City Council libraries do not stock literature on any of the prohibited breeds” leads me to think it might be–I am shaking my head in disapproval. I would agree that, depending on funds, buying new titles about the restricted breeds–particularly owner’s manuals rather than simply informational books–probably wouldn’t be high on the library’s priority list, but why remove all existing information, which is costing you nothing but shelf space?

Which, admittedly, is sometimes also at a premium. It’s hard to decide without knowing the library’s and the book’s specifics. Sorry I don’t have more deets. I promise to have a book I’m actually able to read tomorrow.

Previously: Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
Next: The What’s Happening to my Body? Book For Boys

Banned Books Week: Great Soul

Title: Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
Author: Joseph Lelyveld
Banned In: parts of India
Event Honoring Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Cancelled by: Foundation for Excellence in Santa Cruz, California
For: raising the possibility that Gandhi had a homosexual relationship

How much did I not know about Gandhi? So much! This book was fascinating. Everything was meticulously researched, but also very well-written so I never felt like I was reading a history text book. Joseph Lelyveld’s Pulitzer is well-deserved; he really understands how to use story in a non-fiction context, which is, I think, something many biographers struggle with. I was particularly interested to learn about Gandhi’s time in South Africa, and how this British-educated, suit-wearing lawyer transformed gradually into the leader of a spiritual and political movement.

I can also see why this book might upset some people. You can tell Lelyveld has the utmost respect for Gandhi, but he’s also a researcher interested in the truth, even when that truth differentiates from Gandhi’s own autobiography. He always cites multiple sources, and postulates about the most likely reasons why they might disagree. Though the story it tells is still overwhelmingly admiring and positive, it is difficult for some people to see this person not as a saint, but as a man. One who sometimes made mistakes or changed his mind or acted for political and practical rather than ideological reasons. And that’s not even taking into account the specific question of his relationship with Hermann Kallenbach.

Lelyveld isn’t just making wild claims to create a literary sensation. As always, he backs his postulations up with evidence:

“They were a couple,” Tridip Suhrud, a Gandhi scholar, said when I met him in the Gujarati capital of Gandhinagar. That’s a succinct way of summing up the obvious–Kallenbach later remarked that they’d lived together “almost in the same bed”–but what kind of couple were they? Gandhi early on made a point of destroying what he called Kallenbach’s “logical and charming love notes” to him, in the belief that he was honoring his friend’s wish that they be seen by no other eyes. But the architect saved all of Gandhi’s, and his descendants, decades after his death and Gandhi’s, put them up for auction. Only then were the letters acquired by the National Archives of India and, finally, published. It was too late for the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson to take them into account, and most recent Gandhi studies tend to deal with them warily, if at all. One respected Gandhi scholar characterized the relationship as “clearly homoerotic” rather than homosexual, intending through that choice of words to describe a strong mutual attraction, nothing more. The conclusions passed on by word of mouth in South Africa’s small Indian community were sometimes less nuanced. It was no secret then, or later, that Gandhi, leaving his wife behind, had gone to live with a man.

Lelyveld goes on to describe the course of the relationship–whether close friendship or romantic or a mix of the two–and quotes from the letters often, as well as other sources. He certainly raises the possibility, but, in the end, makes it clear that any sexual aspect was ultimately of less importance historically than the close friendship that helped develop many of Gandhi’s ideas. To me, this chapter is a nuanced and well-researched treatment of a subject which another writer might have exploited more crassly for attention. But I can see that some people would be unhappy with any perceived criticism of Gandhi. Though the possibility of a homosexual or homoerotic relationship is hardly a criticism–especially as Lelyveld writes it–it’s the sad reality of our society that some will take it as such.

If you’re interested in reading more, the book’s Wikipedia entry has quotes from the letters, and more about the controversy this book caused.

Previously: The Awakening
Next: Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs

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