Skip to main content

Banned Books Week



It's Banned Books Week and I was amused to find one of the books I reviewed earlier this year on the list of the Ten Most Challenged Books of 2006. Carolyn Mackler's The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things was banned for a number of reasons, my favorite being that it is "anti-family." Turns out the story of an overweight girl who, refusing to succumb to peer and societal pressure to be skinny, learns how to be happy in her own skin, is really just cleverly disguised anti-family propaganda. I totally get that now.

Chris Crutcher, a perennial favorite among book banners, is also represented on the 2006 list. Bless him. For the record, Crutcher's books are awesome and a great way to go out and celebrate Banned Books Week would be to cozy up with a copy of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (my favorite of his). I think I'll celebrate by getting myself one of these super cool wristbands.

So grab a copy of Fahrenheit 451 or Harry Potter or whatever other book they're afraid of and exercise your freedom. Read a banned book. Talk about it with your kids. Make a librarian's day.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous10:00 AM

    You are such a rebel. Once again, I'm going to need an autograph. :) I'll have to check out the banned books to see what all the hype is about.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angiegirl11:34 AM

    And you are my accomplice rebel. Just ask poor Robert. Raaawbert! Ah, the Blue Eagle...

    As far as good Banned Books reading goes, I'd recommend The Outsiders in honor of it's 40th anniversary being this year. Or A Wrinkle in Time--my favorite book on the list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

I can't quit Jennifer Echols . Not that I really try that hard, but I read her new ones and often feel as though I'm still searching for that one in possession of that certain something that will make me feel the way  Going Too Far did. Like I couldn't put it it down. And definitely like I didn't hate either of the main characters after the fact. Well, I found it with Such a Rush . I read this 300+ pager in a single night, which clears up the question of whether or not I couldn't put it down. And I finished it definitely not hating either of the main characters. I didn't finish it loving them both unreservedly, though. I loved Leah with my whole heart from page one and that never changed. My feelings regarding one of the Hall brothers remain complicated. More to come on this in a bit. On a side note, I'm delighted that Such a Rush is Ms. Echols' hardcover debut. It's a meticulously designed book, a pleasure to hold in my hands as I stayed up way
22 comments
Read more

Bibliocrack Review | The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

 Hi. Hey. Hello there. It's been a . . . well, you know what it's been. We're all still living this together. So I will simply skip to the fact that I couldn't not review this book here. Because reading it was something special. I knew nothing about Ali Hazelwood 's debut novel except that it involved women in STEM and that the cover made me smile. I decided to set it aside for myself as a reward. Work has been . . . punishing . . . for the last year, and I have been so exhausted every hour of every day. And so I determined to buy The Love Hypothesis  on release day knowing nothing about it. But when I went to the bookstore to get my copy, none were available. In fact, none were available anywhere for love nor money, in store or online. At first I was moderately disappointed. Then I told myself maybe it's not that great after all and I didn't necessarily need to feel this preemptive sense of loss. But it kept gnawing at me. The loss. And so I paused work an
4 comments
Read more

Interview with Diana Peterfreund + Rampant Giveaway!

Ever since I fell in love with Diana Peterfreund 's Secret Society Girl series last year, I've been hoping I'd get the chance to interview her here. Tomorrow marks the release of her new novel, Rampant , and let me tell you that you have not read a book like this before. You can read my review here , but all you really need to know is that it's a story about killer unicorns and the young women who hunt them. You want to read it now, don't you? Oh, yeah, and it's YA and the first in a series! To celebrate the release, Diana graciously answered a few of my most burning questions. As she is always a delight, I know you'll enjoy them as much as I did. First things first: When did the idea for Rampant first hit you and what (if anything) did you know right off the bat? In early 2005, just after selling Secret Society Girl , I had this dream of being chased by a very dangerous unicorn. I woke up and went to go look it up to see if I could figure out the meanin
120 comments
Read more