In a few weeks, The American Library Association will celebrate Banned Books Week [September 25−October 2, 2010.] last year, Cal's library did some creative and impressive things with this annual... celebration? There was a screening of the documentary
This Film is Not Yet Rated as well as a display of banned and contested books. I have found a good use for banned and contested book lists, it turns out that these lists are actually in the essential must reads of common literature.
Why everybody hates Steinbeck, I'll never know.
Of Mice and Men was kind of disturbing, but a good discussion starter for an area that most people feel uncomfortable discussing, MR. Other great Steinbeck books include
The Grapes of Wrath, and
East of Eden. I personally enjoyed both of them, and East of Eden is so heavily symbolic it’s almost hilarious (I mean, just look at the title and the synopsis of the book and you should understand what I’m getting at.)
To Kill a Mockingbird- a classic, in almost every sense of the word, most of us didn't get through high school without reading it and watching the movie, and rightly so. To Kill a Mockingbird is about racism and *gasp* rape. It is important to discuss how racism affected small American communities in the past and continues to affect them today, and rape is also a sensitive but important subject.
The Giver -is one of my personal favorites. Lois Lowry is definitely one of my favorite children's authors (she's also got
Gathering Blue and
Number the Stars. The Giver is a dystopian novel that brings the message of "right and wrong aren't necessarily what mommy/society says." it's charming, but probably not for under 4th or 5th grade. While investigating her website, I saw that Lois turned The Giver into a now complete trilogy. I have mixed emotions about this. The ambiguous ending of The Giver is such that I never thought it would lend itself well to further work, but it is excellent, so I’m most likely going to investigate these other books.
Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysun was a mental patient. She had borderline personality Disorder, and later in her life she wrote a book about it. I really enjoyed this book, but it is a little gritty. Less gritty than the movie, though. It could work in a high school class, and would be an excellent supplement for a psychology class or club. Of course, like any book, some processing of the book should be done by the facilitator. Mental Illness should be discussed. One of the factors of teen suicide is a lack of perceived support and lack of information about depression and other illnesses.
Brave New World - I really don't have any good reasons why high school students should not read this book. Another dystopian novel, it challenges concepts of drug use, government control, and individuality. I said the "D" word, which is probably why it's banned. I hold the opinion that kids will be better off making decisions about drugs (and most things) when they are informed and have an open forum to discuss issues.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime I read this in high school, and it is an interesting book about a boy with a form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. It is an excellent look into how people with this disorder function in and process the world around them. It really is an important book, and it's also a quick read.
The list goes on to include other great books such as
The Great Gatsby,
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland,
Bridge to Terabithia,
Animal Farm,
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and many other classics and generally great reads. Other lists include
Lolita,
1984,
The Perks of Being a Wallflower,
Ulysses,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
Mein Kampf, and
Fahrenheit 451.
Why were and are books like these being contested? The ALA claims that some of the most frequent reasons for contestation include “offensive language”, being “sexually explicit”, and that the material was “unsuited to any age group. Now, given, there are “orgy porgies” in Brave New World, a cuss word or two in probably each of the books I listed (such as “nigger” in To Kill a Mockingbird), and all of these books tackle potentially difficult issues.
Aren’t social issues like racism, mental retardation and autism, drug use, the role of government, mental illness, and rape
exactly the kind of issues that schools should be informing their student on? Some may argue that this is the task of parents, but let’s be honest, parent often don’t know how to bring up these discussions with their kids so do it badly, or worse never discuss them at all.
I’m often of the opinion that knowledge is power. Those there are limits to that statement, and sometimes we wish we didn’t know some things, knowledge helps us to make smart informed decisions and run our lives in a productive manner we can be proud of. I fear for a world that would lack the kind of information contained within these banned books.
So join my Banned Books Club! Read these books, and tell your friends to!
-Lonely Book Girl
P.S. Fahrenheit 451 is first on my list to read.
Sources:
http://www.pelhamlibrary.on.ca/pdfs/banned_book_list_2010.pdf
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/aboutbannedbooks/index.cfm
http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0345342968
