AS IF! Authors Support Intellectual Freedom

West Bend, WI Library Board Members Dismissed for Doing Their Job

2009-05-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

Publisher's Weekly reported recently that "four members of a library board in West Bend, Wis., were dismissed last week for refusing to remove controversial books from the library’s young adult section..." (read the entire PW article at http://tinyurl.com/cy85dw.)

I wish the PW writer had put it like this: "Four members of a library board in West Bend, Wis., were dismissed for doing their jobs responsibly and acting in accordance with constitutional principles and laws regarding free speech."

A number of organizations—the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Association of American Publishers and PEN American Center—all criticized the dismissals, which is terrific, but perhaps the alternative phrasing I offered might have prompted a broader swath of people to protest.

The language we use to talk about censorship issues must be accurate and specific. Otherwise, we engage in conversations based on terms so vague as to be almost meaningless, making it nearly impossible for people with opposing points of view to understand each other.

Also from the PW article: "[Two library] patrons accused the library of promoting “the overt indoctrination of the gay agenda in our community” and demanded that the library add books “affirming traditional heterosexual perspectives.” After reading this, I found myself scratching my head. If Brent Hartinger's GEOGRAPHY CLUB, Stephan Chbosky’s THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, and Esther Drill’s DEAL WITH IT! A WHOLE NEW APPROACH TO YOUR BODY, BRAIN, AND LIVE AS A gURL are pushing "a gay agenda," does that mean books addressing themes about heterosexual sexuality are promoting a hetero agenda? What exactly do the accusing patrons mean when they say "gay agenda"? My understanding of the term "gay agenda" is that it has to do with ensuring that all homosexual people have equal rights under the law. Do the two patrons think that's a bad thing? Or--as I suspect--do the two patrons see the gay agenda as something insidious and threatening—such as that books addressing homosexuality will make everyone who reads them gay? Or maybe those patrons fear a gay agenda promoting tolerance of homosexual people in all settings--in churches, schools, etc. I'm still speculating here; I have no idea exactly what "gay agenda" means to the folks who initiated the book removals. But I find myself wondering, if tolerating gay people and gay-themed books is the problem, just why is tolerating them so...intolerable? I don't understand. I thought tolerance of differences among people was a good and desirable and even honorable thing.

The two patrons who initially complained back in February about the West Bend library's YA collection including books about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues also demanded that the library add books "affirming traditional heterosexual perspectives." Considering that public library collections everywhere, including, I assume, West Bend's, already contain a majority of books in which the romantic and sexual interactions take place between people of opposite genders, I'm not sure what sorts of books these disgruntled patrons would like to add. It would be interesting to know. Specifically.

I wish everyone engaged in conversations about censorship and book removal would define their terms and points of view with great specificity. It's my hope--perhaps naïve, but still--that if we examine what we're really wanting and get specific about what we really object to—or fear—we might have a very different sort of conversation, a more productive sort. And we might have more people willing to stand up to improper librarian dismissals and book removals as well as violations of the First Amendment.

Which, from the point of view of those of us at As If!, would be a good thing.

Posted by Deborah Davis

An Amazon "Glitch" Eliminates Most Gay Titles From its Search Engine

2009-04-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

So by now, the whole world knows that Amazon decided to start listing a whole slew of gay-themed titles as "adult," virtually eliminating them from the website's search features.

The problem? Many of these titles were clearly not "adult"; gay-themed young adult books and even some picture book titles were included in the change. And even among the seemingly-"adult" titles, the company seemed to have a different standard for gay-themed works than for heterosexual-themed ones: gay romances were "adult" while A History of Playboy Centerfolds was not.

When first queried about the new policy change, Amazon initially defended it (in what was probably a form email to one of the affected authors).

A few authors have been sounding the clarion call on this policy change for weeks now, and this weekend, they were finally heard. All hell broke loose. By Sunday night, the blogosphere was furious, with emails and tweets flying back and forth.

By this morning, Amazon announced that it was all a misunderstanding -- the result of a "computer glitch." The policy was reversed. Score one for the Twitter Generation.

But pardon me if I'm a tad skeptical of Amazon's explanation.

Here's what I think happened:

Religious conservatives, probably in an orchestrated campaign, used the feature on the Amazon site that allows users to flag a book as "adult" to target as many gay-themed titles as they could manage. And a clueless worker at the company okayed these changes (or perhaps this is done automatically--the aforementioned "glitch").

When the error was pointed out, they did what most people do when they're criticized: they reflexively defended themselves without really considering that they were defending the virtual elimination of gay titles from their search engine.

But apart from Amazon, the greater issue is this: for too long, America has equated "gay" with "sex." Heterosexuals are three dimensional beings, and their relationships are above "love": marriage, commitment, and all the rest. Homosexuals are defined by sex acts, and their relationships are about getting off. (My partner wrote a terrific essay on the topic here.)

It's a grossly unfair double-standard, with obvious real-world implications, and it's absolutely has to change.

In our discussions here at AS IF, one of our members, Bennett Madison, made the trenchant point that this Amazon mess is absolutely the danger when independent bookstores go out of business, and they're replaced by one or two conglomerates: one or two companies -- often one person at these companies -- is making the decision about what titles are available to the rest of us. This brouhaha was high profile enough that it was eventually reversed, but what about all the decisions that are too small scale to reach this level of outrage?

We here at AS IF! think this is very much worth considering.

Brent Hartinger

GEOGRAPHY CLUB Under Fire Again: My Reponse

2009-04-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

So my book Geography Club is under fire by book banners yet again, this time in West Bend, Wisconsin. I wrote an essay response for the Milwaukee paper (the nearby daily), but they chose not to print it. But -- you luck folks -- here it is!

It's hard not to take it personally when someone wants to ban your book.

A group of folks in West Bend have made a varying list of demands regarding
my 2003 teen novel, Geography Club: ban it, put a warning label on it, put it somewhere where teenagers can't get it without permission from their parents, or buy books to "balance" it that show what a horrible, immoral "lifestyle" being gay is.

My book has been out for more than six years, sold tens of thousands of copies, received almost unanimously good reviews, won many honors, and is currently being adapted for the movies.

But truthfully, this is not the first time that some people, often with the backing of national conservative Christian activist groups, have tried to ban the book. Libraries are, of course, about open access to information, and there's really not much more fundamental in America than the right to decide for ourselves what we want to read, and what we want our kids to read.
These activists, on the other hand, want to make the decision for the rest of us. So
they make ridiculous assertions, based on the inclusion of a few swear words in
my book, that it's "pornographic."

Oftentimes their demands sound reasonable. Why not put a sticker on a book that some find offensive? But who decides what's "offensive"? Trust me: there is something in every book that someone somewhere doesn't like. Should a twelve-year-old go into the woods alone with a loaded gun? One does in Where the Red Fern Grows. Should kids always show respect to their parents? They don't in Roald Dahl's Matilda.

Why not put "controversial" books in a special section where the books require parental approval to be checked out? Again, who decides what's "controversial"? And for the record, the real point of this strategy isn't to give parents "choice"; it's to drive down circulations, which is what libraries use to determine their collections, making it so they can't justify buying similar books.

Why not buy "anti-gay" books to satisfy people who feel that homosexuality is a horrible, immoral lifestyle? Every librarian I've ever met tries hard to satisfy the needs of their own community and to have a broad, diverse collection. But while I know it's an article of faith among some that homosexuality is a "choice" and that the "media" are burying the "truth" about how horrible the "gay lifestyle" is, these are not the books that respected authors and educators are writing; few of these books exist and even fewer are published and reviewed by respected sources because they're mostly based on falsehoods and misrepresentations, like books about how the Holocaust never happened.

Once you are the subject of these book debates a number of times, as I have been, you quickly realize something: some people really dislike, and even fear, gay people and their inclusion in our communities.

Ironically, anti-gay prejudice is part of the reason why I wrote my book in the first place.
I wish everyone who thinks my books are not "appropriate" for teenagers could read my mail for one single week -- the avalanche of touching emails I receive from lonely or harassed gay and lesbian teens and their friends, so grateful to see gay characters portrayed accurately and with dignity, not merely stereotypes or the punchline of jokes.

And let it be noted: plenty of parents want their kids reading my books. I frequently hear from parents who've read my books with their teens. In one of the most flattering emails I've ever received, one teenager said, "I gave my parents your book and said, 'Please read this. This is how I feel.'"

So I think my critics really miss the point.

In every teen book I've ever written, gay-themed or not, there is a moment when the main character has to choose between moving beyond his or her own little bubble -- doing what would make him or her momentarily happy or comfortable -- and putting those selfish prejudices and concerns aside, and committing to a larger cause, a greater good. In my mind, that's the choice every teen confronts, again and again, because it's the difference between a child and an adult.

Do books with that message have a place in libraries and in the hands of teenagers and their parents?

Absolutely. In fact, there might be a few adults in West Bend who could benefit from reading books like that too.
Brent Hartinger

Protecting Students from "Those People"

2008-10-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

By John Coy

Recently, I had a disheartening and eye-opening experience. I appeared at a suburban Minneapolis bookstore for the last half of a discussion of my young adult novel BOX OUT. The teachers and librarians assembled spoke positively about the book and liked Liam Bergstrom, the main character, who’s brought up to the high school varsity and encounters a coach who is leading team prayer.

Days later, however, I received an email from someone who had been there for the whole discussion. She said that although she didn’t enjoy sports, she really liked BOX OUT. She thought it would be a great book for eighth and ninth graders and was sad to hear media specialists say that they could not put it on their middle school library shelves because of the mention of lesbianism.

What?

Nobody had hinted at this to me, so I emailed some of the other participants to find out what had happened. In true “Minnesota Nice” fashion, the teachers and librarians had decided not to say anything negative while I was present in order to avoid confrontation. And yes, a number of public school media specialists said they would not¬–and COULD NOT–put the book on their middle school libraries because of the presence of a lesbian character in a story about contemporary high school students. The consensus among them was that, “Someone might object and it’s not worth it to fight with parents.”

In talking with more people in the field, I’ve discovered that for many middle school media specialists the inclusion of a gay or lesbian character is enough to keep a book out of their library. “Those are the books the public library can put on their shelves,” one librarian said. Vicki Palmquist of Children’s Literature Network said, “Media specialists are losing their jobs right and left and in between. They aren’t going to rock their own boat.”

So here are three questions for you:

Have you encountered this ban on books with lesbian and gay characters in middle school libraries?
What message do we send students when one group’s existence is not allowed in the books in these libraries?
And what should we do about it?

Does Sarah Palin Believe in the First Amendment?

2008-09-06T04:44:00.000-07:00

Does Sarah Palin believe in the First Amendment?

From The New York Times:

"Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.

Anne Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. 'They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,' Ms. Kilkenny said.

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to 'resist all efforts at censorship,' Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.

In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were 'rhetorical.'"

(Full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/us/politics/03wasilla.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=palin%20library%20censor&st=cse&oref=slogin)

And from The Boston Herald:

"Palin told the Daily News back then the letters were just a test of loyalty as she took on the mayor’s job, which she’d won from three-term mayor John Stein in a hard-fought election."

(http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view.bg?articleid=1117009&format=email)

The reports surfacing online and in print media about Governor Sarah Palin’s actions while acting as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, 12 years ago led me to consider other, possibly pertinent revelations about the new Republican Party vice presidential candidate. For instance, she is a strong supporter of abstinence-only education and is opposed to comprehensive sex education in schools, despite numerous studies proving the ineffectiveness of the former compared with the latter. As Vice President of the U.S., would Ms. Palin work not only to continue to block funding for comprehensive sex education programs, as our current administration does, but also attempt to remove sex education literature from public schools and libraries?

We don’t know which books Ms. Palin had in mind when she asked Ms. Emmons to consider removing some from Wasilla’s library. We do know, however, that Ms. Palin doesn’t believe global warming is the result of human activity. Would she try to have books on global warming purged from our nation’s libraries?

In her speech on September 3rd at the Republican National Convention, Ms. Palin belittled Senator Obama’s work as a community organizer in South Chicago. Would she then, if she becomes our nation’s V.P., attempt to remove from all libraries any tomes that describe the historic movements that have changed our world—for the better, I think she’d agree—movements that owe their roots, their momentum, and much of their ultimate success to community organizing efforts? I’m talking about the labor movement, the gay rights movement, the environmental movement, the civil rights movement, and the one that allows Ms. Palin to be where she is today, the women’s movement, with suffrage at the top of its agenda.

Ms. Palin said she attempted to fire Ms. Emmons to test the librarian’s loyalty—to Ms. Palin, I presume. If Ms. Palin becomes our next presidential Vice President, I hope that in the realm of public libraries and their collections, she remembers where her own loyalties should lie: with our Constitution’s First Amendment, and with the policies and guidelines of the American Library Association.

—Deborah Davis

Why can't kids get the books they need the MOST?

2008-06-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

I just got an email from a blogger and YA novelist named Lee Wind, which illustrates a lot of the challenges we face in the intellectual-freedom fight. In response to the tragic shooting murder of an eighth-grade student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California (see http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-oxnard15feb15,1,1414535.story for details), Lee decided to donate a collection of GLBTQ-themed young adult novels to the school's library.

Here's Lee's blog entry detailing his attempts to donate the books:

http://www.leewind.org:80/2008/05/donating-gay-books-to-junior-high.html

I have nothing to add to Lee's detailed and thoughtful post, other than my support.

Sigh.

Scary Stuff in Indiana

2008-03-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

A new Indiana law meant to target "adult" stores has booksellers up in arms -- and rightly so. The law, according to Indystar.com, "requires businesses that sell sexually explicit material to pay a $250 fee and register with the secretary of state, which would then pass the information to municipal or county officials so they can monitor the businesses for potential violations of local ordinances."

Here are links to two articles that explain the issue way better than I could:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080325/NEWS/80325063

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6544559.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=1113427106

The whole thing is just so . . . Orwellian. Here at AS IF!, we are accustomed to individuals taking potshots at free expression, but usually the laws are on the side of free speech. When the government itself is the censoring agent, I get scared.

Really scared.

Aside from the blatant constitutional problem in this case, there's another angle. Independent bookstores are hugely important to the health of America's intellectual and literary life, and existing booksellers are already closing faster than new ones open. A $250 licensing fee for new stores (not to mention the ominous spectre of Big Brother) might just be enough to stop potential entrepreneurs from opening bookstores in Indiana.

Teacher Suspended Over Book

2008-03-26T16:23:00.001-07:00

Teacher Suspended Over Book

Perry Township, IN teacher Connie Heermann was suspended for allowing her high school students to read FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY. The book is a collection of essays from high school students who give candid looks at their lives, fears and hopes. It deals with violence, homelessness, racism, abuse and other topics that this group of urban California students lived with.

The school board had originally taken a motion to severe her contract with the school, but later changed it to an unpaid suspension until the end of the 2008 -2009 school year. Heermann, who has taught for 27-years, was charged with insubordination. Her supervisor was unhappy with the language and content in the book and asked her to stop using it in the classroom, even though her students had signed permission slips.

At an earlier public hearing, Heermann had many supporters, including Californian Erin Gruwell who's students wrote the FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY.

For a teacher to punished for encouraging her students to read about real-life issues is a scary thought. What we at AF IF! would like to know is, was it really insubordination at issue or the book itself?

For more information, check out these links:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008803250366

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=8060931&nav=9Tai

A Game That No One Wins

2008-02-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

A Guest Blog by Jo Whittemore

A complaint by a Vancouver resident has led to the discontinuation of the Scholastic book club program in Vancouver schools. Yet, the complaint wasn’t with the program itself, but one of the books carried in the Scholastic catalog: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.

The legal counsel for the school district says the objection to the book’s perceived anti-Christian theme raised a “whole other different issue.” This issue is that “district policy prohibits (the schools) from promoting for-profit businesses.”
What about the candy bars or wrapping paper that kids sell to go on field trips to museums? Those fundraising companies get a cut of the profits. Do the Vancouver schools plan on discontinuing those educational ventures as well? Or will they wait until someone objects to the museum’s History of Evolution display and then use the “district’s policy” as an excuse to appease one narrow mind?

Because that’s what I believe it comes down to. One person’s opinion on one book is shaping the future of so many others.

The responsibility of running the Scholastic sales in Vancouver has been passed to the parent teacher associations, but this only brings to light the economic disparity between various schools. Some have parents who can afford to help out, while others lack the support necessary to keep the program going. Still other schools are posting sales on their campus websites, but many students come from lower-income families who don’t have credit cards or easy access to the Internet.

Parents are frustrated by the removal of the Scholastic book club program, and rightly so. It can be difficult to get a child to read, but when they see the colorful catalogs and hear their classmates discussing their favorite picks, they get excited and place an order, too. That’s how some readers come to be; they are nurtured in a school environment.

This is made even more complicated when there are no books in the classroom to read, since several schools stock their classrooms with free books they’ve earned from Scholastic book club sales. If you want to talk about a butterfly effect, this is it.
So, who benefits from taking reading opportunities from our students and revenue opportunities from our schools? No one.

Please, Vancouver school district. Surely, in your policy you can make a loophole for literacy.

SANDPIPER Redux

2007-12-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

Way back on September 12 on this blog, there was an entry about a challenge to Ellen Wittlinger's excellent novel, SANDPIPER in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Well, the results are in. The Tuscaloosa County school board has spoken, albeit out of both sides of its mouth.

You can read the news article here:

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20071211/NEWS/712110305/1007

In many ways, this challenge is typical of those we see all the time here at AS IF! The atypical part is that an amazing Alabama education professor named Lisa Scherff alerted us, the author, and the media, and also made sure that lots of supporters of intellectual freedom showed up at the school board's meetings. Clearly, the board would gladly have buried this case, but that's much harder to do when America is watching. Nicely done, Lisa!

Here is the most important thing about this decision, though: it shows you how strongly the case law favors keeping challenged books IN school libraries. Reading the article, it is abundantly clear that the school board president would have LOVED to make SANDPIPER disappear -- but the district's legal counsel advised the board that the _UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT_ has very clearly said, "No way, Jose!"

So there you have it: if you are trying to get a young adult book removed from a school library due to concerns over "mature content", you are violating the First Amendment rights of the school's students.

Which we've been saying all along.

Oh, those Crazy Canucks:Pullman/Catholic Schools/Susan Juby

2007-11-24T18:11:00.000-08:00

Gee, I thought everything was happening south of the Canadian border, eh? But no it's happening up here, too. Whatever you Americans do, we can do better. : ) First up, the banning/pulling from shelves/or hiding on the back shelf of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Read about it here: CBC News Story Or Here: Toronto Star News Story. Since I've waxed on about the reasons why this shouldn't be banned/pulled from the shelves previously, I won't bore you all again.

And now for something completely...well the same. Here's a dastardly article by Susan Juby in The Globe and Mail about banning books: Click right here, eh? This modest proposal suggests iris scanning, wire cages and fingerprinting to prevent children from reading some of the salacious materials available in libraries.

Happy Grey Cup celebrations, fellow Canucks (Go Riders). Happy Thanksgiving to all of you down south. And everyone else around the world, just have a happy day. Read a book. It won't hurt you.*

Cheers,
Arthur Slade
*Unless it's Harry Potter VI and you drop it on your foot.

Medford Parent wants book banned...eeeek.

2007-11-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

I thought that the book bannings were over for the season, that Christmas was about to raise its red capped head and people would all be happy and joyous and, well, Christmassy. One big BAH HUMBUG was delivered to the writing world in Medford. Just read this article in the Burlington County Times. The Burn Journals, is a non-fiction book by Brent Runyon which relates his experiences as a suicidal 14-year-old who set himself on fire. No holds barred. A true tale told well which received a starred review from Booklist. But from John Biesz, a parent from Medford, the review was a bit more caustic: "There should be a warning on the book that says it's a piece of garbage." Now, parents are supposed to have opinions. Everyone should have an opinion! What's completely ridiculous about this story is that the school actually sent the book home with a permission slip--they did everything they could to prevent controversy and still this parent is upset and feels "This stuff should never make it into our schools." It would be terrible if people learned about the reality of being a mixed-up teen, wouldn't it? They might learn empathy or maybe understanding. Biesz wants the book removed from the school. I think there are only two words that can sum that up: Bah humbug!

Arthur Slade

Texas Teacher Could Face Criminal Charges

2007-10-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

What?!?!

A Texas teacher could face criminal charges for handing a book to a student that her parents deemed inappropriate for a 9th grader.

The book, Cormic McCarthy's CHILD OF GOD, is described this way on amazon.com . . . "In this taut, chilling novel, Lester Ballard--a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape--haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance."

Texas Penal Code 43.24 prohibits selling, distributing or displaying harmful material to a minor. Since it is alleged that the teacher placed the "harmful material" in the hands of a student, he may be subject to a Class A misdemeanor, which under Texas law is punishable by up to one year in county jail and/or a fine up to $4,000.

What is happening? Can this be for real? It was not required reading, yet the teacher could get jail time?

What do you think about this?

For the complete story, as reported by the Abilene Online ReporterNews, click here.

Oh, and ever since the hoopla, the book has been sold out in stores all over town.

Four Paragraphs

2007-10-18T08:12:00.001-07:00

Novelist and memoirist Diana Abu-Jaber visited the college where I teach yesterday where she told us the story of her recent experience with a high school in Texas. The parents of three students objected to the teaching of her novel, Crescent, which has been praised for, among other things, presenting Iraqi-American characters "as real people."

This wasn't what bothered the parents, though. Rather, it was the presence of four paragraphs of sexual content.

The principal at the school ordered the teachers to stop teaching the book. The teachers protested and were offered a compromise: black out the four offending paragraphs and you can still teach the book. The teachers asked Abu-Jaber's permission to do so, arguing that while they were loathe to succumb to such pressure, they felt that there was so much else to be gained from this book, they hoped she would understand and assent to the practice.

As she considered the bargain, Abu-Jaber consulted with writers and "publishing people." The writers were adamant in their insistence that she say no. The publishing people, and even her own husband urged her to accept the compromise.

In the end, she came up with a compromise of her own. She would not give her permission, but she would not stand in the way if the teachers themselves wanted to do the blacking out. And if they did choose to black out the paragraphs and continue teaching Crescent, she would post the excised text on her web site.

Here's the story, straight from Diana Abu-Jaber's website:

Awful as censorship is, I’d always thought there was a reassuring familiarity about banned books—Huck Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lolita—classics powerful enough to frighten people into wanting to silence them.
After all, isn’t that’s what censorship is all about—fear—of controversy, sexuality, difference, of questioning the status quo?

Then I received a sensitive, beautifully-written email from Texas. It was from a high school teacher, informing me that my novel, Crescent, had been banned from her school due to the objections of the parents of three students over the sexual content of four paragraphs in the book.
Her principal was behind the ban, but after teachers protested he offered a compromise. This is an excerpt from the teacher’s letter:

“If we obtain your permission to black out the four offending paragraphs … we are allowed to include the book in our curriculum….I am willing to ask you to do the unthinkable – will you allow us to mark through these four paragraphs in the interest of introducing a discussion of a culture so frequently demonized and belittled in our part of the country? Will you help me bring into a politically conservative community a sympathetic view of Iraq and Iraqi people?”

And so, after much thought and much asking-for-advice, I thought I’d share the response I gave the teacher:

October 2, 2007

Thanks so much for your thoughtful and insightful email. I've spent several days considering your question.

Ultimately, I find that I can't condone your principal's offer to censor my novel in order to make it more acceptable. That said, you do have my permission, to do what you think is right for your students.

In a strange way, I suppose, I think this discussion is an encouraging thing. I find it fascinating that, in our culture of war, macabre violence, and shocking cinema, a literary novel could still carry enough of an impact as to make someone want to silence it.

My husband pointed out that censors are always with us, determining the limits of morality and conventions, in every source of art and information, from books to film to music. He argues, along with you, that it’s better to allow students to read some of a book—indeed most of a book—rather than none at all.

Even though I see the excellent sense of this argument, I couldn’t find a way to feel right about crossing out text. I became a writer in large part because I felt like I couldn’t otherwise make my voice heard. To agree to blackening out such passages feels like colluding in my own silencing.

I once had a debate with a student from Saudi Arabia. I’d complained to him that the problem with America was that nothing was sacred. He’d laughed at me and said, on the contrary, that the great thing about America was that nothing was sacred.

I worry, though, that the American problem is that the wrong things are sacred.

I won’t belabor pointing out the obvious irony of blacking out scenes of love-making in a book that’s concerned with the depiction and the violence of unjust wars and dictatorship. We all already know this—in America, love gets bleeped, the violence stays. The two main characters in Crescent are in love, the few sexual passages in the book are far from graphic. Indeed, the scenes in which they cook and eat together are nearly just as suggestive as the contested passages.

But a friend, upon hearing about this debate, postulated that the real reason the students’ parents are upset is because the book gives a human face to Arab Muslim people.

That might be the part of this that unnerves me the most – and like so many forms of subtle discrimination and racism, we’ll never really know if that’s the case or not. The people who want the book banned may not even be entirely conscious of it themselves.
So I thank you for giving me the chance to think out loud a little about such an important issue. If you decide to proceed with blacking out hte passages, I'll be happy to post the offending text on my website, so those students who might be curious, can decide for themselves if they'd like to see what the fuss is about.

Please feel free to share my response with your principal, the parents, and even with your students. It’s a wonderful object lesson in the free and open exchange of ideas vs. book banning, especially during this, Banned Books Week.

With great respect for wonderful teachers, like yourself,

Diana Abu-Jaber

The Catholic League takes aim at The Golden Compass

2007-10-13T10:47:00.001-07:00

Well, the attacks on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

are about to begin in earnest. There have been several controversies about the books since they first appeared on store shelves, but now that they are set to be released as movies, certain organizations are getting up in arms. Someone might actually see the movie! And after that they might read the book!
To quote the Catholic League's press release: “We are fighting a deceitful stealth campaign on the part of the film’s producers. Our goal is to educate Christians so that they know exactly what the film’s pernicious agenda really is.” A pernicious agenda? A deceitful stealth campaign? Pullman's trilogy was, apparently, "written to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism. The target audience is children and adolescents." This is what my ol' philosophy prof used to call an “appeal to fear.” If you see the movie, then read the book, soon everyone and their children will be an atheist.
Now, full disclosure here, I'm a happy agnostic sitting on the fence, swinging my feet. I have no ax to grind with the Catholic church. In fact I’ve always been impressed by classes I’ve spoken to in the Catholic school system. It appears to me to be a church that values intellectual debate. That’s partly why the press release was so shocking to me. The difficulty with it and the corresponding video is that it denigrates the book and authors in general. His Dark Materials is a story, plain and simple. It is inspired by Paradise Lost and uses Christian elements to tell the STORY. Pullman is an atheist (actually if you want to know more of his beliefs read the interview with the The Literary Review) and he is writing from his own point of view. That’s his right as an artist. As an individual or a parent, make your own choice on whether you want to read these books or whether you want your children to read them. A group or organization that speaks with one voice attempting to blot out other views of the universe, that’s a problem. Can artists only write books that are supportive (or at the least, not offensive) towards Christianity?

Philip Pullman's own words on the agenda of the book are: "The problem for those who think there's an anti-religious anti-moral bias in the books comes when they haven't actually read the books: of course there's a criticism of organised theocratic tyrannical religion but who can disagree with that?" I’ve read the books. I felt the church he was criticizing was more the church of the 15th Century (or Inquisition times) than the modern church. If you want to see Pullman debate with the Archbishop of Canterbury visit this link.

(If you look close you can see Pullman's horns).

I do tire of arguments that use the “children” as the flag to wave to rally the troops. We don't want the children tainted. They must be protected. God forbid we let them read an imaginative book and then discuss it with them. How about we try not to limit their imaginations? Children are hardy. Their minds are questing for information about the universe around them. Give it to them. Don’t lock up their minds in a trunk.

As a final point I found it interesting that the League made sure to call Pullman a militant English atheist. There’s some incite-full language. No one likes militants (they use suicide bombs, right?). Atheists are to be feared. And finally, he's English! He's an outsider. Don't trust him. He probably drinks tea.

It's BANNED BOOKS WEEK!

2007-10-03T10:20:00.001-07:00

Find a Banned Books Week event near you here!

Celebrate Banned Books Week With AS IF! Authors!

2007-09-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

Banned Books Week, the annual celebration designed to call attention to the ongoing censorship of books, takes place this year from September 29th throughOctober 6th. And wouldn't you know? Lots of AS IF! authors will be participating in events all over the country.

Here's a little video preview of a Chicago event with two of our members, Carolyn Mackler and Chris Crutcher:

Join Carolyn and Chris in Chicago at the Pioneer Plaza (on Michigan Ave between the Tribune Tower and the Chicago River) on Saturday, September 29, 2007, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.!

GLBTQ Teen Lit Stuff

2007-09-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

For those interested in GLBTQ teen lit, there are two terrific new blogs reviewing older and new titles, and both with great names: I'm Here, I'm Queer, What the Hell do I Read? and Worth the Trip (a referece to I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, the world's first gay teen novel, which came out in 1969).

Also, in other GLBTQ teen lit news, Kimberly Pauley is in the midst of LGBT Teen Lit Month over at YA Books Central. But when she posted the news on a teachers' forum, she got a very depressing reaction. Read about her experiences here.

Ellen Wittlinger's SANDPIPER Under Attack in Alabama

2007-09-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

Is there something in the air? Another AS IF! member is under fire for a book she's written. This time, it's Ellen Wittlinger and her wonderful and wonderfully thought-provoking young adult novel, Sandpiper. A teenager in Alabama checked it out from her school library, and was so offended by the book's content that she decided, with the support of her grandmother, that she wasn't going to ever turn it in again.

Alas, this is a very common tactic on the part of book censors, so I hope this teenager doesn't think she's being particularly clever. These folks seem to think that by destroying public property, they're "protecting" society from some nefarious "evil"; we at AS IF! think they're depriving others of the fundamental right to decide for themselves what books they want to read and striking at the very heart of what it means to be an American--and that they're stealing to boot.

You say "potato," I say "potahto."

But why am I blathering on when we have the oh-so-eloquent Ellen Wittlinger to tell us exactly what she thinks about all of this?

I was surprised at just how chilling it was to read in the Tuscaloosa News that a fifteen-year-old girl, Lysa Harding, and her grandmother were calling my novel, Sandpiper, “offensive” and “sick.” I know that there are people in this country who, in the name of religion, feel high school students should be kept as ignorant of sex as possible, but I was shocked that the girl herself was equally afraid of knowledge.

Lysa says, “At my high school they teach abstinence and no sex before marriage, but then all the book is teaching is how to do those things.” Which tells me that she didn’t read past page two on which there is one paragraph, six lines, describing the protagonist’s take on oral sex. The last line of the paragraph is, “It’s like I’m not even there anymore.” Hardly a recommendation or a how-to guide. This is the only sex in the book except for a near-rape at the end, also not an advertisement for early promiscuity.

The reason I wrote a book on this subject to begin with was because I kept hearing about middle-school girls who were very blasé about oral sex. They didn’t think of it as “real” sex. They also didn’t enjoy it much, but it was becoming a cool thing to do. It seemed like a worthy topic to tackle in a book, but I knew if I set it in a middle-school I’d have lots of parents upset with me, so I made my protagonist a fifteen high school girl, an age at which there are probably very few students who have never heard of oral sex.

Of course, the bottom-line, as always, is that Lysa Harding didn’t have to read the book if she didn’t want to. But there are no doubt other students who do want to read it and she should not be able to decide what anyone else can or cannot read.

And if you're reading this, Lysa, please know that among the 86 members of AS IF!, there are almost certainly some of your favorite authors (definitely some of mine!). Be aware that virtually all of us, including these authors of the books that have inspired and enchanted you your whole life, are saddened by your actions.

Catholic High School Cancels Discussion of THE CONFESSIONAL

2007-09-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

AS IF! member, J.L. Powers, recently had run-in with a sort-of censorship with her first book, The Confessional, when she was de-invited to speak at a Catholic high school in Northern California where she had previously been scheduled. The controversy resulted after a parent complained that the book did not reflect "Catholic principles."

We asked J.L. to write her thoughts on the matter:

Like any young adult writer would be, I am dismayed that THE CONFESSIONAL has been publicly described as harmful to young adults and that there would be an attempt, so soon after its release, to censor it. But I always knew that I was dealing with topics that would make some people very uncomfortable: racism, violence, homosexuality, and religion. Any one of these topics alone could make some people nervous, but I tackle all of them in one book.

Yet to silence a discussion about these issues, or to try to prevent young people from having access to materials about them, is incredibly short sighted. The former judge who pushed to have the event canceled and the book banned stated that Cathedral High School's motto is "enter to learn" and "leave to serve." If students really are entering to learn and leaving to serve, then why would the school have so little faith in their intellectual and moral capacity to discern what is true and what is right?

The school's assumption that it is building the leaders of tomorrow should certainly cultivate a certain level of trust in their students' abilities. Setting aside the fact that the characters in THE CONFESSIONAL learn to take personal responsibility for their own actions, to forgive people who hurt them, and to do the right thing no matter how much it costs--all values that it is difficult to imagine could be condemned by anyone--I would ask this former judge: Is one book truly capable of demolishing years of intellectual and moral education? As powerful as I believe the written word to be, I am not convinced that any single book has that level of power. I am flattered that he thinks my book does!

Regardless, I do hope THE CONFESSIONAL has a distinct social and moral currency: that the young people who read it will take heart as they undergo similar struggles to claim their identities and to stand up for what they believe in. That is, I think, what any young adult writer hopes that their books will achieve

Does the school have the right to cancel Powers' talk? Absolutely. In doing so, are they doing the right thing? Almost certainly not. Here at AS IF!, we believe that disputes and controversies are almost always best solved through dialogue and debate. And the idea that teenagers in a learning environment must be "protected" from certain ideas, especially when those ideas are presented in a thoughtful manner? As authors of books for teens, we find that condescending and offensive.

Censor This! (Our Censorship Round-Up)

2007-08-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

Two fantastic online resources that deal with censorship issues:

The National Coalition Against Censorship Toolkit, which gives strategies and info about responding to challenges.
The Banned Books Week Handbook, which talks about Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of banned books.

Life Intimidates Art?

2007-08-05T15:18:00.001-07:00

In the following letter, which appeared in today's New York Times Book Review, writer Erica Jong takes the position that "suppressing a book because you disagree with its content is always a challenge to freedom of speech."

To the Editor:

Rachel Donadio’s summary of the trans-Atlantic response to Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” (“Fighting Words,” July 15) caught my attention because I happened to be president of the Authors Guild when that book was published in America.

What I remember most from that time was the rampant hypocrisy of the response. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued the fatwa on Feb. 14, 1989, and several translators and publishers had paid with life or limb. I was particularly concerned because one of the victims of the fatwa was my and Rushdie’s Norwegian publisher, William Nygaard, who was wounded in an attack provoked by the fatwa.

"A free society cannot tolerate
words being mistaken for actions."

The winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature, Naguib Mahfouz, correctly assailed Khomeini for “intellectual terrorism,” and V. S. Naipaul, who won the prize in 2001, wryly labeled Khomeini’s fatwa “an extreme form of literary criticism.”

But for the people who died or were critically wounded by the attacks the fatwa inspired, this was no occasion for clever remarks. In the face of these attacks, the entire membership of the Authors Guild voted to support Rushdie’s right to publish and protested when Rushdie’s publishers tried to suppress the paperback edition of his book out of fear that bookstore and publishing personnel would be injured.

I understood their fear, but I felt at the time and still feel that our professional organization had to take a stand against such censorship. The guild membership was courageous in supporting Rushdie during those terrible days. While others waffled, we uncompromisingly stood up for free speech and literature — something Salman recognized and thanked us for.

"Suppressing a book
because you disagree with its content
is always
a challenge
to freedom of speech."

It seems to me there are no shades of gray here. Suppressing a book because you disagree with its content is always a challenge to freedom of speech. And the writers who disputed this — whether Roald Dahl or John le Carré — had different agendas. Sometimes writers are contrarians just for the sake of being contrarians or because they are simply jealous of the attention another writer is getting. The fact remains that Rushdie, by writing, did not cause injuries and deaths. The fatwa did.

A free society cannot tolerate words being mistaken for actions. Words must be free while murder and mayhem must be punished. To confuse this because of a fatwa issued for political reasons is to confute the values literature is based on. The Pakistani minister who recently declared that Rushdie’s knighthood justified suicide bombings is dangerously mistaken.

I myself am not a great fan of titles, but if Rushdie wants to be Sir Salman, let him kneel before the queen and swear upon her sword or whatever else is required. I suppose it is a good thing when writers are ennobled as readily as musicians and politicians.

But let’s keep things clear. Writing does not kill people. Fatwas kill people.

Erica Jong

Weston, Conn.

Censor This! (Our Censorship Round-Up)

2007-07-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

Oh, my. Lots to link to this week:

A new media rating site for parents, Kids in Mind, that doesn't make moral judgements, but instead gives parents information, so they can make their own judgements.
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has chosen Speechless (a non-fiction title) by Bruce Barry as its “ABFFE Book of the Month," part of a campaign to promote free speech.
One of those depressing lists about how little Americans read that make you want to give up writing completely.
Another example of American Puritanism: the illustrator of a German picture book is asked to censor two anatomically correct pieces of art in a museum. Honestly, the pictures must be seen for this story to seem as outrageous as it is.

Bazoongas Redux

2007-07-06T14:10:00.001-07:00

Aha, the press has uncovered the "bazoongas" story. In other words this is the continuing saga of the banning of Nikki Tate's Trouble on Tarragon book.

Edmonton Journal

Saskatoon Star Phoenix

Alas, the press can't resist a few jokes about the topic (nor could I for that matter). But the actual reasons for banning this book are, well, even more ludicrous. Here's what the principal says are the reasons behind the "screening" of the book: "In this case, the book was screened and was found to be not suitable for addition to Elizabeth School's library because of the language used in the bullying scene in question, he said.
"Do you work from the assumption that everything that is published automatically is guaranteed a spot in a school library until it's removed? And then if something doesn't make it on the shelves you call it censorship?" said Parohl."
So it's only censorship after you put it on the shelf then take it off? But if you choose not to put the book on the shelf at all that is just "screening." Ah, I see. This book has been nominated for three awards. And who were the people who put together those lists of nominees? Librarians. How dare they put a books with interesting stories on their awards lists!

This is really a laugh and cry story. I mean what's so offensive about the word "bazoongas"? It's not even a real swear word.

Art

Censor This! (Our Bi-Weekly Censorship Round-Up)

2007-06-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

What's up in censorship news?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (one of 2006 most banned books, according to the ALA) is being challenged for its inclusion on a summer reading list in New York state. All the books on the list are optional, chosen to reflect a range of interests. Ironically, the list was compiled after much consultation with students and teachers specifically because students weren't reading the books on the previous summer reading list.
Interesting article on the controversies over gay themes in picture books. Arthur Levine is quoted.
A new fatwa for Salman Rushdie.

The Censor Strikes Again

2007-06-30T09:17:00.001-07:00

I'm just posting this on behalf of my friend Nikki Nate, a fellow writer, who had a little brush up with the censor. Alas, in my home province, too.

Art

The following is from:http://nikkitate.blogspot.com
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Censor is Alive and Well and Living in Saskatchewan
This just in from Sono Nis Press, publisher of Trouble on Tarragon Island...

A librarian at a school in Saskatchewan called to complain about the age level listing for Trouble on Tarragon Island. She said the committee for their school library feels the book is not sensitive to aging women in its reference to saggy breasts and using the word 'bazoongas.' In particular, the librarian and her committee members are offended by page 11 - line 14, which refers to a boy cupping his hands in a certain way making reference to breasts, etc. The school has zero tolerance for that sort of behaviour and the librarian feels that by allowing students to read about it, the school is giving support to totally unacceptable behaviour. The solution, in this school anyway, is to pull the book from the school library. The librarian went on to say that the book should not be listed as appropriate reading material for young readers.

The school principal agrees that such behaviour is unacceptable and supported the librarian's decision to refuse access to the book through the library. Even if a child specifically requests the book, he or she will not be able to take it out on loan from the library. Not that the school is forbidding children to purchase a copy. The nearest bookstore is a mere 200 kilometers away in Saskatoon, so real keeners can, presumably, hop on their bicycles and tootle to the big city to find a copy.

All this is rather interesting since the book seems to have found many fans among the critics (it's nominated for a Red Cedar Award, a Chocolate Lily Award, and a Saskatchewan Willow Award and has had a number of very positive reviews in the media...) Note that even children who are participating in the Willow Award reading program will not be allowed to take the book out of the library, though the principal assured me in a phone conversation that the children will be given the full title of the book. Whew - that's a relief!

As for the complaint, well, I hardly think that mentioning a negative behaviour in a book condones that negative behaviour. Otherwise, children would never be allowed to read a book about the Holocaust, drug abuse, less than perfect parents, divorce, war, or a whole slew of other less-than-perfect examples of human nature. Do I condone the behaviour my characters exhibit in the challenged part of the book? Of course not - any Grade Five reader will understand that those boys were the bad guys at that point in the story.

What is the message I hoped to share about older women? That they are feisty, powerful, amazing women willing to take on the powers that be in order to stand up for their beliefs. And, yes, sometimes, the most strident among us cause (often inadvertently) some degree of consternation to our relatives. That's life. And isn't the role of fiction to hold up a mirror to what goes on in the world so we can examine what happens from another perspective? Granted, you have to read beyond the first few pages to figure all that out, but it seems young readers haven't had a problem staying interested in the story until the end of the book.

Not that the children in this particular school will be allowed to think for themselves and debate the merits of the grandmother's tactics or the boys' reactions, or the issues surrounding Old Growth Forests... Someone else, apparently, has decided to do the thinking for them. Poor kids.

Same-sex Kiss Blacked out of Yearbook

2007-06-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

We here at AS IF! were admittedly floored (and outraged) by this story out of New Jersey where a student purchased a "tribute" page in a yearbook (to the tune of $150)--only to have his page blacked out with markers by the administration because one of his photos (pictured) was of him kissing his boyfriend.

At first, the superintendent tried to argue it wasn't a "gay" issue at all, that the photo was too "illicit." But then it was pointed out that (a) uh, the photo isn't particularly illicit, and (b) a number of heterosexual students had included photos of themselves kissing, and those photos hadn't been blacked out.

"I don't understand," the student said. "There is no rule about no gay pictures, no guys kissing. Guys and girls kissing made it in."

But here's the real rule, which is never stated outright: gay kids, and gay content, are treated as something outrageous, something "controversial," with a completely different set of rules than those applied to heterosexual kids, and heterosexual content. "There's no rule against same-sex kissing in yearbooks? Well, there should be!" The administrators were clearly worried about the reaction to the same-sex kiss, so they preemptively censored--yes, censored--the school yearbook. Really, can there be a better example of censorship than this?

For the record, we here at AS IF! have never argued that libraries and schools can't have standards and policies--that they can't keep certain books out of the library, for instance. We simply argue that a library or school's standards and policies have to be "reasonable" and based on reason (not prejudice), they have to be open and clearly stated, and they have to be fairly applied.

In the case of this censored yearbook, I can't imagine a more inconsistent, unfair policy.

I've long argued on this blog that this kind of inconsistency and unfairness, this pandering to potential outrage, also applies to gay teen books and gay content in teen books. As a gay author, I experience it all the time when I'm informally invited to speak at a school--only to be told that, after confering with administrators, they've decided that, no, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea if I came after all. Likewise, I hear, "Oh, we'd love to have your book in our library, but I'm afraid it just wouldn't go over well with parents."

I hope I don't sound like I'm playing the victim card (and no, I don't need the speaking gigs--I'm plenty busy as it is!). But it bothers me because I see this as a "censorship" of a sort--an unreasonable, systematic, and preemptive elimination of a certain topic from the curriculum. And it bothers me more that more people don't see it as such. That's why I think stories like the above one out of New Jersey are so important. They clarify things, what's really going on.

Incidentally, we here are AS IF! have discussed this, and most of us seem to think that kid should sue the pants off em!

We also think that superintendent inadvertantly taught that school and those kids a lesson about free speech and freedom of expresion that those kids will never forget.

"Occult" Concerns Gets SC Summer Reading Program Cancelled

2007-06-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty good example of the fine line teachers and librarians must walk these days if they want to encourage kids to read for pleasure. A public library in South Carolina created a voluntary summer reading program with six weekly sessions. One of the sessions included astrology. But that got some parents upset. They created an uproar and got the whole program cancelled.

Sadly, we at AS IF! get reports of this kind of thing happening again and again, all over the country.

Here's one writer's take:

The Pickens library planned a reading program in Easley for grades 5 and up called “You Never Know at Your Library.”

There were six weekly sessions planned — featuring the theme of mystery and suspense — plus a pizza party at the end.

Then some parents began screaming bloody murder.
Seems like one session focused on — egads! — the occult.

The June 14 meeting called “What’s Your Sign?” included this description: “Get to know your inner cosmic being through astrology, palmistry, numberology (they probably mean ‘numerology’). Partner up to practice palm-reading, or try your hand at tarot cards.”

That peeved some parents.

Marguerite Keenan, Pickens County library system director, was quoted by Greenville News writer Ginny Johnson as saying she got phone calls from parents who said the session was “promoting witchcraft and teaching other religions.”

Yikes! Hide the kids, Martha!

I could understand parents complaining about the lack of educational content in a session discussing such phony-baloney stuff as tarot cards.

But it’s extreme to say the library was promoting witchcraft and other religions.
Let’s assume the protesting parents were well-intentioned. But I think it’s fair to say most people believe astrology and fortune-telling are superstitions — not genuine religion.
Elevating palm-reading and astrology to the level of religion gives such superstitious stuff a respect and dignity they don’t deserve.

In addition, it's improper for a few protesting parents to dictate what is appropriate for ALL children in the community.

After all, no child was REQUIRED to attend this completely volunteer reading program.
Any parent who was offended by a session could have kept junior at home that day and have him watch "Married With Children" reruns on TV.

Library officials said they chose the content of the sessions based on similar programs nationwide and by popular demand.

Fair enough. But instead of sticking to their guns, library officials decided, based on a couple of dozen complaints, to get rid of the June 14 session.

But wait! They didn’t stop there: They killed the ENTIRE reading program.

But wait again! They kept the pizza party at the end.

Get it? Here's a summer reading program that requires no reading but offers a pizza party originally designed to reward those who dutifully read books throughout the program.

Shall we laugh at this or cry?

How ironic that the name of the program was “You Never Know at Your Library.”

Indeed.

Library officials said they kept the pizza party because that probably was the only thing that wouldn’t offend local sensibilities.

Most Challenged Books of 2006!

2007-06-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the ALA's list of the most frequently challenged books of 2006 (though, it must be added, these are only the challenges actually reported to the ALA; most such challenges go unreported). This year's list includes two AS IF! members, Chris Crutcher and Carolyn Mackler:

“And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group

“Gossip Girls” series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language

“Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language

“The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group

“Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity

“Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group

“Beloved” by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group

“The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence.

AS IF! Interviews BAD BOY's Tanya Stone

2007-06-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the first in what I hope will be a regular AS IF! feature: interviews with our members. First up, Tanya Lee Stone. Tanya is the author of the terrific, yet definitely sexually provocative, teen novel, A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL (which is just now out in paperback!).

Why did she write it? What has the reaction been from both adults and teens? What does she think about sexual content in teen books?

Well, let's ask her, why don't we?

AS IF!: A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL is a book about teen sex: whether or not to do it, what the consequences of doing it are. Why this book? Why do you think this book is appropriate for teenagers?

I guess I should start by saying I'm hoping I achieved the "whether or not to do it" without judgement, as that was my intention. Every teen has to make that decision for him/herself and what I was really interested in exploring are the emotional ups and downs and realizations that go along with heading into that new and uncertain territory of intimate relationships.

Why do I think it's appropriate? Because I take my responsibility to my readers extremely seriously and I wanted to speak to girls about these real and difficult and confusing issues they are dealing with. It's very easy to get emotionally swayed from what feels right to you--and who seems right for you--when you're in the thick of grappling with hormones, desires, common sense, and all the rest of the swirling chaos that goes along with falling in love, or getting turned on, for the first time. I wanted to reach out and say, "Hey, this happens to all of us at one point or another--and pay attention, because this is how it happens, so if you can learn from these fictional girls' experiences, I hope it can help you avoid some pain and make you smarter about who you are and who you want to be."

AS IF!: What was the reaction from the publisher? I know it's just now out in paperback, but what was the response upon intitial publication? Any challenges or bannings? Any negative feedback?

My editor and publisher were wonderful from the beginning. There were a few phrases here and there I was asked to think about, in terms of how necessary they were--which I did. In one or two instances, after putting myself in a 14-year-old girl's shoes (which hurt, as my feet have grown considerably since then), I made a change. In others, I didn't. I'm actually a little surprised that it hasn't been challenged yet. In fact, one extremely positive review included a line about waiting for the inevitable challenge.But I was extremely careful not to include anything gratuitous.

In terms of feedback, I've gotten such overwhelming responses from teen readers, as well as parents and librarians. I get so many emails from teens thanking me for being honest and telling me the book helped them either avoid a pitfall or cope with how they felt about a bad experience. One mother even wrote to thank me for helping her repair her relationship with her daughter. That brought tears to my eyes. The power of words, eh? I remember books that touched me in that way, and there's nothing more gratifying than realizing that you've written something that reaches someone like that.

AS IF!: There's a wonderfully clever subplot in the book about the girls in the school warning each other about a particular "bad" boy by writing the information in the back of the library's copy of Judy Blume's FOREVER. Why this book? I hear you've since been in contact with Ms. Blume herself, no?

I was looking for a vehicle for the girls to quietly communicate with each other, in part anonymously. Once I settled upon a book as that vehicle there was only one choice for me. Forever was a huge book for me growing up. One that opened my eyes to a lot of the things I was feeling at the time. Yes, Ms. Blume and I had breakfast and talked and talked. And let me tell you, she is absolutely as fabulous as I expected her to be.

AS IF!: One of the themes of the book is that boys and girls view sex very differently. (In fact, as a guy, I found myself occasionally frustrated by the jumping-to-conclusions that one of the girls did, which made the book seem particularly real.) What's been the reaction from girls? From guys? From adults?

I haven't had much feedback from guys in general, except the ones who chuckle at the title and don't get its full meaning at first. I'm not sure how many guy readers I actually have for this book; I suspect it's mainly girls reading it. However, I scripted a play based on the book that has been performed at a few book festivals and schools now, and that has been a really interesting experience in terms of feedback from guys. In each case, both the boy portraying our "bad boy" and the boys in the audience for the after-play Q&A had a lot to say about the things that came up in the book. They recognized certain traits and behaviors--if not in themselves, in a boy or two they knew--and talked about issues of learning more respect for girls, and people's feelings in general. Of course, I'm always quick to point out that I am well aware that many, many boys don't act like the boy in the book, and that I made him particularly bad on purpose, as he represents an amalgam of the worst kind of manipulator.

The reaction from girls has been almost entirely exuberant. As I said, they thank me for being honest and they all relate to at least one--if not parts of all three--of the girls in the book.

AS IF!: Why do you think this book and books like it are important for teenagers?

I actually wrote an entire article on this very subject! It was published in VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) and is called "Now and Forever: The Power of Sex in Young Adult Literature." In it, I review the YA genre from the 70s on, looking at a variety of books that address these topics and discussing why they are important. In a nutshell, they are important because they reflect reality and, if I can quote myself, "books are possibly the safest place for them to learn about sex--not just the physical part, but also the complex web of emotions that accompanies it."

I'm sure there are people who disagree with me, and that's fine. Books exist for the readers who need them. Incidentally (and purely anecdotally), there are plenty of people who do agree that teens are dealing with these issues--just not their teens. And of course some of the time, that's absolutely true. But--and here's the anecdotal part--what explains the large difference between the number of teens who say they are grappling with these things, and the number of parents who say their kids aren't?

Check out AS IF! member Tanya Lee Stone!

So it Goes

2007-06-07T08:04:00.001-07:00

And this one from the "Gee, when is this going to end" file: Coeur d'Alene parents look to restrict access to certain books "COEUR D'ALENE -- Checking out a copy of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou may require more than a library card in the Coeur d'Alene School District if some parents have their way.
Some parents say the book, along with five others, should require parental permission for students to read them..."

Alas, we've seen this all before. The kicker is the last sentence where one parent wants presenters to provide audio and video of their presentation before they're hired. Whatever happened to "Gee, we're excited to have you at our school?" Now it's "I hope you're Disneyfied enough for our school."

Ciao for now,
Art

Warriors for Innocence: Not so Innocent?

2007-05-31T23:51:00.000-07:00

So the blog-world, specifically the LiveJournal world, is abuzz with talk of a new cyber group, Warriors for Innocence (I'm not linking to them because their site allegedly uses spyware). They target profiles that "promote pedophilia" and badger LiveJournal isn't deleting them, but apparently many profiles have been deleted improperly--abuse survivor groups, for example.

Now Live Journal has apologized for the debacle.

Here's a good run-down (hat tip to Sister Coyote)

Not Your Typical Book-Burning

2007-05-28T22:58:00.001-07:00

A man burns books, but not the usual reasons:

So on Sunday, Wayne began burning his books in protest of what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word.

"This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today," Wayne told spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books.

Publicity stunt? We here at AS IF! think so. But not necessarily a bad one.

AND TANGO MAKES THREE is #1 Most Challenged Book

2007-05-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on the picture book And Tango Makes Three, currently the country's single more challenged book, in England's The Guardian.

"We did expect a negative reaction," admits one of the authors of the children's book And Tango Makes Three, Justin Richardson. "In the US, homosexuality and talking to children about sexuality have been highly politicised, so yes, we expected to take some heat for it."

In the event, the story of two male penguins who bring up a chick, which Richardson co-wrote with the playwright Peter Parnell, generated more heat than its authors perhaps anticipated. In 2006, it shot to the top of the American Library Association's (ALA) list of most frequently challenged books as people across the country objected to the idea of such a tale being aimed at children of its target age group of between four and eight, provoking protests in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa and Indiana.

But this was not a tale: it was, in fact, inspired by a newspaper article, which told how a zookeeper noticed two of his penguins, Roy and Silo, were trying to hatch a stone.

"The New York Times ran an article called The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name about homosexual behaviour in animals, which started with Roy and Silo's story," remembers Richardson. He started reading it out to Parnell, and "in reading it aloud, it started sounding like a children's story.

"It had the same elements as some of the books we'd grown up with," agrees Parnell, "where an unlikely character tries and tries and eventually succeeds."

They were aware, however, that the idea of two gay penguins striving to raise a child would prove more controversial than, say, the Little Red Hen's attempts to bake bread.

I had an interesting conversation recently with the editor of another often-banned gay-themed picture book. Everyone assumes that these books sell really well because of all the publicity. That's not necessarily true. Which says to me that there's still a lot of self-censoring going of gay-themed books. How else to explain libraries not purchasing these a highly-praised, obviously topical, and much discussed books?

Gay Teen Books: Good News and Bad News

2007-05-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

The good news is that Rainboy Boys, Alex Sanchez's 2001 gay teen book, has been returned to an optional summer reading list in Rochester, New York, after it was removed in a big controversy last year (that we documented in detail).

My Rochester friend, librarian Ove Overmeyer, had this to say in an article on the development:

"Those lists should be lists of inclusion, nothing should be excluded. That's a good thing. I think we learned something from the whole process," he said.

"Parents should be responsible for what their children read, but other parents shouldn't tell other parents what their kids should read," Overmyer said.

In less satisfying news, a former student of mine, Carrie Jones, has heard rumblings of censorship due to the word "gay" in the title of her fab new book, Tips on Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend.

Some booksellers are afraid of controversy. They have bottom lines. They need to make them. I knew that places like Wal-Mart wouldn't stock my book because of that word, the GAY word. I had hoped that independent bookstores would be a little more, um, independent. I had hoped that they would fight the good fight so that kids could get books that were different, that meant something, that had themes that made them think. I can understand that they are afraid that people might picket their bookstores, might cause a stir about a book that has the word 'gay' in it, and that could hurt their business, but what this comes down to really is pre-censorship.

What does this mean? It means that books with gay themes or even the word "Gay" in the title aren't as available. You have to hunt for them. Their authors might not sell as many books. That makes the authors a little less lucrative to publishing houses. Maybe their next book won't get published. Maybe it will. But it's harder.

I feel Carrie's pain. I really, really do.

Here at AS IF!, we believe in freedom of choice--even, I suppose, the freedom to not stock a book with an otherwise enthusiastic audience solely due to perceived or real prejudice.

But it's still frustrating.

Judy Blume in Newsweek

2007-05-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

The godmother of anti-censorship, Judy Blume, is interviewed in Newsweek about her landmark novel, Forever.

I thought this was particularly interesting (mostly because I've been saying the same thing for years!):

There is so much sex on TV and on billboards today—seemingly more than when “Forever” first came out—why do you think the book continues to be so controversial?

Because it's a book. Some adults, for whatever reason, have a desperate need to control everything in their children's lives. They can't control what's on television or on a billboard, but many think they can control what their children read. These individuals believe if their kids don't read about it, they won't know about it, and if they don't know about it, they'll never do it. They think they can have a book banned if they don't want their children to read it. They'll go into school waving a book, demanding that it be removed. There are a lot of would-be censors out there. Not only do they want to make the decision for their children but for all children. How much better it would it be if the parents could read the book, too, and then talk about it with their teens.

From Sonya Sones

2007-05-18T04:26:00.000-07:00

Sonya Sones has sent in a very thoughtful and interesting response to the events in Wisconsin:

---------------------------------------------------

Maybe some of you have heard that my novel in verse for teens, What My Mother Doesn’t Know, has been successfully challenged in the community of Wisconsin Dells. “The action,” an article in American Libraries Online stated, “was taken after Sherry Volkey, the mother of an 11-year-old student, appealed a reconsideration committee decision declining her request to remove the book entirely from the school media center as well as the school’s accelerated reading program. Characterizing as “soft porn’” the book of poems describing the coming-of-age experiences of a fictional 14-year-old girl, Volkey told the school board, “I was deeply appalled when she brought this book to my attention and read to me a poem in here about getting undressed and taking your bare chest and sticking it up against a winter window.”

It crossed my mind that those of you who haven’t read the book, upon reading Volkey’s complaint about it, might be curious as to why I would include such a scene in my book. I felt is was the right choice to include this realistic, albeit painfully honest poem because the main character, Sophie, is at an age when her body is going through enormous changes. In reflecting on how quickly her breasts have developed she says, “It is pretty astonishing / how my molehills / have turned into mountains / overnight.” Sophie is fascinated by, and hyper-aware of, all the changes puberty is causing in her body. I hope that girls who stumble across this moment in my book might feel less alone, less embarrassed by the curious and confused feelings they’re having about the sudden transformations of their own bodies. Besides, when Sophie experiments with pressing her breasts against the glass in order to observe the effect the cold has on them, it is nighttime and no one else is watching. The scene is no more pornographic than was the scene in The Higher Power of Lucky, when the snake bites the dog on his you-know-what.

Without fail, the people who want to rip my book from the hands of young readers have not even read it. They have only read small sections of it. If Sherry Volkey, the woman who lodged the complaint in Wisconsin, had read the whole book she would have seen that there is no possible way its contents could be categorized as what she calls “soft porn.”

This is just plain dumb. Because, as far as sexuality goes, nothing happens in What My Mother Doesn’t Know except for kissing. I guess it seems too sexual to Ms. Volkey because of Sophie's passionate nature and the way she describes these kisses. But Sophie says she "just doesn't feel ready" to go beyond kissing, and certainly the book doesn't support the idea of teens having sex. In fact, Sophie steadfastly refuses to let her boyfriend Dylan push her to go further than she wants. I included this in my book to suggest to girls that they don’t have to allow boys to pressure them into doing anything that they don’t want to do. Dylan's sexually aggressive behavior is one of the main reasons that Sophie stops dating him.

Since so many books make it seem like it’s the norm for teens to be having sex (not to mention scarfing down drugs and alcohol) and mine does just the opposite, I find it ironic that Ms. Volkey wants my book removed from the school libraries.

There is one instance in the book where Sophie’s breast is touched by a boy. But this happens when an older boy on a street corner, who doesn’t even know Sophie, grabs her breast. Sophie has not invited his advances in any way, and her response to his molestation is to chase him down and kick and hit him. I included this poem to show girls that they don’t need to sit silently by if, God forbid, they are ever attacked themselves. (Which, unfortunately, is what I did when the same thing happened to me at her age.)

I’m happy to report that the emails I receive from my fans make it clear that the other themes in my book – don't judge a person by the way they look, be true to your heart, don't care so much about what your peers think – are getting through to my readers as well. I got one just today from a girl who said, “It taught me that maybe the hottest guy isn't the best guy for me. So now I will definitely look at and notice the not so hot and popular guys.” It delights me to think that my book might have helped the homely guys of the world to get a date.

Don't get me wrong—I don't write to teach kids how they should be living their lives. But if some of that happens to come through while I'm telling the stories I want to tell, then... well…hooray!

If Ms. Volkey doesn’t think her own daughter is ready to read books which deal realistically with teenage life, that is certainly her choice to make. But what right has she to try to impose her short-sighted beliefs on an entire community?

I hope that the students and parents of Wisconsin Dells will fight back. No one should allow ignorant people to rob them of their rights.

Sonya Sones
www.sonyasones.com
myspace.com/sonyasones

WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW Restricted in Wisconsin

2007-05-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Sonya Sones' book What My Mother Doesn't Know has been restricted in Wisconsin. The challenger referred to it as "soft porn," indicating that she has apparently never seen any porn, soft or otherwise.

What struck me was this quote from the author, which I can really relate to.

[Sones] said in writing her book at the outset she didn't think it would be controversial. Other books, she said, depict teens drinking alcohol, using drugs and having sex, while her book does not.

Sones said she wanted her book to address a girl's first bra, period, crush, kiss and love, as well as her second and third loves.

Don't ask for whom the book banners accuse of being "soft porn." They toll for thee. Or something like that.

Two New Challenges: OF MINE AND MEN and AND TANGO MAKES THREE

2007-05-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Apparently books that begin with a conjunction or a preposition are a big no-no, as evidenced by two new challenges, one of Of Mine and Men (in Texas) and one of And Tango Makes Three (in Stockon, California).

The comments under the latter article are interesting. As I've blogged before, I think folks are verrrrrry tired of these self-appointed book censors.

John Green Talks Book Banning

2007-05-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

AS IF!'s own John Green talks about book bannings. Watch it! It's funny.

Update on Two Girls Kissing

2007-05-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

Here in Washington State (where I live), there was a protest this week over the fact that two girls kissing the lunchroom were recorded on a surveilance camera, the tape of which was then shown to the girl's parents.

As many as four dozen students risked an unexcused absence to call attention to what they said was discrimination against lesbian students.

Some called for Keith Nelson, the dean of students, to be fired for showing the video to the parents of one of the girls in February. The parents of that girl, a junior, withdrew her from school. She’s now attending at a campus outside the district.

The other girl, senior Jenna Johnson, said she organized Monday’s event.

“I hope it sends a message across that people shouldn’t discriminate on sexual preference,” said Johnson, a 17-year-old who still attends the school. “People should love you for who you are.”

Today we learn that the dean who did the privacy-violating has, in fact, been reassigned, though, interestingly, the district is being very cagey about whether or not it is due to his recent actions.

What I found most intersting/depressing/illuminating was the dean's comment:

“The real story is this – do parents have the right to know what happens at school? And do parents have the right to know what type of activities their child is involved in at school? Of course they do,” he wrote in the e-mail.

Actually, this isn't the real story.

Look, I don't know how many times I'm going to have to say it: if you have a law, rule, or policy, it must be enforced consistently, for all people. If you only enforce it for one group of people--say, GLBTQ students--but not for straight students, well, that's the very essence of discrimination. You know, treating two groups in an unequal way?

So I ask the school: how many times have videotapes of heterosexual students kissing in the lunchroom been shown to their parents? What's that? Never?

I honestly don't see what's so hard about this. What do people think discrimination is anyway?

In a related story of gay panic, a school flips out when a journalism advisor allows a student to write an editorial advocating tolerance of gays. Apparently, that idea is so terribly "controversial" that it showed bad judgement when the advistor did not notify the principal in advance. The advisor was originally slated to be fired--fired!--over this "infaction," but may now keep teaching at another school. But:

"The school administration has said in no uncertain terms that she's not going to be given a journalism position," Proctor said.

Oh, God, no, not that.

Speaking of Girls Kissing . . .

2007-04-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

Maureen Johnson’s novel, The Bermudez Triangle, which contains no sex but is about (among other things) a lesbian relationship, has been removed from the Bartlesville Mid-High School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The removal began with a single parent’s complaint about “the lack of discretion, and moral decline in the selection of books at the Mid-High library.” This parent singled out The Bermudez Triangle for having “no moral fiber” and promoting a “do whomever you want to discover yourself” mentality. The decision to remove the book was made by a committee appointed by the Bartlesville Board of Education upon receiving the parent’s complaint.

Maureen has responded to the action and allegations on her blog:

The idea that Bermudez is a “sexual free for all” is a joke. My mother read Bermudez—the same mother who wouldn’t let me wear denim skirts and who still tells me the stork brought me—and said, “I can’t see why anyone would object to this book.”

Maureen concludes that the complaint reflects “Garden Variety homophobia.”

The Oklahoma Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee has been asked to look into the situation.

Stay tuned for updates.

Two Girls Kissing? Let's Go to the Tape

2007-04-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

At a high school near my home (and where I've spoken several times), administrators found that the cafeteria surveylance camera had captured two girls kissing.

So what did they do? They showed the tape to the girls' parents. Now one girl has been removed from school and supposedly sent off to an anti-gay private school.

"It wasn't a violation of policy and procedure ... but we all agree it was not a good use of surveillance," Schellenberg said. "It was an abnormal use of our equipment and it won't happen again. This is not a Big Brother institution."

Even so, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said the group plans to look into the matter.

"I have a hard time believing this incident would've been handled the same way if it was a heterosexual couple," said spokesman Doug Honig.

Ya think?

Despite everything else this is, it's also a reminder to teens that there is no presumption of privacy when it comes to blogging and PDAs. In other words: your parents might find out.

Editorial: Art and Alienation, or, Can Books Save Lives?

2007-04-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

Normally, our posts here focus on particular cases of banning and censoring going on across the country rather than the big philosophical issues. Sometimes particular cases will lead to interesting philosophical discussions in the comments section, but today I want to put an idea right out there for us to think about and discuss. And this isn't a rhetorical question; I don't already have an answer for myself. I really want to know.

Like many today, I've been hearing and watching clips from the video "manifesto" put out by the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui. I have to admit that some of what he says doesn't sound all that unusual to me---he sounds like a lot of people I knew in high school who were pissed off at the world, felt done to, felt they had no place, angry and misunderstood and feeling helpless. But set him and his words aside, because the incident is too new and his history of mental illness too clear to make the case that a good book could have turned this situation around. It gets me thinking, though, about past school shooters in junior high and high school incidents of the last twenty years. Every case is different, every individual different and infinitely complex, but one of the recurring themes is that the shooters were outsiders, kids who were bullied, alienated, misunderstood, lacking a social circle that understood them, unable to articulate fear or rage or sorrow or whatever they were feeling.

One reason I read when I was a kid and teen was to feel understood. When I cracked open THE CHOCOLATE WAR for the first time I remember feeling that finally, finally, someone out there really understood the hell it was to be fourteen years old. Whenever I read a Madeleine L'Engle book, I knew it was okay to be smart---something kids in my junior high used as an insult over and over again. ("You're so smart." It came out sounding exactly the same as, "You're so ugly." I recently got an email from an adult who read about my book, and said that her own sexual promiscuity in high school started in an effort to hide and change her identity as the "smart girl.") I sought out books that featured alcoholic parents, because I had one and wanted to know I wasn't alone.

AS IF founder and regular poster here, Brent Hartinger, has gotten letters from teen readers who were so confused and alienated by sexual identity that they were considering suicide. Reading about the gay characters in Brent's books may have literally saved their lives. Authors of the so-called "edgy" books that get challenged and censored regularly hear from readers who say that their books are the first and only place they have found some understanding, some safety, some knowledge that they aren't alone. I know that sometimes adults look at the topics in some teen books and say, "How depressing! How hopeless! Why are we letting kids read this stuff?" Because for many of us, there is enormous hope simply in knowing you are not the only one who has done/felt/thought/been through a particular experience.

One thing AS IF sees again and again in censorship cases is this pervading fear of art and what it might do to children or teens. There is concern over exposing them to topics that seem too dark, too challenging. What is more fear-inducing? The prospect of a teen reading about something potentially controversial and difficult, or the prospect of a teen believing that violence---towards self or others---is the only remaining option? Maybe getting the very books that draw so much fear into the hands of kids before they turn that dark corner can be part of a process that changes a path from hope to despair. Is it possible that the defense of intellectual freedom can be the defense of life itself? It could be that I'm too optimistic about the power of art to reduce the feelings of alienation, I don't know. What do you think?

2007-04-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

(This column of mine was published in Tuesday's Greenwich Time)

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/opinion/columnists/scn-gt-littman4.7apr07,0,5000660.column?coll=green-opinion-columnists

Is the right to free speech absolute? Does art need to be "fair and balanced"?

I've spent hours discussing these questions since my column on the cancellation -- or postponement, depending on who you talk to -- of the play "Voices in Conflict" at Wilton High School.

The most interesting yet disturbing conversation was via e-mail with 1st Lt. Zach Alessi-Friedlander, of the family whose protests managed to get the play canceled/postponed, who is currently serving in Iraq.

Lt. Alessi-Friedlander's position can be summed up by this, from his most recent e-mail to me: "High-school students are mostly under the age of 18 -- i.e. the age at which the government has determined that they are able to serve in the military and to vote in formal elections ... Prior to the age of 18, high-school-aged students are relieved of the responsibility of participating in our civic processes so that they may cultivate the critical thinking skills necessary to make these types of important decisions. You said in your response that Ms. Dickinson's ... students were intending to stimulate discussion and therefore are not required to do thesis work. I would counter this contention by saying that if these students want to take on a serious subject, then they must be prepared to do the serious work necessary not only to stimulate but to frame and develop a serious discourse."

I find his point of view problematic for many reasons. It's been many moons since I got my degree in politics, but I don't remember the Constitution limiting the right of free speech to those of voting age. But more than that, this script was written for a drama class, not for history, social studies or the debate club. A work of artistic expression shouldn't be expected to "frame and develop a serious discourse." It can, however, provide a vehicle through which serious discourse can take place. Art is meant to stimulate thoughts, emotions, beliefs or ideas. As an author, I'd argue that it is only able to do so by taking a stand.

Lt. Alessi-Friedlander feels the "pro-military service" point of view should be experienced by impressionable under-18s to counteract the arguably negative portrayal in "Voices in Conflict." But by allowing armed forces recruiters to set up shop in the school cafeteria, Principal Timothy Canty ensured that the military has a voice at Wilton High School. I find it extremely disturbing that it's fine for students to be exposed by on-campus recruiters to a one-sided portrayal of life in the service (do you think the soldiers currently serving in Iraq were told: "And by the way, we might just extend your tour of duty by five months while you're over there"?) but unacceptable for a drama class to present a play that explores other points of view on the conflict unless they do detailed study of the Middle East situation.

Lt. Alessi-Friedlander and I agree on one thing: "that freedom of speech is a privilege and a right; it is an extraordinary tool for shaping our nation's present and future." However, here's where we part ways: "In an abstract intellectual sense, the principal of free speech is absolute. However, in a practical sense, we must be willing to do the hard thinking and work necessary for free speech's most effective application."

I don't believe that free speech is absolute only in an "abstract intellectual sense," and that we are only guaranteed that right if we are willing to pursue with intellectual rigor every topic we wish to discuss in the public domain. The blessing (and yes, sometimes curse) of our Constitution is that any nut job has the right to speak out. Take Ann Coulter, for example.

I do agree with Lt. Alessi-Friedlander that, "We must, as a country, work harder to make the public discourse more serious -- and this starts with how we train the younger generation in school."But here's where I think both Principal Canty and the Alessi-Friedlander family have got it wrong.The Socratic Method is the oldest technique of fostering critical thinking, in which a teacher does not give information directly but rather asks a series of questions, continually challenging students' assumptions and logic, with the result that the class attains knowledge by answering the questions and, often as a result, deeper awareness of the limits of knowledge.Why not present the play and then lead discussions using the Socratic Method?

Surely a lesson in expression and critical discussion is better than one in suppression and intolerance?

THE CHOCOLATE WAR Banned In Maryland

2007-04-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

A librarian writes from Maryland:

Ok, here's the scoop. The Social Studies department in Harford County Maryland is offering a course to 9th graders called "Living in a Contemporary World." This course is designed to help ease the transition from middle school to high school for 9th graders. One of the classes focuses on stress management and decision-making and uses the novel Chocolate War by Cormier. So far so good, right?

I love Cormier's books. They present the life of young people in a realistic and often disturbing light. In his novels, Cormier takes on the real and often disturbing issues that our young people face. He uses their point of view, their mannerism, their language. His books are among the most popular books that kids check out. I am always recommending them - I've read most of Cormier's books myself. I find them realistic, engrossing, captivating, and overall great reads! Cormier's novels resonate with young readers. Without using their own language and thoughts, Cormier says his book "would lack credibility" with his readers.

Turns out the 40 parents don't agree.

READ THE REST

Reader Mail!

2007-04-16T22:48:00.000-07:00

Interesting email from a reader:

I read AS IF! religiously. I wanted to tell you about censorship that occurred last year in my school. I am 12, last year my old teacher selected a book for the class to read. There was no sexual content or anything. It was one word: "jackass". He would not let us finish it (but I did independently without his knowledge). My teacher told us he's a afraid of "parent complaints".

By the way here's a interesting censorship poem you may want to read.

Proud bookworm anti-censor,

Stargirl

Thanks, Stargirl! Personally, I think you're right to be annoyed by your teacher. If there's one thing I know from my work with censorship issues, it's that almost all of us, no matter our age, really resent being told what we can and cannot read or hear, especially when those decisions are being made as a result of fears about what "someone else" might think.

There are lots of healthy, interesting debates to be had about the content of individual books, not to mention the whole question of "age-appropriate." But I've said it before and I'll say it again: these debates should be done in public with as many people as possible getting a chance to have their say, including the kids involved.

Why? Because no matter the outcome of the debate, the community gets a chance to talk about its shared values. If a book is banned, people who don't agree know about it, and maybe get activated to change things. If a book isn't banned, values that I cherish, like intellectual independence and the freedom to read, are upheld and reinforced. But either way, people interact, and that is always a good thing. In my experience, the more a community really talks about books and libraries, the less these censorship controversies arise.

Keep fighting for books! And thanks for writing.

Kaffir Boy pulled to "protect society's morals"

2007-04-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/12/MNGKFP7A9K1.DTL

I won't say much about the specific article here, because I want to leave the debate fairly open on this one. Basically, a school's administration has stopped all of its 8th graders from reading the multiple-award-winning MEMOIR _Kaffir Boy_ because it contains a sequence in which men prepare to engage in coerced anal sex with boys.

I emphasize the word MEMOIR because, while authors are frequently accused of sensationalizing their works of fiction, I have to believe that the rules for nonfiction should be different. Especially in books like _KB_, which serve to alert the world to the plight of an oppressed group, any "softening" of the truth destroys the entire point of the book.

Anyway, two quick anecdotes from my life:

1. My fairly-sheltered third grader was doing a homework assignment, trying to find all of the different words he could create using only the letters in the word "depart". He came up with "raped", and then asked me what the word meant. I asked him where he'd heard it, and he said his best friend (also fairly innocent) had written "raped" on his sheet while they were starting the assignment in school. My point: no matter how much parents TRY to filter their kids' experiences, the parents who think their kids haven't heard some seriously heavy stuff by 8th grade are deluding themselves.

2. I was visiting a middle school last month, and the librarian and I were discussing teen authors. The name of Laurie Halse Anderson (who happens to be an AS IF member, BTW) came up, and the librarian said, "I love her stuff." Then she paused, and finally said, "But of course I had to send her book _Speak_ up to the high school, where the girls will be ready for it." I then asked this woman, "So, uh, did you send all of the _rapes_ up to the high school, too?" This kills me: something like 15% of all rape victims are under age twelve (see http://www.rainn.org/statistics/index.html?PHPSESSID=39e2946d48ee0e34572f465326f776a2). So to a large extent, sending _Speak_ up to the high school is stopping these middle-school aged victims from finding validation, a chance to seek professional help, etc.

If we could protect our kids from a world full of awful experiences just by hiding the books, I'd be the captain of the book-disposal team. But since we can't, I'd rather have the books out there to provide our children with the straight scoop about their planet and its inhabitants.

"Voices in Conflict" goes to the Public Theater

2007-04-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

After drama students at Wilton High School were forbidden from performing "Voices in Conflict", a play about the Iraq War using the words of veterans, they are now going off-Broadway, with performances at the Public Theater scheduled for June. Read the story here:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/nyregion/12play.html?em&ex=1176523200&en=8a779520f32160b1&ei=5087%0A

Welcome New AS IF! Members!

2007-04-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

A big welcome to new AS IF! members (and authors) Coe Booth, K. L. Going, Carolyn Maccullough, and M. T. Anderson!

Aren't we an impressive bunch?

P.S. Apologies if I forgot any newer members. I have the memory of...well, the opposite of an elephant.

And speaking of censorship...

2007-04-06T04:55:00.001-07:00

My son came home from his Greenwich middle school the other day saying that he could no longer access my author blog at school as it had been blocked for "adult content".

Yesterday, an avid Greenwich reader of both my political blog and my author blog told me he couldn't access either from the Greenwich Public Library for the same reason.

Now I realize that my frustration with the current Administration causes me to sometimes lose my cool and use bad words (although I always express them with an * rather than spelling out the whole word) in my political blog, but the closest I got to adult content in my author blog was my discussion of the "Scrotum-gate" controvers - so I can't help but being a little paranoid about this.

Does anyone have any idea how I would go about finding out one what grounds my blog has been rated for adult content, and how I would go about getting the ban lifted?The last thing I want is for kids to be unable to access my blog.

Censors hush voices students need to hear

2007-04-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here's my column from today's Greenwich Time on the censorship of "Voices in Conflict" at Wilton High School:http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/opinion/columnists/scn-littman0403,0,1742290.column?coll=green-opinion-columnists

At Wilton High School, 15 students in Bonnie Dickinson's theater class are creating a play about the Iraq War using the words of veterans.

Aware of potential sensitivities, Ms. Dickinson ran the idea before Principal Tim Canty."I said I'm thinking about doing a project about the Iraq veterans. This is a book ("In Conflict: Iraq Veterans speak out on Duty, Loss and the Fight to Stay Alive" by Yvonne Latty) that has their exact words. It might be a little controversial," Ms. Dickinson said. "And he said, no. I think that's great."

But after one student, Gabby Alessi-Friedlander, and her mother, Barbara Alessi, complained that the play, "Voices in Conflict" was one-sided and "insulting" to currently serving soldiers, Mr. Canty told students that the play could not be performed on school premises, despite efforts to modify the script to address the family's concerns."We were looking to make sure that the script... would present a fair and balanced overview of the many perspectives and points of view that exist," Mr. Canty said.

Hmm. "Fair and balanced." Perhaps he'd be satisfied if the play were performed with a Fox News ticker running along the bottom. "We're not part of the entertainment industry," Canty said. "We have to make sure we don't express any bias...that we are exposing students to all points of view.

"I find it ironic that Principal Canty has forbidden the performance a play comprised of the words of Iraq War veterans on the basis that it doesn't expose students to "all points of view," when he allows military recruiters to set up shop in the school's cafeteria. Surely a play reflecting the reality of war in the words of veterans who've served in it would provide "balance" to the rosy picture of military life presented by recruiters?

Perhaps more surreal is a recent press release from Gary Richards, superintendent of Wilton Public Schools, which states objections to the play on the grounds that "the script contains language that, while realistic, is graphic and violent."

So let's get this straight - it's OK for kids to enlist and be shipped off to Iraq but heaven forbid we should let them hear about what soldiers are actually experiencing in there because the language is too "graphic and violent." This is beyond nonsensical - after all, war is graphic and violent. Richards goes on to complain "This approach turns powerful material into a dramatic format that borders on being sensational and inappropriate."

Hello?! This play was written for a drama class. What's more, I struggle to see how anyone could consider our veterans' own words "inappropriate."

"Any real discussion of the situation in Iraq is going to be controversial. The stories of troops coming home from war will not be pretty or pure, and will rarely be black-and-white enough to align with extremists of any political persuasion," said Paul Reickhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "But however ugly and uncomfortable, it is our duty as Americans to understand the truth about the war in Iraq."

"Voices in Conflict" was a step towards doing just that. What's more, it served to motivate students to read and learn more about the war and current events."I'm not sure if working on the play changed my opinions, but it has certainly made them more informed," said student Sarah Anderson.

Clearly adherents to the Bush/Cheney/Lieberman "if you criticize the war you're giving comfort to the enemy" school of thought, some students at Wilton High have been telling actors in the play they are "faggots" who should be "hanged for treason" having been brainwashed by their "liberal pig parents."

Last October, the Fort Drum Blizzard published an article by 2nd Lt. Zach Alessi-Friedlander, Gabby's brother, about how soldiers of the 1st 89 Cavalry Regiment were helping two schools near Baghdad. Lt. Alessi-Friedlander wrote: "Quality education teaches students how to think critically about their own lives." He goes on to quote former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky's warning against "societies that restrict intellectual freedom and prevent the free exchange of ideas," favoring instead those that "unleash the creative potential of their people."

Lt. Alessi-Friedlander is risking his life to bring intellectual freedom to Iraq. It's supremely ironic that his mother and sister are working so hard to restrict it at home.

"Please tell your readers that soldiers' voices need to be heard," student James Presson told me.

We honor our troops by preserving at home the intellectual freedom they're fighting for in Iraq.

Wilton H.S. drama students win "Courage in Theater" award

2007-03-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

Music Theatre International has awarded the students of Ms. Bonnie Dickenson's Advanced Theater class the very first "Courage in Theater Award."Here's what it said in the press release:

To: The Advanced Theatre Students of Wilton High School,

Congratulations to each of you!MTI has determined that you collectively and individually receive the MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL COURAGE IN THEATER AWARD. This is the first such award in the 54 year history of Music Theatre International.MTI was founded by Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway Composer/LyricistFRANK LOESSER in whose honor we have established this award. Frank believed that High School productions keep theater alive in America serving to enlighten, educate as well as entertain. Although Mr. Loesser’s musicals were not about war (GUYS &DOLLS, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS and others) he and his colleagues in the Broadway community and the company he created to serve the schools of America with theater materials, would be proud of your class’s approach to theatre as well as your passion and commitment to the production which you created.

Schools and Theater Departments with outstanding performances or those demonstrating adventuresome spirit, inventiveness and daring through their stage productions have been recognized in different ways by MTI in the past. However, we are aware that theater is not just about acting, singing, dancing and excelling in performance. It is also about positive risk taking for students, working as a community and utilizing theatre skills, to present points of view on the stage which comment on the world in which we live. In doing so, they provoke discussion, engage an audience and stimulate their colleagues/fellow students/and the audience to reflect on what they saw and heard long after they have left the theater. That, in turn, should result in healthy dialogue of differing points of view.

WILTON HIGH SCHOOL’s advanced theater students' “non-performance” of their original theater piece is unique in our experience of licensing over 500,000 high school performances in the last two decades and deserving of special recognition.MTI’s very first COURAGE IN THEATER AWARD therefore goes to the members of the advanced theater class…not for a performance or a production, but rather in recognition of your actions in having collaborated in the creation of a stage piece on a sensitive but germane subject titled: VOICES IN CONFLICT.

Music Theatre International congratulates each of you.

Voices in Conflict

2007-03-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I spoke with Bonnie Dickinson, the teacher who created the "Voices in Conflict" project at Wilton High. All I can say is it's too bad there aren't more teachers out there with this woman's creativity and courage.She's put her job on the line in the defense of intellectual freedom - as she said to me last night, "When this all blows over and people stop writing me 40 e-mails a day offering their support, I'm still going to be at this school teaching."

I can't imagine it will be such a great atmosphere for her either. I met with four of the students from Ms. Dickinson's class today, and these kids are being seriously hassled in the hallways of enlightened Wilton High. They're being called "faggots" and told that they should be "hanged for treason" and have been brainwashed by their "liberal pig parents". Ms. Dickinson is being referred to as a FemNazi.

The irony is that the play was a collaborative effort by all the students in the class, and it is, apparently a class that is politically diverse, with conservative Republicans as well as "liberal pigs". The four students I spoke to embraced the diversity in the class, because they felt it helped them to produce a more balanced script.

What it all boils down to is that Principal Canty caved into pressure from ONE parent of ONE student. According to Ms. Dickinson, Barbara Alessi got wind of the script and said that she wanted her daughter Gabby to take the class and not only that, they would be able to provide material for the script because her son, 2nd Lt. Zach Alessi-Friedlander is currently serving in Iraq.

Unfortunately it appears that Mrs Alessi was inserting Gabby as a mole, rather than to actually attempt to contributing toward the production in a meaningful way. After a few days Gabby dropped out of the class and Mrs. Alessi was pressuring Principal Canty to silence the production.What's supremely ironic about this is that Gabby Alessi-Friedlander is self-righteously spouting on the news outlets how the play is "insulting" to currently serving troops.

But meanwhile, Gabby's brother, 2nd Lt. Zach Alessi Friedlander, wrote the following in an article about how his unit was helping two Iraqi schools that was published in the Fort Drum Blizzard last October: http://www.drum.army.mil/sites/postnews/blizzard/blizzard_archives/news.asp?id=6&issuedate=10-19-2006

"Quality education teaches students how to think critically about their own lives and illuminates the variety of opportunities available only to those with the necessary academic training.

Natan Sheransky, famous commentator on Middle Eastern politics and society, has focused particular attention on the importance of education in determining the region's future progress. He warns against "societies that restrict intellectual freedom and prevent the free exchange of ideas," favoring instead those that "unleash the creative potential of their people." "

As student James Presson said to me, "This play was important to the school. Now it's important to the nation. We're just trying to show what the troops are saying. The only reason to be against this is if you don't have respect for the troops own words. :

I'd interviewed Paul Reickhoff, Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (formerly Operation Truth) a few years back, and I contacted him today asking him if he'd be willing to speak to the Wilton HS kids (which he was). He'd just blogged about this quite eloquently over at the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/censorship-in-america-hi_b_44522.html

Anyway, my column on this will be in Tuesday's Greenwich Time, but I had to limit that to 750 words and I could write about the great kids I spoke to today for five times that. They are smart and brave and so is Ms. Dickinson. They deserve all of our support.

The Higher Power of Lucky: Susan Patron Reponds

2007-03-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Simon & Schuster, the publisher of The Higher Power of Lucky, has put together a little video response to the recent controversy surrounding the Newbery-winning novel. And hey, AS IF!'s own Cynthia Kadohata interviews author Susan Patron! Other AS IF! members are quoted too.

Aren't we an impressive bunch?!

Utah Tries Again to Stop GSAs

2007-03-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

My first novel, Geography Club, is the story of a group of kids who feel like they can't start a gay-straight alliance at their school due to anti-gay prejudice. So they start a fake club with the most boring name they can think of--the "Geography Club"--in hopes that they'll be left alone.

Expect a number of "Geography Clubs" to appear in the state of Utah in the years ahead.If you recall, Utah tried to ban gay-straight alliances a few years ago. They ran into problems, however, due to the Federal Equal Access Act of 1984 which mandates that no school club can be singled out for discrimination (the law was originally passed to protect clubs of a religious nature).

So what was Utah's solution to this new wrinkle? Ban all extracurricular clubs. I kid you not. Legislators in that state decided it was better to have no clubs than to allow GLBTQ students to meet on school campuses.

As you might imagine, that didn't work out so well. So now Utah legislators are trying again:

Under the new Utah law, every club will have to complete an activity disclosure statement that itemizes what it will do, and discusses how many members it will have, and whether tryouts are required. It mandates that any student joining any club needs a parent’s signature — though most public schools in Utah require that already — and specifically bans any discussion by any club of “human sexuality.”

The law defines that term to mean “advocating or engaging in sexual activity outside of legal recognized marriage or forbidden by state law,” and “presenting or discussing information relating to the use of contraceptive devices.”

This annoys me for about sixteen different reasons, but the biggest one is this continual insistence on the part of the anti-gay folks to equate "gay" with "sex." I've sat in on dozens of GSA meetings, and I personally led one for two years, and I've literally never seen sex discussed.

And yet, "sex" is often in the eye of the beholder. I am absolutely positive that any discussion of gayness will be seen, in the minds of these folks, as a discussion of "sexual activity." (Some of these folks have very dirty minds.)

Worse, this just gives bigoted and/or fearful administrators an excuse to harass these clubs which, incidentally, have a legal right to meet, talk, and use school resources.

“This is all about gay-straight alliance clubs, and anybody who tells you different is lying,” said State Senator Scott D. McCoy, Democrat from Salt Lake City, who voted against the law.
State Senator D. Chris Buttars, a Republican from the Salt Lake City suburbs and the law’s co-sponsor, said in an interview that he saw the need for the measure after parents from a high school in Provo, Utah, protested the formation of a gay-straight club in 2005.

I'm often told by well-meaning people that there is now very little anti-gay prejudice. As evidence, they usually cite a movie or a show on television, or the fact that some gays in some states have some small approximation of the rights of heterosexuals. Things have definitely gotten better, but I know from my travel and my email, that anti-gay prejudice is still widely felt, especially by teenagers (though, interestingly, these days it seems as if more of the prejudice comes from adults than from their increasingly tolerant peers).

Still, there is an upside to all this. As anyone who works with teenagers knows, they immediately know when something is rotten in the state of Denmark. They know when someone is trying to restrict their rights, and they take understandable offense:

Gay community leaders and legal experts say the name of the law should be “Unintended Consequences.” Some gay community advocates said the effort to crack down on gay-straight clubs may have backfired and in fact strengthened Utah’s gay community.
Teenage leaders at some gay-straight clubs got politically involved and testified at the Capitol. One of the State Legislature’s three openly gay members successfully pushed through amendments that could limit the law’s effect and even perhaps increase visibility of gay-straight clubs in the 14 Utah public high schools that now have them, by requiring that all clubs get equal treatment on bulletin boards and in school newspapers.

In other words, students in Utah high schools are getting a great education in social justice, political activism, and the importance of intellectual freedom. And you can bet that that's not what these anti-gay Utah legislators wanted at all.

Howell, Michigan, Books not "Obscene"

2007-03-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

Last week, we cheered the announcement by U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy III and Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox that there is no merit in the complaints made in Howell, Michigan, that recently-challenged books by Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, and others are "obscene," and that teachers are not, in fact, distributing "pornography to minors" by assigning them in class.

Why are we at AS IF! making such a big deal about this? Because this was a very big deal.

This was not just another book being challenged. Book challenges are a fair expression of freedom of speech; everyone has a right to make them, and every school and library should have a process in place to consider them.

But in this case, people need to understand: for having assigned classic books by acclaimed authors, these English teachers were being reported to the FBI, accused of distributing "pornography" to kids. If this travesty had been allowed to continue, these educational profressionals would have had to hire lawyers; their characters would have been brutally and maliciously attacked, they're careers would have been threatened, and they may very well have faced prison time. It's possible they would have had to register as "sex offenders" for the rest of their lives!

It's not hyperbole to say that this is like something out of 1984--it really IS something from 1984! There is literally criminalizing books, and education. And don't tell me if the FBI had investigated and a precedent had been created, even if they hadn't actually pressed charges, it wouldn't have had a HUGE chilling effect on what books can be taught in classrooms, and on the very nature of education in the US. The very notion of academic independence and intellectual freedom was at stake.

Had this been allowed to continue, this would not have been the America I know, the land of the free.

The National Coalition Against Censorship has released a press release supporting the decision not to consider throwing English teachers into jail for teaching classic literature:

We are pleased to see that the U.S. Attorney, Attorney General, and County Prosecutor have made the right decision in this case and deferred to the school officials, who had undertaken an appropriate and thoughtful review of the educational value of these books,” NCAC Executive Director Joan Bertin said. She added, however, that “the case demonstrates the need to educate more parents about how the First Amendment applies in public schools.” ABFFE President Chris Finan added that U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy III had taken the case too far on March 1st when he sent Fyke’s letter to the FBI for investigation. "It is disturbing that it has taken the U.S. Attorney so long to conclude that he has no jurisdiction in this case,” he said. “It should never have been referred to the FBI in the first place."

While expressing satisfaction in the outcome of the Michigan case, Bertin and Finan noted that there has been a rash of censorship incidents in recent weeks involving books used in public schools. Parents have challenged Chris Crutcher’s Whale Talk in Missouri Valley, Iowa and Carolyn Mackler’s Vegan Virgin Valentine, Eddie de Oliveira’s Lucky, Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes, Robert Cormier’s Beyond the Chocolate War, and Kevin Henkes’ Newbery Honor-winning Olive’s Ocean in Duval County, FL. In addition, school librarians have hesitated to purchase this year’s Newbery award-winning book, The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, for their school collections because the word, “scrotum,” appears on the book’s opening page.

Over-the-top row over "obscene" children's books

2007-03-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

This column of mine was printed in Tuesday's Greenwich (CT) Time. http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/opinion/columnists/scn-gt-03.06.littmanokmar06,0,5162719.column?coll=green-opinion-columnists

March 6, 2007

As an author and columnist, my life revolves around the correct word choice. So I was completely confounded by the kerfuffle over the use of one particular word in this year's Newbery Medal winner.

The word in question appears on the first page of Susan Patron's "The Higher Power of Lucky," when the 10-year-old protagonist, Lucky, an orphaned girl living in a tiny desert town in the Eastern Sierras, eavesdrops on an AA meeting and hears a recovering alcoholic speaking about his lowest moment. It came "when he had drunk half a gallon of rum listening to Johnny Cash all morning," and then fell out of his car "when he saw a rattlesnake on the passenger seat biting his dog, Roy, on the scrotum." Lucky doesn't know what scrotum means; to her it sounds like "something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much."

The use of the "s" word prompted howls of outrage from a certain subsection of librarians. "Scrotum-gate" as the affair has become known amongst the children's book cognoscenti, spilled over from the pages of Publishers Weekly into the national papers.A New York Times article made the curious statement that "Authors of children's books sometimes sneak in a single touchy word or paragraph, leaving librarians to choose whether to ban an entire book over one offending phrase."

Puh-leeze. I just finished a novel with a bulimic protagonist, and I agonized over the use of every word that might be deemed offensive. But as an author of books for young people, it's my job to try to convey essential truths through fiction -- and kids can spot a fake from a mile away.Joni Richards Bodart observed in her article "Books that Help, Books that Heal": "Teens ... want a chance to experience reality vicariously before meeting it head on, and they know the safety of having those experiences through books ... [they] have little patience with unrealistic characters or situations, conversations or emotions."

Ms. Patron, a highly-respected veteran of the Los Angeles Public Library system, is bemused by the controversy her use of medical terminology provoked: "Somehow there's a perception in America that you can put your kids in front of the TV, let them play certain kinds of games and expose them to absolutely atrocious levels of violence and language. But somehow the book is sacred."

Meanwhile, down in Dade County, Florida, parents are "booknapping" titles they find offensive. As parent Dalila Rodriguez explained, "If you take it out and don't return it, no kid can read it. It's not censoring; it's protecting our children from lies." Last June, the Miami-Dade School Board voted to ban the book "Vamos a Cuba" from district libraries, a decision that's being challenged by the ACLU. Of the 48 copies of "Vamos a Cuba" owned and contained in the school district's libraries, 17 are lost or overdue.

But, as Alice in Wonderland would say: "Curiouser and Curiouser." Last week, U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy III in Michigan referred allegations that Howell Public Schools teachers violated pornography laws by assigning books by Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Wright in 11th and 12th grade English classes to the FBI for investigation. He did so after receiving a letter from Vicki Fyke of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education, who filed the complaint after she failed to persuade the Howell District School Board to remove the books.

Interestingly, Murphy was appointed as U.S. attorney by President George W. Bush in 2005 (he gave $2,000 to Bush's 2004 campaign) and has been nominated for a seat on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"It is absolutely bizarre that a high official in the Justice Department would take such a step," said Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. "Under the law, the books cannot be found obscene if they have literary merit, which in this case cannot reasonably be questioned." Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, said Murphy abdicated his responsibility to protect free speech. "We are told that Murphy 'routinely' refers all obscenity complaints to the FBI. But he has a duty to reject frivolous claims to ensure that there is no chilling effect on books that are protected by the First Amendment...This is not the kind of judgment we expect from a man who has been nominated for a seat on one of our highest courts."

It is, indeed, chilling. What's next? Book burnings?

Prosecutor Rules on Howell Book Flap

2007-03-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

No laws have been broken. The books are not obscene:

"After reading the books in question it is clear that the explicit passages illustrated a larger literary, artistic or political message and were not included solely to appeal to the prurient interests of minors," [County Prosecutor David Morse] wrote. "Whether these materials are appropriate for minors is a decision to be made by the school board, but I find they are not in violation of the criminal laws."

It's up to the school board, which has already decided.

NCAC Press Release on FBI Investigation of Teachers

2007-03-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

For further information, contact:

Joan Bertin, National Coalition Against Censorship, (212) 807-6222, ext. 15

Chris Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, (212) 587-4025, ext. 15

For Immediate Release

Free Speech Groups Condemn FBI Investigation of Literary Works

NEW YORK, NY, March 1, 2007 -- The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) today condemned the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan for asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate a complaint that books used in the public schools of Howell, Michigan, are obscene. The complaint was filed by a woman who was unsuccessful in persuading the Howell Board of Education to remove several books that she dislikes, including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.

“It is absolutely bizarre that a high official in the Justice Department would take such a step. Under the law, the books cannot be found obscene if they have literary merit, which in this case cannot reasonably be questioned,” NCAC Executive Director Joan Bertin said. ABFFE President Chris Finan said that U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy III had abdicated his responsibility to protect free speech. “We are told that Murphy ‘routinely’ refers all obscenity complaints to the FBI. But he has a duty to reject frivolous claims to ensure that there is no chilling effect on books that are protected by the First Amendment,” Finan said. He added that Murphy has been nominated to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals. “This is not the kind of judgment we expect from a man who has been nominated for a seat on one of our highest courts,” Finan said.

The challenged books are used in 11th grade English class in Howell and many other schools around the country. On February 12, the Howell Board of Education voted 5-2 to retain the books challenged by the Livingston Organization for Values in Education (LOVE), a group of parents and other community members that charged that the books are inappropriate for minors because they contain sexual themes and profanity. When the LOVE challenge failed, one of its members, Vicki Fyke, filed a complaint with the Livingston County prosecutor, the Attorney General of Michigan and the U.S. Attorney alleging that the Morison, Wright and Vonnegut books are legally obscene and also violate the laws against child pornography and child sexual abuse. (The Bluest Eye describes the rape of a child.) LOVE also asked for a ruling on the legality of Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors, another book used in the Howell schools.

Newspapers in the Detroit area confirmed today that Murphy had referred the books to the FBI. “Absolutely. We’re looking into it,” Gina Bilaya, a spokesman for Murphy’s office, told the Daily Press & Argus. “We do it with all complaints,” she said. The local prosecutor and the Michigan Attorney General are also reported to be conducting investigations.

In early February, ABFFE and NCAC joined a number of free speech advocates in sending a letter to the school board opposing the censorship of the books targeted by LOVE. A copy of the letter is online at http://www.ncac.org/literature/20070206~MI-Howell~Award-_Winning_Books_Challenged_in_Michigan_School.cfm.

Founded in 1974, NCAC is an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. ABFFE is the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship. It was founded in 1990 by the American Booksellers Association.

Here We Go Again: Classic Books Are "Pornography," Teachers Reported to the FBI

2007-03-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

Last week, we learned that some book critics take to stealing books they don't like from libraries. Today comes news out of Michigan that a group of social conservatives doesn't like the fact that local high school teachers have assigned students to read books by acclaimed authors like Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Kurt Vonnegut, as well as "The Freedom Writers Diary" by Erin Gruwell.

Their response? Report the schools to the FBI for violating "pornography" laws.

In a press release, Fyke called Morrison's book "The Bluest Eye" a "graphic child rape book" and said LOVE [the conservative activist group] is "encouraged that so far, both the U.S. attorney and the county prosecuting attorney are taking seriously our attempt to protect students from exposure to obscene material that is harmful to minors."

The problem?

However, in order to be legally defined as pornography, a book must be found to appeal only to readers' prurient interest in sex, and have no literary or educational value.

Even more disturbing to me, this matter is being taken "seriously" by recent Bush appointee U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy III, who has, in fact, referred the matter to the FBI.

I've said before that I hate hyperbole, that the way to win debates is through reason and logic, not emotion and name-calling.

The problem is, these people seem to profoundly and deeply hate and fear literature, education, and even teenagers themselves. Accusing teachers of violating pornography laws for assigning these classic books? I refuse to dignify these absurd accusations by taking them seriously. It's an insult to all authors, teachers, and students when we are forced us to defend against charges such as these.

So I'm revising my opinion. Yes, I still believe in reason and logic when discussing these issues with people of intelligence and good will. But that does not include these folks, people like Vicki Fyke of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education (or LOVE). These people, frankly, need to have their heads examined. And they should be excluded from these debates until they can conduct themselves with some manner of intelligence, respect, and restraint. We as a society need to clearly and firmly say to them: we reject out-of-hand your small-minded zealotry.

A reminder: these are my personal opinions. I am not speaking for all the members of AS IF!

Don't Like a Book in a Library? Steal It

2007-02-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, another one of the many tactics used by the opponents of free speech and freedom to read: if they don't like or approve of something in a library book, they simply check it out and never return it. The cost to the thief is question is merely the cost of the book. And if the library doesn't replace the book (as if often the case), the cost to the community is a little less access to ideas, and a little less freedom to decide for themselves which books they want to read.

This story out of Miami gives a little insight into the mindset of the folks who play this game:

A group of parents in Miami-Dade have come up with a unique way to get books they considered controversial off the shelves at their children’s schools libraries. They check them out, but never return them.

Dalila Rodriguez admits she checked out “Discovering Cultures, Cuba” from the library at her son’s school Norma Butler Bossard Elementary at 15950 SW 144th St. earlier this month, and doesn’t plan to return it. Rodriguez said this book, like another controversial book she’s checked out “Vamos a Cuba,” contains false information about Cuba.

Rodriguez said, “If you take it out and don't return it, no kid can read it. It's not censoring; it's protecting our children from lies."

Uh, right. Well, I guess it's not "censorship" per se, in that it's not the government doing the censoring. It's just people like Rodriguez being complete and total jerks (and I, uh, censored myself a little there on what I was really thinking!).

Sadly, according to the article, a survey of school district library records show of the 48 copies of “Vamos a Cuba” they have on hand, 17 are lost or overdue.

ALA Speaks Out About LUCKY

2007-02-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

The ALA released this statement about the Scrotum factor in THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY. I love the line, "Libraries are about inclusion rather than exclusion."

For Immediate Release
February 22, 2007

Statement regarding the true value of "Higher Power of Lucky"

CHICAGO - The following is a joint statement released by Kathleen T. Horning, president, Association for Library Service to Children, and Cyndi Phillip, president, American Association of School Librarians, regarding the "Higher Power of Lucky."

"Recent media coverage failed to discuss the true value of the 'Higher Power of Lucky,' by Susan Patron. The author’s use of one word should not prevent children from having free access to this remarkable piece of children’s literature. Children and their families should be given the opportunity to read this book and develop their opinions.

"The 'Higher Power of Lucky' is a perfectly nuanced blend of adventure and survival, both emotional and physical. It is a gently humorous character study, as well as a blueprint for a self-examined life. The book serves as a reminder that children support one another just as adults do.

"Libraries are about inclusion rather than exclusion. The freedom to read, speak, think and express ourselves is core to our American values. Part of living in a democracy means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read.

"Fortunately, most libraries do offer a full spectrum of resources and ideas from which our patrons can choose. Librarians understand that children mature at different rates and have different interests, reading abilities and life experiences. Decisions about what materials are suitable for particular children should be made by the people who know them best - their parents or guardians.

"We believe that every family should have the opportunity to read the 'Higher Power of Lucky' and that every public and school library should consider adding the book to their collections."

New York Times Editorializes "Scrotum"

2007-02-21T17:27:00.000-08:00

Recently, THE NEW YORK TIMES ran this editorial, a follow-up of sorts, to their February 18th article about "scrotum" and THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY.

The editorial is well written, well thought out, and rings true.

You Won’t Find Men’s Genitalia in Quality Literature

2007-02-17T16:57:00.000-08:00

Nor will you find it in the Newbery Award winning novel, The Higher Power of Lucky. And yet, a New York Times article on the "controversy" over the word scrotum in that book ends with that pithy, but wrong (in several ways) quote from a librarian in Colorado. This librarian also compares Susan Patron to Howard Stern for her use of the word.

The article also contains this curious statement, apparently from the reporter, as it is unattributed:

Authors of children’s books sometimes sneak in a single touchy word or paragraph, leaving librarians to choose whether to ban an entire book over one offending phrase.

Yes. That's exactly how it happens. We sit there at our computers, looking for places to sneak in those touchy words, just so we can shock shock! unsuspecting librarians.

Elsewhere in the article, another librarian offers his belief that the flap is a “case of an author not realizing her audience.” If by audience he means prudish, censorious adults who are afraid of uttering the accurate, non-sexualized term for a part of a male dog’s anatomy in front of nine- and ten-year-old children, half of whom share this anatomical feature with the canine in question, then I suppose he has a point.

"Scrotum"

2007-02-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

Scrotum. It's right there on the first page of Susan Patron's newly minted Newbery Award-winning novel, THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY. Scrotum. It's not that uncommon, in fact half the people I know have them. Scrotum. Apparently this is a scary word.

Because the book includes the word "scrotum," some people do not want the book in their schools and libraries. Blogs and listservs, teachers, librarians, readers, reviewers, have been debating "scrotum."

In the novel, Ray gets bit on the scrotum by a rattlesnake. (Ray is a dog.) Never mind that there are hundreds and hundreds of wonderful words in this small gem of a story. Or that using the "scrotum" is entirely in keeping with the smart, observant protagonist, Lucky. This one word is a lightening rod.

This is a Newbery book, singled out for its literary merit, and honored by the American Library Association. It was written by a librarian. To not carry it in a library infringes upon one's intellectual freedom. It denies the reader the opportunity to choose, or not choose, to read the book.

Recently, Publishers Weekly ran an article about this uproar . . . http://publishersweekly.com/article/CA6416737.html?nid=2788. It includes our stance on the issue, as well as comments from Susan Patron.

What do you think about this?

(Posted by Lisa Yee)

Bridge to Terabithia's Katherine Paterson on Censorship

2007-02-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

Multiple-Newbery winner and honoree Katherine Paterson (who I had dinner with last year and is delightful) discusses censorship in a recent interview in Christianity Today. The subject is her classic book, Bridge to Terabithia, which is now a major motion picture:

Terabithia and Gilly Hopkins were on the American Library Association's list of the most frequently challenged books of the 1990s.

Paterson: Yeah, well. (laughs) People say, "Aren't you proud," and I say, "No, because it means every time it's challenged, some teacher or librarian is in trouble because of me, and I can't enjoy that." But the sad thing is, I think it's because people don't understand what a story is.

What is a story?

Paterson: A story is open-ended. A story invites you into it to make your own meaning. If you look at Jesus' parables, I think the Parable of the Sower is about the only one in which his disciples demand that the meaning be spelled out, but most of the stories Jesus tells are very open-ended. I mean, even with the Parable of the Prodigal Son, you get to the ending and you think, Well, did the big brother come in or not? Jesus leaves it open deliberately, for you to answer that. And that's what a story does. It's inviting you to identify yourself as a part of a story, and to come into it from where you are—and if you hear the same story over a period of years, you'll be in a different place, and the meaning is going to be different.

There's a trend lately to provide books and films for Christian audiences that are "safe for the whole family." Perhaps your books have been challenged because they're not necessarily "safe" for children. What do you make of the idea that children's books should be "safe"?

Paterson: Well, don't give them the Bible, then, because it's certainly not a safe book. Safety and faith are different things. If you want everything to be safe, then you can probably just totally do without the imagination. If you're so afraid of your imagination that you stifle it, how are you going to know God? How can you imagine heaven?

READ THE REST

SHUT UP AND SING: What the Dixie Chicks Have Taught Me About Free Speech

2007-02-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

Two nights ago, I watched an advance copy of Shut Up And Sing, an excellent new documentary about the Dixie Chicks and the huge controversy that erupted when lead singer Natalie Maines said something critical of President Bush from stage in the run-up to the Iraq War (the film is released on DVD this week).

Then last night, the Dixie Chicks won an unexpected five Grammies for Taking the Long Way Home, their pointed, unapologetic, and musically stunning CD response to their many right-wing critics.

It's all gotten me thinking a lot about the initial incident, its aftermath, and what it says to me about freedom of speech.

Frankly, the movie reminded me just how mild Natalie Maine's original criticism was ("Some of us are ashamed that President Bush is from Texas"), and how furious, overblown, and carefully orchestrated the response to the Chicks was: the band was subject to boycotts, death threats, endless jeremiads on talk radio and cable television, and was literally banned from the country's network of radio stations, despite the fact that the Chicks had a number one single at the time, and were the bestselling female country band of all time.

People who defended and still defend the bannings and boycotts of the Dixie Chicks argue that those actions were simply the consequence of the Dixie Chicks' expressing of their opinions: that those individuals who opposed them were freely expressing their own opinions in response. It was, the argument goes, a case of free speech being met with more free speech.

But was it? Did the folks who opposed the Dixie Chicks have the right to do the things they did? Well, at least in the case of the radio stations, it's possible that they didn't--that the decision by 200 country radio stations to "independently" and simultanously to ban the Chicks' music wasn't independent at all, but was, instead, a corporate decision made to curry favor with the Bush administration and bolster their right-wing corporate agenda.

But even if it was legal, was it right? What this whole brouhaha really just a case of two opposing cases of free expression?

Again, I don't think so. The response to the Dixie Chicks wasn't organic, but was instead just one small part of a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated campaign by the Bush White House and a conservative media network to specifically silence dissent. They wanted to stop the debate over the Iraq War, to stop questions from being asked, and they succeeded. The Dixie Chicks were the sacrificial lambs offered up as an example to other would-be critics.

How do I know? Well, it's partly how ridiculously overblown the response was to the Dixie Chicks' comments. But it's also that we've since learned that this is how the Bush White House deals with all critics and all manner of dissent: inflame and polarize both sides so no one listens to anyone else, then brand opponents as traitors, terrorist or terrorist sympathizers, and people who hate both "the troops" and America.

It is, in a word, shameless. And honestly, is that really what free speech and freedom of expression is all about?

Sure, these are all "opinions," but these opinions were designed to intimidate and to shut down debate. They're stinkbombs in the marketplace of ideas and, like all stinkbombs, the point is to clear as large an area as possible for as long as possible. The point is definitely not to illuminate.

This is, of course, the price and the risk of free speech. But was the country served by this silencing of the Dixie Chicks, and by all dissent during the run-up to the Iraq War? Were the voices of dissent who have turned out to be so eerily prescient given due consideration in the media and in the halls of Congress? I can't imagine any intellectually honest person saying that they were. But imagine the resources, and more importantly the lives, that might have been saved if they had been.

In any event, the Dixie Chicks have finally been completely vindicated; despite all that was thrown at them, all that they endured, they're back on top of the world, more successful than ever. Meanwhile, the architects of the Iraq War are disgraced and discredited. I can't think of a better case of karma in action.

In other words, the truth won out. It took a while, but free speech worked. The debate could not be silenced forever. I find this incredibly inspiring. And now I find myself examining my own life, looking for ways that I haven't lived up to my own ideals, that I've stayed silent or compromised out of some fear or cowardice.

It's an examination worth having, just like Shut Up and Sing is a movie very much worth watching.

(Again, it's worth emphasizing that these are entirely my own opinions and do not represent the views of the AS IF! membership.)

WIZARDOLOGY Under Attack in Connecticut

2007-02-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

The book, Wizardology: The Secrets of Merlin, has some parents upset in Connective, because it presents an "alternative religion."

What I most appreciate is the response by some members of the community:

Others aren't bothered a bit and say this kind of attention is a black eye to an otherwise outstanding school.

"Things like this put a bad name to the school where it's a school where teachers work hard, the assistants work hard, the principal works hard," said Rosemary Russo of West Haven.

"I looked at it, you know, I guess everybody's different, there are some items that could be taken the wrong way," said Molloy principal Steve Lopes.

Lopes says Wizardology was ordered through Scholastic Magazine and is a part of a series that did go through a selection process. It has now been pulled off the shelf and will be reviewed.

First, here we go again with a book being pulled off the shelves while it's being reviewed. Unless the library only has one copy, I don't see why a mere complaint gets a book pulled from circulation. Shouldn't library books, like people, be innocent until proven guilty?

Second, as a long-time Dungeon & Dragons player, my hackles are immediately raised by anyone who equates "magic" and "wizardry" with "evil" and "Satanism." And my eyes roll way back into my head whenever I encounter a person who doesn't seem to understand that these books are, um, fiction.

CEDAR back on shelves in Canada

2007-02-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

Good news, Snow Falling on Cedars is back on the shelves!

http://www.mississauga.com/mi/news/story/3870885p-4478062c.html

Art

PRESS RELEASE: Classic Novels Challenged in Michigan

2007-02-09T15:44:00.000-08:00

For further information, contact:
Chris Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, (212) 587-4025, ext. 15
Joan Bertin, National Coalition Against Censorship, (212) 807-6222, ext. 15

For Immediate Release

Free Speech Groups Defend Novels by Morrison, Wright, Vonnegut

NEW YORK, NY, February 8, 2007 -- The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) today joined other free speech advocates in opposing the removal of novels by Toni Morrison, Richard Wright and Kurt Vonnegut from the public high school in Howell, Michigan. In a letter, the groups urged the Howell Board of Education to reject calls to ban Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Wright’s Black Boy, and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. “It is wrong to restrict what students can read based on the complaints of a few individuals,” said ABFFE President Chris Finan. “Curriculum choices should be made by teachers and educational professionals. In this case, they have selected three books that are highly acclaimed and widely used in high school classrooms around the country.” A copy of the letter is online at http://www.ncac.org/issues/howell.

The novels have been attacked by some parents and community members who consider them “smut” because they contain sexual themes and profanity. The books’ chief challengers are members of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education (LOVE). Last year, LOVE failed in an effort to prevent students from reading Erin Gruwell’s The Freedom Writers Diary, the book that inspired the current film starring Hilary Swank.

At a meeting in late January, the Howell Board of Education decided to delay a vote on removing the Morrison, Wright, and Vonnegut novels from the 11th grade English curriculum because two board members were absent. The board will meet again on February 12.

The letter from NCAC and ABFFE was joined by the Association of American Publishers, People for the American Way, Aria Booksellers of Howell, the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Peacefire.org, PEN American Center, Feminists for Free Expression, and the Youth Advisory Board of the Youth Free Expression Network.

Founded in 1974, NCAC is an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. ABFFE is the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship. It was founded in 1990 by the American Booksellers Association.

UPDATE: The school board has voted to retain the books!

Maurice Sendak Book "Obscene"?

2007-02-07T22:58:00.000-08:00

Three things disturb me about the Tennesse challenge of this book illustrated, in part, by Maurice Sendak: (1) that the mother sees these simple drawings of the human body as "obscene," (2) that she went immediately to the media, not bothering to discuss the issue with the library, and (3) that the book has only been checked out twice in ten years (what is that about?) .

One final comment. A library is literally about choices. When you limit the choices, you literally limit the definition of that library. So when it comes to banning or pulling books, the bar has to be set very, very high. The question asked can't merely be "Will someone else be offended by this book?" The question to be asked is, "Will someone else want this book for themselves or their child?" If the answer is yes, the answer to whether a book should be pulled is, in my opinion, almost always "no."

Those of you who want to ban books from public libraries? Please try to keep that in mind.

Jackie Taylor says she's appalled that a poetry book her 9-year-old daughter checked out at Cedar Grove Elementary School features what she considers "obscene" images.

Pointing out caricatures of a naked young boy and a nursing mother and her carnivorous baby, Taylor believes the book, "I Saw Esau, The Schoolchild's Pocket Book," is not appropriate for her daughter, Bethany.I understand that it is a book of poetry, but there is a fine line between poetry art and porn and this book's illustrations are absolutely offensive in every way," Taylor said. "They are inappropriate for a third-grader, and the fact that she had access to this book frightens me for what else she has access to."

The book, by Iona Opie, is a collection of schoolyard jokes, riddles, insults and jump-rope rhymes. Watercolor, colored pencil and ink illustrations accompany the text. It was published in 1992.

Bethany checked out the book as part of a class assignment. The book was not mandatory reading, her mother said.

Elizabeth Hicks, the school's librarian, said Taylor did not contact her about her concerns, but officials would have addressed the issue in a timely fashion.

"It saddens me that she did not attempt to contact us — myself personally or the administration — about her concerns. If a parent has a concern, we want to share that with them," Hicks said.

READ THE REST

Huckleberry Finn: What to do About the N-Word

2007-02-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

I admit I have absolutely no patience for the views expressed in this article from St. Paul:

The "n-word" appears one too many times in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" for Mark Lewis.

Make that at least 200 times in the Mark Twain classic.

Lakeville high school sophomores were required for years to read "Huck Finn," but that may change this year after some parents questioned the use of the book. Parents who disagree with a district's curriculum requirements have the ability to challenge the rules — and sometimes win.
Lewis first became concerned about "Huck Finn" when his daughter was required to read the book in her English class several years ago.
During discussion of the book, Lewis' daughter said she was uncomfortable with views she said students expressed — that blacks should go to hell and interracial marriage was immoral, for instance.

Um, if these "views" really were expressed in a classroom setting during a discussion of Huck Finn, this school has a much bigger problem than the presence of a book in a curriculum.

The reality, of course, is that this book didn't cause those views and, in fact, an appropriate classroom discussion of Huck Finn would actually counteract them.

I do understand the impulse behind highlighting and trying to completely ban words like the N-word (for blacks) and the F-word (for gays like myself); these words are hurtful reminders of our country's bigoted past, and sometimes still-bigoted present. And because racisim and homophobia are often intangible and maddenly subjective, some folks want to point to something solid, force society to take a stand and state, as a group, that we all agree that something is "wrong."

But it's an illusion. The N-word and the F-word are just mere words, assortments of letters. Any meaning they have, any power they wield, is meaning and power that we give them, and that power comes entirely from their context. Simply banning all use of these words outright, without discussion, is, I'm sorry to say, exactly the kind of thinking that gets books banned in the first place: a refusal to consider context, the idea that an idea, however noxious, is more than an idea, that it's somehow literally toxic or evil, that it must literally be destroyed.

But ideas are just ideas. Like words are arrangements of letters, ideas are arrangements of words; they're not literally toxic, and they're not literally evil. And they're defeated not by banning them, but by discussing them, by challenging them, and by exposing them as wrong.

To think otherwise is simple-minded, it's counter-productive, and it's stupid.

Needless to say, these are entirely my own opinions, and do not reflect the consensus of all AS IF! members.

Snow Falling on Cedars/Falling off School Shelves in Canada

2007-02-07T13:57:00.000-08:00

PEN Canada critical of school board’s decision to pull award-winning novel from library shelves
By: Press Release - PEN Canada

The bestseller has been removed from school library shelves and English class reading lists by the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board after a single parental complaint about the book's sexually explicit content. The Board is said to be setting up a committee to review the book and determine whether to put it back into circulation.

“While the School Board stresses that this is not a ban but rather a temporary removal of the novel, the fact of the matter is that this action is tantamount to censorship,” said PEN Canada’s National Affairs Chair Christopher Waddell. “It disturbs us to see this rash and unnecessary action taken on the basis of a single complaint from the community.”

Waddell added that pulling Snow Falling on Cedars on the basis of that complaint is the equivalent of being considered guilty until proven innocent. If someone objects to a book then the Board can set up its committee, he said; however, it should remain on the shelves until the Board rules otherwise. That could take months; and, during that time, the book is out of circulation based on that one complaint.

Snow Falling on Cedars was the winner of several literary awards, including the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award, the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award and the Pacific Northwest Bookseller Association Award. Waddell therefore wondered why one complaint carried more weight with a school board than the various expert panels of judges who deemed the novel an exceptional piece of work.

The action by the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board is reminiscent of the decision taken in March 2006 by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) decision to restrict access for younger children to Deborah Ellis’s award-wining book, Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak. The Board, in reaction to a protest by the Canadian Jewish Congress, decided to remove the book from school libraries serving children below grade seven.

Commenting then on the TDSB’s move, PEN Canada president Constance Rooke called it a “dangerous precedent” that “might well encourage future protests against a wide-variety of books whose subject matter is objectionable to one group or another.”

About PEN Canada:
PEN Canada is a centre of International PEN that campaigns on behalf of writers around the world persecuted or exiled for the expression of their thoughts. In Canada, it supports the right to free expression as enshrined in Section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

For more information, please contact David Cozac, 416-703-8448 x24 or dcozac@pencanada.ca.
Web site: www.pencanada.ca.

Do Teen Novels Glorify Bad Behavior?

2007-02-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

The wonderful Leila Roy over at Bookshelves of Doom is posting an interesting essay by a Philadelphia high school teacher who argues, basically, that today's teen books glorify anti-social behavior.

Recently, I was in the teen section of a large bookstore skimming books for my 10th-grade English class when I came across the young-adult novel Beautiful Disaster by Kylie Adams. Captivated by its provocative cover - a dripping wet, bikini-clad blonde relaxing on the side of a swimming pool - I opened the book and began reading.

Within a dozen pages I was introduced to a cast of characters so unscrupulous and trashy that I thought I was reading a romance novel by Danielle Steel. The only difference, of course, is that all the characters in Beautiful Disaster were minors. Their ages ranged from 15 to 17, but this didn't keep them from binge drinking, swearing, using illegal drugs, and engaging in promiscuous sex; one of the characters, a 15-year-old girl named Shoshanna, actually had breast implants.

As if the book's content wasn't shocking enough, I then stumbled upon Gossip Girl, the first book in a scandalous series by Cecily von Ziegesar. Like the characters in Beautiful Disaster, the teens in Gossip Girl have a passion for sex, lies, and expensive booze. The excerpt on the book's back cover best summed-up their lack of decency: "Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play and sleep - sometimes with each other."

Over the last five years, teen fiction has taken a nosedive right into the toilet. MTV Books, a joint venture between MTV and Pocket Books, seems to be on the forefront of the downward spiral. MTV Books has no qualms about using sex and violence to win over the attention spans of children. Although some of my colleagues feel this is an even trade-off because it keeps 16-year-old students interested in reading, I feel it is completely irresponsible.

In other words, it's yet another trashing-of-the-Gossip-Girls-genre. I like Leila's take:

I'm not going to get all revved about this because, honestly, if this is the first time that this guy, this teacher, has run into the Gossip Girl book, well... then he's probably not all that up on YA lit. Judging from his tenth-grade English II syllabus, he sticks to the classics. (Not that there's anything wrong with that or that it means he doesn't read YA lit in his spare time. Obviously I don't know that. But like I said, if this is the first time he's run across Gossip Girl, it's unlikely. They've been around since, what? 2002?)

I think I've made it pretty clear in the past that I'm not a huge fan of the Gossip Girl/ Gossip Girl readalikes*. But I don't find them quite as worrisome as Christopher Paslay does. I don't think that they'll cause "sexual frustration in hormone-laden young readers", leading to an "over-eager boy stalking a female classmate by making unwanted sexual advances, or sending her obscene text-messages". I just... think that's maybe going a little overboard.
Anyway. I don't even really care about the Gossip Girl books. We already went over all that when Naomi Wolf freaked out. My concern is this quote:

"Over the last five years, teen fiction has taken a nosedive right into the toilet."

Um, no. Gossip Girl et al -- that's just a fraction of what's out there.

I agree with Leila, but this is an interesting discussion because there is a ton of misunderstanding about the "teen" genre right now. People will read a few of today's most provocative teen books, compare them to the books they read as kids (say, Jacob Have I Loved or Anne of Green Gables or Island of the Blue Dolphin), and immediate freak out, thinking the whole genre has gone to hell.

What they don't understand is that the teen genre barely even existed thirty years ago. What existed then was middle grade fiction and a few--very few--teen titles, which didn't sell particularly well. If you think teenagers don't read teen fiction now, they really didn't read teen fiction in the 1970s: they went straight from middle grade to adult (often to very racy adult fiction, like Flowers in the Attic and Harold Robbins, which, for the record, is what folks should really be comparing Gossip Girls to, not Anne of Green Gables).

But all that changed in 1980s (due to school budget cuts, etc.). What resulted is a new genre that is, frankly, one of the richest and most diverse in the publishing industry--maybe even the most rich and most diverse. Authors of teen fiction are allowed to take big chances; we're given almost free reign. Fiction in verse? Sure! Cross-genre? Why not? A book told all in email? Well, why the hell not?

For the record? Writers of adult books don't get nearly this much freedom. And as a result, adult books are much less diverse, and the whole genre is a lot less vibrant.

That said, along with all the other stuff, is there also some racy YA, especially in the "upper" age limits? You bet. But is there more conservative stuff too? Absolutely. Do both kinds of books win rave reviews and awards? They definitely do.

Why do all these kinds of teen books exist, why the wild diversity? Because unlike in the 1970s, teen fiction is now market-driven, and there are markets for all these kinds of books. That upsets some people, but what's forgotten is that the richness, the diversity, extends in all directions.

When people say things like "Teen fiction has taken a nosedive right into the toilet," they seem to me to exposing their ignorance. They don't know the genre. When other folks advocate banning books, and challenging books based not on context, but on "naughty" words and lists of "innappropriate behavior," they're creating the conditions where this rich, wonderful, diverse genre just might go away.

Teen lit is in the middle of a genuine Renaissance, folks. But have you studied the Renaissance? The conditions that created it were so fragile, and the movement itself was so transitory. It ended, and it ended badly. Likewise, this teen lit Renaissance will not last forever. And when it goes, it will be the fault of the literal-minded Puritans so determined to "protect" children, people who see literature not as a breathing, changing organism, but as a collection of stuffy, unchanging museum pieces.

Today's teen lit is a fragile flame, folks. Protect it. Make it last.

Ban "R-Rated" Books From Schools?

2007-01-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

This essay, in a Detroit newspaper, deals with an issue that we here at AS IF! have returned to again and again: the question of "age-appropriate." The writer argues that books with profanity or sex are like R-rated movies and, as such, should never be allowed in the classroom. The writer is specifically questioning the use of The Freedom Writers Diary, the subject of a recent movie about troubled kids.

Let's listen in, shall we?

School boards have an important responsibility to their communities to make sure that the curriculum is appropriate for students. Just as showing an R-rated movie would not be appropriate in the classroom, it is right to question using an R-rated book.

There is no rating system for books. Often teachers will pick books based on awards from organizations like the American Library Association. "The Freedom Writers Diary" did win recognition as a Notable Book from the national library association -- but for adult readers. This organization recognizes that literary value does not mean a book is appropriate for a high school classroom.

Parents trust that teachers and administrators have set solid standards for what is appropriate for our communities' children learning process. This is not always the case. As a parent, who wants to find out after the fact that their child has been reading about drug abuse, oral sex or other issues in school?

It has become common practice to offer an alternative to controversial books used in public schools. But for some books, it makes more sense to use the alternative to teach the desired lesson rather than the inappropriate book.

It is the job of the schools to decide what children are exposed to in the classroom, especially since they are not adults and are not mature enough to judge what is truly worth learning at taxpayer expense. There are a plethora of curriculum choices and not all can be selected. By this definition, schools censor all the time and usually without protest.

Generally speaking, the writer is correct: we all want kids exposed to the "best" literature that's most appropriate to the class at hand and, hopefully, most relevant to the students' lives. But, as always, the devil is in the details. The point is, diverse communities have different ideas as to what constitutes the "best" and most relevant literature. A lot of people think To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the most challenged books of the last four decades, is not appropriate for high schools. Others say 1984. Or A Handmaid's Tale, or Beloved, or The Chocolate War, or Lord of the Flies. And so on and so on.

Going back to the movie analogy, is the writer really arguing that schools should never be allowed to show R-rated movies either? No Shindler's List in history? No Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? in drama class?

The point is, context matters. In fact, when it comes to literature, context is everything. Simply writing a list of topics, or compiling a list of words, that are not "appropriate" for schools means that--whoops!--we will have actually eliminated the whole concept of literature.

Update: Not All Southern Libraries Anti-Gay!

2007-01-29T14:02:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I reported on a study that showed the paucity of gay teen titles in southern states like Arkansas. Someone just posted this very cool comment after that blog post:

As an education librarian at a University in Alabama, I'm pleased to brag a little on our Juvenile Literature Collection. Feel free to visit our library's site at http://www.mhsl.uab.edu and search our "Local Catalog" for these and related titles. I've been fortunate in having faculty who recommend titles like these for our collection, and sometimes we even have money to buy books for our library. I can also tell you that these books are extremely popular here. Keep up the good work, Brent! And if anyone has recommendations for titles we don't have, please holler.--

Jonathan H. Harwell, Reference Librarian for Education, Mervyn H. Sterne Library, University of Alabama at Birmingham, jharwell@uab.eduhttp://www.bloglines.com/blog/mesoj

So Far From the Bamboo Grove: The Plot Thickens

2007-01-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a tip: one way to annoy a blogger who blogs in support of intellectual freedom and expression is to threaten to threaten legal action when he publishes an opinion you don't agree with. (I'm not sure what legal action could possibly be taken. A repeal of the First Amendment perhaps? Good luck with that.)

That said, opinions are obviously running high on a recently challenged book, So Far From the Bamboo Grove, as evidenced by the comments to several recent posts. Supporters of the ban are arguing that the book, which is a memoir, is historically, factually inaccurate: that it misrepresents history in a fundamental way. Below, I'll let one of them speak for herself.

And, as always, if others disagree, we encourage them to chime in. Perhaps we can run another response.

To the Editor:

On Jan. 2, 2007, Dr. Perry Davis, the Superintendent of Dover-Sherborn Schools, overturned the Oct. 30, 2006 decision made by the Schools’ Book Review Committee not to use the book So Far From the Bamboo Grove written by Yoko Kawashima Watkins “as part of a grade 6 English Language Arts unit.” In rejecting the Committee’s conclusion, Dr. Davis cited the views of Carter Eckert, Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History at Harvard, detailed in his December 16, 2006 Letter to the Editor of this newspaper. He identifies the problem this way: “[To] teach ‘So Far from the Bamboo Grove’ without providing historicization might be compared to teaching a sympathetic novel about the escape of a German official’s family from the Netherlands in 1945 without alluding to the nature of the Nazi occupation or the specter of Anne Frank.” He then recommends this correctve remedy: “There is no reason why Watkins’s book cannot be used in the schools. Introduced carefully and wisely, in conjunction, for example with Richard Kim’s classic Lost Names, an autobiographical novel about a young Korean boy living at the end of colonial rule in the 1940s, it can help students understand how perspectives vary according to personal and historical circumstances.” I disagree.

Mrs. Watkins’s book is being challenged by a group of parents who believes that requiring young children to read a book detailing the sufferings of the daughter of a convicted war criminal due to her father’s notoriety is morally repugnant. Here, they argue Mrs. Watkins’s family is more “Joseph Mengele-like” than simply a “German official’s family.” They also challenge the book’s racist and sexually graphic content. Several private schools have agreed with this view and have removed the book from their required curriculum. In support of keeping Mrs. Watkins’s book, Prof. Eckert touts a laudable goal: “Teaching should encourage students to think ‘outside the box’ of American ethnocentricity and highlight human commonalities across cultural and historical divides.” As a parent of school-aged children, I wholeheartedly agree with this view. However, this book has a fatal flaw that will not be resolved through reading another book, as Prof. Eckert recommends, that provides counterbalancing historical context: Large portions of her “personal narrative of survival” that supply the emotional force behind this book are fabricated.

In the second part of the book, Mrs. Watkins and her older sister are described as orphans without any adult guardian to soften the horrors of dealing with the aftermath of a war. Her mother dies inexplicably, and young readers are led to believe that her demise is contributed by the deaths of Mrs. Watkins’s grandparents and the destruction of their fine home in Aomori. In short, young readers are led to believe Mrs. Watkins and her sister are destitute orphans. A copy of Mrs. Watkins’s Family Registry, which Mrs. Watkins herself provided, says that her mother is alive and well when it was certified on Aug. 8, 1952 by the Mayor of Kigukuri-machi. In fact, her grandmother in Aomori is alive and well, too. This Registry also proves that Mrs. Watkins had not one, but two sisters. It also states that with respect to Mrs. Watkins, “[d]egree of relationship was misregistered as a fourth daughter and due to the permission of Ajigasawa District Court, the relationship was changed from Fourth Daughter to Third Daughter.”

Granted, this book is historical fiction. Mrs. Watkins, however, has claimed for over twenty years to the children that this book is her story, her autobiography. Indeed, Prof. Eckert finds the book “based on the author’s life . . . compelling as a narrative of survival,” because children “can experience [Mrs. Watkins’s] ordeal and triumph as their own.” We cheat our children when we allow them to identify with someone who would fabricate the death of one’s own mother and grandmother to create a fictitious account of suffering. As the debacle surrounding the book A Million Little Pieces written by James Frey demonstrates, people will not tolerate fabricated accounts of one’s life portrayed as autobiography.

I doubt that Prof. Eckert can recommend another “classic” book that he would have our children read to provide “context and balance” in dealing with a book that fabricates the
death of one’s own mother and grandmother.

Yours truly,
Anna Y. Park
Seoul, Korea

Just Because I'm Paranoid Doesn't Mean People Aren't Out to Get Me

2007-01-14T16:33:00.000-08:00

I was interested/disturbed by the results of a new study by the University of Central Arkansas on the availability of gay titles in school and public libraries, especially since one of the books used in the survey was one of my own, Geography Club.

Nutshell? In a conservative state like Arkansas, gay teen titles aren't available.

At all.

We all know that some level of self-censorship takes place in libraries when it comes to gay-themed books. But how bad is it in a Southern conservative state like Arkansas? About 21 percent of public libraries, nearly five percent of university libraries, and a shocking less than one percent of school libraries have books containing controversial themes and characters in their collections, says a survey by the University of Central Arkansas.

“It surprised me the most at universities because the books were so overwhelmingly not there,” says Jeff Whittingham, assistant professor of middle/secondary education and instructional technologies, who conducted the study with colleague Wendy Rickman.

The two researchers spent the summer and fall of 2006 surveying media specialists and checking the online catalogs of public and university libraries for 21 of the most popular gay-, bisexual-, lesbian-, and transgender-themed books published between 1999 and 2005. They included titles such as Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys (S & S, 2001), Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club (HarperTeen, 2003), and David Levithan’s award-winning Boy Meets Boy (Knopf, 2003). Each book they searched was described as a coming-of-age story or labeled as juvenile or young adult fiction by the publisher.

Although only 37 out of 499 media specialists statewide responded to the survey, it still gives a somewhat accurate picture of the missing titles in school libraries because those who failed to respond “were probably turned off” by the questionnaire and more likely to have fewer books about sexual orientation in their collections, says Whittingham.

Indeed. If these appalling results are from only the librarians who felt comfortable enough to respond, how bad must the situation actually be?

Needless to say, every library and every school has the right to buy the individual books that they feel are right for their community. But to have no gay books? After all, gay folks are a part of every school and every community. Gay teen lit is a vibrant and important part of contemporary teen literature. So something very different than individual librarian discretion is going on here.

I've argued for a long time that there is a strong and ongoing instituational bias against gay books, and that a sort of preemptive censorship is occurring in libraries all across the country. The results of this study suggest that that is almost certainly the case.

Update: "Bamboo Grove" to Stay in Classroom

2007-01-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins, recently challenged by some Massachusettes parents, will stay in the classroom:

A divisive book about the aftermath of war will remain in sixth-grade classrooms because the Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee voted last night to revamp the English lesson to better reflect the story's historical context. "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" by Massachusetts author Yoko Kawashima Watkins was challenged by a group of 13 parents who said it was racist against Koreans and too graphic for sixth-graders. The award-winning book is Watkins's story, told through her eyes when she was 11 , of escaping Korea after World War II with her family and the horrors they experienced and witnessed on their way to Japan. Some parents argued that it wrongly ignores the atrocities committed by the Japanese while they occupied Korea.

Meg Cabot: Princess is Banned

2006-12-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

Princess Diaries author Meg Cabot (and real sweetheart, based on my having once shaken her hand) has been banned. Here's her, uh, unique take on it:

Have you ever had a secret—or even not-so-secret—dream?

A dream that maybe you wished upon a star would come true?

Or prayed for on bended knee?

A dream that everyone told you was totally unrealistic…would never come true…to just give up on…that, yeah, okay, might happen for other people, but was never going to happen for you?

This post is for all you dreamers out there. Keep on dreaming, dreamers.

Because dreams? They really can come true, if you hang in there, and believe in them long enough.

Because my dream? It finally came true. Through hard work, perseverance, and many, many references to French kissing.

Yes, people. It finally happened:

I’ve been banned.

YEAH, BABY!!!!!

...

All I can say is that if Joshua found Princess Diaries 1-7 inappropriate for grades pre-kindergarten through 6th grade (although the books really are for readers aged 12 and up, so I’m not sure why people in Joshua were making them available to pre-kindergarteners anyway. Although perhaps there are some very precocious readers there), I can only imagine what they’re going to think of Princess Diaries 8, Princess on the Brink.

It is entirely possible the whole town might spontaneously combust if someone happens to get their hands on it.

Especially a pre-kindergartener.

READ MORE

Gay Penguins Banned with no Review

2006-12-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

Here at AS IF!, we've often said that it is always a mistake, one with terrible consequences, when a library or school district bans a book without following an existing policy or, worse, when no actual policy exists.

And Tango Makes Three, the "gay penguin" book, has been banned in North Carolina. And boy, was the review policy not followed:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Superintendent Peter Gorman and his top lieutenants have ordered a picture book about presumably gay penguins removed from school libraries, the first time Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has banned a book in more than a decade.

But Gorman said Tuesday he'll let a committee review the decision after Charlotte Observer questions revealed he and his staff sidestepped CMS policy.

The ban came from a miscommunication between him and his chief of staff, Robert Avossa, Gorman said. "I screwed this one up."

"And Tango Makes Three," the real-life story of "the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies," has drawn objections in schools or public libraries in seven states.

All decided to keep the book, according to the American Library Association. Charlotte-Mecklenburg's public library has also rejected a request to remove it, a spokeswoman said.

CMS pulled the penguin love story without a formal complaint. Gorman said a couple of parents had asked him about the book, in which two male penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo pair up and hatch an adopted egg, and Republican county commissioner Bill James had e-mailed him.

James said he read an online article about the book and asked Gorman if CMS libraries had it. "I am opposed to any book that promotes a homosexual lifestyle to elementary school students as normal," he said.

Four of CMS's 93 elementaries - Eastover, Hickory Grove, Mallard Creek and Myers Park Traditional - had the book.

On Nov. 30, top CMS administrators Ruth Perez, Ronald Dixon and Gloria Miller sent a memo to principals and media specialists explaining the decision to ban the book from all schools.

"First, it is a picture book that focuses on homosexuality. Second, we did not feel that such information was vital to primary students. Next, we did not believe the book would stimulate growth in ethical standards, and the book is too controversial."

Banning books is controversial, too.

"One parent's decision shouldn't dictate whether or not the book is available to all the other families in the community," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the American Library Association. "Any challenge to a book is ultimately an attempt to remove an idea from public discourse."

Banning "Tango" is a bad idea, she said, and doing it without an open, balanced review is worse. READ ON

A Letter From Bookseller Carol Chittenden on Yoko Kawashima Watkins

2006-12-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

A letter from Carol Chittenden (a Massachusettes bookseller), regarding the recent challenge of Yoko Kawashima Watkins:

Dear Colleagues,

Many of us know Yoko Kawashima Watkins for her perennial favorite titles, So Far from the Bamboo Grove and My Brother, My Sister, and I. Over the last two decades she has spoken to tens of thousands of children, teachers, parents, booksellers, librarians, writers, editors, graduating classes, peace groups, and international scholars. Again and again her words have inspired standing ovations; often they also move her listeners to tears. Based upon her personal experiences as a refugee at the end of World War II, she delivers a wide variety of stories containing two important messages: peace is important because war does terrible things; and integrity is the most valuable thing any person possesses.

So it is surprising that Yoko and her books are under attack. The challenge comes from a Korean Man, Henry Jaung, who apparently lives in the area of Dover, MA, an affluent suburb west of Boston. (I say "apparently," because much about this individual is unclear.) IN September he caused a private school in Connecticut to withdraw Yoko's speaking invitation, alleging that her father was responsible for war crimes in the 1940's. In fact, Yoko's father, Yoshio Kawashima, was a highly refined and educated diplomat who was the top civilian official in the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and Korea. He gained a reputation for saving many, many Koreans and Chinese from the often brutal and despotic Japanese military presence. But a general with a similar name was responsible for some very unpleasant events in the
same period.

Once Yoko cleared up that confusion, Mr. Jaung lodged other charges, to the effect that her books contain inappropriate sexual content because they describe, very briefly and cleanly, the fact that Korean soldiers abducted and raped girls, and nearly caught Yoko's older sister Ko as well. Jaung also accuses the books of being anti-Korean, which would appear to indicate that he has not read them, because there are long passages about the kindness of Korean individuals who helped the Kawashima family members as they fled hundreds of miles.

For some time Mr. Jaung would not identify himself publicly in connection with his accusations. He also refused, through intermediaries, to meet with Yoko. But more recently, he has been campaigning to have her books removed from their long-standing place in the Dover-Sherborn school system, and that resulted in his identification in the press. Much of the controversy has been covered in the Boston Globe.

According to the paper, he has also sought to muster support among other Korean Americans with his claims of anti-Korean content in the books.

Most recently Mr. Jaung has threatened to seek a court injunction against the schools' use of the books. While it would seem unlikely that U.S. courts would go along with his claims, his aggressive attacks have already caused disruption in several schools and anguish for Yoko, who has worked so hard to encourage reconciliation and understanding. His agitation has, however, produced one valuable result: it is showing children who know these books the value of their freedom to read, and how easily that right can be attached. As the Cape Cod Times editorial of December 3 concludes, in regard to the case, "There is another way to add balance: More books. More reading."

Please be aware of this confrontation, and re-read the books if you haven't done so recently, in case the issue arises – as Mr. Jaung expressly hopes – in schools near you. If there is a Korean American community in your area, this is even more likely.

(Full disclosure: Yoko is an admired personal friend, and I have had the honor of working with her, and recommending her books to readers in my store. More often, I have overheard one reader recommend them to another.)

Sincerely,

Carol B. Chittenden

Eight Cousins

Falmouth, MA

[UPDATE]: Some posters have objected to some of the facts in this letter (in comments). Ms. Chittenden may respond. In the meantime, we'll consider publishing responses to this letter. Email me at brentsbrain@harbornet.com

Jane Pittman Stays

2006-12-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

The school board at the Puyallup School District (a stone's throw from where I live) has deciced to keep The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman on the required reading list:

“The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitt man” will remain required reading for eighth-graders in the Puyallup School District.
The Puyallup School Board voted 5-0 Monday night to uphold an earlier decision by a district committee requiring eighth-graders to read the novel.

The board made the decision in considering an appeal from a parent and a group of six teachers who challenged the requirement. The challengers said that while the novel is a valuable and compelling account of its period, its complicated content, including implied incest and rape, and heavy use of racial slurs made it inappropriate for eighth-graders.

In explaining their vote, each board member recounted the difficulty of balancing valid concerns on each side of the debate. Board President Diana Seeley said it wasn’t a sole issue of dealing with racism or the “n-word.”

“This is about the environment in which it’s being used,” she said. “We don’t necessarily know that by telling children not to use that word, they will stop using it. But it is our hope by giving them an explanation of the word and where it came from, they’ll understand it’s inappropriate to use it in the future.”

One part of the article caught my attention:

Before making their decision, board members heard from numerous parents, community members and staff members. Some advocated requiring the book for eighth-graders for its perspective on race relations and slavery, while others were concerned that youngsters that age would be confused by the book’s adult situations. Several expressed concerns for children who have been sexually abused, and the trauma they could experience as they study the book in a classroom of peers.

Uh, not to put too fine a point on it, but this is the dumbest thing I've read in a long, long, long time. Ban a book because some kids are sexually abused and the book might trigger some trauma? Um, if that's a criterion for banning a book, well, we can pretty much close up the libraries now, can't we?

I'm sure these people mean well, but, I mean, wow.

Two Interesting Book Selection Links

2006-12-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

Two very interesting "book selection" related links, both worth reading:

(a) A blogger at the Conversational Reading Weblog writes about controversial book selection at a boarding school (all school librarians and/or teachers will relate!).

(b) A librarian-poster over at Dailykos.com writes how the effort to ban Harry Potter in all of George is so misguided, fundamentally misunderstanding the book selection process.

GREAT Speech by Diane Kitchen

2006-12-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

Librarian Diane Kitchen, who was the target of attacks in the Columbia-Brazoria school district for the past few months, made a magnificent speech at her district's school board meeting this week. The speech is reproduced below in its entirety with Diane's approval.

Good evening

I have worked as a librarian for C-BISD for 34 ½ years, 30 of them at the junior high school.

Some people decide after being in the classroom for several years that being a librarian is the path they wish to follow. I went off to college knowing that this was what I wanted to do and that desire has never wavered.

As Mrs. James stated last month, we have taken courses and continuing education classes and workshops on book selection and providing for our patrons. This means ALL of our patrons, not just the students who have been blessed to live a “Beaver Cleaver” childhood. I wish that all of my students were so fortunate.

One student’s reality is frequently not the same as so many others.
1. A large percentage of our students are from broken homes, complete with all the baggage that encompasses.
2. We have students who are being raised by a single parent.
3. We have students being raised by a parent with his or her significant others either present or coming and going through their lives.
4. We have students being raised by parents who are not home when their child is, whether because of work or other reasons.
5. We have students being raised by grandparents.
6. We have student living in foster homes; and as a CASA volunteer, or Court Appointed Special Advocate for children, and working closely with CPS, I know what it takes to have a child removed from the home and placed in foster care.

We as librarians must know all of our students and provide for the needs of each of these students.

I have given each of you a publisher approved copy of award-winning author Gary Paulsen’s introduction to his most recent book. I regret not having copies for each member of this audience, but to exceed publisher Simon & Schuster’s approved number of copies would violate copyright laws.

If I were as eloquent as Mr. Paulsen, I would not feel the need to do this. Because I am not, I ask that you allow me to read sections from this introduction.

I apologize in advance for any display of emotion, but passion evokes emotion and like Mr. Paulsen, I am exceedingly passionate about the right to read and access to books.

1. p. 1
2. p. 4
3. p. 7

Over the course of my career, I have had:
1. 2 students who committed suicide. Maybe it would have helped them to know and read about someone who was able to overcome their despair.
2. 2 students who watched their fathers being shot to death
3. 2 students whose father or step-father killed their mother
4. Students who have had a parent or sibling die
5. Students who have endured life-threatening illnesses
6. Girls who have had babies
7. I had one student who rode with her mother every evening to the local bar where she sat in the car doing her homework and waiting to drive Mom home at closing time. Each morning she was responsible for getting herself and 2 sisters up and off to school.

These are just a minute number of students who could or have been helped by words of encouragement found in a book.
These students and others in difficult situations, more than any others who need access to books, are the students whose parents will not show up here, nor any other school function in which their child may participate, beginning with registration and continuing through, yes, even graduation.

Yes, there are some books in the library that some may find offensive. In each case that I know of, if the situation is taken in the context of the entire story, either the character eventually makes a wise choice, of if the choice is a poor one, the character learns from it. What a waste to spend one’s time searching for something to offend rather than something to teach a lesson

The district administration has initiated parental permission forms to allow or deny access to our young adult sections. As librarians, we recognize that it is the responsibility of the parent to act as the ultimate overseer of their child’s reading material. That is their responsibility and their right. It is not their right to decide for my child or your child.

We ask you to allow us to continue providing for all of our students.

The result? Diane emailed us yesterday that, "The board voted to leave the library as is, with the separate YA section and approval needed. Any challenges must go through all of the channels. The 'book Nazis' are still out there writing letters to the editor, but the community seems to be really tired of hearing from them."

ACLU Report on Texas Schools

2006-12-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

Want to know what's going on in the Texas schools, book censorship-wise? Take a look at the ACLU's 10th Annual Report on Banned and Challenged Books in Texas Schools, 2005-2006 School Year.

It's an interesting read, and also includes a great interview with Judy Blume, the Queen of All Things Censorship-Related.

The Dirty Cowboy Dares to be Naked

2006-12-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a new one . . . award-winning children's picture book, THE DIRTY COWBOY by Amy Timberlake, has been banned at a school in Texas. It was removed from the library shelves a W. C. Andrews Elementary. The reason cited: sexual content.

Uh . . . the book is about a cowboy who needs a BATH. And, like many of us, when he bathes, he's . . . naked. For more information on banned books in Texas, check out the ALA Banned Book Week site and click on the ACLU of TX Banned Book Week Project.

In the meantime, if you bathe, wear clothes, or you might get in trouble!

An Author's Insight

2006-11-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

I just returned from another conference (in California), and I learned about a whole new slew of challenges to my book Geography Club. And two things occurred to me. First, I really do appreciate hearing from librarians where and when my books are challenged and what the result ends up being. I know other authors do too (though I'm also aware that when an author hasn't been challenged before, it can be a tramautic thing, and librarians may not have the time to deal with the author's questions and angst).

Secondly, I am growing increasingly convinced that, at least in most of America 2006, the way to defeat book challenges is to make them as public as possible. Obviously this depends, in part, on the community in which the challenge is taking place. But I'm hearing more and more that communities, even conservative ones, are getting really frustrated by the increasing number of attacks on our freedom to read, especially by members of the religious right. My sense is that we're reaching a consensus that, yes, it's okay if parents don't want their kids reading a particular book, but that, no, it's not okay to deprive all other kids and their parents of the right to make up their own minds on each particular book.

Which is, of course, the exact position of AS IF!

Along those lines, here's an interesting editorial from my local newspaper on the decision on a controversy about a challenge to The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and the decision to rule against the challenge. Their take? Right decision, but wrong strategy--because the decision was mostly made out-of-sight of the public:

The result was good. “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” stays in the eighth-grade curriculum. But the way the Puyallup School District made the decision Wednesday was not.
Apparently fearing TV cameras and reporters and perhaps “outside agitators,” the district kept the public out of a crucial committee meeting to hear complaints against the acclaimed novel.

The tactic was most certainly a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the state’s Open Meetings Act. The committee was clearly conducting public business that should have been done in the open.

The issue didn’t involve sensitive legal, business or personnel matters. The task was deciding whether the evocative but gritty Ernest Gaines novel about slavery and the civil rights era was suitable for eighth-grade students.

Instead of letting the public in on the testimony and the committee’s discussion, the district both timidly and arrogantly decided – quite a feat, that – that this was a decision that should be made behind closed doors.

It matters not a whit whether the district had the legal right to close the meeting. It sends a terrible signal to citizens when decisions about something of such fundamental public interest as the books schoolchildren read are considered too dicey to make in public.

This attitude is patronizing and offensive. Puyallup’s school board members ought to tell Superintendent Tony Apostle they want the public’s business done in public.

That said, the decision on the book itself was the right call. Some uncomfortable situations in the novel – there are no sex scenes – are nothing that today’s eighth-graders can’t handle with proper guidance. The true offense of the book for most critics is the ever-present use of the “n-word” – without which the novel could not be an accurate depiction of its subject.

All along, administrators planned to offer training for teachers in using “Miss Jane Pittman,” which is part of a multicultural reading list designed to expose students to minority perspectives.

Objections that the novel will “traumatize” students of any race are misguided. Taught properly, “Miss Jane Pittman” has enormous value in helping students understand the historical issues of slavery and racism. To understand these is to understand America at both its best and its worst.

I agree. Mark my words: there's been a sea change in this country on these book censorship issues. Much of the public is now on our side.

Gay Penguins Attacked Again!

2006-11-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Yup, And Tango Makes Three, that picture book about a family of gay penguins, has been targeted yet again. Here's the gist of this argument:

"Please allow us to know when our child is ready for certain introductions," said parent Lilly Del Pinto in an interview Wednesday. "Each of us knows our child best."

Del Pinto said she started reading the book to her kindergartner, who brought it home from the school library earlier in the semester. Mom was surprised by the tale that unfolded.

"When it came to the point where the zookeeper saw that the penguins were in love, I redirected (my daughter)," she said. "That was the end of the story for her."

Del Pinto said she's not against gay people nor does she want the book completely banned from the library. But when a child learns about homosexuality should be up to parents, she said.

She and a group of like-minded parents approached the Shiloh School Board on Tuesday with their concerns.

A committee of school employees and a parent suggested the book be moved to a separate shelf, requiring parent permission before checkout.

Superintendent Jennifer Filyaw rejected the proposal. She said the School Board will look at general library policies, but "Tango" will likely remain on the shelf.

There is a patina of logic to this idea that "parents should be the ones to decide when and how a child learns about homosexuality." But upon closer inspection, the idea of patently absurd. Yes, parents have every right to teach their kids their own views on homosexuality. But to require that the rest of the world never say anything about the topic--that no resources whatsoever be available for gay families and their supporters? How would that work exactly? And why stop at homosexuality? Why couldn't parents argue that they should be the ones to first expose their kids to all "controversial" ideas--which really means all ideas that anyone anywhere might find controversial? That means no evolution, no Harry Potter, no sex ed of any kind, and, yes, no talk of religion or any religious holiday. And if that's the case, why have schools at all? Why not just have all parents teach their own kids?

Another point. When a book is placed on "restricted access" in a library, that means that circulation will inevitably decline, regardless of what the subject matter of the book is. Which means there is less incentive to buy related materials. Which is what this debate is really all about: suppress and censor any positive or even neutral portrayal of homosexuality.

Anatomy of a Book Banning

2006-11-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Here at AS IF!, we obviously believe strongly freedom, choice, and open access when it comes to book challenges. That said, sometimes books do get pulled from libraries, classrooms, and reading lists. When that happens, the result is always better when the issues in question are debated as part of an existing, written policy, and when the debate is done in the open with ample opportunity for the public to contribute.

Here's an interesting case study out of Massachusettes involving the book So Far From the Bamboo Grove:

The Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee is grappling with whether to ban an award-winning book from sixth-grade classes after complaints from some parents that the book is racist and sexually explicit.

A review committee that included the middle school librarian and two English teachers unanimously voted to recommend removing "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" from the curriculum after 13 parents complained. Superintendent of Schools Perry Davis backed the recommendation.

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Dover-Sherborn middle school students have read the book as part of a unit on stories of survival and have me t with the author. The book is used by numerous other school districts in the state.

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Scott Walker, who has been teaching sixth-grade English for five years, told the School Committee that both the book -- which he said has been taught "effectively and tastefully" for 13 years -- and the author are prized by students.

"She is a gift our youngsters hold onto far beyond their time in our classroom," he said, adding that older students come back to the middle school to see her during her visits.

Frederick Randall, the middle school headmaster who was also on the book review committee, said the panel had struggled with its recommendation.

"I won't represent it as being an easy process on any of us," he said. "As a committee, we did the best we could with it, to remain objective."

But he said there simply wasn't enough time in school to explore the issues raised by the book.

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AS IF! Salutes Librarians

2006-11-13T12:49:00.000-08:00

I just returned from Denver, Colorado, where I gave the keynote address at the conference of the Colorado Association of Libraries. While speaking to over 400 librarians, I had an agenda that was two-fold:

(1) to go beyond the usual "censorship is bad" rhetoric, and to specifically thank and salute, on behalf of all the AS IF! authors, the unheralded librarians who put their careers on the line to fight these battles in their own communities.

(2) to avoid looking like a blithering idiot.

I think I succeeded in #1. Let's hope I succeeded in #2 as well.

Thanks, Colorado. I had a terrific time.

THE BLUEST EYE Under Attack in New York State

2006-11-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Tony Morrison's The Bluest Eye is being challenged in New York state.

Callejo said a petition submitted to the board on Thursday was signed by more than 20 people and focused on 16 pages in the book that contain sexually explicit passages. The novel, an Oprah's Book Club selection, currently is on the Red Hook school district's 11th-grade reading list.

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"If I were to try to summarize for the (parents), I think they felt it was too strong of language and content for this age group," McLaughlin said. "I think they felt there were three parts of it that were too graphic in their mind. ... I've read the book, and it's very powerful."

Said Callejo: "The problem that the parents had - and they were using the term 'inappropriate' - is that it's basically given to 16- and 17-year-olds, where their maturity levels are different," he said.

All I can say is does Oprah know about this?

Borders Turns Away Author's Debut Novel

2006-10-30T16:09:00.000-08:00

I was at a LAYA (Los Angeles Young Adult Authors) event last night and had the good fortune to meet up-and-coming YA novelist Aury Wallington. Aury, who has penned scripts for SEX AND THE CITY and other shows, has a first book coming out called POP! (Razorbill) It covers issues like virginity and teen sex, and Planned Parenthood has given it kudos.

The buzz is good, the reviews are great, yet Borders is refusing to carry the book. This seems odd since Barnes and Noble will have it on their shelves, and I am sure the independents will be snapping it up. So why not Borders? We're not sure.

Here's an article from THE BOOK STANDARD which is raising a lot of questions.

We'd love to know what you think about this. And in the meantime, hang in there Aury!

Update on the AUTOBIOLOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN Challenge

2006-10-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

I admit I'm finding this controversy in Puyallup, Washington, to be an interesting one: junior high teachers are challenging The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (part of the school's multi-cultural curriculum, a response to a discrimination lawsuit that the school lost), with these teachers saying they believe the book is too mature for their students.

I believe teachers should have some say in the books they teach because, after all, they know their own students better than anyone. But the superintendant, bless his soul, is defending the book.

The head of the Puyallup School District appears prepared to stand behind a novel being questioned by a group of teachers, according to internal documents.

In an e-mail to the School Board president, Superintendent Tony Apostle said he expects teachers to follow the district’s multicultural curriculum, which includes “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” by Ernest J. Gaines.

“This novel is a significant masterpiece of American literature and it belongs in the eighth grade,” Apostle wrote to School Board President Diana Seeley in a Sept. 24 e-mail.

“We also need teachers who (are) confident, capable and competent in teaching this literature to students,” Apostle wrote in the e-mail, requested by The News Tribune through state open records laws.

Apostle sent the message two days after a teacher was disciplined for voicing concerns to parents about the book’s use of racial slurs and violence.

Apostle’s e-mail and other records give more details on the district’s decision to discipline Aylen Junior High School teacher Donna Helgesen. She was put on paid leave for two days after telling parents at a back-to-school meeting that “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” is inappropriate for eighth-graders, records show.

Last week, nine educators, including Helgesen, filed a formal challenge of the novel’s place in the eighth-grade curriculum. The teachers are from five of the six junior high schools in the district. The challenge will be reviewed by a district curriculum committee and could later be appealed to the Puyallup School Board.

The rest of the article might be behind a firewall, but it does sound like the matter is being discussed in an appropriate way through the appropriate channels (after one teacher apparently inappropriately disparaged the book, without authorization, at a Back-to-School Night).

Real Life Avi: Captain Underpants Costume Banned

2006-10-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

As most readers of this blog know, I'm all for, like, free speech and everything, but why does this story strike me as a real-life version of Avi's Nothing But The Truth?

Three 17-year-old girls were told to leave Long Beach High School on Wednesday after they showed up on Superhero Day costumed as the subject of the best-selling children's books.

"I didn't know which superhero it was, not that it mattered," said Principal Nicholas Restivo.

The girls depicted this superhero — who has battled, among other things, talking toilets and the infamous Professor Poopypants — by wearing beige leotards and nude stockings under white briefs and red capes.

"Yes, I know they weren't naked," Restivo said. "But the appearance was that they were naked."

Censorship or Removal of a Book with "Factual Flaws"?

2006-10-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting article that gets right to the heart of some censorship battles: what if someone wants a book banned not because of differing of opinions, but because the factual content of the book is (supposedly) wrong?

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which specializes in constitutional law, today filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in support of a school district’s decision in Florida to remove a factually-flawed book about Cuba from the school library – a decision that triggered a lawsuit by the ACLU. A federal district court held that the decision to replace the book violated the First Amendment rights of students. The ACLJ brief urges the appeals court to overturn that decision arguing that the school board has the authority to provide accurate and factual information to students.

“This case is about ensuring that students receive accurate and factual information – not about the suppression of ideas,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, which filed the amicus brief in support of the school district. “Once again, the ACLU is using the courts to bully a school board that did what any school board should do – look out for the best interest of its students. The local school board is supposed to be the microcosm of the democratic process. Parents exercise their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children by electing school board members and entrusting them with their children’s education. The Miami-Dade County School Board acted in a sound and proper manner. We’re hopeful that the appeals court will reject the ACLU’s flawed argument and respect the authority and judgment of the community-based school board that knows what’s best for its students.”

This case involves a dispute in Miami-Dade County, Florida over a book, A Visit To Cuba, that was placed in public school libraries. The book was intended for 4-to-8 year old children and made claims that life in Cuba is no different than life in the United States. Many in the community who suffered greatly under the Communist regime in Cuba were outraged at the book’s inaccuracies and misstatements. The school board decided to replace the Cuba book, and the series it is a part of, with a more accurate set of books.

This line in particular stuck out at me:

“The Board’s concern was the accuracy of facts and the need to prepare students to be well-informed citizens, not the suppression of ideas,” the brief argues. “This determination poses no constitutional crisis. Rather, it falls within the category of routine, discretionary decisions made by thousands of school boards across the country on a daily basis.”

But there's the rub. What if some people say the facts aren't wrong? And sure enough, two review committees and the school's own superintendent (as well as the first judge who heard the case) all came to the conclusion that the book should stay; Publishers Weekly reviewed the book favorably, saying the book (which is part of a series) is "informative and colorful," offering information "in simple statements without commentary." Among the book's supposedly "misleading" information are such controversial statements as "People in Cuba eat, work, and go to school like you do."

I know this is a hot button issue for some immigrants from Cuba, but it looks to me like banning this book definitely does pose a constitutional crisis.

Newspapers in School? Like "a Loaded Gun"

2006-10-24T17:57:00.000-07:00

I confess, I'm getting very tired of these people:

Following a parent's complaint, an Eagan elementary school principal has placed a step between students and free newspapers, including the St. Paul Pioneer Press, in the school's media center — saying school officials should be mindful of what young children are reading.

Principal Miles Haugen of Deerwood Elementary School received an e-mail from a woman whose second-grade daughter attends the school. The parent complained about the "sex, death and general mayhem that have become the standard fodder for newspapers and TV news," said one teacher who saw the e-mail and asked not to be identified.

Roughly 30 copies of the Pioneer Press are provided to the school, primarily for teachers to use in classroom exercises. Leftovers are accessible to students in the school's media center.

School officials originally said they would restrict the papers for the woman's child alone — but the woman e-mailed back that it wasn't good enough, saying the act would make the papers a "fascinating forbidden fruit" and giving students open access to the papers would be "like leaving a loaded gun on the table."

A newspaper in school is "like leaving a loaded gun on the table."

You know, I don't care that this is elementary school: this is just plain nuts. Fine, make that decision for your own children; just don't make it for those of us who want our children to be, you know, educated.

Laura Ruby on Teen Reads Week!

2006-10-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I missed Teen Reads Week. Hey, it's been crazy on this end--sue me!

Anyway, AS IF!'s own Laura Ruby, author of the brand new, much buzzed Good Girls, presents a hilarious podcast on the week that just passed, and perfect logic behind banning books.

What to do with "Challenged" Books?

2006-10-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

What should happen to books that have been challenged and are under review? Should they be pulled from the shelves in the meantime?

Chuck Mason, observing a Marshall, Missouri, controversy over graphic novels, says emphatically "No!":

Happily, a solution has been reached in the book controversy at the Marshall Public Library.

Unhappily, the solution, in part, sets a dangerous precedent.

This past week, the library board of trustees on a majority vote decided to remove "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel and "Blankets" by Craig Thompson from the shelves while a "material selection policy" is developed.

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It sets the precedent that I can, just as Louise Mills, go into the library and file the necessary paperwork to have the paintings on the walls of the library removed while the material selection policy is developed.

It allows me, or anyone else, to get that dry, boring history magazine that no one reads anyway yanked from the racks while the policy is developed.

It sets the precedent that allows me to make sure that all those 10 Internet stations are removed from the library while the policy is developed because, heck, who needs to look at the world outside of Marshall?

And it sets the precedent that I can ask -- while the policy is being developed -- that the trustees take off all those public notices from that bulletin board at the library's entrance because they are an eyesore.

As Marshall's Chuck Hird suggested in a letter to the editor on Thursday, let's close the library while this policy is developed. Closing the library would put everything on the same level playing field -- the two objectionable books and all the other wonders that are inside the public library.

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Here at AS IF!, we agree. Libraries are about access and freedom. That is the default mode. The burden of proof rests not on the book itself or the author, but on those who would censor that book.