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Post in the comments and tell me your favorite book from the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 OR the Most Challenged Books of the 21st Century according to the American Library Association and you could win a copy of one of the books on the 2006 list.
Post until midnight Sunday (12:01 AM on 7 October), then I'll randomly draw a winner.
If you are under 18, you can post, but if you win, you must have a parent type person's permission for me to send you anything in the mail, even a book. :-)
Comments
Thanks for commenting!
A Wrinkle in Time is one of those books that literally changed my life. I read it the summer between third and fourth grade, and it opened my imagination to the idea of the tesseract--getting from here to there by the shortest route possible. I started college believing that I wanted to go into nuclear physics in order to actually work on that project--making a tesseract possible through science. After calculus, I thought back on it and suspected that I might, just possibly, be more interested in the science fiction aspect than the science itself. And from that realization on, brought about by A Wrinkle in Time, I became a creative writing major, got internships in editorial, and eventually published a couple of novels.
I owe Madeline L'Engle a whole lot.
I'm really upset over Flowers for Algernon and The Great Gilly Hopkins being on that list. Now I want to go beat my head against the wall and cry, after I put those books on my Amazon wishlist.
--Kris
I think it's a badge of honor. You've written something that makes people think, and that makes people afraid. (Well, some are just sensationalistic (*ahem* Gossip Girls) without having any deeper meaning, but that doesnt' make them dangerous.
But I agree--there is a certain type of person who will always exist. I was listening to a friend the other day telling me about how some girls from her daughter's school were posting catty comments about her on MySpace or facebook or one of those places. Only the medium has changed.
The best way to make a book a best seller it so challenge it. Always Running became a best seller in Rockford after the school board almost voted to ban it from the curriculum.
I bet they are disappointed when that is all. *snort*
Non sequiter: Remember the Delgado kids? Jeremy just got a 12K theatre scholarship and 3K voice scholarship at Southwestern (where John Wolbers and Lesly Sheblak ended up) I think he swims for them, too. And Elizabeth graduated a year early and just got a 30K academic over four year scholarship to Southwestern.
Which goes to show how spoiled I was as a teacher. I really had many more awesome, smart, talented kids than not. Talented in all areas, not just theatre.
I was surprised to see the Scary Story books on both lists. I was just reading those again, and loved them when I was younger. That was the most shocking. I like so many of the books on the lists, I now know where to look when I need a new book to read. Carrie, Harry Potter... Where's Waldo? (I'm still trying to understand that one; maybe the fact that he's lost scares small children!)
Well, I think my favorite is "The Catcher in the Rye," though.
Hi back attcha. I'm so glad you commented!
weird,
Paul(Red-shirt)
It was removed from Waukegan, Illinois high school reading list (1984) because of “racially offensive language and tone.” Removed from classrooms in the Cherry Hill, New Jersey schools (1997) after concerns were raised about its “racial epithets” and “depiction of its African-American characters.” Huck Finn was alos pulled from reading lists at three Renton, Washington high schools (2004) after an African-American student said the book degraded her and her culture. Ironically, this book which was attacked after its first publication for being “too racially tolerant” is now being attacked for being “too racist.” Twain’s classic was deemed upon publication as “rough, coarse and inelegant,” and not suited for “intelligent, respectable people.”
What I meant to say was, I had thought the reasons for objections were based on the depiction of racial issues in the book, and I was right about that being the reason.