The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novel was a hard read. One that either got you in the beginning, with a scene describing the rape of the narrator by her father, or put you off entirely. I read this novel because it has been challenged in the library of the school where I work. Everything that happened in the novel, from the sexual abuse, to the changing of partners, needed to happen in order for Celie to find herself the way she did. The catalyst for her discovery: reflecting on her relationship with Shug with the man who was her husband. As far as content and the challenge, I think there are lessons to be learned from The Color Purple about love, about how we treat each other, about family, about religion, and about life--how it takes some a lifetime to find happiness, and sometimes just as long to realize that contentment might not be so bad. But it takes life's difficulties to provide the ability to come to that realization.

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The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

In honor of Banned Books Week, I thought I'd finally get around to posting about The Golden Compass, which I finished reading a few weeks ago and referenced in my letter to my students last week.

I am one of those people who will turn around and read the exact thing that someone is told not to read just to wave an emphatic pinky finger in their close-minded faces saying, "Ha! I read that and there's absolutely nothing you can do about." Do understand that I am not about putting a novel like Meg Cabot's Queen of Babble in the hands of one of our seventh graders (this was one of the novels pulled from the shelf at my middle school, and justifiably so). There's a difference between censoring because one disagrees with philosophical content and censoring because of the maturity level of the readers.

My motivation for reading The Golden Compass came from the aunt of one of the students at my middle school. She called up his mom and told her to make sure that he didn't read this novel for religious reasons. I wasn't privy to more details of the conversation--I got the story maybe third or fourth hand from our school librarian. But as with any book challenged (or psuedo-challenged) in our library, I had to find out why.

I'm going to go into the religious issues at a later date, but I do want to comment that I can see how some people would have problems with the novel. I can also say that it's one I'd recommend to some of my reluctant readers, especially those who have already seen the movie (which, by the way, has been cleaned up as far as religious content goes).

I felt the movie was good for what it was, and worked for the medium in which it was presented, but as far as story goes, the novel has it, hands down.

I saw this on the Virgina Library Association Blog and had to share. The post is about Banned Books Week 2009.

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

This is another one of those brief posts where I tackle the issue of censorship. It was brought to my attention that one Meg Cabot book was pulled from the shelf at the middle school where I teach for inappropriate content. I can appreciate pulling books from the shelf on the basis that there are ideas/issues that the middle school aged student is not mature enough to handle, but as I understand it, the novel wasn't read in its entirety.

I have a problem with people banning books when the book has neither been read nor thought about in terms of the bigger picture. Like the whole Harry Potter scandal of old. Something about challenging something without having all of the facts, or in this case, the background, doesn't sit right with me. Besides, how do we grow if we do not, from time to time, subject ourselves to something uncomfortable?

All of that being said, because the one book was banned from our library, the rest of the Meg Cabot was pulled from the shelf, the challenger thinking that the remainder of the novels were to be discarded as well. Apparently one of the members of the library staff thought that the books were pulled so the challenger could read them and decide whether or not discarding the entire collection (29 titles show up in a library search for "meg cabot"). So by the same token, should we ban Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, or Lois Lowry's The Giver (which is award winning) to protect the children? Hmm. I read these as a child and they're fantastic.

That being said, and because I have a defiant streak, I decided to read the first of the Princess Diaries novels. I was curious to see what the challenger could find so objectionable in this novel, that my best friend and her kid had both read already, and to see what they pulled from the novel to create the movie.

The closest things to objectionable I could find are as follows

• Mia has a preoccupation with breasts. Not in a homosexual way, mind you, it's just that she doesn't have any and thinks being noticed and landing a boyfriend is determined by cup size. Maybe in high school, that is the case, and I know many girls, even at the middle school level, can identify with Mia's obsession over this issue.
• Mia likes to look out the window at people in her neighborhood, particularly the transsexual who lives across the way. I'm sure some could protest that any slightly homosexual activity or suggestion shouldn't be read by their children, but I'm willing to argue that if people are going to get up in arms because there's a transsexual living across the street from a character in a novel and that's what they're upset about, then they're not looking at the bigger picture -- see the coming-of-ageness of this novel (see me waving my arms around like there's a cauldron in front of me trying to magic people into broader world views).
• Mia comes downstairs one morning to see her algebra teacher in his underwear--mind you, he's dating her mom. There's an implication there of "inappropriate" behavior between two concenting adults. And Mia does make a point to show that her mother is not promiscous and doesn't bring home every Tom and Harry that she goes out with in the interest of her daughter. The only reason Mia caught them is because she decided not to spend the night at her friend's house.

And honestly, that's it. There are other novels I'd be more apt to consider to remove from the collection than this one. And while the book and the movie are wildly different (though I don't think Clarise is painted as as big of a snob as Anne Hathaway suggested in her commentary to the movie), I can see what they drew from and how they adapted the film for the big screen. I can honestly say that I enjoy both the book and the movie equally.

Take that, people who get upset about movie adaptations and how they differ from the novels.

Banned Books

S sent me a list of banned books from FindLaw. Check it out here. Personally, I love reading banned books if only because it says "Ha!" to those people who would challenge anyone's freedom of expression. Censorship is always a touchy issue, and on the real, I'm not sure where I stand, especially when it comes to censorship within the school system. I will admit that I suggested one of my book buddies not read Gregory Maguire's Wicked because I didn't think it was appropriate yet, and I'll also admit that I suggested that Lauren Myracle's ttyl be pulled from our middle school library because I don't think the students are mature enough for it. Here's where I differ from many who censor and challenge books -- I've read them both. I actually very much enjoyed both novels. And if my book buddy were older and wanted to read the novel -- either novel, really -- I'd give it to her without a second thought. I'll tell you this much, I wouldn't suggest a ten-year-old read Chuck Pahlinuck's short story "Guts" from Haunted either (if you want to read the story, read Palahiniuk's essay on it first), but I think he's one of the most fantasic writers I've ever read. Maybe the argument about censorship and how one sits on the issues depends upon the evidence the challenger can present and the background the challenger comes to the table with. Challengers have to understand that while they may not want their children exposed to novels like Rowling's Harry Potter, there are parents (even religious parents) who see more than just the setting of the novel, or who will allow their children the choice to read such novels. Is it fair to deny other people's children the choice? At what point do the interests of one parent for his or her child extend to the interests of other people's children?

Some of the books I've read from the list of most banned in the last century:

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
• The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
• The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
• Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
• Harry Potter (Series), by J.K. Rowling
• James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
• Native Son, by Richard Wright
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
• Where's Waldo?, by Martin Hanford
• Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene

Censorship and Lois Lowry's The Giver

In the “ALA list of most frequently challenged books from 1990-1999” (which in my mind is the perfect reading list), Lois Lowry’s The Giver ranks number eleven, following such titles as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Adventures of Huckelbury Finn, and Bridge to Terabithia. In an article in USA Today (2001), entitled “Suicide book challenged in schools,” the main reason stated for challenging Lowry’s novel is its light treatment of infanticide, suicide and euthanasia.

Censorship is usually a touchy issue when determining what books should be kept on the shelves in a library or in regards to what novels are appropriate to teach to a specific grade level of student. There are issues that may not be deemed appropriate for the school setting. I, myself, recently pulled Lauren Myracle’s ttyl from the shelves of the RMMS library, deeming it unfit for the 7th and 8th graders we serve due to explicit sexual content. Have I read it? Yes. And once I got past the language I thoroughly enjoyed it. Would I put it in the high school library? Yes. The three protagonists have experiences that students can relate to. I will admit that many of my 7th and 8th graders have had these experiences as well, but I still do not believe it to be appropriate for the age group.

Taught in an elementary school, I’m not surprised that The Giver met some tension. I’m not sure students that young are mature enough to deal with the issues of infanticide, suicide and euthanasia that the novel deals with. At the middle school, however, it is a novel that can lead students to form their own opinions on these issues, and have informed arguments amongst themselves about these issues. That is, if the novel is taught.

I disagree with the parent in the USA Today article who suggested that these issues are treated lightly. He did read the novel, but I think he did not internalize the main character’s reaction to the discovery of what releasing really is. The treatment, outside of Jonas’s reaction, is not necessarily lightly. Children are warned not to use release as a joke when chastising another child for an indiscretion.

The novel also brings up issues of conformity and choice, two that are important in the lives of adolescents. They want to be seen as old enough and mature enough to make their own choices, but their choices frequently involve making themselves similar to one another, thus conforming to a norm. Again, if the novel is taught, and not simply given to students to read on their own, the conversations that can be had regarding the thematic ideas in the novel are conversations that can help shape the lives of these adolescents.

Conversation is key.

Denver (AP). Suicide book challenged in schools. In USA Today. (July 20, 2001). Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/2001-07-20-the-giver.htm

Lowry, L. (1993). The Giver. St. Paul, MN: EMC Paradigm Publishing

Myracle, L. (2004). ttyl. New York: Amulet Books.