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Banned Book Week
For those of you just crawling out from under a rock, this week is Banned Book Week. If you are curious, here is a list of commonly banned books. I cannot believe some of these appear on this list, but there you have it. Banned Books Week is important because it reminds us to appreciate the intellectual freedom we have.
I wasn't going to post an entry on Banned Books Week because so many other authors have done such a great job of it, but then I reconsidered. It's just too important to not mention. Super duper amazing teen librarian, Chrissie Morrison, from the East Greenbush Public Library made a super duper amazing display for Banned books Week. Here is a photo of it.
Upon closer inspection, she wrapped certain books in brown paper, wrote BANNED across the front in red and printed different "objectionable subject matter" that appear in that particular book:
Upon closer closer inspection, I noticed this one:
If you can't see the "objectionable" subject matter, it includes gambling, teen sexuality, lying to parents, stealing money and grand theft auto. This is Big Slick to a tee and it reminded me that soft censorship is still censorship. To my knowledge, there has never been a witch hunt against Big Slick. It has never been discussed at a Board of Education meeting. Sarah Palin has never leaned on her local librarian to ban me from their collection. My book has never been tossed into a bonfire along with all the other "sinful" texts of our time.
No, soft censorship is far more insidious. Things like reviews that say I as a person lack a moral compass or bashings on Amazon that have nothing to do with the quality of my work beyond the naughty words or inappropriate subject matter. Soft censorship is an attempt to move attention away from the merits of a work by keeping it out of the hands and minds of people who might benefit from it.
Chris Crutcher said it far better than I ever could:
"When we turn away from tough material in stories that kids face every day in real life, we take ourselves off the short list of people to turn to. Kids would much rather we found ways to discuss those tough issues than to pretend they don't exist. They will always come up in real life, it seems to me we want to be there when they do. Kids say over and over that we don't understand. Why don't we see if we can prove them wrong once in a while?" --Chris Crutcher
So if you are the victim of censorship, even soft censorship, hang in there. If you are a teacher or a librarian fighting the good fight, thank you for everything you do. And if you are an innocent bystander, please take some time during Banned Books Week to reflect upon how fortunate we are for the liberties we enjoy. And if you don't do that, at least go check out "Authors Support Intellectual Freedom" (AS IF!).
I wasn't going to post an entry on Banned Books Week because so many other authors have done such a great job of it, but then I reconsidered. It's just too important to not mention. Super duper amazing teen librarian, Chrissie Morrison, from the East Greenbush Public Library made a super duper amazing display for Banned books Week. Here is a photo of it.
Upon closer inspection, she wrapped certain books in brown paper, wrote BANNED across the front in red and printed different "objectionable subject matter" that appear in that particular book:
Upon closer closer inspection, I noticed this one:
If you can't see the "objectionable" subject matter, it includes gambling, teen sexuality, lying to parents, stealing money and grand theft auto. This is Big Slick to a tee and it reminded me that soft censorship is still censorship. To my knowledge, there has never been a witch hunt against Big Slick. It has never been discussed at a Board of Education meeting. Sarah Palin has never leaned on her local librarian to ban me from their collection. My book has never been tossed into a bonfire along with all the other "sinful" texts of our time.
No, soft censorship is far more insidious. Things like reviews that say I as a person lack a moral compass or bashings on Amazon that have nothing to do with the quality of my work beyond the naughty words or inappropriate subject matter. Soft censorship is an attempt to move attention away from the merits of a work by keeping it out of the hands and minds of people who might benefit from it.
Chris Crutcher said it far better than I ever could:
"When we turn away from tough material in stories that kids face every day in real life, we take ourselves off the short list of people to turn to. Kids would much rather we found ways to discuss those tough issues than to pretend they don't exist. They will always come up in real life, it seems to me we want to be there when they do. Kids say over and over that we don't understand. Why don't we see if we can prove them wrong once in a while?" --Chris Crutcher
So if you are the victim of censorship, even soft censorship, hang in there. If you are a teacher or a librarian fighting the good fight, thank you for everything you do. And if you are an innocent bystander, please take some time during Banned Books Week to reflect upon how fortunate we are for the liberties we enjoy. And if you don't do that, at least go check out "Authors Support Intellectual Freedom" (AS IF!).