Banned Book Challenge Completed

I finished the Banned Book Challenge sponsored by Elaine at Farenheit 451. Like with the other challenges, I completed several books that have been waiting for ages to be read. It thrills me to pull some from the bottom of my book pile out - many neglected and almost forgot.

Here's the list of completed banned books. Click on the title to go to my review.
1. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
2. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
3. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
4. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
6. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
7. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
8. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Thoroughly enjoyed all but The House of Spirits. Thanks, Elaine. It's been a great challenge.

A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle
It such a good feeling to finally read a book that has been on The List for ages and ages. Thanks to a couple of challenges it finally became pressing to read it.

A Wrinkle in Time is not as subtle with it's Christian teachings as The Chronicles of Narnia and I doubt it would receive a Newbery Award in today's world, so I'm glad it was written when it was. The main theme is the battle of good vs. evil and, in the end, good is triumphant. Woven into the main theme are the ideas of reliance on others, expectations, going it alone, love, family, etc. One of my favorites is the idea that some of the parts of our personalities we regard as weaknesses can become the very strengths we need to succeed.

A favorite quote:

Mrs Whatisit: A sonnet is a very strict form of poetry is it not? There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes? And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?

Calvin: You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?

Mrs Whatsit: Yes. You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you.

Bridge to Terabithia

by Katherine Paterson
I decided I needed to reread this book when I saw the advertisements on TV for the movie. The ads didn't look familiar to me. I decided I didn't remember a thing about the book. Not true. I did remember the story pretty well. I still haven't seen the movie, but I can tell it played up certain parts of the book to the extreme. Having reread the book, I will probably watch the movie one of these days.

Speaking of memories - There was something in the first third of the book that caused me to ask if Bridge to Terabithia was on any challenged or banned book lists. I don't remember what it was, but I did check the ALA's 100 most challenged books of 1990-2000 and Terabithia was ninth on the list. So, even though I didn't originally have it on my Banned Books Challenge, I am adding it. This is also the first of my Newbery Awards Challenge books. I think it's a wonderful book.

The House of Spirits

by Isabel Allende
I have read Zorro and Daughter of Fortune by Allende and enjoyed them. When I saw The House of Spirits on the Banned/Challenged Book list I decided to read it for the Banned Book Challenge. I expected it to be good. It was not! I would have quit reading it around page 100 but I was reading it for two other challenges - the Chunkster Challenge and the TBR Challenge. Besides another blogger highly recommended it. And it was one of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

Over 400 pages of drama, love, lies, relationships, dictators and mystics and yet, the book never engaged my emotions. I never really cared about the characters or the story. I have tried to figure out how this story could be told and not engage the reader. What was it specifically that Allende did or didn't do that made this story so unpassionate? I can't come up with the answer.

There were times when she would be describing someone and I would have a picture in my mind and then she would write something that jarred with the picture. A contradiction of what she had just described. For instance, on page 179 Estaban Trueba was describing himself - "I was as strong and as healthy as I'd been as a young man. I could spend the whole day horseback riding, sleep anywhere . . . " He mentions he didn't have an ounce of fat on him. Only 1 1/2 pages later he says, "I no longer had the strength to grab a sturdy peasant girl by the waist and swing her up onto my saddle, much less rip her clothes off and enter her against her will." I didn't make a note of the other times this happened, but I did think several times, "Where was the editor?"

One passage I liked: "Clara believed that by giving problems a name they tended to manifest themselves, and then it was impossible to ignore them; whereas if they remained in the limbo of unspoken words, they could disappear by themselves, with the passage of time." My mother tried to teach me this concept - that sometimes it's better to leave some things unsaid, because once they are spoken you can't take them back. I think there are definitely times people need to communicate to solve problems, but I also thing there are times, probably many times, when something should be left unspoken so we don't wound with our words. If left unspoken, that harmful thought can just dissipate.

At another point in the book Clara was talking to Alba about some of the mentally handicap children Blanca helped. "In almost every family there's a fool or a crazy person." "But there's no one like that in our family," replied Clara. "No. Here the madness was divided up equally, and there was nothing left over for us to have our own lunatic." That last comment made me smile.

Well, that book is over with. Done. Sigh of relief!

Bumps in the Night

by Harry Allard
While the rest of the readers in the blogosphere are reading thoughtful and challenging books, this blogger steps away from the pack to read a banned booked intended for children ages 5 to 8.

I can see why Bumps has been challenged and banned. It is not a book I would choose to read to my grandson who is 5 yrs old. It's about Dudley the Stroke who moves into a haunted house. His best friend, tells him there are mediums who can talk to ghosts. So they hold a seance where the famous Mrs. Kreepy and her assistant, Lazlo Frog preside.

"Madam Kreepy began to make gurgling sounds in the back of her throat. 'Madam Kreepy is now in a trance,' said Lazlo.' 'Did you say Mrs. Creeper lost her pants?' Grandpa Python asked in a loud whisper." (there are some cute moments)

Anyway a horse's head appears behind Mrs. Kreepy. From then on whenever Dudley couldn't sleep he would visit with the horse who used to live in his house.

I'm all for imagination and books that help to put childish fears to rest, but I think the thoughts of sitting around a table holding hands and conjuring up the dead would be frightening to someone so young. As a parent/grandparent this is NOT a book I would bring home, but I'm not going to try to take away someone else's right to read it. I wondered if in some cases the book may have been challenged by the psychic community who objected to naming the medium Mrs Kreepy!

Sendak and Seuss

I chose a few children's books for my Banned Book Challenge: In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

In the Night Kitchen has been banned by many schools due to the nudity of the main character who is a young toddler named Mickey. Some librarians have reportedly used black marker to draw shorts on him and others have used white-out to draw diapers.

Searching the internet, you can find out all sorts of symbolism attached to the images and activities. Some are pretty far out. I thought it was an okay book, nothing great. If you are looking for male nudity in a kids book, my suggestion for a delightful story is Tub Toys by Terry Shannon and Timothy Warner, illustrated by Lee Calderon. The grandkids love it and Papa, Grandma and all the aunts love reading it to them.

I was really on a speed-reading roll today, so I went ahead and read The Lorax, too. I was really pushing myself, I know! The Lorax was banned in the Laytonville, California School District on grounds that this book "criminalizes the forestry industry." This cautionary tale chronicles the plight of the environment against the greedy Once-ler who cuts down all the Truffula trees to knit Thneeds from their soft tufts. Originally published in 1971 it's the only Dr. Seuss banned from school curricula across the US. Of course, as the country became more environmentally-friendly The Lorax has been incorporated into many lesson plans.

Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes
This is my 1960's Decade Challenge book. I've wanted to read it ever since 1968 when I saw the movie Charly that was based on this book. The movie starred Cliff Robertson in the starring role as Charly Gordon, a mentally retarded man in his 30's. I thought Robertson did an awesome job. Now that I've read the book, my next movie from Netflix is Charly. It will be interesting to see how the movie and book compare. My gosh, the movie was nearly 40 years ago (and I'm only 28. How does that happen?!)

Charly has an IQ of 70, but he is anxious to learn and works very hard in his classes for the mentally retarded. He has a job at a bakery running errands and cleaning. It's a job he loves and there are people there who are his friends. All this is about to change when Charly is selected for an experimental operation that may raise his intelligence. The same procedure has been very successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

The book is written as a series of Project Reports by Charly himself, starting before the operation and continuing for 7-8 months afterwards. The first entries capture Charly's innocence and fear and his desire to be smart. The entries are fraught with misspelled words and reveal Charly's low intellect. As the operation proves to be a success we follow Charly's rapid rise in intelligence. He peaks with an IQ of 185, above that of the scientists behind the experiment.

Charly's emotional growth does not keep pace with his intellectual development. Memories from his childhood were now accessible to him in vivid detail and he has to try to deal with them. There are other things he's not emotionally ready to handle, such as relationships, especially those with women.

I'm glad I read Flowers for Algernon and highly recommend it. If you're looking for a mild science fiction that's interesting and quick to read, with emotional charge, this is a perfect choice.

In addition tocounting for the By the Decades Challenge, Flowers for Algernon also counts for the Banned Books and the TBR challenge.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving
Some books are harder to read than others; some books have a bigger payback than others. Even though it took me 15 days to read this book and there were times I thought I'd never finish, I really enjoyed A Prayer for Owen Meany.

The main character, Owen Meany, is unforgettable. Everything about Owen grabs your attention: his size, HIS VOICE, his determination, his faith, his life and his death. Owen's best friend, the narrator, plays a supporting role in the story and, even though he seems bland, he is very necessary to the story and to Owen's life and heroism.

This book has 'classic' written all over it. Irving is an excellent writer. At one point in the book Owen tells his best friend, ". . . any good book is always in motion - from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole, and back again. Good reading - and good writing about reading - moves the same way." Irving writes like that. From the first sentence we know that Owen was instrumental in his best friend's mother's death. The specifics come later. Early on we learn that Owen Meany is going to die, but we don't learn the specifics until the last few pages of the book.

A few passages that I made note of. There are quite a few. Don't feel like you have to read them all. I write these because I want to read over them again someday, not to bore people.

We don't enjoy giving directions in New Hampshire - we tend to think that if you don't know where you're going, you don't belong where you are.

Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you.

Mr. Merrill was most appealing because he reassured us that doubt was the essence of faith, and not faith's opposite.

Rev. Mr. Wiggin's sermons were about as entertaining and convincing as a pilot's voice in the intercom, explaining technical difficulties while the plane plummets toward the earth and the stewardesses are screaming.

They were a couple with a theme - sadly, it was their only theme, and a small theme, and they overplayed it. (we all know people like this, don't we?)

What do Americans know about morality? They don't want their presidents to have penises but they don't mind if their presidents covertly arrange to support the Nicaraguan rebel forces after Congress has restricted such aid; they don't want their president to deceive their wives but they don't mind if their presidents deceive Congress - lie to the people and violate the people's constitution!

THE DISCIPLES ARE STUPID - THEY NEVER UNDERSTAND WHAT JESUS MEANS, THEY'RE A BUNCH OF BUNGLERS, THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD AS MUCH AS THEY WANT TO BELIEVE, AND THEY EVEN BETRAY JESUS. THE POINT IS, GOD DOESN'T LOVE US BECAUSE WE'RE SMART OR BECAUSE WE'RE GOOD. WE'RE STUPID AND WE'RE BAD AND GOD LOVES US ANYWAY. (This is Owen speaking. He always speaks in capital letters because he has a unique, gravely voice.)

This is a NY Times Newspaper heading, May 30, 1987.
Reagan Declares
Firmness on Gulf;
Plans Are Unclear

Thanks to my daughter, Alyson, for recommending this book. It took me a while, but I finally got to it. I can see why it's your favorite - so much symbolism, foreshadowing, meaty characters, and very good writing. There is a lot to think about with this book. And I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

Celebrate Freedom by Reading a Banned Book

Here are some terrific sites where you can learn more about banned or challenged books.

Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books - Elaine Anderson, who works at the Pelham Public Library in Ontario, Canada hosts this blog which discusses banned books. She has some fun posters you can add to your site, such as the one at the bottom. At the top of her sidebar you can join the Banned Book Challenge, which is to read as many banned or challenged books as you wish between Feb 26 and June 30, 2007. I know we are all about challenged out, but this is one I can't pass up. I think I can readjust some of the books in my other challenges to work in with this one.

The Freedom to Read - This is a Canadian site that offers clip art, posters and suggestions for participating in the freedom of reading.

The Forbidden Library - This site is in conjunction with amason.com and lists banned and challenged books by alphabetically by title or by author. A great source to pick books from for the Banned Book Challenge. It also provides Censorship quotes like this one: "The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion..."
-- Henry Steel Commager

ALA - American Library Association sponsors their banned book week in Sept. It has a section on Intellectual Freedom, posters, etc.

100 Most Frequently Challenged Books (1990-2000) - A list put together by ALA.