Mark Your Calendars:

Banned Book Week

The other day when I was buying books for my family and myself, I got into a discussion about books from my childhood that I've subsequently read aloud to my children. This led to a discussion of banned books beginning with A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle which falls in at number 22 on the top 100 challenged books from 1990 to 2000. Conservatives were threatened by the witchery and pagan discussion in the book, but interestingly, I find the whole series to be deeply Christian, which allowed the Jewish Rabbit family the opportunity to have theological discussions on the use of religious metaphor.

Looking at the list, I am pleased to see how many of them we've read separately or together, including To Kill A Mockingbird, which we are currently reading. It is fascinating that a whole culture of people is willing to censor some really great works of literature (though they can have Ulysses as far as I'm concerned) but have no qualms about putting up a website like this one where someone is actually advocating lynching. Ironic, eh?

So go out there and read Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye, Captain Underpants, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Slaughterhouse Five and celebrate intellectual freedom.