Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I've never been one to put mental effort into creating a New Year's resolution. But something has been on my mind lately, and it should be on the minds of everyone here on Constant Readers and Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ: the pernicious increase in book banning.

PEN America reports that over 10,000 unique titles were banned or proposed for banning in a school district in the US in the 2023-24 school year, a record high.

The reasons vary, but the idea of it sickens me. So I have decided to read at least 1 book a month that has been proposed for banning. Many of the books are Classics, and I have already read them. So I'm going to try to go for books that are new to me.

Also, a couple of months ago on our monthly Zoom call, Steve mentioned the book The 1619 Project. (It's definitely banned.) He mentioned that he was able to dip into the book anywhere and get something of value. This rang a bell for me since I own 1619, having asked for it for Christmas, then I got busy with other things. Well I plan to follow Steve's idea, and read and post here on what I learn from finally getting to that book.

Anyone can join me here. I'll let you know what banned book I am reading of plan to read and link you to my review. I'll also write about 1619. Discussions are welcome.

Our lively discussion of banned books in the Zoom session is tempting me to follow your lead, Mary Anne. The 1619 Project interests me - I recall listening to a long piece about it on NPR when it first came out but haven't ever followed up.

Just FYI.. I have a friend who gave each of her grandchildren, ranging in age from 11-23, a banned book for Christmas � one that she has read and feels is age-appropriate for the recipient. She wrapped the books in white paper “decorated� with a red circle with the customary crossed-out line. She plans to nag if necessary. Upon completion of reading their book, each grandchild gets a date with grandma � activity of their choice � to discuss their assigned book.

A worthy project. I’ll try to hoist myself out of the escapist reading pit I’ve been in for several years and join you.

And that was a great discussion we had today.

Mary, I love your friend's creative gifts to her grandchildren. And the motivation for the discussions. I recently reviewed a list of the most banned children's/YA titles from the past decade, and my 13 year old son and I were really puzzled why those we were familiar with were even on there. We had read many of them. I loved seeing my son's reaction when finding some of his sentimental favorites from his younger years were considered inappropriate or harmful to any audience. It made me feel better knowing that he naturally reacted the way he did, shaking his head that some people are close-minded, or feel so threatened by those different than themselves, whom they don't take the opportunity to learn from and understand, that they want to restrict exposure to the way others live in the same world.

Mary wrote: "Just FYI.. I have a friend who gave each of her grandchildren, ranging in age from 11-23, a banned book for Christmas � one that she has read and feels is age-appropriate for the recipient. She wra..."

I love that! It has inspired me to go through my old books and do the same for my 13yo (found 4 banned titles so far!).

My too! And I really loved that wrapping idea! So clever, Imma have to steal it at some point.

Great ideas!

Mary, I also like the gift idea. You will be ensuring that additional people will be engaged in this issue.

I am going to start off by reading Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. I am very fortunate to live about 5 blocks from the main branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. They have copies of this book on hand, one in the general stacks and one in the teen section. It was Morrison's first book. Five of her books have been banned somewhere.

We did something unusual and delightful this past Saturday. We went to a poetry tea sponsored by the Dallas Literary Society where each person read a poem they loved. We had quite a variety from T.S. Elliott to Shakespeare to Barbara Kingsolver. Someone even read lyrics from Bob Dylan. I hope they plan more of these events because it was a great afternoon.

My almost 12 year old granddaughter is fascinated with this book banning topic. I think it began when she found out that her favorite book, The Giver had been banned in many places. Recently, one of her class assignments was to pick a famous person and communicate in that person's voice for the next few months. We started talking about S.E. Hinton and she was very interested in the fact that Hinton started writing The Outsiders when she was 15. I think that is partly because my granddaughter writes all the time herself. That weekend, she went out and bought the book which made me realize that I had seen the movie, but never read the book even though it was one of my oldest son's favorites.
I found a great audiobook production of it from Libby at my library and am almost finished. It is such a good book and exactly what young people, and all people actually, need in terms of looking at why other cultures do what they do. And, in this case, the cultures have to do with economics and not where the people were born. I've read the reasons for banning it and am amazed at how little credit kids are getting for their own discernment.

I highly recommend that you put this on your banned books read list.

My son's 8th grade class read The Outsiders to kick off their school year. The teacher read aloud most parts, and they read some on their own. They then watched the movie over a few days. He absolutely loved it, and it holds up so well across the generations. They also got a kick out of seeing some actors familiar to them (Tom Cruise - Top Gun, Mission Impossible, and Emilio Estevez - The Mighty Ducks, and Ralph Macchio - Karate Kid) in much different roles at a younger time in their lives.

Thanks for reminding me, Molly. I really need to watch that movie with my granddaughter. I had forgotten all of the young actors who were in it.

The first book I read in this "banned book" endeavor is Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

Here's the link to my review: /review/show...

Mary Anne wrote: "The first book I read in this "banned book" endeavor is Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

Here's the link to my review: /review/show..."

I read that book a few years ago and found it to be very disturbing but also very good.