It's the Most Ridiculous Time of the Year...

Hey, it's almost Banned Books Week, and you know what that means - time for the loonies to come out of the woodwork and tell you what you can and cannot read*! We hate to be left out, so here are a few books you should absolutely NOT** read:

First in the news this week is this article, a nicely slanted and wildly inaccurate diatribe against several fantastic books. What's especially 'encouraging' about this article is that the school board is LISTENING to this guy. Here is Laurie Halse Anderson's response. Of course, we know we can't trust HER, she wrote one of them! It's not as if we like any of her stuff anyway.

Anderson mentions the next book for your burn pile, The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. This book has been banned by the wise folks on the Stockton (MO) school board, not just from the school curriculum, but from its library as well. Because it contains profanity. And teenagers have never heard profanity. And it's not as if it's realistic. In an autobiography. Of a teenager.

Hey, but we don't want you to think we can't come up with idiocy on our own! No, sir, we can be quite the loons all by ourselves.

We just finished:

 - the sequel to "Streams of Babel", which we swooned over. You certainly mustn't read either book. Two of the main characters, minors, are involved with hacking computers and spying. They are completely (albeit justifiably) disrespectful to some of the adults in their lives. In this sequel, they have dropped out of school and are living pretty much alone, with just a nurse to somewhat-supervise them. And then there are the four teens infected with a terrible virus by bioterrorists, not related to each other, living under the same roof, again with basically just a nurse around. WAY too much talk of ways germs can spread, if yaknowwhaddamean. Because, you know, we shouldn't expect hormones to be a topic of thought or discussion for teenagers. These kids also don't listen to the adults around them. They really should just sit back and watch TV, and let the big people take care of the terrorists. Who may still be interested in them, btw. Very interested.

We all know the government has only our best interests at heart, and we certainly don't want children reading about subversive adults, so stay away from:

Rachel and her mother live on "The Property", an estate where her mother works as a sort of housekeeper, located dangerously close to "The Line". The Line is a force field, part of the National Border Defense System, keeping the bad things out of the country and the good things in. At least, that is what everyone has been told.

Rachel, of course, can't leave well enough alone, especially when she receives what may be a message from the other side of the Line. What is with all these teens who refuse to blindly follow adults' instructions? If this trend continues, we will have a generation of young people who think for themselves, and are willing to accept the consequences if they are wrong. We can't have that, can we?!

Goodness, there are just so many books out there that people shouldn't read***. We may have to just cover a few each day, knowing we will only hit the tip of the iceberg.

In the meantime, and in all seriousness, here is our take on books with non-Pollyanna content - and this is our take, not that of the establishment in which we reside, blah, blah, blah.

Parents have the right to have a say in what their kids do or do not read. They are their parents. They do NOT have the right to decide what other kids do and do not read. They are not their parents.

Digging ourselves slightly deeper...If a teacher feels strongly enough about the merits of a challenged bok that he still wants to use it in a required class, then he should provide students a different option if their parents want one. Parents in such circumstances should be willing to stop with what their child is reading, and not insist that everyone in class read the same thing (and with the millions of great books out there, why should they all read the same thing? If your goal is class discussion, why not offer three or four books on the same topic, and let the kids compare?)

Of course, there are always those people who will complain about any book. In our library alone, we have had patrons who objected to books with: talking animals, romance of any sort, magic, religious content, defiance against parents or other authority figures, violence, mention of the Holocaust, and death of a person or animal. If the subject of the class is, say, the Civil War, you are going to have trouble finding good quality books don't contain one or more of the above. How do we draw the line between a parent's rights concerning their own child, and where those rights infringe on other students' rights? Your thoughts?

* If you do not 'get' sarcasm, please stop reading here.

** unless, of course, you prefer to think for yourself and make your own informed choices. In which case, carry on.

*** One of the commentors on one of the above articles seems to be under the impression that the ALA's list of banned books is there so that people will know what books to take out of their libraries. Aaargh! And again we say, aaargh!!!

Nonfiction Monday: Thank-you, Sarah! The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Not a brand new book, but not so old that the link shouldn't have a picture on Amazon - a little disappointed here. Not disappointed in the book at all, however. We ran across this little gem when looking to update our Thanksgiving collection. It arrived, was processed, and a day later we had a young lady in, wanting to know if we had any books about Sarah Hale for the report she was doing. Every once in a while, librarians get to look absolutely brilliant when they can say, "Why yes, right over there on the new books shelf, bottom row, third book in."

In addition to offering us our brief moment of serendipity, Thank-you Sarah is a perfect combination of humor and history, challenging the idea that biographies about dead people must be serious and boring (we don't know who exactly it is that subscribes to that idea, but they sure do write a lot of books). Our young patron and her mother were at first skeptical about the value of a picture book, but lit up when they saw the copious (and interesting!) notes in the back, and we are sure once they took the book home and read it, they were happy with the story as well.

A must-have for any classroom or library, and a fun read for any age. While you are at it, hop on over to Anderson's blog and check out some of her video entries - this book reads exactly like she talks! Then skip over here for reviews of some more great nonfiction books.

A Note on Laurie Halse Anderson from Fegan

I love me a good historical fiction novel, and a couple weeks ago Miss Ami reviewed Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. The sequel, Forge, is due out this fall.

Any good historical fiction writer does his or her research, but some get more into it than others. As a sun (or at least heat lamp) worshipper, I am in awe of this post from her Facebook page. I don't know if you have to be on her friends list to read it, but it is not yet on her blog page. Now that's dedication! I am going to go toast my toesies under the heat lamp, because she has made me feel the chill of Valley Forge!

Retro Tuesday: Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, reviewed by Miss Ami

As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

Okay, not really retro, since it was published in 2008. Out long enough, however, that we SHOULD be checking out the promised sequel, Forge, by now. It looks like we will have to wait until October of 2010, unfortunately. Two years??? Come on, woman, enough with the Vet Volunteers, Sal has been stuck on that icy river long enough!

Sorry, put that down to pregnancy hormones. Or the fact that I just spent 300 pages engrossed in the lives of these very real characters, and now I have to wait to find out what happens to them.

"Real" is an excellent way to describe the entire book: with as much historical fiction as there is out there about the American Revolution, I don't think I've seen too many set in New York, which gives it a fresh angle. The best part, however, is the characters. They are all allowed to be real people, neither all good nor all bad. Decisions of which side to be on are not always made simply, and not always for the most altruistic motives. The Patriots are not always portrayed as saints, nor the British as evil, and the way both sides treated - and took advantage of - slaves and former slaves is not glossed over.

After you read this one, and while you are waiting for Forge, check out Anderson's blog, which we just added to the ones we follow. Somehow, even though I was terribly shy myself at one time, it always comes as a shock to hear the authors of such fantastic books declare themselves introverts! It always seems like they should have a personality as strong and forceful as their work.

Retro Tuesday: Prom, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Continuing my browse along the YA shelves, I came to Laurie Halse Anderson. Okay, I've read Speak, read Catalyst, read parts of Wintergirls (couldn't get into it)...wait, Prom? "Ashley Hannigan doesn't particularly care about the prom...finds herself roped into...making the prom happen..." Huh? Laurie Halse Anderson wrote a frou-frou YA novel?

Not exactly. The jacket description does not quite give the true tone of the book. It is definitely not as dark as some of her other books, but much, much smarter than her "Vet Volunteers" series, which we will not discuss here. A quote from Chapter 3 (which starts on page 1 - these are some seriously short chapters):

"Every kid who was in that fifth-grade class with me was graduating, except for the three who were in jail, the two who kept having babies, the one who ran away, and the two crack whores."

Okay, not "Princess Diaries" material. This isn't a tomboy-turns-prom-queen story, and while things do turn out a little too patly (is that a word?) at the end, there was enough real life and humor to have me sneaking reads in between lunch hours. Ashley doesn't HATE prom, she can see that it is important to several of her friends and understands why it is, she just has no real use for it herself. When a couple different disasters strike, it is mostly her concern for her friends that results in her helping with, then basically organizing the entire prom which she has no intention of actually attending.

Most of the characters are rather two-dimensional, but entertaining. Ashley's intelligence and her insight into how to deal with the people around her, from administrators to custodians to crazy Russian grandmothers, doesn't quite explain why she puts up with the loser boyfriend for so long - but then, that might be the most realistic part of the story. Of course, dear readers, none of US have ever stuck with a hot guy longer than we should have, but we've shaken our heads at other mismatched relationships, haven't we? It happens.

Not one of Anderson's best, but an entertaining read. We'll be passing it on to the teen at home once she finishes the huge stack of books she got for Christmas (i.e., tomorrow).