The Parthenon of Books/Homage to Democracy, Buenos Aires, December 1983, by Marta Minujín
What’s interesting about the conceptual sculpture in the photo is that it was made of books that had been banned by Argentina’s recently-overthrown junta. The sculpture stood in a downtown Buenos Aires square for three weeks, after which the public was invited to dismantle it … and keep the books. How cool is that? More info here.
Here are some interesting graphs from the American Library Association, breaking out in visual form book challenges by year, reason, initiator, and institution.
I’ve linked to so many newspaper articles about parents challenging books on school reading lists, I’m almost ready to give up. They just keep coming. This one stands out, though, because it goes into such detail. It’s from Canada, and involves a parental challenge to Timothy Findley’s The Wars.
I started a personal banned books project in 2009, reading & reviewing famous banned books I hadn’t previously read. I recently several volumes to my to-read list, a mixture of adult and young adult books that have been the subject of parental challenges at schools around the country. Over the next year or so I’ll be reading and reviewing these:
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Lush, by Natasha Friend
- Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
- What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
- Revolutionary Voices, by Amy Sonnie
… and, lest I be accused of neglecting Canada,
- The Wars, by Timothy Findley
© 2011, Paul Woodford. All rights reserved.
