You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books.
From Tintin in the Congo, 1931
Apparently the problem some Americans have with Huckleberry Finn affects Belgians as well. They were actually going to ban a Tintin book written in 1931 on grounds of racism … thankfully, a court has intervened.
The manager of a Michigan country club canceled a scheduled appearance by Richard Dawkins after discovering the famous atheist is, uh, an atheist.
Lucretius wrote On the Nature of Things and changed the world … in spite of the fact that his work has been banned at nearly every juncture of history.
Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s, a policeman entered the Chelmsford Massachusetts public library and demanded the librarian hand over all books by Jack Kerouac on the grounds that they were “unfit.” Read the rest.
Hooray: the Glendale California school board okays the continued reading of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.
Boo: the Brookfield Connecticut school board is considering banning Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.
Hooray, boo, hiss: the Charlestown South Carolina school isn’t banning Bret Lott’s The Hunt Club after all, but is considering a plan to make teachers notify parents whenever “adult-themed” books are to be taught. What do you think most teachers will do? I’ll take a guess … they won’t assign The Hunt Club.
I don’t usually include book banning news from outside the Americas, but since I led off with Belgium, here are two interesting stories from England:
- 80 Year Old Dickens Rift is Lifted as Banned Book Returns to Library
- Books by teen spy author Robert Muchamore banned at Highgate School
© 2011, Paul Woodford. All rights reserved.
