The lead story:
But really, why not bowdlerize Twain? Christians read a truncated version of the bible. Southerners have their own version of Civil War history. Schoolkids in Texas learn about an America that never was. What else is new?
So . . . on to more banned book news!
I asked once before whether a rating system for childrens’ books, something like the movie rating system we’re all familiar with, might calm overprotective parents. This columnist wants a book rating system, but he wants to allow only G-rated books in elementary school libraries, up to PG in junior high libraries, and up to R in high school libraries. That still sounds like book-banning to me. All books should be there, but with the more adult-rated books on separate shelves, with some kind of parental-approval check on the rating level of books individual children are allowed to check out.
In an earlier banned book news roundup, I linked to this article by Kristy Colley, which, on my initial reading, seemed to accuse the American Library Association of censoring books with pro-heterosexual themes. She contacted me via Twitter to tell me it was more of an academic he said/she said article, and that it did not express her personal opinion. I apologize for misreading the article.
A sobering thought about rise of e-readers and e-books (quote follows in case the link goes dead):
The day will come when paper books are banned. Then the sinister intent behind “Kindle” will be understood; with the controllers of the information age having long since erased intellectual freedom in the digital realm (it’s going away right now), E-books will be “burned” by being censored instantly at will, or even removed from the database. Then the fascists will have the total control over history they currently demonstrably seek.
Technology is going to become your worst nightmare.
“Kindle”? Indeed.
Crazy? Remember where you read this in 20 years.
Posted to a Q&A forum: “How can I get a book banned?” Shhhh! Nobody answer!
Here’s a list of the top ten banned science fiction books. For me, there’s only one surprise here, Shade’s Children by Garth Nix. A banned sci-fi book I haven’t heard of before? You know what my next Nook download’s gonna be!