You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books.
Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings was challenged in Canton, Michigan in 1987 on the grounds that the book “details the teachings of the religion of Buddhism in such a way that the reader could very likely embrace its teachings and choose this as his religion.” Well, let’s hear it for honesty!
Retail censorship: The Brick Bible, a graphic retelling of Bible stories using Lego figures, is too sexy for Sam’s Club.
A great essay on parental involvement in childrens’ reading by Simcha Fisher: Dangerous Books for Teenage Girls.
When times are hard, books about hard times are banned and their authors reviled as communists. Just look at Barbara Ehrenreich and her book Nickel and Dimed. Just look at John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath.
I don’t normally link to banned book news from countries outside the Americas, but this story from Wellington, New Zealand, is fascinating. Ditto this story from the UK, which should also be of interest to readers of spy fiction.
Back to our own continent, where we belong: is Canada a better protector of intellectual freedom than the USA?
I never knew the novel Snow Falling on Cedars has been the subject of challenges and banning attempts in the USA and Canada. Now that I do know, I’ll read it … and review it here in a future column.
With so many young adult books being challenged and pulled from school reading lists and library shelves around the USA, I suppose it was only a matter of time before YA authors started writing books where the heroes are kids trying to protect the freedom to read.
And finally, a video stocking-stuffer featuring some of the banned and challenged authors I read and blog about: