You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic roundup of news about banned and challenged books. I thought this article about the still-widespread opposition to ebooks was interesting, particularly this paragraph: Add to that the e-book’s ease of transport, its international vocation (could the Iron Curtain have kept out e-books?), its indestructibility (you can’t burn e-books), […]

You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic roundup of news about banned and challenged books. Right on the heels of the racially-motivated confiscation and banning of textbooks in Tucson schools (see my previous posts, here and here) comes SB 1467, a bill before the Arizona state legislature that will require teachers to limit their speech […]

You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books. My local school district in Tucson, Arizona is at the center of a growing national and international scandal over the racially-motivated confiscation and banning of textbooks, novels, and plays.  I wrote about the district’s actions here and here.  To reach […]

You Can’t Read That! Fahrenheit 451 in Tucson, Continued

Two days ago I wrote about the cancellation of Mexican American and Native American Studies classes in Tucson high schools, and the large-scale book banning that followed. Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) officials confiscated books and other materials used in the cancelled classes, boxed them, and shipped them to a storage facility.  Local, national, and […]

You Can’t Read That! Arizona Temperature Soars to Fahrenheit 451

In May 2010 Arizona banned the teaching of ethnic studies in the state’s public school classrooms, specifically targeting Mexican-American and Native American studies. The new law forbid elementary and secondary schools to conduct classes “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or that advocated “the overthrow of the United States government” and “resentment […]

You Can’t Read That!

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 […]

You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books. They changed Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn to get rid of a word everyone used in the 1880s.  They they went after Tintin in the Congo for drawings that reflected 1930s racial stereotypes.  Now they’re going after another notorious racist … […]

You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books. 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 […]