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<\/p>\nYou Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books.<\/p>\n
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ArIzona:<\/strong><\/p>\n At least one Tucson Unified School District supervisor is embarrassed by the national and international furor over book-banning<\/a>. \u00a0The funny thing is that he’s one of the persons responsible.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, activists continue to push back. \u00a0It’s Tucson Freedom Summer<\/a>!<\/p>\n Nice video:<\/p>\n [youtube width=”500″ height=”405″]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_Su3YU9KDs4[\/youtube]<\/p>\n Elsewhere:<\/strong><\/p>\n “In Canada and the U.S. there are both right wing and left wing book banners.” \u00a0False equivalence? Not really, I’m ashamed to admit. Interesting essay<\/a> on book banning efforts in North America.<\/p>\n Literature dealing with hot-button topics such as AIDS and child abuse are okay for classroom use … so long as those works have happy endings. \u00a0These are the rules<\/a>, according to the administrative board of the Fremont Unified School District in California.<\/p>\n <\/a>More on Fremont, California:\u00a0book banning in a blue district<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our Republican friends are always reciting talking points. \u00a0Here are some talking points we can use to defend the books we love<\/a>, courtesy of the American Library Association.<\/p>\n Last month it was Texas<\/a>. \u00a0This month it’s Tennessee<\/a>, where tea partiers are lobbying for depressingly predictable changes to school textbooks.<\/p>\n Banning Teh Gay: a slide show of 16 banned & challenged books<\/a> with gay themes or elements, along with brief descriptions of the challenges filed against them.<\/p>\n Now this sounds like my kind of library<\/a>!<\/p>\n Vatican bans book, sales go up<\/a> … you’d think they’d learn.<\/p>\n It’s interesting to compare the British list<\/a> of banned books with the American list<\/a>.<\/p>\n This recap of book challenges in Missouri<\/a> is interesting and revealing. \u00a0That Missouri is my natal state makes it cringeworthy as well.<\/p>\n Sadly, last year’s teabagger-inspired book banning battle in Missouri has had its intended effect<\/a>: school librarians have knuckled under (this is the saddest article I’ve read in three years of doing these columns).<\/p>\n