Write It Now! Competitions
For Teachers and Librarians
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 America (The Book)
by Jon Stewart
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
and the Associated Press
January 9, 2005
Read the full article here.
After 40-years as a librarian, Robert Willitis, director of the Jackson-George Regional Library System of eight libraries in Jackson and George counties of Mississippi has pulled his first title out of circulation. Jon Stewart's AMERICA (THE BOOK) is the object of his outrage.
"We're not an adult bookstore," Willitis said in an Associated Press report January 9. "Our entire collection is open to the entire public. If they had published the book without that one picture, that one page, we'd have the book."
The book's satirical nude representation of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices convinced Willitis to break is perfect record. Walmart mirrored the librarian's objection and refused to carry the book for the same reason.
To communicate with Robert Willitis, email
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Library system website: http://www.jgrl.lib.ms.us/
UPDATE
According to an API report, The Jackson-George Regional Library System Board of Trustees in Gulfport, Mississippi, reversed their ban and put AMERICA back on the shelves after public outcry, both local and national.
"We have come under intense scrutiny by the outside community," said David Ables, board chairman. "We don't decide for the community whether to read this book or not, but whether to make it available."
Robert Willits, the library system director, said Tuesday that the board members acted promptly and fittingly.
"There were 12 to 15 people in the audience and most spoke up in defense of the book," he said. "The board responds to community input and they made that decision." He said majority of the messages criticizing the move came from out of state. "We got some absolutely nasty e-mails and telephone calls that you would not believe," Willits said. "We were communists and fascists at the same time."
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 Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
Fosters Online/The Democrat
January 4, 2005
http://www4.fosters.com/January2005/01.04.05/news/mn_nb0104a.asp
North Berwick, Maine considered a question decades old on January 6, 2005, though parents Andrea and Mike Minnon still see it as painfully relavant. Should J.D. Salinger's 1951 coming-of-age novel CATCHER IN THE RYE remain on high school library shelves, or should it be banned as "trash" due to parental concerns?
First challenged by the Minnon's -- who's 14-year-old son Spencer attends the district's Noble High School -- on December 3, an 11-member Educational Review Committee voted unanimously to retain the book as Freshman curriculum on December 17. But the School Administrative District 60 Board of Directors were scheduled to make their final ruling on January 6.
Although the book was expected to win approval, Director Beth O'Connor was vocal in her opposition. According to the Democrat Staff Writer Adam D. Krauss, the Berwick representative believed book’s use contradicted the district’s policy that forbids profanity, smoking and drinking on school campus — behavior 16-year-old protagonist Holden Caulfield displays and the Minnons object to.
To contact Superintendent Paul J. Andrade, email
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To contact reporter Adam Krauss, email
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Read University of Southern Maine Professor Joyce Martin's excellent editorial about the challenge of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE in the Press Herald Online, "Choice of Books a Matter of Good vs. Good," here.
UPDATE
By a 7-1 vote, School Administrative District 60 Board of Directors decided to continue having freshman read J.D. Salinger’s 1951 novel. Read more about it at this URL:
http://www4.fosters.com/January2005/01.12.05/news/mn_nb_0112b.asp |
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The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
January 14, 2005
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2005/01/14/news/bozsexgod.txt
Yoga instructor and father Pius Ruby was alarmed when he saw the title of his 12-year-old's Sacajawea Middle School library book included the words, "Sex God." He called it dangerous and likened it to carrying a loaded gun.
The second of six "Georgia Nicolson" confession novels published for teens (and adults) by HarperCollins, ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I'M NOW THE GIRLFRIEND OF A SEX GOD," is a humorous look at a British teen's "love-life" via her insightful diary.
To Ruby, "sex god" implied practical experience with sexuality and lodged a written challenge. Book defenders said it was British slang for "hunk" or "hotty" when they countered Ruby's challenge in public debate.
The Bozeman School District's Learning Materials Review Committee voted 9-0 on January 13 to keep the books shelved and available for middle school readers, and added resisting any attempt at censorship was crucial to the American way.
According to high school librarian MaryAnne Coopersmith, the committee sent out an important message -- "No way, not in my community, are we going to allow censorship."
Ruby, who has decided not to appeal the decision, is still concerned for the safety of young girls.
To contact reporter Gail Schontzler, email
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Other books in the series
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson -- 2000
On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolson -- 2001
Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas: Further, Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolson -- 2002
Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants : Even Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolson -- 2003
Away Laughing on a Fast Camel : Even More Confessions of Georgia Nicolson -- 2004
Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers : More Mad, Marvy Confessions of Georgia Nicolson -- 2005 |
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 Rainbow Boys
by Alex Sanchez
The Marshfield News-Herald
January 5, 2005
Read the full article here.
Are gay characters in literature likely to inspire students to embrace a homosexual lifetyle? According to Owen, Wisconsin resident Holly Strickland, the answer is yes, though she hasn't read the book she's trying to have banned.
"To us," Strickland said in the Marshfield News-Herald, "it's a homosexual recruiting tool. We're going to try and reason it out of there on the vulgarity issue." In this instance, "we" constitutes about 15 people who petitioned to challenge the book's being shelved at the Owen-Withee Junior and Senior High School.
Principal Dan Taft responded to the challenge with a professional review of the book's literary merit, as instructed by the district. The school board examined the recommendations of the review committee and ruled to keep the book on library shelves.
Principal Taft agrees with the ruling. "Kids aren't naive," he said in the newspaper report. "They know this stuff goes on. You hate to get in a position where these are some of your kids who are maybe thinking of suicide." Gay teens, according to mental health statistics, are much more likely to feel disenfranchised and depressed in high school settings.
Not content with the board's decision, Strickland has commissioned a survey asking if Owen-Withee taxpayers support the use of this book in public schools and hopes to report her findings within a month. How she circulated the inquiry and to what taxpayers is unknown.
To contact Owen-Withee Principal Dan Taft, email
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To contact the Wisconsin reporter, Jeni Lewis, email
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 The Oregonian
January 7, 2005
Click here to read the full article.
According to the Oregonian, the North Clackamas School Board heard arguments for and against the use of Robin Cody's novel, RICOCHET RIVER in English classes at Rex Putnam and Clackamas High Schools.
"We can get some wonderful thinking from students out of this book," the Oregonian quoted 10th-grade English CHS teacher Nancy Utterback as saying.
Parent Tom Jackson countered, according to the Oregonian, saying, "The classroom of all places should have the greatest protection against obscene material."
To send Nancy Utterback your letters of support, email
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For more about Robin Cody and RICOCHET RIVER, click HERE.
http://www.writersontheedge.org/cody.html
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 The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Kansas City Star
January 6, 2005
Read the full article here.
Winter break meant reading homework for the Blue Springs school board. Their quest, according to the Kansas City Star, was to determine whether or not Lois Lowry's award winning novel THE GIVER was actually "lewd" and "twisted."
Cerise Ivey and four other parents first voiced their objection to the book in the fall of 2003, and were dismissed. In the fall of 2004, they filed their opposition in writing.
“This book is negative,” Ivey said of the Newbury Award winning novel in the Kansas City Star's January 6 report. “I read it. I don't see the academic value in it. Everything presented to the kids should be positive or historical, not negative.”
Lee Summit schools director of media Services Sharon Early supports Ivey's and other parents rights to make that choice for their own children. "But they don't have the right to choose for everyone else's child."
Blue Springs School District Assistant Superintendent Annette Seago offered a compromise. "We do not have required reading lists," she said. “If a parent or child objects to a book, they can choose an alternate book.”
To contact Annette Seago, email
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To contact reporter Mará Rose Williams email to
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UPDATE
Kansas City Book Banning Drive Picking Up Steam
"In a little over a year, Janet Harmon's campaign to remove books from the Blue Valley reading list has gained momentum," according to Kansas City Star reporter Jill Sederstrom. When the line between church and state begins to blur, freedom is in peril.
Read more about this dangerous trend in this January 12, 2005 Kansas City Star feature:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/news/local/states/kansas/counties/
johnson_county/cities_neighborhoods/leawood/10621371.htm
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Whale Talk
by Chris Crutcher
The Georgetown Times
January 14, 2005
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13746879&BRD=2081&PAG=461&dept_id=385210&rfi=8&xb=luruy
Democratic politician Inez Tenenbaum sealed the unlikely fate of Chris Crutcher's critically acclaimed novel WHALE TALK in Georgetown, SC with little fan fair when she circulated a memo on January 5, targeting the book's "offensive language" and deeming it unfit for South Carolina high school curriculum.
So January 13th's Georgetown committee review was, essentially, a wasted exercise. School District Superintendent Dr. Randy Dozier insisted in the Georgetown Times, "This is not a censorship committee." But the decision to censor Crutcher had already been made.
Despite constitutional guarantees that say church and state will remain clearly divided, several clergymen were outspoken on the local discussions.
When the question of using WHALE TALK to help teens understand the power of questionable language was broached, Pastor James Herring said such a concept proved good people were "being blinded by culture." Defense of the award winning book were systematically dismissed.
Dozier will make his recommendations based on the committee's rulings. And Crutcher has vowed to fight the First Amendment abuse of his and other good books for young readers. But considering Tenenbaum's obvious dismissal, the odds do not look good.
To reach Georgetown Times reporter Scott Harper e-mail
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
To reach Inez Tenenbaum, use her website email form
http://www.myscschools.com/superintendent/email.cfm |
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