I'll say the most shocking reason I've found given for books being banned is that they "show disobedience toward adults." I'm sorry, but isn't that called being a child? Aren't we all disobedient at times? It'd be a sad state if children only acted up because of reading one book where the children acted up. These books have so much to offer. The Golden Compass's protagonist is precocious and willful, but she's bright and she's a loyal friend. Harry Potter goes through so many hardships, from the death of the parents he never knew, to this strange all powerful wizard that pursues him, and the loss of mentors and friends along the way, and though he doesn't always deal well wit it, who would? Though the story is based in a magical realm, his character is the hero on a quest which we all know very well and frankly I've always loved.
I also came across this interesting article about banned fantasy from Vivian Vande Velde!
I haven't actually heard of Vivian Vande Velde, but I love her opinion on this. Parents should certainly be involved instead of just poopooing something they've never touched and have only been told about. When something gets labeled as taboo, it becomes more enticing just as she's said. A good friend of mine told me before that she doesn't want to be some nosy parent, but that she would be reading the novels her children read and I told her there was nothing wrong with that. Honestly, fewer books would be banned if parents and teachers took the time to give an appraising eye instead of just going with a hard of naysayers. I'm going to pull a quote on one of the author's own books here:
"Dragon's Bait is about a girl who gets accused of something she hasn't done. Just about everyone has found him or herself in this situation at some time or another. I wanted to explore her reactions, I wanted readers to connect with her, but I didn't want people to connect so closely that their own experiences got in the way. So I had her be accused of something I figured the majority of my readers had probably NOT been accused of: being a witch. So they can recognize her problem, they can relate it back in a general way to their own lives, they can judge her actions, but they aren't so caught up in the specifics that they lose track of the fact that being accused of something you didn't do is a universal theme."
This is absolutely true. We've all been there and fantasy is a safe way to experience it. We're disconnected enough to not feel embarrassed or worried, to feel safe still, but we can watch how this character takes a situation and handles it while wondering what we'd do and relate it to our own lives. That's the point of good fiction I feel. To connect. The books that stay with you are the ones you connect best with.
Good links, and not a disjointed rant.
Agreed that more parents should read these books with their kids--that way, they'd see the things you (and Van de Velte) see in them, rather than the things their churches and other conservative advisors tell them. (Good on the disobedient child idiocy here, but these folks object to much more, including fantasy and magic in and of themselves.)
However, the question becomes HOW to get them to do this.
Libraries could play a role here--maybe oanel discussions on these issues.
Back to "Summe Reading" for a second: any ideas on using that story in a library setting--or ideas for libraries better supporting summer reading assignments?
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