Banned Book Week: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Banned Books Week is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey and I am excited to be participating again!

So I chose to read Fahrenheit 451. I read this many many years ago, and it was time to revisit this classic. What a perfect time to read a book not just about the banning of books, but the burning of them, and the banning of reading. It's ironic, but a sad irony, the kind you don't want to see. When life imitates art and not in a good way.

Fahrenheit 451 is about a fireman -  in this world, firemen set fire to books, their job it is to burn them, and the houses of any people who dare to have books in their homes. Guy Montag meets a young woman outside her home one night, and her kindness and curiosity awaken the curiosity of Guy. She makes him think, wonder. We later learn that Guy has another secret, a stash of books he has taken on the sly from homes he has burned. He ends up on the run from the government as he refuses to turn away from this new side of himself, and ultimately murders his boss. Guy makes it out of the city after a harrowing chase through the streets, pursued by the Electric Hound, and finds himself in a group of revolutionaries, self-exiled from the cities walking the rails, who read. 

It is a book about censorship, about whether the government should do the thinking for its people - for why should the people care or know anything about political candidates? - it's about people preserving knowledge for the future. I love the group that Montag is with in the very end, those fellow escapees committed to free thought and will, to the preservation of literature for future generations. Everyone has a book they are responsible for remembering, to hold onto until the time is right for the book to exist again. It always makes me wonder what book would I choose to be responsible for? What do I think is important enough, for whatever the reason, that I would try to keep it alive, waiting generations if necessary. I think that I may choose Watership Down, my favorite book.

Fahrenheit 451 has been challenged for reasons of language and for religious reasons. It blows my mind that someone could read this book and not understand that they were just doing exactly what the book was trying to show was so wrong! That you are censoring a book about censorship? Maybe that is what is so scary, and what they really are guarding against. Knowledge that you don't have to just accept what is told to you, that you can think about it, form your own opinions. 

If you haven't read this, or haven't read it in a long time like me, I urge you to pick it up. It is a quick but powerful read, and what better time to read it?

Banned Book Review: Blubber by Judy Blume

In honor of banned book week, I am participating in Sheila at Book Journey's banned book challenge. Visit her blog to discover posts from bloggers all over the blogosphere celebrating their freedom to choose what they read!

Blubber: Banned/Challenged: For language and because a bully did not get into trouble

Title: Blubber

Author: Judy Blume

Goodreads Summary:

Blubber is a good name for her, the note from Wendy says about Linda. Jill crumples it up and leaves it on the corner of her desk. She doesn't want to think about Linda or her dumb report on the whale just now. Jill wants to think about Halloween.

But Robby grabs the note, and before Linda stops talking it has gone halfway around the room.

That's where it all starts. There's something about Linda that makes a lot of kids in her fifth-grade class want to see how far they can go -- but nobody, least of all Jill, expects the fun to end where it does.

My thoughts:

Kids can be cruel and mean. There is no doubt about that, and the characters in this book, including the main character Jill, are no exception. Jill joins forces with her classmates to make one fellow student's life a living hell. They bully Linda mercilessly, calling her Blubber and fat and a smelly whale, and some of their stunts border on assault. Jill isn't just a jerk at school, she is at home as well. She picks on her brother, calling him dumb all the time, and on Halloween she and her best friend Tracy run around pulling mean pranks on people, such as breaking rotten eggs into the mailbox of the neighborhood curmudgeon, and of course, writing mean things on the sidewalk in front of Linda's house.  However, something happens that puts Jill on the other side of things, and she becomes the victim of bullying. Ultimately, Jill puts a stop to everything, but only after suffering herself, and learning what it is like when the shoe is on the other foot. 

This book is unpleasant to read as an adult. It is hard to read about the depths of the bullying that occurs at such a young age, but from working in an elementary school, you can see cliques start to form early, like first or second grade. The mechanics are already in place for someone to be the odd man out, the scapegoat. This book doesn't pull any punches, and there is never really retribution. The lead bully never gets into trouble, her life stays mainly the same. Does this suck? Yes, absolutely. We live in a world where we like to see the villain get their due. But in reality, that doesn't always happen. I read this in elementary school, and I wish I could remember what I thought of it. The definition of flenser stuck with me, but as far as how this book made me feel, that is lost to the years.

Judy Blume is no stranger to censorship. Her books are realistic, and are often challenged. Blubber has been challenged for the swearing it contains (there are few instances of bitch and damn, also some racial slurs) and because the bully gets away without punishment. Again, this is just another discussion point, that not everyone gets what they deserve. That statement, about getting what you deserve, is actually in the book. Jill and Tracy get into trouble for their Halloween stunts, and they are told that maybe now they will learn that they are not necessarily in charge of deciding what other people deserve, which obviously applies not just to their Halloween prank, but to what is going on with Linda.

Linda never tells anyone what is going on. The adults and teachers in the book seem either clueless or like they are turning a blind eye to what is going on. We all know bullying is a huge issue right now, especially as kids can go home and still be bullied through digital media and their phones. I would think this book would be a good entree to a classroom discussion about bullying, and what to do if you are being bullied, not a book that should be banned, or hidden away. It's a book that parents and children can read together, or if a student happens to pick it out from the library and read it on their own, maybe it will cause them to think about what happens, and to empathize with Linda. Maybe they will learn what it means to be a bully, to be bullied, and what they should do if bullied: Speak up. 

The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Banned Book Review and Giveaway!

In celebration of Banned Books Week, I am joining the banned and participating in a promotion hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Visit her blog atwww.bookjourney.wordpress.com to check out featured posts from bloggers all around the country celebrating the freedom to read books of their choosing!

Title: The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Author: Elizabeth George Speare
Source: On the shelves of the elementary library where I work

Kit is a lighthearted, fey, and impulsive teen, who was born and raised on the tropical island of Barbados. She lived with her grandfather there, running wild and free over the island, until the day he died. Following his death, Kit takes the journey from Barbados to Connecticut Colony to live with her aunt and uncle and cousins. Anyone would have a difficult adjustment period to such a drastic change, even now, but the transistion was much more difficult for Kit in 1687. `Her beloved grandfather was gone, and her way of life had completely turned upside down. She was not prepared for the Puritan way of life that was in store for her.

Nor were her Puritan relatives prepared for life with Kit! She had not warned them of her coming, and were shocked to hear that she was there to stay, the night she arrived on their doorstep. Her Aunt Rachel welcomed her graciously, her two cousins, Judith and Mercy received her with mixed emotions, and her Uncle Matthew did not seem pleased to see hear of her intention to live with them one bit. Regardless of her differences between herself and those of Connecticut Colony, Kit did make a few friends. First, her friend Nat, who was the Captain's son of the boat she took on her long journey, William, the wealthy son of a local landowner, and John, a solemn religious scholar she also met on her trip north.

Kit had a tough time adjusting to the hardscrabble and difficult life of the puritans. Not having ever had to lift a finger for her own needs, always having had slaves to do the dirty work for her, she was unused to chores and hard work, although she tried her best. However, she did make mistakes, born out of a lack of understanding of her new community. No one else saw it that way though - she was judged pretty harshly, although she was still learning the ropes. One day after having made a mess of things, Kit runs off, and ends up being comforted by the Widow Hannah Tupper, who lives out by Blackbird Pond away from the town.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the worst thing Kit could have done. In this time of prejudice and religious righteousness, there is an atmosphere of suspicion and judgement, with villagers always ready to condemn someone as a sinner, or worse, a witch. Hannah Tupper had earned the suspicion of many, for her isolated ways, Quaker beliefs, and her refusal to attend the Sabbath meetings on Sunday, even though she was a different religion.  And horror of horrors, Hannah also owns a cat.

When illness strikes the village, Hannah is blamed, and soon after, Kit. They are accused of witchcraft, and Hannah's house is burned to the ground. She (and her cat) would not have escaped without the help of Kit and Nat. In the end, Kit is proven innocent of witchcraft, although I am sure the village would not hesitate to later accuse another person of witchcraft.

Why was this book banned?

This book was challenged as recently as 2003, for promoting witchcraft and violence. In Connecticut no less! This is mind blowing. I feel like the people who tried to ban it have never even read this book, maybe they would have learned from it.

Everyone who saw me reading this book told me how much they loved it as a kid.And the principal of my school told me that when she taught fifth grade, this was one of the books she taught to her class, for years! And you know, not one of those kids were corrupted.

 Its like the narrow mindedness of the 1680s never ended, that you can draw a straight line through over 300 years of history, and still see the same patterns. It worries me that this same sort of attitude exists today, but maybe the more people read books like The Witch of Blackbird Pond, the more they will learn, and the more tolerant they will become.

Help fight the good fight for books, and read more banned ones!

For the giveaway:

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Banned Book Week: The Witches - A Review

Sheila at Book Journey is devoting her blog this week to the Banned Book, with reviews and giveaways- check it out! 



 Title:  The Witches

Author: Roald Dahl

Source: The school library where I work

Banned/Challenged For: Witchcraft, endorsing an unhealthy view of women

Goodreads Summary:

This Roald Dahl classic tells the scary, funny and imaginative tale of a seven-year-old boy who has a run-in with some real-life witches! "In fairy tales witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale. This is about REAL WITCHES. REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ordinary jobs. That is why they are so hard to catch." Witches, as our hero learns, hate children. With the help of a friend and his somewhat-magical grandmother, our hero tries to expose the witches before they dispose of him.

My thoughts:

I am not sure where to even begin, to be honest.  I don't believe in banning books; I was personally raised by parents who allowed me to read what I wanted, and they dealt with my questions accordingly.  I understand that some parents do not want their children to read certain books because it offends them or is counter to their own belief system, and that is fine.  I have had students return books to me in the library, telling me that their mom or dad does not want them to read the book they had chosen for one reason or another, and I respect that, even understand it. But then they are not running around saying that no one should read the book, that is a different thing altogether. 

When I was in elementary school, one of my favorite teachers read this book aloud to us.  I loved when it was time to listen to this story, I loved the book.  I did not go home and want to practice witchcraft, I did not want to kill mice (I am in fact now a vegetarian and an animal rescuer), I did not believe all women were evil, nor do I believe that people who practice wicca are evil either (I didn't know about this as a child).  I enjoyed the story thouroughly for what it was, and if I had any confusion over the subject matter, my parents would have explained it to me.  As an adult, I loved the book, and enjoyed it again- I wouldn't say just as much, because while I do love children's books, it certainly is not the same to read them as an adult.  My favorite chapter is probably the chapter that is most challenged- the chapter on how to identify a witch.  I bet you didn't know they had blue spit and no toes! To me, this is fanciful, imaginative, a fairy tale.  I loved it! If you were to describe an evil witch, how would you imagine her? 

I am not sure the people who oppose this book for the witchcraft theme have even read it; I feel that if they did, they could relate to the hero and his grandmother, who by the end of the book have concocted a grand scheme to rid the world of witches- this seems like a plan the witchcraft haters could get behind and support. I can see why this would be offensive to those who practice wicca or identify themselves as witches; this book would make them seem like child killers, and that they should be chopped up in a meat grinder (something actually stated in the book, not my own opinion).  I can see why this book has been labeled misogynistic, as it states that all witches are women. Always.  But then, I thought that was a fact anyway - that "witches" were women and "warlocks" were men.  Just semantics at this point.  This all kind of hurts my brain. I think anyone can pick apart any book and find something to critique and find offense at, frankly.  But I don't think this calls for a book to be taken off shelves or unread- I believe this is up to a parent to decide themselves, for their own child. And if they don't want their child to read it, I think that is a fine personal decision. But it is a personal decision, not a universal one. 

I think what I took away from this book the most was the love of family, especially between a child and a grandparent.  The hero and his Grandmamma loved each other unconditionally, the way a a family should.  To me, that was the most important thing in this book- the boy felt safe, cherished and loved by his grandmother, who took him in after his parents died.   And what is more important than feeling safe and loved, especially as a child?