This week’s book chat, in which The 9YO and I talk about censorship
Our mostly-weekly survey of the tidbits that cross The Nine-Year-Old’s desk. This week, The Nine-Year-Old brings homes more gems from deep into the shelves of her school library, including a book by one of the most notorious authors of my childhood.
- Is that a Sick Cat in your Backpack? by Todd Strasser
- Weslandia by Paul Fleischman (Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes)
- Fudge-a-Mania by Judy Blume
I still get a little thrill whenever I see my daughter walk into the house with a Judy Blume book. Once upon a time, my elementary school library banned them.
Back in the before times when I was just a young kid in Texas, there was a bit of a dust-up about Judy Blume’s book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. My elementary school library was one of the libraries that banned it nearly on sight, so of course, every girl in my class promptly went to the public library and read it as thoroughly as possible.
It was my earliest experience of censorship (and its limitations) and wouldn’t be my last.
I still get a little thrill each time my daughter brings home one of Judy Blume’s books, and more often than not find myself telling her all about how my school library wouldn’t stock any of them when I was a child. After Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret my school librarian openly considered Judy Blume to be an author that could not be trusted with impressionable young minds.
The Nine-Year-Old is suitably appalled each time the story comes up, and becomes ever more appreciative of her own school librarians, who obviously wouldn’t do such a short-sighted thing.
The more books you read, the less power any one of them has over you.
At least, that’s my working theory. Bit self-serving, I suppose, since reading makes me happy, and my daughter reading gives me some much needed quiet time in the afternoon, which, come to think of it, also makes me happy.
Have you or your Caterpickle experienced censorship? What was your response to it?
Related Links:
- What’s The Seven-Year-Old reading this week? (Caterpickles)
- What’s The Eight-Year-Old reading this week? (Caterpickles)
- What’s The Nine-Year-Old reading this week? (Caterpickles)
- More Book Reviews on Caterpickles
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