Writing with My Son, Or Not.

It is a rainy Sunday and Son and I are writing together while Dad and Daughter are out getting invitiations for her coming birthday party.  Son needs to write in his journal more for school, something he doesn't like to do oddly enough, and so I told him we'd write together. 

After discussions on various topics he decided on writing a poem about weather.  Me?  I decided on writing about how we both hate it when the person on the screen doesn't look anything like how the book described him or her.  So while he went upstairs to get his almanac to help him with weather words, I started writing and now I fear I'm on to a different topic.  Why?  Because he came down and showed me the Kids Almanac and how on page 73 there is a list of books that are in trouble of not being read these days and the reaons why.  He was using it to make the case that the reason he didn't want to read The Diary of Anne Frank is the same reason it is one of the most "attacked" books in recent years:  Too Depressing.

Well, yeah.  That's kinda the point--in an uplifing, let's never let this happen again sorta way.

It also says that Blubber, by Judy Blume is attacked because "the characters curse and the leader of the taunting is never punished for her cruelty."

Again...well, yeah.  Because that's real life.  Sometimes the mean people never get what's coming to them--or what you think should be coming to them.

Oh, I love this one. The reason that is given by people for why Shel Silversteins' A Light in the Attic is bad is that it has "suggestive illustrations that might encourage kids to break dishes so they don't have to dry them."

Really?  I mean, seriously, Really?  I read every Nancy Drew there is at least five times each growing up and I'm pretty sure my parents were never worried I was going to pair up with two of my friends and start solving crimes around town so I could become popular and date Mr. Wonderful.  Although it is possible looking back that they wished I had instead of well, the other stuff.   

The bottom line is that I will never understand thinking like this and I'm not sure I know how to explain it to others, i.e., my kids, except for the old fall back, 'they are idiots'.  Logically I could probably spin a paragraph or two, but I'd look at it like I look at some of the writing I do and just want to slap myself silly because it would be crap.

So, I do what I do, trying to find a way to make sense of this for myself and so I could help my kids make sense of it.  I was amazed to find that I had just missed "Banned Books Week" (9/26-10/3/09)!  Go figure.  I also learned that book banning is quite the little industry--no matter what side you come down on. Did you know that you can even shop Amazon.com by 'banned books'...yes, they have lists--which are both cool to look at, and scary as hell.

The whole thing kinda turned my stomach and so I stopped trying to make sense of it from a bigger picture point of view.  I'm just going to do what I normally do (whether it's National Geographic or a book or a television show), reach/watch with them and then talk about it with them.  Novel idea that doesn't cost me a thing.

My daughter is reading "If you Give A Mouse a Cookie", which we should finish fast before it gets banned for having words and pictures that could encourage children to be nice to rodents by giving them what they ASK for.

And, the weather poem turned into a battle of the wills, which I'm pretty sure we lost.  So much for the entire plan.

So, in order to feel like I might have accomplished something, here is a list of the 10 most banned books according to the ALA.  The wierd thing is, when I first saw it, I thought it was a list of the 10 books your child should absolutely have to read.  Again, go figure.  Happy reading everyone!


1.  1984 by George Orwell
2.  Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
3.  Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
4.  Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling
5.  To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
6.  Ulysses, James Joyce
7.  The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
8.  Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
9.  Forever, Judy Blume
10.  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
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