Banned Book Week 2010

The English Dept. at ISU has a long history of supporting the right to read.  In keeping that tradition, I will be participating in Milner Library's Banned Book Week reading Wednesday, Sept. 29.  I'm planning on reading a selection from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, which is often cited among the top books that parents or community members wish to be banned from a classroom, school or library.  Yet, it is also one of the most celebrated American books of the last century.

The American Library Association, which is one of the sponsors of Banned Book Week, is highlighting To Kill a Mockingbird.  Here's an excerpt from why the book has been banned:

The American Library Association website features a fraction of the controversy. For instance, the book was temporarily banned in Eden Valley, Minn., in 1977 because it contained the words "damn" and "whore lady." In 1995, the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, La., yanked the book out of its stacks because of "objectionable" content.

Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center based in Alabama, has a good article explaining some of the instances when people have tried to ban To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Christian Science Monitor notes that many of the books that have been attempted to have been banned in 2009 were brought up by people living in Pennsylvania and Texas.  Here's the list of the ALA's 100 most challenged books.  As a note, just because a book may have been challenged, that does not mean the book then was banned.  Most schools and libraries take the challenges seriously and send it through a detailed committee hearing process.

The ISU English Dept.'s encouragement of the Freedom to Read was started by Taimi Ranta, an English Dept. professor who was a leader in children's literature and nationally known as a source for information about Banned Books.  For more than a decade, the English Dept. organized its own Banned Book Reading night, which was inspired by Dr. Ranta.

In thinking about banned books, it's important that teachers know exactly why they are teaching a book -- why it's worthwhile, why students should read it.  If the book may be controversial, it's okay for a teacher to have a back-up if a parent objects.  But keep in mind, so many books are published each year and so many are available -- the idea is to encourage children, teens and adults to read.

How Lewis Carroll revolutionized children's literature

"Lewis Carroll did a lot to revolutionize the field of children's literature," Jan Susina noted. "In the 19th century, most stories for kids were very moralistic or industructive. Carroll's Alice tales were pure fantasy, fun and entertainment.  Children and adults alike loved the stories, and their popularity and commercial success helped to legitimize children's literature as an important and marketable genre."

That quotation is from me in the article "The Importance of Alice" by Eric Jome that was recently published in American Conceirge Magazine.  Thanks to Eric for interviewing me and writing the feature about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and how I link the classic book to contemporary trends in children's literature and culture.  Of course, we discussed in detail the 2010 Alice film directed by Tim Burton, but I also talked about Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, Beatrix Potter, and Mark Twain. Download the .pdf to see how they all fit together.

The Illinois State University English Department has featured the article in its "In the News" website page.  Thanks for that recognition.

Talk like a pirate: read like a pirate

To Talk Like a Pirate, you must read about pirates.  Here's my list of 10 great books about pirates.

1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  The incredible 1883 classic told, mainly, through the lens of young Jim Hawkins about his adventures with Long John Silver. 

2. Peter Pan; or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by JM Barrie.  Part of the appeal of Barrie's 1904 novel and play is the tension between adolescent and adulthood.  That's the underlying theme -- the theme we think about, however, is the rollicking fun between Hook's pirate and Peter's Lost Boys.  Check out related film adaptations as well.

3. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss.  The pirate attack is a key element in this 1812 novel about a proper family from Switzerland shipwrecked on island and trying to bring their own form of civilization.  Jules Verne wrote a sequel in 1900 called The Castaways of the Flag.

4. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Crusoe's classic adventures on the high seas in 1651 go wrong from the beginning when his ship is attacked by pirates and he becomes a slave.

5. The Pirates of Penzance; or The Slave of Duty by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.  This delightful 1879 comic operetta features the great song early on "I Am a Pirate King."  Our favorite version of the operetta, and we have seen probably 9 by now, is still the 1980s version with Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstandt and Rex Smith.  

6. High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes.  The 1929 novel is about a group of children kidnapped by pirates.  The boys and girls must defend themselves against the meanness and desires of the pirates.  

7. The Not-so-Jolly-Roger by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.  For young readers who want a pirate adventure but may not be ready for some of the great novels on this list, try Scieszka and Smith's 2004 tale that's part of the lively and funny Time Warp Trio series.

8. The Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle.  How we imagine today what pirates looked like is still influenced by the detailed illustrations by American author and illustrator Pyle.  His Book of Pirates was published in 1921, 10 years after his death, and is a collection of several stories that he wrote and for which he created beautiful, detailed watercolors.

9. Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne. Three teen-age boys are kidnapped and live among the pirates in this 1857 novel that includes death, cannibalism, surfing, stealing and Christian missionaries. William Golding's 1954 Lord of the Flies, another intense novel about boys on an island, is a response to this classic Scottish adventure.

10. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  Tom and his friends love playing pirates at home and on the island in the Mississippi River to which they try to escape from their childhood responsibilities.  As they do, their lives become more complicated in Twain's 1876 novel.  Try reading it aloud.

Update on Monday, September 19, 2011 at 01:53PM by JAS

On another Talk Like a Pirate Day, just wanted to write again that pirate literature continues to be a good way to get kids, especially boys, who are interested in pirates to get them interested in books and culture.  Even when our son was young, he could enjoy watching live and video versions of The Pirates of Penzance because he was so fascinated by pirates.  You might be surprised at kids' ability to tackle books that might be a little difficult to read if they are interested in the subject.  Let them start with Treasure Island, or find the graphic novel version and get them reading that way.

Globalizing childhood through children's new media

In my talk tomorrow on "Globalizing Childhood Through Children's New Media," I will be mentioning a few links for what I'll be talking about.  The links will be on a handout available at the talk, but thought I'd just put them here on the website as well.

Children's virtual world websites mentioned:

Toon Books

Professor Garfield

Club Penguin

The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World

Panwapa

Lady Gaga's Little Monsters

While watching the VMA awards on MTV on Sunday, I wondered if Lady Gaga read Mercer Meyer's books when she was a child.  As you may remember, Mercer Meyer has a long-running book series on a character called "Little Monster." He also has a character "Little Critter."

Lady Gaga calls her fans Little Monsters, which I think is supposed to be endearing. It's also a reference to "Monsters," one of her hits on the CD by that name.  It seems to recognize that her fans may be a little goofy, off-kilter, but fun-loving.  She also has the term "Little monster" as a tattoo. She had a temporary tattoo put on in Katakana script in Tokyo. And the fan websites make the link to little monsters.

What other children's literature references did you see at the VMA?  Last year, Taylor Swift entered the award ceremony in a Cinderella style carriage.