banned book week–a week late
Does it surprise anyone that I am a week late on banned book week? I didn’t think so. I saw on facebook that my editor was celebrating banned book week. I really like that about him. Kirk is one heckuva awesome guy. And I hear through the grape vine that he has no aversion to semicolons! This makes me so happy, I could weep. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into galleys!
But back to banned books. I find myself baffled by what I found on the list. A Wrinkle in Time? To Kill a Mockingbird? Are you serious????? What are people thinking? Harper Lee and Madeleine L’Engle remain two of my greatest heros in literature (Just after Miss Austen thank-you-very-much)
There was a book or two on here that I’d read in my young teen life that I remember walking away from feeling uncomfortable. And on those books took a vow to never read another book by those authors again. I didn’t need my parents to tell me they weren’t the sort of things I wanted floating around in my grey matter. I didn’t need the “administration” to lay down any laws. I was intelligent enough to choose for myself. There are books on here that I can tell by title alone I wouldn’t want to read them. I may sometimes choose to do a personal ban, but still believe everyone else deserves the right to choose for themselves. Free agency . . . that’s what it’s all about.
One hundred titles are listed here (I’ve read 32), the top 100 books challenged in the decade from 1990-2000 as listed by the Office for Intellectual Freedom.
- Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
- Daddy’s Roommateby Michael Willhoite
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- The Chocolate Warby Robert Cormier
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
- Foreverby Judy Blume
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
- Alice(Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Heather Has Two Mommiesby Leslea Newman
- My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- The Giverby Lois Lowry
- It’s Perfectly Normalby Robie Harris
- Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
- A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Sex by Madonna
- Earth’s Children(Series) by Jean M. Auel
- The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
- A Wrinkle in Timeby Madeleine L’Engle
- Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
- Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
- In the Night Kitchenby Maurice Sendak
- The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
- The Witchesby Roald Dahl
- The New Joy of Gay Sexby Charles Silverstein
- Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
- The Goats by Brock Cole
- Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
- Blubber by Judy Blume
- Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
- Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
- We All Fall Downby Robert Cormier
- Final Exit by Derek Humphry
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Julie of the Wolvesby Jean Craighead George
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughtersby Lynda Madaras
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- The Pigmanby Paul Zindel
- Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
- Deenieby Judy Blume
- Flowers for Algernonby Daniel Keyes
- Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
- The Boy Who Lost His Faceby Louis Sachar
- Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
- A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
- Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
- Cujo by Stephen King
- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
- The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
- Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
- Ordinary People by Judith Guest
- American Psychoby Bret Easton Ellis
- What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
- Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaretby Judy Blume
- Crazy Ladyby Jane Conly
- Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
- Fade by Robert Cormier
- Guess What? by Mem Fox
- The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
- The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Native Son by Richard Wright
- Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
- Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
- Jack by A.M. Homes
- Bless Me, Ultimaby Rudolfo A. Anaya
- Where Did I Come From?by Peter Mayle
- Carrie by Stephen King
- Tiger Eyesby Judy Blume
- On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
- Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
- Family Secrets by Norma Klein
- Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
- The Dead Zone by Stephen King
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
- Private Parts by Howard Stern
- Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
- Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
- Little Black Samboby Helen Bannerman
- Pillars of the Earthby Ken Follett
- Running Looseby Chris Crutcher
- Sex Education by Jenny Davis
- The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
- Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
- How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
- View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
- The Headless Cupidby Zilpha Keatley Snyder
- The Terroristby Caroline Cooney
- Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Madeleine L’Engle and Me
I bought the book A Circle of Quiet just after my booksigning at the BYU symposium. It was on sale, and I can’t turn down a sale. I love to tell Scott how much money I save him. Besides, I loved reading A Wrinkle in Time when I was in fourth grade and was happy to read more about her.
I have shed many a tear since then. Madeleine and I have quite a bit in common. We’re both neurotic writers. We’re both mothers trying to juggle writing careers while dealing with the tsk tsks from other mothers who have it all together when we don’t. We both own grocery stores in small communities. We both married men who loved acting. We’ve been dealt the stinging blow of rejection and have come back screaming, “Is that all you got?”
Okay so maybe neither of us came back screaming for more, but we did come back . . . isn’t that the important thing?
I hate how I’ve discovered how much I love this woman only after it was too late to ever meet her. Madeleine died last September. I would love to give her a hug and say, “Thanks for understanding my very weird life.”
Something that struck me as utterly profound was this statement she made after a rejection she received on her fortieth birthday. This was after her years in the thirties, which were filled with endless manuscript rejections and incredible guilt for taking time to write books when she worried she might be better occupied to learn to make cherry pie and do as other–more proper–mothers do. She decided to, “Stop this foolishness and learn to make cherry pie.”
She covered her typewriter in what she refers to as a great gesture of renunciation and walked around and around her room bawling, totally, utterly miserable.
While pacing and bawling, she stopped, realizing her subconscious mind had already begun working out a novel about failure.
She uncovered her typewriter.
This was her moment of decision. This was her moment where she realized she WAS a writer, no matter what, even if she never had another book published.
A quote from her on this matter is, “I’m glad I made this decision in the moment of failure. It’s easy to say you’re a writer when things are going well.”
I mourn the fact I never got to hug her.
There have been several rocky years where I was faced with the very real possibility that I would never see my name on a future publication. There was a time when I covered my computer, and said, “Stop this foolishness and learn to make pie.” Okay, maybe I never said I’d learn to make pie, but there are so many ways I fall short of other women because I have split my life into other things. I would stop the foolishness of writing, and be like other moms.
I uncovered my computer.
I, too, am glad to have made this decision in my moments of failure. And now with another book coming out, quite possibly two, I wonder that I even considered it. There is no such thing as second child infertility with novel writing. If you can write one . . . you can write two, and more. If you can make the choice to keep writing amidst rejection and failure, then you’ve proved something important–to you and to the world, but most importantly to you.
You proved you really are a writer.
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