Captain Underpants meets Huck Finn

As writers — and especially readers — the idea of banning a book is unthinkable.  Okay, there are books I don’t like, books that might offend me, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be available, that they should be taken off library, school, and bookstore shelves just because I or someone else decides that they’re offensive.

The American Library Association understands this, and it’s announced its annual Banned Books Week, which will take place Sept. 24 through Oct. 4. You can find out more about it here.

The ALA, during Banned Books Week, celebrates the freedom to read.

The website offers lists of books that have been “challenged,”  describing a challenge as an attempt to remove or restrict materials, solely based on the objections of one person or a group.  To ban a book or materials is to remove them.

Some of the book listed by the ALA that have been challenged through the years are:

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
1984, George Orwell
Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
The Lord of the Flies, William Golding
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Ulysses, James Joyce
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Their Eyes were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Lady Chatterley's Lover, DH Lawrence
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

I read a good number of these in school, and you probably did, too. “Heart of Darkness” and “Ulysses” were painful for me, but I wouldn’t want to deprive anyone of suffering through them either, or experiencing Faulkner or Fitzgerald’s genius. And what is it about Huck Finn that just gets under people’s skin so much that they think it’s not appropriate for anyone to read? Don’t they know that great literature is not black and white? That the river is, excuse me, a metaphor? They obviously did not have the same teachers I did.

The ALA’s list of the 10 most challenged books from 2000 to 2005 is:

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
2. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
3. Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
4. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
5. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
6. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
7. "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris
8. Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
9. Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
10. "Forever" by Judy Blume

On this list, I’ve read all the Harry Potter books and “Of Mice and Men.” I don’t get censoring young adult and children’s books. Don’t we want kids to read?  And if Captain Underpants floats some kid’s boat and is the only thing he’ll read, I see nothing wrong with it.

So I’m going to issue a challenge of my own to all you FOFOs.

For Banned Books Week, let’s all read a book from the ALA’s challenged book list from 2000-2005 that we haven’t read, and come back here and discuss. We’ll meet back here Oct. 1. Which book will you pick?

Karen

Comments

[Lori G. Armstrong]

I've read all the Harry Potter books, as well as Forever, and I think the Maya Angelou book of poetry, so I'll scour the kids' bookshelves for a copy of Captain Underpants...or I know there are copies of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor because all the girls loved her.

Cool idea, Karen :)

[Jeff Shelby]

The Captain Underpants books are so great - I've read a bunch of those.

Maybe I'll try the Harry Potter books again - never could get thru them. (Heresy!)

[AlisonGaylin]

Catch 22 and In Cold Blood are possibly my two all-time favorite books (though there are lots of others on there I love, including Fitzgerald and Faulkner and... I actually LIKED Ulysses!) I'm going to start on the Harry Potter books with my daughter. She's old enough now, and already loves the movies. Forever was a 7th grade slumber party favorite... could be funny to reread it now. Yes, Karen. Excellent idea!

[AlisonGaylin]

One comment, though: Looking at these books, I've read almost all of them, and, okay, it was a long time ago I read it, but who challenged CALL OF THE WILD? Did a wolf take offense?

[Clair]

I never made it through THE SATANIC VERSES, but I'm not sure I want to volunteer to try again. I'll read THE CHOCOLATE WAR, since strangely enough I never did read it in middle school -- it was a book the boys read, but not the girls.

[Patti Abbott]

I'll try one of those Alice books. Always mean to see what YA girls are reading today.

[David Terrenoire]

I was blown away by Heart of Darkness, but then, I read it while serving in Central America.

I've always meant to read In Cold Blood, so I'm picking that one.

And it's just my opinion, but no one who even suggests banning books should be allowed to hold public office.

I'll stop there.

[Jen of a2eatwrite]

I haven't read the Alice series... I've read most of the others. Actually, I haven't read the Scary Stories, either.

[Kieran Shea]

What's appalling is that these brown-shirted goons always select the low hanging literary fruit. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like if they delved a bit deeper than their kids' assigned summer reading lists or whatever is targeted from pulpit, we might get a real intellectual war going. Soft brained nitwits the lot. I'm with Patti, no public office for these reactionary rubes.

[Clea Simon]

And why isnt the Bible on this list? It's violent and filled with murder, incest, you name it...

that said, I'm re-reading "A Wrinkle in Time." Not a new banned book, but a favorite target.

[John]

Hi Karen!

I promised I'd leave a comment, so here goes. (And thank you for yours-you're awesome!) I've read at least five of the books on the list, but you can count me in for one of the others. I'll let you know which when I make up my mind, which is always problematic...

John

[Patti Abbott]

Karen-Do you want us to write up a real review or just rally for a general opinion on why people tried to ban the book?

[Karen Olson]

You could do both, Patti. Whatever you want. I do think it would be interesting to try to dissect why someone might want to ban the books, but also a review could point out why we should never ban them.

[patti abbott]

My book has been an enlightening experience. I had no idea YA books were so edgy, preachy, troubling. I feel sorry that the world is presented as so dizzying and full of woe. What happened to Cherry Ames and Nancy Drew.