Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Update on the (possibly) banned books

You may have read my post about the school board member trying to get books banned from Illinois High School District 214 a few days ago. I found an article about it at The Daily Herald (warning it's a suburban fluff paper in my eyes, but the article is good at describing the situation.)

Not only has she not even read any of the books in question, but she finds them pornographic! Kate Chopin's The Awakening is pornographic? WHAT THE HELL IS SHE ON???

Here's the complete list of books that teachers have requested be added to the curriculum:
* How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez
* Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
* The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
* Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
* The Awakening by Kate Chopin
* The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
* Beloved by Toni Morrison
* Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
* The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan

Again, here is her email: leslie.pinney@d214.org. It's especially good if you read any of these books in high school. I read The Awakening at the Catholic high school I attended for a few years. Hell if they don't object.....

BTW: you can find email addresses for the other board members here. SO far none have publicly come out for the banning, but it's always nice to encouage them to let the teens read these books (some of which are amazing).

(as usual x-posted to my LJ)

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