The Benefit of the Doubt

I was probably going to sit down at this keyboard and continue a rant against banning books, but then a series of events coincided to lighten my mood. Chief among them: the season premieres of "The Office" and "ER" last night, followed by a new episode of "The Daily Show" with Bob Schieffer, the cutest man in television news as a guest. I mean cute in the laughing, elfin way, not in the Anderson Cooper way. Then this morning we drove to the school bus stop due to pouring rain and the kids literally rocked the minivan, jumping and dancing to Metro Station's "Shake It." It's difficult to be bitter with 12 hours full of such life-affirming goodness right behind me. So I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to people who attempt to ban books.


The books most often challenged are those marketed to children, and it is important to bear in mind that people who challenge books usually do so with the good intention to protect children. That said, I love this quote from Clare Booth Luce, "Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, should end there." Back when I was teaching Shakespeare's Macbeth to high school juniors, I had a student whose parents did not want him to study the play due to all of the witchcraft in it. I remember there was some eyerolling about this in the faculty room. I don't doubt I was among the eyerollers. But when I think about it now, I really admire those parents. They exercised their right to choose what their son was exposed to without denying other students access to that material.

Get Comfortable; I've Got A Lot To Say Here

I wrote about Judy Blume's Superfudge being a banned book, and bang, next week is Banned Books Week. It's like from my fingertips to the American Library Association's ears. Or just a coincidence.

In any event, the ALA will observe Banned Books Week:Celebrating the Freedom to Read from September 27 to October 4. This has been an annual ALA event since 1982. According to the ALA website, Banned Books Week "celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met."

That website also lists the most frequently challenged books of 2007. A challenge is defined as "a formal. written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness." We have four of the top ten challenged books of 2007 on our bookshelves here in the Burt household. It's like we're some kind of hippies. Go, us!

So we're celebrating. I'll celebrate just about any holiday or event, especially if it comes with a signature cocktail (yes, Cinco de Mayo, I'm talking about you), but it does sound strange to talk about celebrating and banned books together. What is there to celebrate? For starters, the fact that most challenges are unsuccessful. I'll raise a Bookatini to that or maybe a Library Libre. Cocktails aside, I have a few other plans for celebrating Banned Books Week.

1. I plan to discuss the First Amendment with my kids.

2. I plan to take them to the library.

3. While there, we'll check out some challenged books that are age appropriate and discuss why some people might want those books removed from libraries and schools. This will not be a chore as some Burt family favorites are also challenged books, including Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and Dav Pikey's Captain Underpants.

4. Finally, I plan to thank our town and school librarians for all the good work they do.

However you plan to celebrate, I wish you good reading!

More on Judy Blume

Yesterday I joyously posted that my nine year old couldn't wait to go back to school for more of his teacher reading Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. The dinnertime conversation about that book inspired my daughter to read Double Fudge again. In case you didn't read them yourself or don't live with second through fifth graders, let me tell you a little about the Fudge books. In 1972, Judy Blume published Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing about fourth grader Peter Warren Hatcher and his hilariously annoying little brother Farley Drexel who prefers to be called Fudge. I remember loving that book as a kid and am so happy my own kids enjoy it too. You might think that it would seem dated, and there are some situations which might not occur in 2008, such as when Fudge throws a temper tantrum in a shoe store because he wants loafers like Peter not saddle shoes. 1972 was clearly pre-Crocs. However, the trials of living with a younger sibling will resonate in any year. Judy Blume published a sequel, Superfudge, in 1980. This was followed by my family's favorites in the series, Fudge-A-Mania and Double Fudge. They have reread them each several times, giggling out loud as they do so. So, I was surprised and saddened to read that Superfudge has been banned in some school districts in this country, not as many as Blume's other books Blubber and Forever, and not in Wasilla, Alaska (in case you were wondering), but in some districts. I'm glad, and clearly so is my nine year old, that our school district and public library have plenty of copies available.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Success

My nine year old son Aaron does not like going to school. He has friends, he likes lunch and recess, he just finds school boring. For several years now, he has told me that school is a waste of six hours a day. He has told me, "I could make much better use of that time at home." Aaron is sad to see the end of August and never wants the weekends to end. Therefore, I was stunned, gobsmacked really, to hear him say this last night at dinner, "I can't wait to get back to school tomorrow." When my husband and I asked why, Aaron told us it's because his teacher is reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to the class. Rock on, ladies! And by ladies, I'm referring to Aaron's fourth grade teacher and Judy Blume.

Example of a Book Report

The book was The Daring Book for Girls The assignment was to follow how-to directions from a book and rewrite the directions in their own words. Making this peg board game , following the directions on page 222, was tailor made for Hayden and my husband- power tools were involved!

Why My Husband is Sighing in Relief

It is September 20, and so far no notices have come home from my kids' elementary school about book reports. No, that's not a wind gust sweeping through the northeast; it is my husband sighing in relief. Two years ago, when our oldest son entered second grade, he came home with a sheaf of vaguely written papers detailing the monthly book reports he would be required to complete. As my husband works long hours from Monday to Friday, I oversee (aka wheedling, cajoling, and shrieking like a harpy) homework during the week. Book reports can be done on weekends. That year, I dubbed my husband "Mr. Book Report 2006-2007." He kept the title for 2007-2008 while my daughter was in second grade.
These are not the book reports I grew up with where you colored a cover with crayons on construction paper, then listed the title, author, setting, and a summary on notebook paper. These book reports appeal to all types of learners and types of intelligences. I have a degree in education; I get that, but they are still a hassle. Over the past two years, my husband and kids have created an alligator out of green construction paper, tested a cranberry bread recipe, wrote and drew a comic strip, created a diorama in a shoebox of the Vietnamese celebration of Tet, used another shoebox to make a miniature parade float of the story of Rapunzel, made Poppleton the pig from a coffee can, and created a character from The Spiderwick Chronicles using a wire hanger, pantyhose, and art supplies. Previous to being named Mr. Book Report 2006-2007, my husband could not have told you where our art supplies were located unless the contents of our refrigerator, his guitar, the lawnmower, or his sock drawer count as art supplies. And actually, I think one month they were required to make some sort of sock puppet based on a book. There was a lot of whining and procrastinating on book report weekends, and it wasn't all from the kids. Even I whined about donating household items and good pantyhose to the cause, but our family got a lot out of it. I'm not sure my kids understand the characters, conflicts or plots of the books they read any better as a result of the book reports. However, they solved problems, laughed, and spent some really important time with their Dad. That said, he's still sighing in relief and keeping his fingers crossed that no notices come home.

This Post is Off the Hinges

Ever since I left teaching high school and became a stay at home mom, I've fallen woefully behind on my knowledge of slang. Apparently, "bling bling" is out as is "phat." Even that business of adding "shizzle" or "foshizzle" inside of words, which I never got the hang of, is so yesterday. This morning, one of my friends picked me up in her awesome new Ford Flex. Thinking myself pretty cool, I called it a "sweet ride." That shows you how much of a dinosaur I am. It is, according to the middle schoolers on my friend's nephew's football team, a "fresh whip." A fresh whip? Come on! Doesn't that sound more like something you'd order from Starbucks?
What is a suburban housewife facing going back to teaching teenagers and raising her own in the near future to do? How will I know what the foshizzle they're talking about? I can't go back to watching MTV or hanging out at Abercrombie and Fitch. What I need is some sort of Internet subscription service that updates me weekly on the latest lingo so I know if a home is still a crib and sneakers are still kicks. Listen, I'm smart enough not to try to speak it myself, I just want to crack the code. If you know of such a service, let me know. I'm jonesing for it (Can I still say that?) For now, peace out. (How about that one?)