Banned Book Week: Updates, a few Favorites, and Pinterest

There have been so many awesome posts out there for Banned Book week that I’ve decided to create a Pinterest Board for them as well.  If you have a post (or have come across one) that you like, go ahead and give me the link (I’ll make sure to check the spam-filters to make sure I catch them!) and I’ll add them to the board.

I’m hoping to start using Pinterest more, so will probably be making boards for other events of “The Season” as well (since the whole point of that is to connect and have fun!)

I’ve been trying, in this week, to touch base briefly on some of those books that have made the top 100 banned and challenged books in 2000-2009 list.

The Great Gilly Hopkins ,  by Katherine Paterson.

I read The Great Gilly Hopkins in elementary school, I think as part of my sixth grade curriculum.  Though I didn’t love it as much as The Westing Game (which isn’t on these lists… why not?  It had bomb making in it!) I enjoyed The Great Gilly Hopkins, though.  I was really interested, at that point, in books that had to do with foster-care systems, adoption, orphans, and other characters whose lives were in flux.  Gilly intrigued me, this brash, creative figure.  I didn’t want to be like her, but I admired her.

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson.

Bridge to Terabithia, I did not encounter until I was in college.  Somehow I missed this one in my earlier years.  A great story though, I found it beautifully written and so rich.  Yes, it deals with challenging subjects, but that is part of what makes it such a good book.  One of the things that constantly confounds me about many of the challenges being made of books is this concept that someone having literature that addresses these issues is going to cause harm.  Stories are written about children who suffer abuse, who have to deal with death, who are ostracized and bullied, and who bully because these are things that children face in their lives.  And maybe, just maybe, being able to find a character in a book that faces these same challenges will help in making you feel not so alone in the world.

It is an amazing thing when you read a story and are able to find a character who you relate to, who you know would understand what is happening in your world.  When the books we give children access to is limited, whitewashed, of the conflicts and challenges, then we remove some of these opportunities for some of the children who may most need it, to see themselves in what they read.