{"id":162,"date":"2009-09-28T15:04:29","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T22:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/?p=162"},"modified":"2009-09-28T15:04:29","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T22:04:29","slug":"banned-books-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books Week."},"content":{"rendered":"

I wonder if other authors aspire to be on the list of most challenged books in their careers?\u00a0 I just roll my eyes when I see the latest list of “banned books”. Many of my favorite books always make those lists. I hate to see creativity stifled. I hate to see the First Ammendment and Freedom of Speech challenged. If someone doesn’t like a book, don’t read it, review it critically but seriously? Banning a book? How wrong is that? PBS <\/a>is talking about Banned Books week on NOW.<\/p>\n

These are the 10 most challenged books of 2008.<\/p>\n

he “10 Most Challenged Books of 2008,” according to the ALA were:<\/p>\n

“And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
\nReasons:<\/strong> anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group<\/p>\n

“His Dark Materials” trilogy by Philip Pullman
\nReasons:<\/strong> political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence<\/p>\n

“TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series)” by Lauren Myracle
\nReasons:<\/strong> offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
\n“Scary Stories” (series), by Alvin Schwartz
\nReasons:<\/strong> occult\/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence<\/p>\n

“Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya
\nReasons:<\/strong> occult\/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence<\/p>\n

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
\nReasons:<\/strong> drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group<\/p>\n

“Gossip Girl” (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar
\nReasons:<\/strong> offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group<\/p>\n

“Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” by Sarah S. Brannen
\nReasons:<\/strong> homosexuality and unsuited to age group<\/p>\n

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
\nReasons:<\/strong> offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group<\/p>\n

“Flashcards of My Life” by Charise Mericle Harper
\nReasons:<\/strong> sexually explicit and unsuited to age group<\/p>\n

Glad to see Rudofo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima <\/span>still makes the list. That is one of my favorite books. It was the first book I read that was about my people– New Mexico Hispanics. I felt his characters come to life, they were people I knew growing up and I loved his use of language and visuals in the story.\u00a0 The critics never get the point of the story. They always pull out the “occult and satanism” when they describe the book. The old woman, Ultima, is a healer, a curadera. She doesn’t worship Satan or practice the occult. It infuriates me to read descriptions like that.\u00a0 Not that it has hurt the book any way. It’s still in print and still read and beloved by many.<\/p>\n

As a writer, from New Mexico, of Hispanic descent, I look to Anaya\u00a0 as a role model.\u00a0 Now, I aspire to write a book that will be banned. I also should reread that story as I picked up a paperback copy of it. It’s my third.\u00a0 I had a beautifully illustrated hard back copy that I loaned to a friend and haven’t gotten back and the one I got in high school disappeared som ewhere, anyway, I love this story. I love his writing and need to read more of his work actually. But in a way, because of his ability to get published and be known as the father of Chicano Literature, he has opened up the door for other writers, those published and those apspiring to be published to have our stories told.<\/p>\n

FYI, these are the most challenged books from 1990-2000
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I wonder if other authors aspire to be on the list of most challenged books in their careers?\u00a0 I just roll my eyes when I see the latest list of “banned books”. Many of my favorite books always make those … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[67,68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicink.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}