in this bookcase alone, i have Margaret Atwood (whose Handmaid's Tale came under fire just last month in Ontario), Alice Walker (a group of California school trustees rejected The Colour Purple in 1984 on grounds of "troubling ideas" about race, sexuality, and god; the book continued to be in the top 10 censored books in 2007 in the US), Maya Angelou (I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is another top censored list, 2007 nominee), James Joyce (whose Ulysses may be the single most-censored book ever), and Ernest Hemingway (who Farewell to Arms was once banned as "a sex book").
Other books in the American top 10 of 2007's banned books? Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (a longtime contender for most-read, most-loved banned book) and Philip Pullmann's The Golden Compass. And the award for the top number one position of most-banned & censored book in the US goes to...an illustrated true story about two male penguins adopting a baby penguin, And Tango Makes Three. This is dangerous stuff, people. i think i'm going to buy a copy of the penguin book...i know several kids who would enjoy it.
that's the US list, but Canadians can't get too smug...Derek Finkle's article take a look at the past few years for journalists, this weekend in the Globe.
1 comment:
Terrific! I have one to add: Ginsberg's Howl.
Post a Comment