In “real life”, I am a designer and I often do freelance projects. Last year I managed to beat out the other canidates for the job of doing the campaign colleteral for Banned Books Week for the American Library Associatation. So since then I have been working on poster and bookmark and tshirt and button and order form designs, and they are finally all done! My family has an inordinate number of ex-teachers and are more excited that I got to work on this job than anything else I have ever done.
Very Cool! I always love to read the titles of the books that made the list.
There are some odd ones–like Laura Ingalls Wilder or Huck Finn etc.
Our school district awhile back had a brouhaha over a certain book that was a part of the third grade curriculum–don’t remember the title, but what a tempest in a teapot!
[QUOTE=eleanorigbyOur school district awhile back had a brouhaha over a certain book that was a part of the third grade curriculum–don’t remember the title, but what a tempest in a teapot![/QUOTE]
Heh, I work for a childrens book distributor that regularly gets attitude for “selling this trash to children”. I at any given time have 30-40 of the top 100 banned childrens books at any given time. I have often thought we should assemble a “banned books pack” for sale.
You have really done your part in fighting ignorance with that. If there was a Cecil Adams award for the most worthy effort to fight ignorance, you would be a sho-in !!
Gaudere, this is so cool! Your work looks awesome, and I’ve got to have one of those T-shirts. I will be the envy of all my peers when I wear it because I can say I know who designed this! Well, sort of, anyway
Those posters will look so great in my classroom!
Speaking as someone who is half-way through with her grad degree in Library, Media, and Info Tech for schools, you rock!
I’m looking at the 100 Most Banned Books List and some of these are truly baffling. Why on earth would anyone want to ban The Giver? Or Deenie? Ack, they’re banning Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret! I thought that was required reading for every 12 year old girl in the US! And what on earth is bannable about the Anastasia Krupnik books?
:: stratches head :: I mean, it’s not like I’m pro banning any books, but I can definitely see being a parent and not wanting my kid reading some of these books at young ages, but…The Headless Cupid? What the heck is objectionable about that?
Um, anyway, yeah. I am very impressed. I look forward to seeing this stuff in bookstores and libraries and telling people my friend made them!
I can understand why Deenie would be banned; she masturbates, and we can’t have girls pleasuring themselves. Both Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and the Anastasia Krupnik books feature the main characters undergoing searches for a personal religion; Margaret is from an interreligious family and Anastasia’s family apparently isn’t much of anything. Margaret also begins her period.
Having perused the list, I can understand why some of these books might not belong in school libraries. I don’t think I’d want my middle-school child to read American Psycho, for example. But I don’t think books should be banned from a public library for content.
That said, I propose a challenge to my fellow Dopers. Just as we have a 50 book challenge, we oughta have a Banned Books challenge. Many of these books are fairly easy to read. ::toddles off to LJ to start the community::
