Banned Books Week GIveaway Winner!

                                          Banned Books Week Giveaway Winner!

In September of last year, the Anoka-Hennepin school district, in Minnesota, banned author Rainbow Rowell from coming to speak about her book Eleanor & Park, during Banned Books Week.  The controversy caused a wave of opinions and the outrage of book lovers everywhere.  It also put Eleanor & Park on the radar of many readers, including me, as I went out and bought the audio book immediately.  Don't they know that if you ban a book, people everywhere want to read it?  I guess not.

In honor of Banned Books Week and exercising our Freedom to read what we want, I am giving away 1 copy of Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.

And the winner is....

Melissa G from Tennessee

Congratulations Melissa and enjoy your new book.  You are going to love it!

Exercise your First Amendment rights.

Stay Informed

Challenge Censorship

Support your local schools and libraries.

The History Lesson: 5 Banned Books

The History Lesson:  5 Banned Books

This week is Read Banned Books Week and since I'm a history teacher we learned about Censorship, First Amendment rights and Banned Books in my class.   Every day this week I wore a different bookish T-Shirt and then brought in the corresponding book and read students a page and talked about why the particular book was banned somewhere in the world.

Monday - Sept 22

I wore my Goodnight Moon T-shirt and talked about my love of books and explained Banned Books Week and why it is important to read Banned Books.

The books I highlighted on Monday were Little Red Riding Hood, which was banned because Red carried wine in her basket, and Eleanor & Park, which was banned by a Minnesota school district, for obscene language, last year.  Incidentally the district that banned Rainbow Rowell and her book, is right next door to the school district I teach in.  I emphasized how lucky we are that parents do not try and ban books in our school
district.

Tuesday- Sept 23

I wore my Great Gatsby T-shirt and read a page from the book.  My students will actually be reading The Great Gatsby this school year in there American Lit class.  Many already have seen the movie version.  The Great Gatsby was banned because of the affair in the book as well as the alcohol use in the book.  Prohibition was in effect when the book was published in 1925.


Wednesday-Sept 24

Scott Fitzgerald's birthday.  I should have worn my Great Gatsby shirt and talked about it on this day. Oh well.  Whoopsie.

Today I wore my Color Purple shirt and read from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple. This book is entirely told in letters or diary entries.  It is based on a true story and has been banned frequently for sexual situations and sexual violence.  It begins in the 1930's and covers 30 years.  There is a dialect in it.  It grips you from the first page.


Thursday- Sept 25
My 21st wedding anniversary.

I wore my Alice in Wonderland T-shirt and talked about Lewis Carroll and Alice's adventures.  Alice in Wonderland is banned for having talking animals.  China banned it, stating that animals should not be on a equal level with humans and should not have human qualities.  It was also banned because the caterpillar sits on a mushroom and smokes a hookah pipe. He gives Alice a piece of the mushroom and people freaked that its a drug reference.


Friday - Sept 26th

I wore my Slaughter House-Five T-shirt and talked about why the book is named Slaughter House-five and The Children's Crusade and that is a anti-war book frequently banned.  It was my first experience learning about the fire bombing of Dresden, Germany during WWII.  Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden during the war.  Mainly it's banned for swear words and sexual situations.

Have you read any of these books?

Do you own bookish T-shirts??

I get all my book T-shirts at Out of Print Clothing

Support Freedom of Speech and Read a Banned Book

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop

                                               Banned Book Week Giveaway Hop

Protect your right to read.

In September of last year, the Anoka-Hennepin school district, in Minnesota, banned author Rainbow Rowell from coming to speak about her book Eleanor & Park, during Banned Books Week.  The controversy caused a wave of opinions and the outrage of book lovers everywhere.  It also put Eleanor & Park on the radar of many readers, including me, as I went out and bought the audio book immediately.  Don't they know that if you ban a book, people everywhere want to read it?  I guess not.

Below is an excerpt from an article on the ALA website about Eleanor & Park.


Rowell, Rainbow
Eleanor & Park
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS
Retained, despite a challenge by the
chairman of the Anoka-Hennepin, Minn.
School Board (2013) because parents of a
student objected to the book’s content,
citing its use of profanity and its treatment
of sexuality. The Anoka County Library
had scheduled a visit by the author, but
the event was cancelled due to the
controversy. Set in a poor Omaha
neighborhood, the story concerns two
outsider teens in the 1980s who find a
common bond in music amidst poverty,
bullying, abuse, racism, and budding
sexuality. Selected by National Public
Radio as a 2013 Great Read.


A note to the parents who banned Rainbow Rowell from visiting their school district:  I want to say thank you because it was you who caused me to notice and read Eleanor Park and you, who made me want to see Rainbow speak in St. Paul and it was you, who inspired me to invite her to my high school to speak and it is you, I thank, as I continue to recommend this book to every teenager I know and teach.

So Protect your right to read what you want.  Exercise your First Amendment rights.

Stay Informed

Challenge Censorship

Support your local schools and libraries.

Enter to win a copy of Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.

Rules:

Fill out the form

Open Internationally (make sure the book depository sends to your country)

Ends 9/27 at midnight

Good Luck!

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Please visit Bookhounds, where you will find a linky list of all the other blogs hosting contests this week.

Happy Reading!!

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop

Banned Book Week Giveaway Hop

This year the censorship bullies in Minnesota are hard at work.  The latest banned book controversy struck this week and involves the author Rainbow Rowell and her book Eleanor & Park.

This summer, the Anoka-Hennepin County Librarians chose Eleanor & Park as part of their optional summer "Rock the Read" program.  As part of that program they planned to have Rainbow Rowell speak to teens in the Anoka-Hennepin school district and in the library system.

The Parent Action League objects to the swear words within the book and even took the time to count them.  They have succeeded in banning Rainbow Rowell from both speaking engagements in Anoka-Hennepin county.  They are trying to get all the books removed from the libraries and are calling for the librarians who picked the book to be disciplined.

The irony lies in the fact that Eleanor and Park is a book about bullying and the Parent Action League are taking the role of bullying to heart by making sure no teenager within their county school district can read it.

So in honor of FREEDOM OF SPEECH and the right to choose what you want to read, I am giving
away a copy of Eleanor and Park.  OH and I invited Rainbow Rowell to speak to my students in
Minneapolis.  I hope she accepts.  Fingers crossed.

I guess, censorship bullies don't know that banning a book makes everyone want to read it.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

Contest Rules:
Open Internationally- if you will accept an ebook or if Better World books ships to your country.
Enter by 9/28 at midnight
Good Luck!

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Banned Books Week Hop

Banned Books Week Hop 9/28 to 10/6

Welcome to Banned Book Week.  In Honor of Banned Books Week and the freedom to read what you want, I am giving away one of the top ten banned books of 2011.  This contest is international.  In your comment please tell me which of the top ten books you want to read/win.  If you click on the image it will bring you to Amazon and a description of the book.

#1  ttyl series.
#2 The Color of Earth series
#3 The Hunger Game series
#4 My Mom's Having a Baby
#5 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
#6 Alice series
#7 Brave New World
#8 What My Mother Doesn't Know
#9 Gossip Girl series
#10 To Kill a Mockingbird




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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Did you know this book is considered dangerous?


Caution: 
Reading this book could arouse the suspicions of the secret police.

I read the The Handmaid's Tale about 10 years ago and I have never forgotten the powerful impact of this book.  I read it for a reading retreat through The Women's Press and their BookWomen magazine.  We met in the north woods of Minnesota to talk about the dire and scary prospects The Handmaid's Tale presented.  This weekend forever changed my reading life and I am so grateful I was able to digest this novel with amazing women from several different states. 

This dystopian novel takes place in totalitarian country called Gilead.  Gilead is a theocracy that conquered the United States and is suffering from a declining birth rate.  Offred, the main character, is forced to copulate and give birth to children that are raised by infertile couples.  Offred belongs to a man named Fred hence her name (Offred) Of Fred. 

The Handmaid's Tale takes place in a completely cashless and chauvinistic society.  We are now entering a similar type of cashless society that no longer takes checks and the book is becoming very relevant.  All women have had their assets frozen and taken away as well as their basic rights and freedoms.  Reading is forbidden because it is a dangerous activity.  Eventually Offred learns of an underground movement and makes a courageous decision to take her fate into her own hands. 

The Handmaid's Tale has won and been nominated for many book awards.  It has been made into an opera (which I saw several years ago) and it also been challenged and banned in schools. 

The controversy: A Judson, Tex., school superintendent banned the novel from an advanced placement English curriculum after a parent complained that it was sexually explicit and offensive to Christians. In doing so, the superintendent overruled the recommendation by a committee of teachers, students, and parents. The committee appealed the decision to the school board, which overruled the superintendent in 2006

Reason for challenge in the U.S.: Parents complained about sexual and anti-religious content.

I challenge you to exercise your first amendment rights by reading a banned book.  Unlike Offred, YOU are FREE to read any book you choose.  Choose Wisely!!