Let's Hear It For the First Amendment!

Fred Coppersmith of Occasional Fish posted a link to this American Library Association list of "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000." And since I don't talk nearly enough about books here, I thought I'd maybe say a little about the ones I've read...

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: Folks who object to this book on the basis that it contains the word "nigger" are missing the point. More than that, they're making a mistake that's becoming tragically common in modern thinking. It's not words that are hateful, but attitudes. And Huckleberry Finn is, in fact, quite anti-racist. But if I start getting into that any more, it'll turn into a rant and we'll be here all night. Let's move along.

20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel: I've read the first couple. The third one's on my To-Read pile, but I'm not in a hurry to get around to it any time soon. Really, they're classic teen-girl wish fulfillment stories. (For those familiar with the term, the heroine is a Mary Sue if ever there was one.) Only in a stone age setting. With explicit sex.

22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle: One of the best-beloved books of my childhood. I keep meaning to re-read it, though I'm a little afraid it won't hold up to my memory of it. I don't know who it is that "challenges" this book, but I imagine that the anti-religious sorts might object that it's too religious, and the religious sorts might object that it's religious in the wrong ways. 'Cause there's never any pleasing everybody.

27. The Witches by Roald Dahl: I adore Dahl, and, like all his stuff, this is a fun book. But, I gotta admit, the fact that it basically portrays witch-hunts as a good thing disturbs me. I'd probably be happy to read it to a child, but I think I'd want to have a little discussion with 'em afterward.

32. Blubber by Judy Blume: I think it's mandatory that all teenage girls have to read Judy Blume. I certainly did. Don't remember much of anything about this one, though.

37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: I reviewed this one on my book review site back when I was still updating the thing. Here's what I said about it then: "The Handmaid's Tale... is set in a near-future America in which widespread human fertility problems and a takeover by a repressive theocratic government have combined to give rise to a society in which still-fertile women are employed (or perhaps enslaved) to bear children for the rich and powerful. That such a society could have emerged from our own so completely in such a short period of time isn't really all that plausible, but the society itself and the title character are so convincingly drawn that that's easy enough to overlook. The novel does have a distinctly feminist sensibility -- a fact which is no doubt bound to please some and annoy others -- but it never degenerates into anything like a soapbox rant. Instead it remains a quietly disturbing and very human look inside the mind of a woman caught up in intolerable circumstances. Although if, as I suspect, part of the purpose of this book is to make the reader (especially the female reader) to think a little more carefully about the freedoms she enjoys today and the fact that such freedoms have not existed for women in all times and places... well, in my case at least, it was indeed successful."

43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton: I was assigned this for English class in the 8th grade. It really didn't seem like the kind of book I'd like. I mean, why would I want to read about hooligan teenagers? I got enough grief from those kids in real life. But I loved it.

46. Deenie by Judy Blume: I have vague memories that this book may have contained the first sex scene I ever read. Though maybe that was Tiger Eyes.

47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes: The original novella is a classic. Makes me cry every single time. Haven't read the novel version yet, though I do have a copy.

51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein: Silverstein is utterly demented and utterly wonderful. I adored him as a kid, and any adult that thinks his stuff is unsuitable for kids just doesn't understand kids at all.

52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: A worthwhile book, and a better read than 1984.

62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume: I think I actually read this one several times. I certainly remember it better than all the other Blume novels.

69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Damn good book. But painful.

78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume: The more I think about it, the more I think this was the one with the first sex scene I ever read. As I recall, it just made me slightly uncomfortable.

84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: Read this in the fourth grade and don't remember all that much about it. I keep meaning to read it again sometime.

96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell: Oh, for heavens' sake, who objects to this one? Vegetarians? Is there an Earthworm Protection Society or something? Yeesh. I remember reading this with great delight (and, all right, a mild, pleasant feeling of grossed-outed-ness) in the corner of my fourth grade classroom. There was a little library nook there, and the teacher used to let me go sit there and read if I finished my classwork early. I blame this fact for my lifelong tendency to rush through routine work, which has proved a severe handicap in jobs in which I am paid by the hour. (Hmm, OK, maybe this is a damaging book. Heh.)

98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder: I know I read this when I was a kid, but I remember absolutely nothing about it. I loved Snyder's books in general, though.