Favorite Banned Books

Banned Books week continues. Even though I’m totally absorbed in book fair, I thought I’d take a moment to remember some of my favorite banned books. It isn’t hard, since most good books are ban-worthy and have made many a Most Frequently Banned Books list. Here are my favs (in order of ban-ability):

1.) Harry Potter by JK Rowling (dude, lay off Harry. He’s just trying to save the world, which includes you silly anti-magic Muggles)

2.) The Alice Series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (because, you know, the stuff that happens in the Alice books doesn’t happen in EVERY HIGH SCHOOL IN AMERICA)

3.) The Giver by Lois Lowry (I just. don’t. understand.)

4.) Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison (okay, maybe I want to smack Georgia in the face sometimes, too, but she makes me laugh, like, SO HARD. She’s supposed to be little bit ridiculous. And boy crazy.)

5.) Daughters of Eve and Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan (the genre is horror. If that scares you, don’t get a horror book. As for Daughters of Eve…apparently feminism is scary?)

6.) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (People that want to silence this book obviously didn’t read it and missed the ENTIRE POINT, which is that silencing/ignoring/burying traumatic life events only makes us hurt more. We need to heal from our pain, not hide it.)

7.) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (the banning people just love to ban dystopian novels. Though this book is also about sex, which makes it extra ban-able).

8.) Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (The frank discussion of puberty is apparently offensive. More than that, we certainly don’t want to teach children that they can talk to God like He’s their buddy.)

9.) Forever By Judy Blume (Did you know that sometimes teenagers have sex and don’t immediately die, regret it, get pregnant, or get a disease? Sometimes they just have sex and the world doesn’t fall apart. Interesting concept.)

10.) The Awakening by Kate Chopin (sexual awakening for women = bad. They shouldn’t want/do stuff like that. I’m guessing that the critics who read it to the end figure she got what she deserved).

Ahhh, banned books. Just looking at that list reminds me of many a good time with many a good book. Most of these I’ve even read twice, which I don’t usually do. I’m glad that librarians and community members alike have stood up for each of these books to keep them on the shelf. I glad that I was able to make a decision about what I wanted to read, and that each of these books was one of my choices.

God No!

Holy f*ck!

God, No! Signs You May Already Be An Atheist and Other Magical Tales

by Penn Jillette

[#41 in my 52 book challenge]

Oh my.

Can I stop my review with just that? “Oh my?” Because that kind of sums it up.

I enjoy Penn Jillette’s work, so reading this book was a no brainer. Penn is one of the two-man magic show Penn and Teller, but I really know him from their show Penn and Teller: Bullshit! on Showtime. Penn Jillette is both a Libertarian and an atheist, and he is also a skeptic…which are all things I respect him for.  Religion fascinates me and I love Penn Jillette, so I naturally gravitated toward this book.

I say it right now: I am a Christian. I am not an atheist. I didn’t pick up this book to give a mental fist bump to a guy who shares my religious ideology. I picked this book up to learn a little bit about one guy’s life story as an atheist. Even as a Christian, I understand where atheists are coming from and I respect the conviction/intelligence/skepticism that comes with rejecting religion and God…and that it’s not always taken lightly. Atheists are usually very intelligent people, and I value intelligence greatly.

That being said, I don’t think I got much out of Jillette’s book. He outlines the 10 Atheist Commandments in contrast with the commandments from the Bible, but he spends much of his time rambling. The stories he tells, though interesting to Jillette fans as tidbits from his life, are only loosely related to the topic at hand: atheism. Jillette does a lot of Hollywood name dropping, which I found unnecessary. I just didn’t get much out of reading this: I didn’t learn anything, I didn’t laugh out loud, and I was barely entertained. It wasn’t terrible, just mediocre. The kind of book that would be best checked out from the library. But I paid $13 for it on my Nook and now I’m stuck with the digital copy forever. Thus is life.

Oh, and FYI, it’s full of cussing. ‘Cause that’s what Penn does best. Just a warning (though, if you’re an atheist and over age 14, probably an unnecessary one).

Even reptiles like to read

A bearded dragon visited the book fair today. His name is Mr. Snuggles and he enjoyed a good book!

Mr. Snuggles is the new class pet of one of our sixth grade science classes, taught by Ms. Hardin (also pictured). The kids love him and so do we!

Good…but Life As We Knew It was better.

I get cold just looking at it.

Trapped 

by Michael Northrop

[#40 in my 52 book challenge]

It’s no secret that Life As We Knew It is one of my favorite books. The story becomes a survival story when Miranda and her family are trapped in the never-ending cold and snow. So when I saw Trapped sitting on the shelf at the book fair this week, I took it home and devoured it in three days. I couldn’t put it down.

The story sounds very similar to Life As We Knew It, and it is. I can’t avoid drawing comparisons between the two. And I will say that I believe Life As We Knew It did the story better. That being said, I love this sub-genre of survival fiction and I enjoyed the book overall. The story is about seven high school students trapped in their high school during the storm of the century. More than a dozen feet of snow are dumped on New England over a period of several days, and the teens must try to survive as their situation grows gradually worse. The narrator, Scotty, tells us from the beginning that things great really bad and not everyone survives, which only adds to the tension from the get-go.

The story fell short in a few places. Mainly it fell short because it was short. The characters and plot needed a bit more depth. Northrop has a great premise here, but it could really be pushed further. I wanted more tension. I wanted to learn more about the characters and I wanted to see more conflict between them. Most of all, I wanted more in the ending of the story. I know the ending to Life As We Knew It was bare, but it really worked in that story — that’s a huge part of why that book worked overall. However, the ending to Trapped didn’t have the same effect. If Northrop had cut out the entire last two chapters, it would have ended much better. If Northrop had added two more chapters, it would also have been better. But the current ending just doesn’t feel right.

Trapped was a gripping read, and one I’d recommend to students and friends, but the fact of the matter is that it’s not a story I will re-read.

Happy Banned Books Week, everyone!

It’s Banned Books Week!

Celebrate by going out and reading something scandalous. Feed your mind with knowledge, no matter how controversial. The celebration runs from September 24- October 1, but I hope you all celebrate year round!

I believe many of the books in my 52 book challenge would be challenged or banned based on the content, especially in a school library. But every book added something to my life that I’m glad to have experienced. I want the same for the my students: the ability to read what they want to read, regardless of whether not the material makes someone else uncomfortable.

This year, I’m proud to say that I have read six of the ten most challenged books of last year. How many have you read? Which banned books are your favorite? Which banned book will you read to celebrate this week?

The Most Challenged Books of 2010

(from http://www.bannedbooksweek.org):

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexaully explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit

Twilight (series), by Stephanie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group

Guest posting, anyone?

I know I’ve got a few faithful readers out there, and I know you all have a good book or book-related story you could talk about. How about some guest blogging? Write up a little book review, book list, book memory, library story, etc, attach a picture, and I’ll share your thoughts with the world…with a link to your blog, so readers can read more of your stuff.

I’d be more than willing to swap and guest blog on your blog, too (unless the very thought makes you less likely to agree!). But you don’t have to have a blog of your own to take me up on this offer. Anyone is welcome.

 

You mean people actually read this stuff??

I have been recognized by another blogger as…well..worth recognizing.

I have been given the Versatile Blogger award by Life’s Funny…Sometimes. To accept the award, I must thank the blogger who awarded it to me with a link, pass the award to 15 blogs I have recently discovered, and write a list of seven things about myself.

So here are 15 blogs that I have recently (or not so recently!) discovered and read regularly:

1. The Shoeless Wanderer
2. Insatiable Booksluts
3. Teen Lit Rocks
4. The Broke and the Bookish
5. Conquering My Collection
6. Bookshelves of Doom
7. Love YA Lit
8. Crates by the Bushel
9. One More Page
10. It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages
11. The Very Hungry Bookworm
12. This Kid Reviews Books
13. CB Wentworth
14. 2606 Books and Counting
15. The Cheap Reader

Oh my, that was time consuming…I had to stop all along the way to read new posts on all of those pages. Fun, but not time efficient. That’s why I have Google Reader (if you don’t have Google Reader, you don’t know what you’re missing).

So, on to seven random things about me. I don’t quite get what this has to do with the above, but I guess it’s all about getting to know the people whose blogs I read. We’re a happy little blogging community.

1. I shower at night (so I should probably be getting in the shower right now instead of writing this).
2. I’m addicted to Dance Moms on Lifetime.
3. When I was seven, my family drove to Canada and back from Virginia. It is one of the most memorable vacations I have even been on. Other memorable trips include: Minnesota, Bermuda, and London/Paris.
4. I have been a Girl Scout for twenty three years.
5. Even though I am a librarian, I wasn’t a huge fan of libraries until I went to library school. They have changed a lot in the past 20 years!
6. I used to play a mean jazz trombone.
7. The best job I ever had, besides being a librarian, was working as a ticket seller at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. If they paid well enough, I’d do that job forever.

The Tattooed Librarian

I got a new tattoo. So I am now a double-tattooed librarian.

"explore life on the loose"

 The tattoo is a line from the song that we, as staff, would sing at every campfire at the Girl Scout camp where I worked for five years. The verse the line comes from goes like this:

As I sit and watch the sunset and the daylight slowly fades

I’ll be thinking about tomorrow and the friendships we have made

I’ll value them for always, and I hope you’ll do the same

And forever we’ll explore life on the loose.

 

The song, especially this last verse, is about taking everything gained from camp into the real world. Camp is a special place where we learned leadership, friendship, being ourselves, courage, independence, and perserverance. We tackled things we never thought we could do. The friendships made are unique to camp, they run deep and strong. My camp friends are friends for life, and each has made me a better person. I have taken everything camp has given me and applied to my real life…I am On The Loose.

On the loose to climb a mountain, on the loose where I am free

On the loose to live my life the way I think my life should be

I only have a moment and the whole world left to see

I’m be searching for tomorrow on the loose.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the writers over at The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s list is about books I feel everyone else has read but me. You can check out the original post over at the host blog, as well as posts from tons of other book bloggers.

Books I Feel As Though Everyone Has Read But Me

1. The Bible — okay, not an exciting choice. But definitely tops the list.
2. The Scarlet Letter — I happened to get the ONE AP English teacher that refused to teach it.
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — I own it. I just can’t get through it.
4. The Lightning Thief — Started it, never finished it, even though everyone tells me it’s great.
5. Any Nancy Drew book– I’ve never read any of the old “classic” series fiction.
6. The Lovely Bones — (but I’m reading it RIGHT NOW)
7. The Lord of the Flies — I was supposed to read it for 9th grade English. But we read a novel a week…so I took that week off.
8. The Book Thief — I don’t even have an excuse for this. There is no excuse.
9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — I wasn’t in the mood at the time. Or since.
10. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl– another gaping hole in my education.

I’m feeling like this list is going to become a set of starred items on next year’s reading list. What do you think — which one should I start with?

Why I believe AR is bad for literacy and bad for students

When I talk to people about AR (Accelerated Reader), they either love it or hate it. I definitely agree with the latter. Every time I think I have effectively stamped out use of AR in my school, it rears its ugly little head again and I am forced to fight another round of the battle. It’s tiring, but I must stand on the front lines for literacy!

What is AR?

If you’ve never heard of AR, you either live under a rock or you haven’t be anywhere near an elementary/middle school in over fifteen years. AR is a program that quizzes children on books they have read to award points for the book. The child must read a book on his or her approved, tested reading level. The quizzes focus on small details of the book, in order to test if the child has actually read the material. Points are awarded based on how many questions the child gets right, and they receive zero points if they fail to answer 70% of the questions correctly. Many schools award prizes to top readers. In addition, they often let children use points to “shop” at an AR store for toys and supplies or other rewards. Many classroom teachers required minimum numbers of AR points for grades in the classroom.

The folks that love AR have good intentions. They believe that AR pushes reluctant readers to read and rewards regular readers for their efforts. I agree that there are some children out there who are motivated by AR and it changes their lives. Teacher like the ease of record keeping: the AR program lets kids take the quizzes and reports all points to the teacher. Teachers have these great stories about kids devouring books and racking up points. They love the feeling that kids are getting excited about reading (joy!).

However, if we look deeper into AR we see that there is more to the story…and it ain’t pretty.

Why It Fails Our Students

AR is, by its very nature, a system of providing extrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards for reading. A very, very expensive system with very, very expensive rewards. Though I think intrinsic motivation is fabulous and preferred in most situations, I do recognize that extrinsic motivation is sometimes necessary. But do we really want children to read just because the get a cheap trinket? And can we really afford to keep doing so in this economy?

AR is expensive and time consuming. First, a school must buy the program and pay to support it each year. Then the school must buy a test for every library book purchased. At around $2.99 a pop, these tests don’t come cheap. For the price of five AR tests, an additional fiction book could be purchased for the library instead. The rewards are expensive, too. I did AR for one year, and it ate up a lot of my (very valuable) time. I had to put reading-level dots on the books, manually enter the 6th graders into the program, collect donations and supplies for the AR store each semester, shut down the library to run the store for six instructional days, and keep track of all the kids points from purchases.

But even if AR were free, the program still doesn’t work. It provides a short-term incentive to read, which disappears as soon as the reward is no longer available. Yes, kids may read more to rack up points…but they don’t enjoy it more and they don’t become life-long readers.  And let’s not even talk about the cheating! I have heard stories from my friends about how they cheated by taking tests for friends, watching the movie for a popular book, or looking up the test answers online. One friend even said he cheated his way to the #1 spot for points in the school! Even though it’s not technically cheating, I also used to see students cruising the stacks for the books with the highest point values. If I had a dollar for every kid who picked up Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix without reading the first four novels in the series, I’d have enough money to take myself to a nice dinner.

What bothers me most about AR is the insistence that kids read books on their reading level. It SUCKS to be restricted in reading choices. Think about it: if you were told, right now, that you could only read books on your reading level, would you be happy? I’d be stuck reading dissertations all day because I doubt there is any fiction on my reading level readily available to me. Most popular fiction is written on a fifth or sixth-grade reading level. For my middle school students, that meant that the reading pickins’ were slim. Even for an elementary school student, the selection would be about 12% of the entire library. I see teachers tell kids every day that they can’t read a book because it’s too easy or too hard. These kids end up picking something less interesting, and then trudging through it to earn their points. Is that really how the world works?

Think about why you read. Do you read because you get tangible rewards? Probably not. You read because you need to or want to learn something for yourself or a class. You read because your friend recommended a great book. You read because you want to read the book before you see the movie. You read because you’re in a book club. You read to escape, to heal, to experience, and to pass time. We need to work on taking the time and thought to encourage the same for children by modeling our love for reading, providing access to varied and intriguing reading material, and making reading a more social experience. We need to make sure that the kids can read, and work on basic skills if they can’t. Dangling a carrot is not the solution.

Don’t Just Take My Word For It

Read the research on AR and reading motivation if you want to see for yourself. I feel like a broken record every time I say, “AR is not a research-based strategy.” Here’s my evidence to support my claim:

Krashen, Stephen. 2003. The (Lack of ) Experimental Evidence Supporting the Use of Accelerated Reader. Journal of Children’s Literature 29 (2): 9, 16-30.

Mallette, Marla H. 2004. The Influence of Accelerated Reader on the Affective Literacy Orientations of Intermediate Grade Students, Journal of Literacy Research. Spring 2004.

Hansen, Laurie. 2009. Reading Management Programs: A Review of the Research. The Journal of Literacy and Technology 10 (3).

Jim Trelease’s comments on AR from The Read-Aloud Handbook

and a few more, from the general web:

18 Reasons NOT to Use AR

The Loopy Librarian also hates AR (and read the comments — quite telling)

Simply Janet hates it, too

Accelerated Reader frustrations