Description
Book SynopsisNew in Paperback! This collection of sixty-three essays provides assistance to the growing number of students, teachers, librarians, and parents who find themselves confronting a censorship situation. The contributors are both authorsof fiction, drama, and poetry for adults, children, and adolescentsand teachers of literature, writing about the books that are most frequently challenged in schools and libraries. Part I provides six authors'' perspectives on censorship by omission and commission. Part II provides responses and defenses of individual books. Paperback edition available May 2001.
Trade Review...a good, general reference....a resource book to provide inspiration....essays are well-crafted and interesting to read.... * VOYA *
...should be mandatory reading for all librarians and educators....it is the eloquence of the essays, not the number of them, that makes this book impressive....recommended for every professional's shelf. * School Library Journal *
Although this collection of essays is aimed at assisting the growing numbers of students, teachers, and librarians who may have to confront censorship, Censored Books will be of interest to anyone involved in the world of books. * AB Bookman's Weekly *
...a fine review of censorship problems that have surfaced in this country over the past three decades....recommended for all professional collections. * Public Library Quarterly *
This is a book for educators struggling with the philosophical issues of selection and censorship....Highly recommended. * Book Report *
Bound to be of assistance to teachers and librarians besieged by claims that removing vital works of literature will somehow protect the moral purity of children....communicates an optimistic belief that the joys of reading eventually triumph. * Booklist *
This book is a critical testament, the most revealing evidence published for many years. * Library Association Record *
This is a rich, deep, multifaceted work of great value to librarians, educators, and the general public, who will gain much from its open, readable style. All public, school, and academic libraries need this work for edification, pure enjoyment of its contents, and as a practical tool ready for use when the worst case appears at their doorstep. * Rq *
This collection of essays is an invaluable reference book for all libraries. * Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom *
Scarecrow Press consistently publishes quality work on important topics.... * Australian Library Journal *
...offers excellent rationales...for reading the book—by Twain, Steinbeck, Angelou, and others—which have been censored. * The Saint Louis Journalism Review *
...serves to remind one of the many insidious ways through which censorship operates and ultimately stifles creativity....a valuable book which avoids being alarmist or hysterical but urges vigilance, and awareness of the dangers of complacency. * Journal of Information and Library Research *
...fill[s] a niche that few anthologies on censorship address. * L&C *
Must Read! * Today's Books *
Table of ContentsPart 1 Acknowledgments Part 2 Introduction Part 3 Prologue How to Be Obscene by Upton Sinclair Part 4 I. PERSPECTIVES: CENSORSHIP BY OMISSION AND COMMISSION Chapter 5 1. On Censorship Chapter 6 2. Blackballing Chapter 7 3. Not Laughable, But Lethal Chapter 8 4. Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry Chapter 9 5. White-outs and Black-outs on the Book Shelves Chapter 10 6. "Shut Not Your Doors": An Author Looks at Censorship Part 11 II. CHALLENGING BOOKS Chapter 12 7. A Rationale for Teaching Huckleberry Finn Chapter 13 8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Review of Historical Challenges Chapter 14 9. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Chapter 15 10. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden Chapter 16 11. In Defense of: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Deenie, and Blubber— Three Novels by Judy Blume Chapter 17 12. The Bible: Source of Great Literature and Controversy Chapter 18 13. The Bible and the Constitution Chapter 19 14. Black Boy (American Hunger): Freedom to Remember Chapter 20 15. Black Like Me: In Defense of a Racial Reality Chapter 21 16. Bless the Beasts and Children by Glendon Swarthout Chapter 22 17. The Relevance of Brave New World Chapter 23 18. Huxley's Brave New World as Social Irritant: Ban It or Buy It? Chapter 24 19. "Alas, alas, That ever love was sin!" Marriages Moral and Immoral in Chaucer Chapter 25 20. If You Want to Know the Truth...:The Catcher in the Rye Chapter 26 21. Fighting Words in and over Catch-22 Chapter 27 22. "They tell you to do your own thing, but they don't mean it.": Censorship and The Chocolate War Chapter 28 23. Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange Chapter 29 24. She's Just Too Womanish for Them: Alice Walker and The Color Purple Chapter 30 25. Fueling the Fire of Hell: A Reply to Censors of The Crucible Chapter 31 26. Death of a Salesman: An American Classic Chapter 32 27. The Debate in Literary Consciousness: Dickey's Deliverance Chapter 33 28. "Messing up the minds of the citizenry en route": Essential Questions of Value in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Chapter 34 29. A Farewell to Arms Chapter 35 30. A Defense of A Farewell to Arms Chapter 36 31. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Chapter 37 32. "If we cannot trust..." The Pertinence of Judy Blume's Forever Chapter 38 33. "Whatsoever things are pure..." A Case for Go Ask Alice Chapter 39 34. An Apologia for Pearl Buck's The Good Earth Chapter 40 35. The Grapes of Wrath: Preserving Its Place in the Curriculum Chapter 41 36. A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich: A Rationale for Classroom Use Chapter 42 37. If Beale Street Could Talk: A Rationale for Classroom Use Chapter 43 38. Maya Angelou Is Three Writers: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Chapter 44 39. Learning to Live: When the Bird Breaks from the Cage Chapter 45 40. The Stop of Truth: In the Night Kitchen Chapter 46 41. It's OK If You Don't Love Me: Evaluating Anticipated Experiences of Readers Chapter 47 42. Johnny Got His Gun: A Depression Era Classic Chapter 48 43. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George Chapter 49 44. Gordon Parks' The Learning Tree: Autobiography and Education Chapter 50 45. Teaching Rationale for William Golding's Lord of the Flies Chapter 51 46. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Chapter 52 47. Manchild in a World Where You Just Might Make It: Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land Chapter 53 48. Reflections on "The Shylock Problem" Chapter 54 49. Supporting Traditional Values: My Darling, My Hamburger Chapter 55 50. Why Nineteen Eighty-Four Should Be Read and Taught Chapter 56 51. A Teachable Good Book: Of Mice and Men Chapter 57 52. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Chapter 58 53. Moby Dick vs. Big Nurse: A Feminist Defense of a Misogynist Text: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Chapter 59 54. Threshold Literature: A Discussion of Ordinary People Chapter 60 55. In Defense of Our Bodies, Ourselves Chapter 61 56. A Look Inside a Landmark: The Outsiders Chapter 62 57. Is Run, Shelley, Run Worth Fighting For? Chapter 63 58. Penance and Repentance in The Scarlet Letter Chapter 64 59. A Rationale for Reading John Knowles' A Separate Peace Chapter 65 60. Authenticity and Relevance: Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 66 61. Censoring Judy Blume and Then Again, Maybe I Won't Chapter 67 62. In Defense of To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 68 63. Finding Humor and Value in Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic Chapter 69 About the Contributors
