Tag: Banned Books

At the far end of town

where the Grickle-grass grows

and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows

and no birds every sing excepting old crows…

is the Street of the Lifted Lorax.

And so begins the sing-song rhythmic read of The Lorax.  Do you remember this book?  The pictures of the colorful and fluffy Truffula Trees.  That is until The Old Once-ler came round, and decided he need to chop the trees down (intentional rhyme)  😛

Then the Lorax showed up to speak for the trees, he said do not cut them I am asking you please!

(Ok… now I can’t stop so I am just going to go with it)

The Lorax tried to stop the factory that was built, but progress was already moving full tilt!

With no more trees the Bar Ba Loots had nothing to eat, but really its just business so sadly they  retreat.

As the story goes the end came at last, with no trees and no animals all was in the past…

Yet one seed did remain and plant it we must, for the future is ours and to us it must trust.

I checked this out from the library for banned book week.  This book just brings back the memories of all sorts of Seuss moments, and while this is not one of the big names I remember (Cat In The Hat, One Fish, Two Fish, Hop On Pop…) it is one that does hold a message.

I just loved reading it again!

Why was The Lorax a banned book?

The Lorax was banned because it was felt to cast a negative look on the forestry industry.

In 1989, the Laytonville, CA Unified School District tried to do just that. They challenged the book based on someone’s belief that it criminalizes the foresting industry.

I borrowed this book from my local library

The Bell Jar is told from the perspective of Esther Greenwood.  You would think she had the perfect life… young, beautiful, talented, successful… yet she is deeply troubled and sinking fast.   She starts with a painful month in New York after she won a contest to be Junior Editor on a magazine.  What most girls her age would be fascinated to win, Esther only found it troubling.  She has a troubled relationship with her mother, and with a boy she dates on again and off again, but really finds she can not commit to anything -including life itself.

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A bell jar is a piece of laboratory equipment similar in shape to a bell. It can be manufactured out of a variety of materials, ranging from glass to different types of metals. A bell jar is placed on a base which is vented to a hose fitting, which can be connected via a hose to a vacuum pump. By pumping the air out of the bell jar, a vacuum is formed.

I read this with my book club for our annual October Classic read.  I love that we commit to a classic every year and good or bad, the discussions over a classic are always pretty fantastic.  When we reviewed this on Tuesday, I was not done with the read and I blew a chance to really analyze this book with my group.  I finished this a couple of days after.

I had read up on Sylvia Plath’s life prior to this book and was extremely fascinated by how much this book parallels her life.   While the book is about a deep depression, I did not find it depressing.  The start of the book is her time in New York and the last third is while she is in a Mental Hospital. As one of the girls in our book club stated, as Esther finds herself deeper in her depression and break down – the writing becomes even more beautiful.

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

While not the easiest read, I think it is an important one.  As I flip between the pages of information I have on Sylvia Plath and The Bell Jar’s Esther Greenwood… I can’t help but think how much of this book is Sylvia’s story.

The book first published in January if 1961, and Sylvia Plath committed suicide in February of 1963.  It was first published under the name of Victoria Lucas.  The novel was not published under Sylvia’s name until 1967 and not published in the United States until 1971 per the wishes of Plath’s mother and husband.

Why Was The Bell Jar Banned?

The Bell Jar has been challenged because it openly rejects traditional marriage and motherhood.  It has also been challenged for it’s characters discussion of sexuality.

I purchased this book at the local fall library sale

Arnold Spirit (known as Junior at home) is a 14-year-old Spokane Indian.  He was born with water on the brain, is regularly picked on by his peers, and loves to draw pictures.   He refers to the world as a series of broken dams and floods and his pictures are tiny lifeboats.   He loves basketball, and is fairly good on the Spokane Team.  He decided if he stays in the reservation all his life he is never going to go anywhere just like his parents.  They too had dreams once of being something more.  He requests that they let him go to the rich white school in Reardan which is 20 minutes away.  His parents agree.  This destroys his friendship with his best friend Rowdy, who has always been this crazy Native American kid who will beat up anyone who looks at him twice.  This once meant Rowdy  was a source of protection to Junior, and now includes Junior in the beating category.

What happens when Arnold (known as Arnold when he switches schools) is that he once again finds himself the blunt of jokes and discrimination.  He stays at his new school, determined to make it work, even sometimes having to walk  the twenty minutes to and from when his dad does not have enough money for gas in the car.  Eventually he makes a few friends along the way, and is able to find a happy medium between his life on the reservation and his school that is not.

Confession time.  I picked this book up as part of Banned Books Week.  It came to my library late but I still wanted to read it.  After I brought it home with several others I looked up why it was banned.  On line it said that is was banned for talk of masturbation, racism, and vulgar language.  I almost returned it to the library unread.  It was honestly, the first of all the banned books that I read this past couple of weeks that I can say I questioned if I wanted to read it or not.  I  don’t condone banning, not in the least, but I do believe in our rights to choose  to read a book or not.

However, I listed this book on a post about the books I had received at my library and I started receiving comments from people who had read this book saying what an amazing read it was, some even calling it a favorite.  A few others who hadn’t read it said that they had been wanting too.  To all of these people, I say thank you.  If not for you, I may have missed out on an incredible reading experience.

So I was cautiously optimistic when I opened up the book, still reserving the right to put it down at any time. (Oh the conversations I have with myself sometimes… :razz:)

I didn’t put it down.

The parts that I felt may have been unnecessary were so small.  They did not take away from the book.  I read this story told from a 14-year-old boys perspective and I have to say I really enjoyed the incredible insight he brought into race, stereo types, and color.

The pictures throughout the book are so important to the story line and really give Arnold’s story a life.  The pictures add to what he is feeling, be it happiness, confusion, anger, or pain.  You can see it all, and for me, I could feel it as well.

As Arnold shares his story I was reminded again how strong prejudices can be when people see through eyes of judgment.  What I also seen was that the power of friendship and acceptance has a much stronger presence and hold.

While I would not say hand this book to your young child, I do think it is an important read for older YA and holds within its pages an amazing read that I will not soon forget.

I picked up this book from my local library

I would however, love to own this read.