Reporting on the Challenge May 12, 2008

Poster courtesy of ABFFE (American Book Sellers for Free Expression.

To date, 54 people, including the people below have signed up to read 418 banned or challenged books. Please see comments for titles that have been submitted by readers.

jadyn513, USA, 10

Take the "Banned Book Challenge" from now until June 30.

Anniversary of Nazi Book Burnings

Where they have burned books, they will end in burning humans.

— German Poet Heinrich Heine, 1820

The TribStar of Terre Haute, Indiana features Bruce's History Lessons which is about the Nazi book burnings. On May 10, 1933, the Nazi party in Germany held a nation-wide bonfire during which 25,000 books went up in flames. Anything considered "un-German in spirit" that did not line up with Germany's political and social goals was censored. The German Student Association developed an “Action Against the Un-German Spirit” campaign that saw student members of the Nazi Party participating in town by town book burnings. Censorship eventually began to be applied to more than books and included “un-German” music, paintings, photographs, plays, films, newspapers and magazines. were banned or censored, and then religious groups, cultural institutions and political parties.

As Bruce Kaufmann puts it so eloquently,

And finally, as Heinrich Heine predicted a century earlier, Jews and other “un-German” people (gypsies, Slavs, the mentally and physically handicapped) were themselves banned, censored, and — in the crematoriums at Auschwitz, Dachau and elsewhere — burned.

Don't forget to check out the Pelham Public Library's "Banned Book Challenge."

Words Without Borders Literary Tour

(Graphic VU Weekly)
Edmonton's Vue Weekly recently featured an article entitled Writers Without Borders which highlights speakers who were recently on tour with PEN Canada’s Words Without Borders: a literary tour for freedom of expression.

Rita Espeschit, a children's author originally from Brazil, explains that Canada is not exempt from censorship on a couple of levels.

The challenged books that you see here are usually children’s books. All those Christian parents who don’t like something want [books about that subject] banned from schools. In the area of writing for children, there’s almost an institutionalised self-censorship that happens, not just on the level of writing but at the editing level, too. Publishers are very sensitive about anything people would get angry about in a book. [This anger] is too carefully avoided; there’s a sterilized universe to the books that’s not real life.

While Canada is not exempt from censorship, authors do not experience the kinds of consequences that authors in repressive countries experience. Jalal Barazanji, a poet and journalist from Iraq spent three years in jail for his writing. Now living in Canada, he has taken a position in Edmonton as their first “writer-in-exile.”

Other authors on the tour include: David Albahari, a writer and translator from Serbia and Sheng Xue, of China who moved to Canada soon after the June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Don't forget to check out the Pelham Public Library's "Banned Book Challenge."

Submit Your Titles

A number of people have begun to submit a title they have read from the "Banned Book Challenge." Please let us know what you have read and why you think it was challenged on the form below and I will inlude your comments when I report on the "Banned Book Challenge" in the comments.

To date, 53 people, including the people below have signed up to read 408 banned or challenged books.

Joanne, USA, 20
dbing93, USA, 2
jadyn513, USA,10

Chris Crutcher: An Opposition to Censorship

The Fahrenheit 451 Blog welcomes Stacia Derdzinski as a guest blogger. Below is her column on a visit by Chris Crutcher, whose works have been challenged frequently.




Chris Crutcher: An Opposition to Censorship

During his visit on March 6th, Chris Crutcher, author of “Deadline,” “King of the Mild Frontier,” “Whale Talk,” “Ironman,” “Athletic Shorts,” and many other novels stunned SUNY Cortland students with his down-to-earth personality and inspiring views on books in the adolescent classroom. Despite the winter weather, the Fireplace Lounge in Corey Union was overflowing with college professors, high school teachers, students, and fans longing to hear this notorious writer express his personal views on his often challenged books. Organized by SUNY Cortland professor Dr. Karen Stearns, this event was sponsored by a BIG READ grant during the months of March and April on campus and in the community. The BIG READ celebrates Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451” with its focus on book burning. Crutcher was invited to speak since his books are frequently censored in schools because of their honesty about controversial issues including abuse, homosexuality, anger, bullying, and more. A panel consisting of three teachers and a librarian were also present. They described the processes their schools require in order for a book to be banned from their curriculum or library. The audience expressed their surprise about parents who attempted to ban books including “A Northern Light” and even Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” While not all parents were successful in their efforts, the audience was appalled at the interference with the freedom to read.

Chris Crutcher began by enlightening the audience with the basics of his writing by telling stories of people who have become the troubled characters in his books. Crutcher’s novels and short-stories openly confront real life issues that many teens deal with today, yet these stories have still been added to the banned books list countless times. Therefore, he spoke from experience when he explained that “when we ban books we ban children.” He justified this statement by describing that students are not always capable of revealing their secrets in the classroom setting or elsewhere. However, if they read a story about a character facing those same issues, they can speak out in the classroom using their point of view through the voice of the character. Consequently, Crutcher’s books are helping young adults to recognize that the issues they face are both normal and survivable. Using his past experience in family therapy and child protection, Crutcher was supportive of current and future teachers saying that he has “never had a kid who didn’t have a saving teacher someplace.” His sincerity and enthusiasm for his craft shined through in his humble words of motivation. He will continue to amaze and even save his readers from feelings of hopelessness and destruction. After all, Crutcher’s advice will resonate with anyone who picks up one of his books: “Never let anybody tell you you can’t do it.”

Stacia Derdzinski is currently a junior enrolled in the Adolescent English Education program at SUNY Cortland. She attended Cazenovia High School where she quickly developed a love for English and an urge to write. She has always enjoyed creative writing, poetry, and journalism but also likes to experiment with other genres. Through her numerous observation placements and mentor work with the Cortland High School writer’s club, she knows that students are eager to express themselves. She strives to become a High School teacher who will reinvent the English classroom by allowing students to read and write about issues that truly matter to them.

Banned Book Challenge Report and a Couple of Milestones

ALA 2007 Children's Poster

Thank you to all of our readers for your support. Sitemeter reports that we have had over 60,000 hits and over 100,000 views.

To date, 50 people have signed up for The Banned Book Challenge and have pledged to read 376 banned or challenged books. From now until June, pick a goal for the number of banned, challenged, or censored books you would like to read. Register by clicking on the logo or the link to The Banned Book Challenge. See the sidebar for lists and for links to other sites.

Evan Leaf, USA, 3
Caitlin, USA, 4
koenmasoma, USA, 3
Jebbie74, Canada, 6
Abbatron3000, USA, 1
mandieleed, USA, 8
Barry, USA, 1
heyy008, USA, 1
JordanP, USA, 2
Ghost1374, Canada, 10

An Extraordinary Story of Survival

Although technically this is not the story of a challenge or banning of a book, it is the story of how resilient a writer's work can be, even in the face of a repressive regime.

Suite Francaise was begun by Irene Nemirovsky in 1941. Its name describes the intent of the author who had dreamed of writing a book which was contructed like a symphony. Suite Francaise was never finished since Nemirovsky lived in France while it was occupied by the Germans. Because of her Jewish background, she could no longer be published except under a pseudonym -- a dangerous undertaking.

On July 13, 1942, the French police arrested Nemirovsky and she was deported to Auschwitz, where she died on August 17, 1942. At that point, Suite Francaise may never have been published. Her daughters were saved by the governess who removed the Jewish star and helped them flee. Following the war, they returned to their grandmother's home to ask for help. Not recognizing them, she refused.

Denise, one of her daughters, had put the manuscript of Suite Francaise into her suitcase as they fled, as a memento of her mother. Denise and sister Elizabeth hid the suitcase in precarious places as they fled and didn't read it until many years later. Denise decided to type out the pages of the manuscript with its minuscule handwriting and found what she thought was a masterpiece of her mother's work.

Sixty-four years after the death of its author, Suite Francaise was finally published. It is sad, however, to think about how it is considered part one and two of a five-part symphony.