Censorship » Sherry Roberts Notebook

Viva the Book Traffickers

Books, Censorship, Reading No Responses »

Oct 092012

Banned Books Week is over, and we can all relax for another year. Our books are safe, or are they? If you live in Arizona, look over your shoulder.

In 2010, Arizona passed a law that says ethnic studies may be barred from Arizona’s public schools for fostering “resentment” of another race. “The law was created to prohibit courses that promote the overthrow of a government,” says author Tony Diaz. In other words, the Arizona law equates ethnic studies with promoting revolution.

In 2012, Diaz and friends started the Librotraficante (Book Traffickers) movement. They gathered together as many donated books as they could get their hands on; stuffed their cars, trucks, and vans with books in Texas; and smuggled them via caravan into Arizona, where they established four underground libraries. Diaz and his band of literature-loving freedom fighters hope to compile one full set of the 85 books confiscated from Tucson classrooms—books that included celebrated Latino writers such as Junot Diaz (Drown) and Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate).

So if we allow a state to censor Mexican-American studies. What’s next? Asian studies, African-American studies? What group will we next decide is dangerous? Vegetarians? Cat lovers?

One More Way to Handle Censorship

Here’s another look at censorship. This offers one solution to those aggravating books that you disagree with:

How to Decorate Your Little Free Library

Book Marketing, Books, Censorship, Libraries, Reading 2 Responses »

Jul 162012

Imagine a dollhouse, only it’s not a dollhouse. It’s a library. And instead of homey dollhouse wallpaper, the three walls are covered with three photographs of the interior of your neighborhood library. So opening the doors to your Little Free Library (LFL) is just like walking into your public library. That’s the LFL at Homewood Studios in north Minneapolis.

This bit of innovative decorating should surprise no one who knows Homewood Studios. Everything at Homewood seems to turn into a community project. The art gallery is owned by George and Beverly Roberts, who are natural community builders and nice people (and I’m not just saying that because I married George’s brother). George is a poet and artist; Beverly is a huge arts supporter and domestic goddess. (As she likes to remind us when we come to dinner, “Of course, it’s good. I have a degree in home economics; I’m a professional.”)

In the case of Homewood’s LFL, neighbor and photographer Bill Cottman took images of the interior of the Sumner Community Library down the street and enlarged them. Jack Mader mounted them on foam board and placed them on the interior walls of the little library. The revitalization of the Sumner Library a few years ago was a massive project that involved many of the people in the community. The Tudor Revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was important to create something dedicated to literacy and learning in a neighborhood that makes it into the crime reports far too often.

And now there is another place dedicated to literacy and learning. George watches from inside his art gallery and sees children and adults visiting the Homewood LFL every day. Like Sumner, it is a gathering place. This is all it takes to make a difference—just a few big-hearted people and a big idea housed in a small container.

In my novel, Book of Mercy, I wrote about a library created by a bunch of kids and a woman who could not read. Like the LFLs, it was fueled by the people and for the people. My characters were fighting censorship in their town. George, Beverly, and the Homewood neighborhood is fighting illiteracy, despair, and indifference. The rules are simple: bring a book and take a book. But I have a feeling that by having a place like Homewood Studios and the Little Free Library in their backyard, the people there take home more than a book.

Book of Mercy Finalist in Midwest Book Awards

Book of Mercy, Censorship, Libraries, Parenting, Publishing Industry, Writing 5 Responses »

May 142012

Book of Mercy was a finalist in the 22nd Annual Midwest Book Awards, which were announced on May 9 in Bloomington, MN.

Is this a big deal?

I interviewed Antigone Brown, the main character in Book of Mercy, about her view of this momentous event. She is a mother-to-be who stands up to the book banners in her small North Carolina town, even though she can’t read.

Me: So Antigone how are you feeling about this nomination?

Antigone: They like me. They REALLY like me.

Me: Yeah, it was cool to be nominated. Publishers from 12 Midwestern states submitted 362 entries in 50 categories in this year’s competition.

Antigone: That many? Well, it’s validation. [Lowers voice.] After all, this was an indie (self-published) book.

Me: Why do you need validation?

Antigone: In the fiction world, as a female lead character, everybody is comparing you to either Scarlet O’Hara or Katniss Everdeen.

Me: Really? I had no idea.

Antigone: Yes. I only take on a group of highly influential women removing “undesirable” books from the school library . . .

Me: And don’t forget the pie thrower.

Antigone: How could I? I’m still washing that banana cream out of my clothes. But Scarlet in Gone with the Wind faced down the Union Army, and Katniss in The Hunger Games outmaneuvered mutant killer wasps. Tough competition.

Me: Personally, I hate contests.

Antigone: I’m with you. But we live in a world consumed by contests, from sports to American Idol and the Academy Awards.

Me: Still, I’m sorry I didn’t pit you against hordes of fighting men or an evil empire.

Antigone: Irene (the leader of the censors) was evil enough.

Me: Cheer up. You have a secret library. I doubt Scarlet ever read a book, and Katniss was too busy trying to feed her family.

Antigone: Yes. Bookhenge. Nice name for a library, by the way. But back to all these contests. I’m beginning to wonder what my child will be compared to.

Me: You’re always worrying about that baby.

Antigone: Of course. What’s a parent to do?

Me: You have many agonizing years ahead of you. There will be school recitals and pageants and spelling bees.

Antigone [shudders]: Kids called me a loser because I had trouble reading. I don’t want that for my child. I don’t see why we have to make comparisons at all.

Me: Because if you lose, it is supposed to make you try harder the next time.

Antigone: You mean, in the next book, you’ll try to write a better me?

Me: There is no better you. I will write a different you.

Antigone: Make her skinnier. She’ll like that.

The Midwest Book Awards are sponsored by the Midwest Independent Publishers Association.

________________

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog, make a comment, or check out Book of Mercy. It would make Antigone happy, but please don’t compare her to Scarlet or Katniss. She gets touchy about those folks.

Don’t Tangle with Tango

Censorship, Family, Love, Nature, Parenting No Responses »

Mar 262012

A little penguin named Tango and a banned book have created an uproar in Rochester, MN.

Rochester is the home of the Mayo Clinic, the facility patients come to from all over the world to get answers to tough medical questions. Here is where you hope someone will bring information into the light, not hide it. And yet in a recent move, Rochester School Superintendent Michael Muñoz and two school board members decided to do just that: They went against school policy and pulled a book from the shelves of Gibbs Elementary School after a parent complained. The book was And Tango Makes Three, a tale of two male penguins that hatch and raise a baby chick together.

This is not Tango‘s first trip to the rodeo. It has been on the American Library Association’s banned books list since it came out in 2005, usually in the number one spot. Critics contend that it endorses a homosexual lifestyle. As the book says, “She [Tango] was the very first penguin to have two daddies.”

This is a true story. Authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell could have included Tango’s much-publicized life in a nonfiction book about animals. Instead, they chose to write a children’s book about a most unusual penguin family.

Tango’s real family lives in the Central Park Zoo in New York. Roy and Silo are a pair of boy chinstrap penguins who prefer each other’s company to that of the girl penguins. The zookeeper noticed how Roy and Silo bowed and sang to each other, made a nice nest, and even rolled an egg-shaped rock into the nest, sitting on it for hours in the hopes of “hatching” it.

Roy and Silo wanted a family.

When another penguin couple at the zoo produced two fertile eggs, the zookeeper gave one of them to Roy and Silo. After all, twins take work, and the odds of having two fertile penguin eggs raised to adulthood by one couple are slim. Roy and Silo knew “just what to do,” the zookeeper said. They kept the egg warm, turning it over and over so all sides would benefit, until their daughter Tango arrived. Tango’s fathers fed her, sang to her, and snuggled her warm at night. They made sure she knew she was wanted.

If we allow books like Tango to be banned because they make one person uncomfortable, we are giving in to tyranny. We are permitting someone else to control where we get our ideas, and Tango presents some brilliant ones about loving parenting and creating strong families (no matter what their makeup). It has received several national awards for good reason.

I admit I grow impatient with parents who claim censorship is needed to protect our children. I say the solution to this is simple: you control your child’s reading list, and I’ll control mine. Censorship is for cowards. If you want to provide gutsy and meaningful parenting, read Tango with your children and talk about why you do or don’t agree with the worldview it presents.

In Rochester, Tango‘s story was indeed tangled. It was first challenged in the fall of 2011. According to school district policy, it was sent for review to the district’s Committee for Reconsideration of Resources, which voted on November 15 to keep the book in its media collection. When the parent appealed again, Superintendent Muñoz and cohorts decided to ignore that decision and ban the book anyway. On March 19, after a packed school board meeting, Muñoz apologized and said the book would be returned to the library. The next step, if the parent wants to continue, would be to appeal to the entire school board during a public hearing.

I hope Tango is safe and sound in Rochester. In the recent standing-room-only meeting where not one person spoke against the book, Mayor Ardell Brede held a sign proclaiming Rochester as an “inclusive community.”

Like poet Carl Sandburg, I believe “inclusive” to be one of my favorite words. It doesn’t leave much room for hiding; it drags censorship out of the dark where the real dance begins in a free society.

___________

For another look at censorship and parenting, check out Book of Mercy.

To hear a reading of And Tango Makes Three:

Fear and Loathing on the Book Tour

Book Marketing, Book of Mercy, Censorship, Creativity, Maud's House, Publishing Industry 2 Responses »

Jan 232012

This book tour I am going in my pajamas.

I am participating in the Get Loaded Blog Tour de Force sponsored by the Indie Book Collective this week, and I hope to get more mileage while putting on fewer miles. This is the new paradigm in publishing.

You see, in my last book tour (back in the ’90s when few people were talking about virtual anything much less a virtual book tour), I traveled for ten days from Los Angeles to Vermont to promote my book, Maud’s House. I talked to packed houses and empty ones; one horrendous thunderstorm washed away all my potential readers in Chicago.

Maud’s House is the story of a Vermont artist who loses and regains her creativity. As a child prodigy, Maud drew on the walls of her house, every square inch. As an adult, she is has lost her muse, drinks too much Rolling Rock, and seems to only be able to draw postcards featuring cows.

The neat thing about any book tour, virtual or physical, is meeting readers and learning about their lives. On the Maud’s House tour, I met readers who cracked me up and who touched me with their stories.

One woman admitted that she had begun writing again after reading my book: “I was raised in a strict home where we weren’t allowed to dance or paint or write. I’m in my fifties and starting my first journal.”

Another woman said she had a brother who, like Maud, drew on the walls. He was always getting in trouble with their mother. In the end, he became a successful artist. One day, the mother discovered one of her son’s early drawings secreted way on a wall inside a closet. She seriously considered cutting that part of the wall out and having it framed.

I hope to meet more great readers on this tour. Come back to this blog on Thursday, January 26, my featured day of the tour, and let’s talk. I am promoting my new novel, Book of Mercy, this time. It’s a funny novel about a serious issue (censorship), so we’ll have lots to discuss.

See you Thursday. I’ll be in my PJs, so don’t dress up on my account.

________________________________

What’s on your mind? I’m listening. Maud’s House is about pursuing your creativity no matter where it takes you: to the painting studio, the kitchen, the garden, the antique car in your garage. What do you take to the level of an art? Leave a comment below.

The College that Censored Firefly

Art, Censorship, Reading, Writing No Responses »

Dec 292011

I entered the Best Tweet About the College that Censored Firefly contest today. My chances of winning are looking about as good as my chances of using my new snowshoes in Minnesota this brown winter. I never win anything, which is fine by me. I am the Rodney Dangerfield of contest winners. So don’t vote for me and ruin my record.

I put my silly tweet in the pot just for fun, but also because I really hated what the University of Wisconsin in Stout tried to pull on theater professor James Miller. In September, Miller posted a quote from the television show, Firefly, outside his office door: ”You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.” The sentiment is about standing for a certain set of values, of being straightforward and honest with your fellow humankind. No threat was intended.

But campus police were having none of it. On September 16, they removed the “unacceptable” poster because it referred to killing. In response to this censorship, Miller launched a second salvo poster, which read: “Warning: Fascism” and included a cartoon image of a silhouetted police officer striking a civilian. The poster warned, “Fascism can cause blunt head trauma and/or violent death. Keep fascism away from children and pets.”

Again, the university responded by removing the poster. Quickly, the incident blew up into a public relations nightmare for the university, fueled by tweets, blog posts, and articles by Firefly fans, free speech advocates, the media, celebrities such as Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillon, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). On October 4, the university put out the publicity wildfire by reversing its decision to censor Miller.

This may sound like old news, but a similar incident will likely surface somewhere in the world tomorrow or the next day. Censorship seems to never go out of style. And so, FIRE is sponsoring the tweet contest to draw attention to a new video on censorship featuring author Neil Gaiman.

Now, I have a few disclaimers: 1) I am a Firefly addict and take umbrage at people messing with this rag-tag crew; 2) I am a free speech nut; and 3) I have written a novel about a town that censors books called Book of Mercy. Even if you are or have done none of these things, please watch the video.

Oh, and my tweet? Here it is:

Son, if you don’t know #censorship is wrong, you just don’t get it. #Firefly in a jar w/no walls. http://bit.ly/tGzd0o

My way-too-literal friend complained, “How can a jar have no walls?”

“It’s about freedom,” I explained.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

This is why I will not win this contest. I suck at jingles.

Feel free to RT in the name of Browncoats, TV shows cancelled before their time, and the way fireflies make you feel on a summer night.

Be Vigilant; Your Books Could Be Next

Book of Mercy, Books, Censorship, Reading 2 Responses »

Sep 262011

I am not a conspiracy nut. I don’t believe I am being watched ALL the time, and I try not to think about what they put in our food. But I am pretty sure that books disappear from the shelves, unless we say something. People never believe you when you maintain that censorship could and does happen. “Book banning here? This is America,” they scoff.

Maybe actual bans are rare in the United States, but it is not for lack of trying. On average, there are about 500 book challenges a year in American libraries, according to the American Library Association. This number goes up or down depending on the political climate and what side of the bed the censors get up on.

That’s why we need Banned Books Week, an annual event sponsored by a number of book-loving organizations including the ALA to a) celebrate the freedom to read, and b) draw attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Banned Books Week is always held during the last week in September, when kids are just starting to hit the books again and parents have more time to read. Here are a few examples of books challenged in 2010-2011 and why:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: A parent claimed that it gave her 11-year-old daughter nightmares and could numb other children to the effects of violence.
What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Boys: A Guide for Parents and Sons: Banned in 21 schools in Texas after a parent complained. It contains definitions of rape, incest, sexual assault, and intercourse.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Challenged in Republic, MO, schools because it is “soft pornography” and “glorifies drinking, cursing, and premarital sex.”

I have followed the topic of censorship for years as I researched my own novel Book of Mercy. Most censors object to books because of sex, violence, swearing, and “to protect children.” But other times, their reasons are just silly. I used actual challenged books and the actual reasons for their challenges as part of the story in Book of Mercy. (Yes, sometimes you can’t make up this stuff.) Here’s an excerpt in which Study Club President Irene Crump identifies books that should be banned in Mercy.

“The Stupids Step Out,” Irene said. “Describes families in a derogatory manner and might encourage children to disobey their parents.”

Arabella huffed in disgust. “That’s an absurd name for a family, fictional or otherwise. What if Tolstoy had called her Anna Idiot instead of Anna Karenina?”

Arabella got no argument from Irene, who constantly fought the battle for eloquent language with her own children. She thought “suck” should be something you did with a straw, not a description of your homework. . . .

Irene went on to another book. “A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. Encourages children to break dishes so they won’t have to dry them . . .”

Julie cleared her throat and attempted a half-hearted smile. “Irene, surely when you were a child, you too hated doing the dishes.”

Irene peered over her glasses at Julie. “We had a maid for that. Even so, there is never an excuse to take a hammer to the Wedgewood.”

America is a free society. Those of us who abhor censorship have to tolerate those who enjoy it, and vice versa. That’s how we know we are free. We have this system of checks and balances. But it is never safe to fall asleep at the wheel.

So be vigilant. Rock Banned Books Week, wear an “I Read Banned Books” button, read something someone else considers salacious. Check out the Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop—you could win books, swag, or gift card moolah. Go to the ALA’s website and find out more about the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-out.

Whatever you do, just don’t sit there. Give books a chance.

“Mom, They’re Banning Books!”

Book of Mercy, Books, Censorship, Parenting, Reading 2 Responses »

Sep 222011

I had been stumbling around in the plot of a book I was writing for some time. I knew the protagonist couldn’t read and that books were disappearing. I was going for some kind of Alice Hoffman magical realism thing. Perhaps with a little humor since my book’s working title was “Too Dark to Read,” after the Groucho Marx quote: “Outside a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.” But then in 1996, my daughter came through the door, crying, “Mom, they’re banning books!”

My daughter was a junior and an IB student in a North Carolina high school. She had a mean forehand and a voracious love for books, including the book in question, The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. Fuentes is recognized as one of the most influential writers in Latin America. In fact, in 2006, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech and Expression. Ironic, I know.

My first response was to sit down, read the book, and discuss it with my daughter. It is the story of celebrated American writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce, who mysteriously disapeared in Mexico during its civil war. Fuentes imagines the fate of Bierce among Pancho Villa’s troops in a tale that examines “the borders between men and women, dreams and reality, Mexico and the U.S,” as Publishers Weekly put it.

What the censors in our town (parents of one of the students) objected to were explicit scenes between a young Mexican revolutionary and the American teacher, who falls in love with him. I had no problem with my 17-year-old daughter reading those scenes. But then I’ve never denied my daughter a book she wanted to read.

After an intense public meeting and a review by committee, The Old Gringo eventually was returned to the shelf and the IB curriculum. But in the process, my daughter’s English teacher, a favorite of many of the kids, decided to move on, perhaps to a place where teachers didn’t receive hate mail.

This incident had a huge impact on the direction of my book. Book banning in fictitious Mercy, North Carolina, became the conflict, and Antigone Brown, the woman who fights the censors, ponders the same questions I had as I wrote letters in protest of the removal of The Old Gringo.

All too often, censorship is a parental issue. As Antigone says in Book of Mercy, “I want to protect my child from the world. But I also want to protect the world for my child.”

What I learned in writing this book and in raising my daughter is that books can never be allowed to disappear from the shelves without a squeak. We must say something; explode the discussion in letters, e-mails, tweets, and public meetings. We must never let censorship dissolve into the dark.

According to the American Library Association, on average about five hundred books are challenged every year in the United States—and those are just the ones we know about. Some would say this is horrible. But I think if we didn’t have a way to challenge the actions of others, we wouldn’t be truly free.

So I accept that book challenges are necessary, but I also am happy when they fail.

Book of Mercy, a story about a woman who faces her greatest fear to save a town’s books, is available in paperback and on Kindle. Read more about Book of Mercy or check out an excerpt.

Don’t You Love Underdogs?

Book of Mercy, Books, Censorship 1 Response »

Sep 112011

I love underdogs.

I like to read about them, and I like to write about them. I rooted for David and not Goliath (please no hate mail from giant lovers), cheered on Buffy the Vampire Slayer when she took on each week’s Big Bad, and now there is a Catholic school kid who identifies herself by the avatar name “Nekocha” who has started an unofficial library of banned books that she runs out of her school locker.

When her school put several classics such as Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, and Paradise Lost on the banned list, she decided to bring her personal copy of Catcher to school. She was surprised when another student asked to borrow it. And thus, Nekocha’s secret library was born. Soon her locker was overflowing with banned books, so she appropriated the empty locker next to hers in which to house her collection.

Even though she is violating school policy, Nekocha believes it is worth it. She says, “Before I started [the library], almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but they go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I’m doing a good thing, right?”

This story first appeared back in 2006 on the Web in a question posed at Yahoo! Answers. No one really knows if it is true. Some claim it is a hoax, doubting that anyone can get 62 books in a school locker.

But I really don’t care if it’s true or not. Nekocha’s story is close to my heart because Antigone Brown, the star of my novel Book of Mercy, also starts a secret library and stands up to the powers that be for the sake of banned books.

People like Nekocha and Antigone Brown are ordinary folks, who push aside their fears and do something extraordinary. Perhaps I am attracted to them because I have a lot of fears of my own, like shooting rapids and meeting up with mosquitoes. Perhaps I hope that I have the courage to stand up when the time comes. And maybe I am not alone, maybe that is the reason the concept of Nekocha was created or, if she is real, she stepped forward.

Whether you’re imagined or not, for now, all my support goes out to you, Nekocha. You’re my hero, kid.

Book of Mercy, a story about a woman who faces her greatest fear to save a town’s books, is available in paperback and on Kindle. Read more about Book of Mercy or check out an excerpt.

Censorship WSJ Style

Books, Censorship, Parenting No Responses »

Jun 102011

It is a dark day when a national newspaper like the Wall Street Journal advocates censorship for the good of the kids. In a June 4, 2011 article, WSJ complained about the “darkness” in young adult (YA) fiction these days. It noted that far too often young readers find themselves ”surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds.”

It notes parents should be allowed to guide what young people read—no argument there as long as said parents keep their hands off MY children’s reading list. But WSJ goes on: ”In the book trade, this is known as ‘banning’. In the parenting trade, however, we call this ‘judgment’ or ‘taste’.”

Linda Holmes, a blogger for NPR, brings up an excellent point when she wonders who parents are trying to protect by imposing their “guidance” on someone else. She writes:

“Banning is banning, not guidance, and if the suggestion is that that’s the parenting role, it has to be done … regretfully, I think. Even for parents acting with regard to their own kids, the act of one human being actually preventing another human being from reading a book is a grave decision. Obviously, not everything is appropriate for every audience — nobody is suggesting you give Twilight to your seven-year-old. (Or, really, to anyone, although that’s more because of the quality of the writing than because the themes are too dark.) But stopping — actually stopping — a YA reader from picking up a particular book because it describes behavior you don’t want him to emulate potentially cuts him off from something that might reach him in exchange for … nothing, really, except your own comfort level.”

Will children emulate the behaviors they read about—suicide, cursing, having sex, self-mutilation, bullying, being abusive, rape? Who knows? I have to believe that one scene of a girl cutting herself or a boy beating up another one for his lunch money will not undo the years of parenting I have invested in raising loving and caring individuals with healthy self-esteems.

No one reads books in a vacuum. We bring to each book our own values and beliefs, and we slide the book’s values into our own to see how they fit. We reject what doesn’t fit and enjoy what does.

I read YA fiction. I love its energy, creativity, and moral system. I read the Harry Potter books and don’t see the evils of magic. I see children learning about courage and unbreakable friendships, about being different and surviving. I read Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series and see brutality unmasked and manipulation thwarted. These are the values I want my children to think about and, perhaps, adopt.

U.S. General William Westmoreland said, “Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.” I would argue just the opposite. With censorship, things can get terribly muddled in the mind of a child.

Kids already know that ugliness exists in the world. Through books, they discover it’s how you handle the ugliness that counts.

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