43 Cemetery Road

I recently read the second book in the 43 Old Cemetery Road series by sisters Kate and M. Sarah Klise. The first in the series is called Dying to Meet You, and is about a boy, Seymour Hope, who moves into a house on 43 Cemetery Road. His parents soon abandon him to go off and tour Europe. He is left alone in the house with Ignatius B. Grumply, who is a grumpy old man. There is also a ghost by the name of Olive C. Spense, who refuses to die completely until the books she wrote while she was living are published. The three strike up a friendship and the second book, Over My Dead Body, continues the tale.

Seymour, Olive, and B. Grumply are writing a book together. Olive and Ignatius co-write it and Seymour illustrates it. But... Alas, someone has written the director of the International Movement for the Safety and Protection of Our Kids and Youth (IMSPOOKY), Dick Tator. Dick Tator believes that all scary books should be burned, that Halloween should be banned, and that, moreover, ghosts are in no way real. He has Ignatius sent to the loony bin and Seymour sent to an orphanage. In the end will Olive, Grumply, and Seymous be able to live happily ever after? Will Seymour's parents go to jail for being terrible parents? Will Halloween be saved? Well, you'll have to read the books to find out for yourself.


I thought this book would be appropriate to review this week since it's set during Halloween, which - - is coming up! Oh my goodness it's October. Wombly will have to think up a costume. But also, it dealt with the idea of book burnings and bannings, which I thought appropriate since last week was Banned Books Week.

What I loved about these two books: the whole narrative is told through letters, and newspaper clippings, and drawings, and audio transcripts, and official documents. One, this makes it a super fast read, Two, it makes the read super fun. And pretty much every single character's name is a pun. As a lover of bad puns, this cracks me up. This series is perfect for Down Unders looking for stories that include mysteries, ghosts, and itching powder.

I definitely look forward to reading the rest of this series!

SO... Before I wish all of you Down Unders a good week, what do you think Wombly should dress up for, for Halloween? What are you going to dress up as?

Wombly trying to dress up as a ghost.

Wombly as a jail warden with keys.

AND... Have a good week Down Unders!

Don't Touch!!!

September 30 - October 6, 2012 is something called "Banned Book Week."

I didn't know such a week existed until just a few days ago. Here's a list of books that I have read that have all been banned or challenged within the last 100 years. I have deliberately omitted the reasons for the bannings. I think it has a little more impact this way. I have read several of the books on this list more than once. I can't imagine how different my life paradigm would be if I had not read some of them (well, I probably could have been alright without experiencing any of the Captain Underpants series).

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)

Bible (collected works of numerous writers - inspired by the creator of, well, everything)

The Call of the Wild (Jack London)

Captain Underpants (Dav Pilkey)

Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)

Cujo (Stephen King)

The Dead Zone (Stephen King)

Harry Potter - Series (J. K. Rowling)

1984 (George Orwell)

Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)

The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)

The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

A Time to Kill (John Grisham)

Farenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

Jaws (Peter Benchley)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)

The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)

Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)

The Green Mile (Stephen King)

Misery (Stephen King)

Different Seasons (Stephen King)

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)

Moby Dick (Herman Melville)

The Crucible (Arthur Miller)

Dracula (Bram Stoker)

Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift)

Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkein)

Guiness Book of World Records (Craig Glenday {editor})


I'm not saying I liked all of these books. In addition to Captain Underpants (which I read for my son when he was wee), a few of them were painstaking to read. Moby Dick is an outstandingly great, epic story, but I couldn't stand reading it. The Scarlet Letter addresses significant cultural themes, but left me unmoved. I've read other works by John Steinbeck, but I didn't particularly care for Of Mice and Men. Although most literarians (did I just invent a word?) will say that Huck Finn's story is a much more important work that Tom Sawyer's, I've always preferred the pace and prose of the latter. When I was thirteen, I read Dracula for the first time. Once I realized that it was written as a series of letters and journal entries, and was able to wrap my mind around that concept, I loved it.

But perhaps you've read a few of the books on this list. Now just imagine if you had never been allowed to read it.

Now imagine that the book had never been published. How would that have impacted the world that you know? Let's see...

Would there be vampire movies without Dracula? What if there were no Narnia, or Middle Earth? What if poor Anne Frank's diary had never been found? No Tom, no Huck, no Buck, no Atticus Finch. No big nasty mindless killing machine that only swims, and eats, and makes baby sharks, and no "ye whale, ye damned, damned whale." No Jean Valjean, and no Sherlock Freaking Holmes, for crying out loud! Just think, without Sherlock Holmes, and without Van Helsing's pursuit of Dracula, the great actors Basil Rathbone and Peter Cushing might have ended up parking cars. We might not even know who Bela Lugosi was. "The children of the night. What music they make." No, "call me Ishmael."

The wonderful, wonderful thing about living in a free society is that we have choices to make. We can choose to introduce ourselves to experiences that might otherwise be available. Because of this freedom of choice that we have, we must also be willing to accept the consequences of our choices. If you decide to read something that you later think was a bad idea, or that angered you, well, okay. That happens sometimes. But that doesn't mean you should prevent others from making that same choice. At least not if they're adults, or at least "age appropriate" children.

You learn these things in life. Like Bill Cosby once said, "if you eat some shrimp, and your face blows up, then you don't eat shrimp again."

Celebrate Banned Book week. Go read something someone else doesn't like.

Originally posted as You're not allowed

After posting the above on my personal blog, I received the following comment from one of my avid readers.

"I'd like to know who banned some of these titles. I can figure out some of them. i.e. Harry Potter, because of the witchcraft, the Bible, because someone might lose their freedom "from" religion. But I can't imagine who would ban The Diary of a Young Girl except neo-nazis or holocaust deniers. Cujo is a rare Steven King book that does not have any supernatural forces in the plot. It's just a rabid dog. Who could object to that? Misery, like Cujo, is all about human experience with no witches, aliens or shape-shifting clown-arachnoids. It's a little violent but history books are full of death and destruction."

To which I replied.

"The following reasons are given for the bannings of the books listed below. Sources are from the Wamego High School's Library Media Center http://www.usd320.com/whs/lmc/bbooks.html, which I found through Good Reads http://www.goodreads.com.

Some of this is apparently based on the age group of targeted readers, and others most likely reflect the culture of the times. But most of them appear to be the result of political busybodying.

Jaws - sexually explicit
Farenheit 451 - profanity, drinking, violence
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - references to the occult and spiritualism
Diary of a Young Girl - sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group
A Time to Kill - graphic rape and murder
The Scarlet Letter - pornographic and obscene
The Sun Also Rises - no reason given
Les Miserables - prostitution
Flowers for Algernon - sex references
Cujo - rough language, explicit sex scenes
The Dead Zone - filthy language
The Green Mile - no reason found
Misery - No reason found
Different Seasons - sex, prison rape
To Kill a Mockingbird - racism
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - graphic violence, mysticism and gore (one other group challenged it on the basis of "animals speaking like humans."
Call of the Wild - no reason given
Moby Dick - conflicting with community values
The Crucible - demon possession, profanity
1984 - pro-communist, explicit sexual matter
Harry Potter (series) - promotes the Wicca religion
Of Mice and Men - profanity, portrayal of Jesus Christ, racist, sexist, derogatory towards the developmentally disabled
Dracula - sexual references
Gulliver's Travels - denounced as wicked and obscene
Lord of the Rings - satanic
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - racism, sexism
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - racism, derogatory language
Slaughterhouse Five - strong sexual content
Bible - lewd, indecent and violent contents, contains language and stories that are inappropriate for children of any age, including tales of incest and murder
Guiness Book of World Records - no reason given."


Alan Andrews
Basso for Hire

Ban Thee Thy Harry Potter: And All Other Books That Might Possibly Be Problematic

I tried looking up banned Down Under books and looked through some options, but I kept coming back to the series Harry Potter, and beyond that just the general idea of banning books.

I grew up as a Christian in a fairly conservative area. Harry Potter was considered something 'evil' - something that promoted Wicca and witchcraft and deviant behavior. It was a series that was dangerous and should be avoided and not talked about. I remember going to a prayer thing as part of my youth group and listening to adults talk about how dangerous Harry Potter was - as though if you read it immediately you would catch fire and start 'going down a bad path.'

Now, I don't have a problem with being careful about what you read. I censor myself in what I read based on what I'm comfortable reading - and I don't have a problem with this. And, as I grew up, my mom and sister often read books before me and told me whether or not they thought I should read this. Sometimes they were wrong, but more often they were right. It's something I'm grateful for, because it was me being respectful of my limits.

But that's me knowing my limits, and me being part of a healthy family unit.

I do have a problem when people just decide books are evil when A) They haven't even read them or have done legitimate research on them or talked to someone who has read them to find out what they are actually talking about OR B) It's easier than having a discussion.

Some books are going to contain things like magic, and witches, and religion, and identity, and physical abuse, and things of that nature. And you know what? That's okay. Things like that exist in the world. Instead of just banning books I think that there should be a more open dialogue between adults and Down Unders about what these books are talking about. I know not every child has had or will have a good family unit like I did, but there are librarians, and teachers, and friends, and other mentor people. If we as Adult people were more willing to sit down with kids and say, 'Hey, this is what this book is about. What do you think?' I think there would be none of this silly talk about banning books.

ALSO, I think that Down Unders should be respected at their level of comfort. Some Down Unders are going to be at a point where they are okay with more violence and touchy subjects, while others are going to want to learn about ponies and butterflies and dinosaurs that are friends. And that's okay. Every Down Under is going to want and need different levels of okayness.

If Wombly is uncomfortable reading books about dynamite does that mean all books about dynamite, or containing dynamite, should be banned. Um. No. It means that he should tell me that and we can discuss dynamite together and find out what other books he likes. And if I'm uncomfortable reading books about pumpkins does that mean I should stop all Down Unders (including Wombly) from reading books about pumpkins? Um. Definitely no. Wombly really loves books about pumpkins and is fine and emotionally ready to read books about pumpkins. So. I should let him read books about pumpkins and not hide them from him.

It comes down to communication, and respect, and trust. Communicate with your Down Unders, know their interests and limits and levels of comfortableness. Respect your Down Under: Down Unders are people too and deserve just as much respect as anyone else. Trust your Down Under. Because your openness to communication, willingness to respect, and openness to trust will probably be the best thing a Down Under needs in deciding what books they're ready to read.

UN-censored

September 30 through October 6, 2012 is "Banned Books Week", an annual event to promote the freedom to read.  Unfortunately, certain libraries, retailers, and others in this day and age still ban or face scrutiny over the the sale, loan, and/or distribution of certain books. Information on which titles face such scrutiny can be found, here.

One of my most favorite series, the "Alice" books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is often challenged.  The series revolves around young Alice McKinley from her middle-schools years through high school graduation.  Apparently some people have a problem with the frank and honest way the author describes sexuality and believe the books are "unsuitable" for age group.  While I'm 31, I have read the entire series to date and actually find it to be one the tamer series that I've read.  While some of Alice's friends do engage in sexual activity, it is never explicit and their actions all have consequences that everyone, even adults could learn from.

Some picture books even face controversy.  Rachel's  favorite banned book is "In the Night Kitchen" by Maurice Sendak. It has been challenged because the main character, Mickey, is naked in a dream. Maurice Sendak has defended the book by saying that Mickey is a little boy, and little boys are often naked in their dreams. All you can see is a small drawing of a penis.  She read this story when she was very young and she didn't even notice the penis.  She says, it is a fun, magical, imaginative story and she doesn't think a sketch of a penis is anything to get offended by.

Meanwhile Rebecca was once influenced by a book banning campaign  Her favorite banned book is the Harry Potter series.  She was influenced by the movement that called the books evil and accusing them of promoting witchcraft. Once she was in college, she decided to read it because so many of her friends loved the books. She was astonished over the uproar once she actually read them.  She loves the fantasy aspect and it is clearly set up as fiction and in that world you can't be a witch or a wizard without having been born as one. If she had simply listened to the censoring voices around me she would have missed out on some of her favorite books of all time.

What about you?  Do you read banned books?  Share your favorite with us!