Sunday, June 25, 2006

NC School Caves To Book-Banners

Copeland Institute for Lower Learning: North Carolina school bans books under pressure from religious nuts:

". . .A North Carolina school district has banned the dictionary under pressure from one of a growing number of conservative Christian groups using the internet to encourage school book bans across the US.
Jonathon Green, who compiled the 87,000 entries in the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, which was published last year, said that North Carolina is the only place he knows of where the book cannot be used in schools.
A Wake County school official told ABC News that five books, including the dictionary, were formally challenged. The others were listed as The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier, Junie B Jones and Some Sneaky, Peaky Spying by Barbara Park, Reluctantly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds and In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. School officials acted after pressure from Called2Action, a local Christian activist group.
Some parents were also reportedly upset that their children were required to read books such as The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Beloved by Toni Morrison, on the grounds that the books contain 'vulgar and sexually explicit language'. . ."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it is really scary the way these nut cases are trying to control what people read. When they prevent children from reading future classics it is absolutely sick. There is a publication called something like the Committee to prevent Censorship. You should google it.

Bob Harrison said...

Wow. Nearly four million hits on Google for that Committee. It is frightening that so few can have such an impact; fortunately, most librarians are not so easily intimidated.