Homeschooling fundie mom rants against evil American Library Asociation

[formergothardite]

I love Madeleine L'Engle! Troubling a Star is one of my favorites. 

My parents did a lot of things wrong, but they never really limited our reading. My mom actually read books like Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry to us and discussed the history of racism in the South. I think she read the whole series, which is a really depressing, but realistic look at that time period. It is hard to long for the good old days after reading a book like that. It really does away with the idea that life was better in the past. 

[AnywhereButHere]

@IntrinsicallyDisordered. "Why limit yourself." I love that. It sounds like my bedside table. There are mysteries, horror, romance, sci fi, a range of non-fiction and young adult ( this whole dystopian theme they have is fun!). My husband had a sigh of relief when I got a Kindle. We're running  (ran out years ago...)!out of bookshelf!

While I haven't loved everything I've ever read, I am no literary snob. Classics to trash, I'll read them all, although I usually stay away from Oprah's picks. The Pilot's Wife made me want to resurrect the guy just to kill him myself, My Sister's Keeper was infuriating, and there was one other about a kidnapped child that had me wanting to slap the mom - repeatedly. So yeah, no Oprah suggestions. 

[Alicja]

I'm pretty sure you can avoid the books you don't like in libraries, but do you boo.

Also, the Midwives (midwife's?) Apprentice was my shit in 6th grade. I didn't read all of it but it was still pretty fantastic.

[IntrinsicallyDisordered]

1 hour ago, AnywhereButHere said:

@IntrinsicallyDisordered. "Why limit yourself." I love that. It sounds like my bedside table. There are mysteries, horror, romance, sci fi, a range of non-fiction and young adult ( this whole dystopian theme they have is fun!). My husband had a sigh of relief when I got a Kindle. We're running  (ran out years ago...)!out of bookshelf!

While I haven't loved everything I've ever read, I am no literary snob. Classics to trash, I'll read them all, although I usually stay away from Oprah's picks. The Pilot's Wife made me want to resurrect the guy just to kill him myself, My Sister's Keeper was infuriating, and there was one other about a kidnapped child that had me wanting to slap the mom - repeatedly. So yeah, no Oprah suggestions. 

Ha, you sound a lot like me.  Books everywhere, all different kinds...I still buy way, WAY too many physical books but have moved over to the kindle for the books that fall into the "beach reads" category or things I'm not sure I'll like.  

I also agree with you on Oprah's picks, I gave up years ago.  I think the only one I enjoyed was Stones From The River and it wasn't something I wanted to reread.  Was the kidnapping one The Deep End of the Ocean?  That was an aggravating book.  I remember being annoyed that even when she picked an author I liked, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Barbara Kingsolver, she never picked my favorite of their works (Of Love and Other Demons and The Bean Trees, respectively).

I can't believe I forgot Paul Zindel.  His books were life-changing for me as a kid and I had several friends who weren't allowed to read them.  

[AnywhereButHere]

21 minutes ago, IntrinsicallyDisordered said:

Ha, you sound a lot like me.  Books everywhere, all different kinds...I still buy way, WAY too many physical books but have moved over to the kindle for the books that fall into the "beach reads" category or things I'm not sure I'll like.  

I also agree with you on Oprah's picks, I gave up years ago.  I think the only one I enjoyed was Stones From The River and it wasn't something I wanted to reread.  Was the kidnapping one The Deep End of the Ocean?  That was an aggravating book.  I remember being annoyed that even when she picked an author I liked, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Barbara Kingsolver, she never picked my favorite of their works (Of Love and Other Demons and The Bean Trees, respectively).

I can't believe I forgot Paul Zindel.  His books were life-changing for me as a kid and I had several friends who weren't allowed to read them.  

Yes, thanks! Now I can hate it by title rather than just vague memory!

[Marian the Librarian]

I'm late to this thread, and loving every minute of it. @laPapessaGiovanna, your "Rights of the Reader" graphic is priceless. 

After four decades in the profession, I'm old and tired. I read complaints like this blogger's "libraries/librarians are evil," and think (insert eye roll) "It will ever be thus." For those who are interested, head on over to the American Library Association's website, ala.org, and click on the "Banned & Challenged Books" link.

Oh - add me to the list of Bel Kaufman's "Up the Down Staircase" fans. And Madeleine L'Engle basically saved my sanity when I was a child. All blessings on my elementary school librarian, who introduced me to "A Wrinkle in Time."

 

 

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

2 hours ago, Marian the Librarian said:

@laPapessaGiovanna, your "Rights of the Reader" graphic is priceless. 

It's not mine, but I love it too. It's written by Pennac and illustrated by Quentin Blake. Love them both. Pennac is a great writer, as a child I read Kamo and The Eye of the Wolf, both awesome.  As a ya I read his La Saga Malaussene, some of the best books ever written. 

[Loveday]

2 hours ago, Marian the Librarian said:

I'm late to this thread, and loving every minute of it. @laPapessaGiovanna, your "Rights of the Reader" graphic is priceless. 

After four decades in the profession, I'm old and tired. I read complaints like this blogger's "libraries/librarians are evil," and think (insert eye roll) "It will ever be thus." For those who are interested, head on over to the American Library Association's website, ala.org, and click on the "Banned & Challenged Books" link.

Oh - add me to the list of Bel Kaufman's "Up the Down Staircase" fans. And Madeleine L'Engle basically saved my sanity when I was a child. All blessings on my elementary school librarian, who introduced me to "A Wrinkle in Time."

 

 

 

And me as well. I've got a copy of it floating around somewhere, but haven't read it in years, must look for it and add it to my teetering bedside pile. TCM airs the film, starring Sandy Dennis, once in a long while.

[paganbaby]

This thread once again proves that attempting to ban books will spur reading. Every time there's a post about someone complaining about kids' books, people start revisiting their childhood favorites.

[Florita]

I volunteered at my kid's evil public elementary school library. I found that kids mostly read non-fiction. I'd guess maybe 20 non-fiction to every 1 fiction. Maybe even higher. Typically I'd have one arm-load of fiction books to shelve and a half-cart or more of non-fiction.

The kids really like animal books, celebrity and athlete biographies, anything about Star Wars movies, anything military, and sports team books. Dorling Kindersley books are very popular. The fiction books I saw being checked out were typically part of a series (Magic Tree House, Goosebumps, Diary of a Wimpy Kid).

I don't object to deeprootsathome's list of good books - they sound nice, but the fiction readers are definitely the minority these days. I think her kids are grown (like Lori's) and she's backseat parenting her grandkids.

[samira_catlover]

Use public libraries a lot, especially since they have good free wifi connections. But the magazines, the covers! **gasp**  One of my favorite sites is next to the magazine racks---next to Self, Shape, Modern Fitness, and all sorts of other fitness magazines that have wimmens in defrauding sports outfits.  Anybody know how the Duggars manage that situation (or the grocery store aisle with the mags)?--you can't go around yelling "NIKE!" all the time, and walking with your head down just invites collisions with other people.

[smittykins]

Do the Duggars actually go to the library?  Somehow I doubt it.

[refugee]

6 hours ago, samira_catlover said:

Use public libraries a lot, especially since they have good free wifi connections. But the magazines, the covers! **gasp**  One of my favorite sites is next to the magazine racks---next to Self, Shape, Modern Fitness, and all sorts of other fitness magazines that have wimmens in defrauding sports outfits.  Anybody know how the Duggars manage that situation (or the grocery store aisle with the mags)?--you can't go around yelling "NIKE!" all the time, and walking with your head down just invites collisions with other people.

One mom I knew had her kids trained not to look. Another talked very proudly about how she would have her kids wait while she went before them and turned all the top layer of magazines around so the covers were facing backwards. If the back cover of something was as bad as the front, she'd cover it up with a different title. I'm sure the store staff really appreciated her efforts when they had to add "reorganizing the magazine rack" to their duties.

Some stores we go to have "family friendly" checkouts now -- big signs above those particular checkstands so people who don't want to see certain kinds of magazine covers can check out there. I don't remember if they're also scrubbed of low hanging fruit (you know, the stuff little kids like to grab. Candy. Toys.)

[Gellhorn]

On 5/19/2016 at 0:30 PM, CTRLZero said:

I've thought of this while reading through this thread.  While browsing in a bookstore a couple decades ago, I ran across a large cartoon book which depicted what was really happening in the Bible stories in graphic detail.  Cain versus Abel--it showed all the gruesome bloody details.  Rape--yep, in all its horror.  Hacking (and not in the computer sense)--yep.  Stoning, crucifixion, drowning a planet...  This book really made me stop and think about what these glossed-over Bible stories really depict.  I should have purchased it, but it scared me.  (I wonder if it had the talking donkey?)

Was it this one?

http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/the-bible

Perhaps this one will be like the one you read.

http://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/

[Kate11]

I volunteered at my kid's evil public elementary school library. I found that kids mostly read non-fiction. I'd guess maybe 20 non-fiction to every 1 fiction. Maybe even higher. Typically I'd have one arm-load of fiction books to shelve and a half-cart or more of non-fiction.

The kids really like animal books, celebrity and athlete biographies, anything about Star Wars movies, anything military, and sports team books. Dorling Kindersley books are very popular. The fiction books I saw being checked out were typically part of a series (Magic Tree House, Goosebumps, Diary of a Wimpy Kid).

I don't object to deeprootsathome's list of good books - they sound nice, but the fiction readers are definitely the minority these days. I think her kids are grown (like Lori's) and she's backseat parenting her grandkids.

This trend is especially true for younger elementary students. Partly because non-fiction books tend to have more pictures. I think the trend evens out around 3rd grade and even tips more towards fiction in upper elementary, once students start discovering particular series and authors that they like and become more invested in the stories themselves.

[FloraKitty35]

20 hours ago, smittykins said:

Do the Duggars actually go to the library?  Somehow I doubt it.

One of them might try to sneakily check out a copy of The Feminine Mystique. 

[CTRLZero]

7 hours ago, Gellhorn said:

Was it this one?

http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/the-bible

It looked more like the DC Comics format, but was not in color.  Maybe it was a coloring book?  It's been a long time, but it's good to see more non-sanitized biblical-themed books out there.  If I find it, I'll post. 

[knitwit]

I love Pennac's Rights of the Reader, and mention it to a patron at least once a week, mainly when they say something about having to finish a book they weren't enjoying, or sound embarrassed by their reading taste.

Meanwhile, I think I should bill this asshole for the damage done to my teeth in reading her post.  Seriously, the "...high standards of 60 years ago" are her guide?  (What do you want to bet that she's not discussing the problematic aspects of To Kill A Mockingbird with her kids?)  So Caldecott winners/honor books like Knuffle Bunny or Blackout or Extra Yarn or Locomotive or The Adventures of Beekle don't hold up to those high standards?  (I'd argue they're vastly better than a lot of the picture books from even 30 years ago.)  Also, I will fight her when it comes to The Graveyard Book.

[BlackberryGirl]

Madeleine L'Engle is very important to me as an author, and I can say proudly that I own every single one of  her books. Everything. Her journals, and non fiction writings about her life and beliefs are lovely to read.

Anyway, I got hooked on her when I was in the 4th grade in 1962-63 and  I decided to read every single fiction book in the children's section of our little Carnegie library. All the chapter books, not picture books or stuff like that. I went through all the wonderful Cameron books about the Mushroom Planet, and all the Helen Fuller Orton mysteries. I was into PL Travers long before Disney wrecked Mary Poppins. Elizabeth Enright's books about the Melendy's and the whole Betsy-Tacey series, Mrs Piggle Wiggle... Just...everything...

Then one day I saw a title that looked interesting.."A Wrinkle in Time." oh my god.  dear god  books suddenly weren't just to read and enjoy.. they had incredible meaning. The idea that good and evil were  real concepts and that one could, and must choose between them just blew me away. I read the book in one sitting.  Then I sat down and looked up every single reference made in it. Pascal, Genesis, Euclid, in the bright shiny new World Book Encyclopedias my  family had just gotten. I sobbed through the end when Meg repeats "I love you." to Charles and I get teary thinking about it. I read  A Wrinkle in Time at the change of every season, 4 times a year, since 1962. I've read it about 212 times now.

WE are huge library geeks here, and own about 20,000 books.. but we all go to the library at least twice a week, and that year in 4th grade I went  four times a week. Three days after school and Saturdays. 

About midway through the year I got permission from the library and my parents to read whatever I felt like taking out even in the adult section. No one ever censored anything, until a couple years later when we had a copy of John Herseys "White Lotus" and my father told me I couldn't read it. So I immediately read it. I had no clue what it was about. And for some reason my mother didn't want me reading James Bond, so I hid them in high school. 

The idea of censorship really chaps my ass and I take part in banned books week at our library by reading aloud  passages from  banned books. Usually "A Wrinkle in Time."Blackberry Guy also reads aloud. This is a huge thing in our family.

[Ex-Creationist]

Banned Books Week pretty much serves as a yearly reminder to me of which often-banned books I either haven't read yet, or haven't re-read in awhile. GOOD JOB, CENSORSHIP ADVOCATES. 

(Note: I'm all for parents previewing what their children read, and even saying "No, this isn't appropriate for you right now." Because y'all are the parents/guardians, and you know your kids, and I'm no busybody. It's when some people try to make books inaccessible to others when I object.)

[nickelodeon]

She singles out the Tamakis' This One Summer and its Caldecott win as an example of the eeeevils of modern children's lit, but doesn't really say what her beef with it is. I'd assume that she's uncomfy with it because it has a ton of mature themes (abortion and miscarriage, among others) but honestly she mostly seems affronted with the art style. I wasn't aware that black and white lineart was a sign of moral failure!

[mango_fandango]

Erika Shupe of Large Families on Purpose limits her children's fiction reading time to half an hour on Saturdays and Sundays. Apparently, her oldest girls were becoming too addicted to fiction, and Erika prefers her kids to read non-fiction. Blargh. She used to have a whole post about protecting her childrens' minds through books, writing sections about things like Harry Potter etc, as well as a section on the dangers of romance novels. Apparently if you read too much romance or fantasy you begin to think that real life will be like that, or some such bollocks. She does advocate Number The Stars as a good book, though. 

We went to the library a lot when I was younger. I got out quite a few non-fiction books. I loved the sort of ones which were about different kids round the world and what their lives were like. There was one called "Celebration!" which looked at different festivals round the world, each double page spread featuring a child and their family and how they celebrated it. I learnt about things like St Lucia in Scandinavia and Diwali and other more obscure ones. There was another book about schools round the world. I never checked out much fiction when I went to the library, though, although I did have plenty at home (and still do obviously.) 

[samira_catlover]

17 hours ago, BlackberryGirl said:

Anyway, I got hooked on her when I was in the 4th grade in 1962-63 and  I decided to read every single fiction book in the children's section of our little Carnegie library. 

(snipped, and bolding is mine)  Can we get a hurray from the FJ Amen Corner from people who grew up in working-class towns that just COULD not afford a library (because police and fire services were WAYYYY more needed, in terms of spending available tax dollars)---and if it wasn't for a Generous Robber Baron, our lives would have been much poorer?

HURRAY!!!! Eleventy!111!!!! for librarians and for average people who keep voting in bond issues for libraries, even when the tax burden makes them want to scream.

BOOKS FOR MILLIONS!!!!!!!

[desertvixen]

Quote

@Florita

I volunteered at my kid's evil public elementary school library. I found that kids mostly read non-fiction. I'd guess maybe 20 non-fiction to every 1 fiction.

The kids really like animal books, celebrity and athlete biographies, anything about Star Wars movies, anything military, and sports team books. Dorling Kindersley books are very popular. The fiction books I saw being checked out were typically part of a series (Magic Tree House, Goosebumps, Diary of a Wimpy Kid).

They do start going more towards fiction in the upper grades.  But I personally love the idea that kids are reading non-fiction and being excited.  Also, there seems to be a lot more of the "fiction, but has fact sections at the end" stuff.

My daughter (9) also loves the Magic Treehouse Fact Tracker books.

We're going through a kind of "classic reading" program where I read to her at night - so far we've read Charlotte's Web (bonus points for Mom bawling her eyes out), the Incredible Journey, Westing Game, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, and now we're on Cherry Ames - second book in the series.  I also love explaining things that come up when we're reading.

[samira_catlover]

Cherry Ames.  Oh, Goddess, am wayyyy dating myself. (Anybody else remember when Cherry took care of a war refugee, or went off to help fight WWII? You know, pre-penicillin as a Major Remedy, and not on war priorities for fighting troops?)

It wasn't till I was way past 50 years that I appreciated the challenges of "Mom", who was totes scared of being sent to the poorhouse, because Social Security in the US didn't exist.   Do we need to set up an annotations committee for our future readers?--I remember reading a book where the heroine was all concerned because of messing up a car and she'd used up all her traveler's checks--and all I could think was "why didn't she use her Visa/MasterCard to pay for the repairs?"