Today we highlight three banned or challenged books:
These three books were banned or challenged for various reasons:
To the Wedding was challenged in CA schools because of mature content.
Water for Elephants was removed from a NH high school course due to sexual content.
What’s the Big Secret was challenged due to graphic content.
Today we’re highlighting three more banned or challenged books.
Speak was challenged in MO school (but ultimately retained) due to complaints about drinking, cursing, and sex.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower was challenged but ultimately retained in a NY school due to its graphic sexual content.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian makes another appearance on the banned and challenged book lists. It has been challenged in schools around the country due to sexual themes, racial content, irreverence, and strong language.
Today we’re featuring two banned or challenged books: The Hunt Club, and In Cold Blood.
The Hunt Club, a mystery novel, was challenged as an option in a SC school’s summer reading program because of language and perceptions that it was degrading to women and people of color.
In Cold Blood, another perennially challenged book, was challenged in 2011-12 in a CA school because the book was alleged to be too violent for a high school audience. Ultimately, however, it was approved for Advanced Placement courses.
Today, we’re highlighting three banned or challenged books.
Montana 1948, a novella about the intersections between family problems, sexual misconduct, and racial tension and oppression, was challenged in WI school because of language, sexual, and racial themes.
Slaughterhouse-Five is a perennial on this list; most recently it was removed from a school in MO, and eventually returned but with restricted access, because it was argued that the book contained principles contrary to Biblical teaching.
The Wars, a novel about a young Canadian soldier’s experiences in WWI, was challenged in a Canadian school, but ultimately retained, because of concerns about violence and sexual content.
Reprinted by permission of the American Library Association.
This week is the 30th annual Banned Books week, a week dedicated to celebrating the freedom to read around the world.
We’ll spend this week highlighting some banned books on the blog, and providing you with more information about why they were banned—where, in what context, what happened.
In the mean time, on the Internet Archive, you can free books—literally. They’ve collected 74 free books that have been banned at different times, and you can now read them for free.
Or, you can take a look at the books that have been banned or challenged this year, in ALA’s 2011-12 magazine or attend a virtual readout.
You might be surprised at what’s been challenged or banned; selections range from popular young adult literature, like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, to editions of classic religious texts, like the Bhagavad Gita. If you see something that surprises you, moves you, or perplexes you, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear about it.
In the mean time, for the rest of the week we’ll highlight a few of these banned books on the blog each day. Look out for the starter set tomorrow.
Today we’re highlighting two banned or challenged books, the Bhagavad Gita as it Is and Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India.
The first, the Bhagavad Gita as it Is, was challenged in Russia, where a call was made to ban the book altogether by asking it to be ruled “Extremist”. In Russia, being placed on the Federal List of Extremist Materials leads to banning. Already, over 1,000 texts are banned this way.
The second book, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India was banned in parts of India in 2011. It causes controversy in the United States, since the biography hints at a same-sex relationship between Gahndi and Hermann Kallenbach.
September 17, 2012
Runs September 2012 – February 2013
Thank you for supporting the Free Bookmarks event. All our free “works of art” have been picked up by Library users! That is so great. This event was designed to highlight the work of book artists around the world. Read more on our web page!
This is a special opportunity to pick up a unique work of art. Please help yourself to a free bookmark!
On September 17th the bookmarks will be available at the Learning Commons desk – a limited number and limited time to pick up an original work of art! All of the bookmarks are archived in the gallery sections of the bookmarks websites, with contact details for the contributors. The bookmarks for Part X have been made from a variety of media; letterpress, paint, old books and comics, maps, stickers, recycled papers, photography, laser cut, digital print, screen-print, hand drawn and sewn. You can view all of the bookmarks and contact the artists who made them, find out more about their work and the project via the Bookmarks VII website. Read more.
Congratulations to Sam Culbert who is the first recipient of the Archives Summer Fellowship. This fellowship is intended to support students who are interested in conducting research with primary source materials from our university archives. Sam worked with the Don and Claire Egge Collection which comprises of materials that document the Egge’s years of living in China.
Sam provides insights into his summer in the Archives!
Tell us a bit about your interest in China?
For me, my fascination with China began with the language. I had a choice between taking Spanish, French, and Chinese in 8th grade, and Mandarin sounded the most interesting to me. After learning the inane ‘pull the carrot’ (bǎ luóbo) song, eating chicken feet, and being required to call my teacher ‘the Ruan power (Ruan was her surname)’,I knew I had picked a winner. I continued my Chinese language studies in high school and even traveled to China with my high school class, visiting seven cities over two weeks. I was awed at the rapid pace of development everywhere I went, and fell in love with the food and the people. I went on to take Chinese classes here at UPS, and participated in the UPS Taiwan summer program, furthering my Mandarin studies. I have just returned from a year abroad in Beijing, where I lived with a Chinese homestay family for one semester and with a Chinese college student the next. My appetite for all things China has only increased!
What appealed to you about this opportunity?
This opportunity seemed an excellent way to apply all that I had learned about Chinese history, language, and culture here at UPS and while abroad, as well as learn more about the dramatic events surrounding the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing and elsewhere. The collection also contains fragments of a big character poster (dà zì bào) that students posted on the wall in Harbin during the protests!
What is it like working in an archive as opposed to book and electronic based research? What do you like about it?
Working in the archives is a great opportunity, because you get to hold the actual record of events in your hand, the actual materials that all the tertiary academic work is based off of. You get the chance to interpret the sources yourself, rather than reading about them in a narrative someone else has already created.
How do you intend to share all the research you have done?
I plan to create a multimedia presentation using a media sharing tool called Capzles. I intend to showcase many of the sources I think best reflect the events that took place in Tiananmen Square, as well as provide context for those who might not be familiar with what was happening in China during those years, and highlight aspects of the pro-democracy movement that many may not know very much about. The presentation will include short blog posts and images, as well as the sources themselves.
Collins library is hosting the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Summer Research Symposium! Students and their research displays will be in the reading room, where you can learn more about them.
Summer research programs offer students the opportunity to engage in independent research projects during the summer. Stipends are awarded on a competitive basis to students who demonstrate research interest and ability. Read more.
Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012
3:30-5 p.m.
Collins Reading Room
Sponsored by Collins Memorial Library and the Center for Writing, Learning, & Teaching.
Find the most unusual, inspiring, secret, or cozy place in which you like to read, write, think, or study and capture it in a photo! Each photograph must have a suitable accompanying caption (what, where, why). Images will be displayed on the Library and Center for Writing, Learning, & Teaching web pages. The winning photos will be framed and on display for the academic year in both the Center for Writing, Learning, & Teaching (CWLT) and Collins Library.
Entries will be judged by a panel of University of Puget Sound student employees from the CWLT and the Collins Memorial Library.
Who can participate: Any currently enrolled University of Puget Sound student
Prizes: Three winners will receive a $100 gift card and a certificate, and the winning photos will be framed and displayed for the academic year in both the CWLT and Collins Library.
General Guidelines:
How to Submit:
By submitting your photo(s) to this contest, you grant the University of Puget Sound, permission to publicly display, reproduce, and use the photographs in all manner and media for any and all purposes, including related promotional purposes, in perpetuity. However, you will retain the copyright to your photo(s) and Puget Sound will not sell your photo(s). You also warrant that the photo is your original work and does not violate the copyright or any other personal or property right of any third party, and that you have obtained any and all releases and permissions necessary for our intended use.
Technical Guidelines: Photos should be 1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels tall.
