Censorship & Books

I was away from my computer for a few days and wow, coming back I see I have missed some interesting things! Mostly about this article proclaiming the novel Speak to be pornographic. Hmmmm. I love Speak. I totally think this guy is wrong and he does have a right to say it. And we all have a right to refute it.

My favorite, favorite part about this is that way more people will read the book because of his article (and the backlash) than would have before.

Dan Gutman wrote this article in School Library Jounral that I love. He prints an email from a dad who in essence would love to remove all the copies of My Weird School from the planet. You have to read it to find out why. The article starts with the email and it just gets my blood boiling. But, Mr. Gutman writes a great article about censorship. He even prints the dialogue that he and this father eventually had and it is thought provoking.

The article also has this quote from Bruce Colville (which I added to my sidebar because I loved it so much):

"Somehow the idea seems to have gotten loose in the country that in addition to the rights of speech, religion, and the press we now have a new constitutional right: the right to never be offended by anything."

I realize I am not saying anything new, but I just hope more people seek out the book Speak. It is an amazing novel and you won't be sorry you read it!