The Plaid Pladd

Happy Banned Books Week! Here’s the list of books that were most frequently challenged in 2016! I’ll be posting about the ones I haven’t read this week.

1. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Reasons: LGBT characters, drug use and profanity, sexually explicit with mature themes

2. Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Reasons: LGBT characters, sexually explicit, and offensive political viewpoint

3. George by Alex Gino
Reasons: transgender child, and the “sexuality was not appropriate at elementary levels”

4. I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: portrays a transgender child and because of language, sex education, and offensive viewpoints

5. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Reasons: cover has an image of two boys kissing, sexually explicit LGBT content

6. Looking for Alaska by John Green
Reasons: a sexually explicit scene that may lead a student to “sexual experimentation”

7. Big Hard Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction
Reasons: Sexually explicit

8. Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread by Chuck Palahniuk
Reasons: profanity, sexual explicitness, and being “disgusting and all around offensive”

9. Little Bill series by Bill Cosby
Reasons: oh you KNOW why

10. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Reason: offensive language

This year, 50% are books for teens and 30% for children. Fifty percent are illustrated in some way (either graphic novels or picture books).

Get pumped for ~illicit reading~

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Challenged In: Marion County, KY; Sumner County, TN; Lumberton Township, NJ; Waukesha High School, WI; Verona High School, NJ; Knox County High School, TN; Depew High School, NY; probably more
Because: sexual content, “too racy to read”, inappropriate language, it might tempt teens to “experiment with pornography, sex, drugs, alcohol, and profanity”

This book is the second I’ve read by John Green, the first being An Abundance of Katherines. That one was alright. But my previous John Green knowledge allowed me to accurately predict everything about this book because it’s the same but more pretentious and insufferable. Here’s the plot: a scrawny teen boy without any personality besides one twee-as-shit quirk that stands in for one (in this book it was memorizing famous people’s last words; in the last it was math) finds himself in a new place for vague, Eat-Pray-Love style reasons (in this book it was going to a new boarding school to “seek the great perhaps” ugggggh; in the last it was going on a destinationless road trip waiting for a “eureka moment”). His best friend is always short, stocky, and funnier than him, and exists in the text solely to give him succinct but poignant life advice and generally be the common sense brains of the outfit. Bland Nice Guy (TM) falls in love at first sight with the most beautiful and amazing Manic Pixie Dream Girl in the entire world, but she has a boyfriend so he has to pine for her from the friend zone and angst about it in his internal monologue whenever her beautiful perfect elbow chances to brush against his or whatever. She never really has a personality either, besides being fun and random but also ~dark and mysterious~ because all hot girls have a secret sadness that only a bland Nice Guy (TM) can see and understand. Then later he learns lessons about life, usually that he’s not the center of the goddamn universe, which is a tough lesson for an entitled white dude with no personality to learn, so no wonder it takes a whole book. Usually his stupid quirk ends up tying into some Great Gatsby-style smack you in the face symbolism too.

Anyway, despite all those problems, I would never challenge this book, and I can see why teens might be into it. They probably haven’t encountered these stereotypes as often as I have to be frustrated by them, and maybe they might identify with the ~angsty~ protagonist’s unrequited love. Also all the characters are well-read and reference classics in their Deep and Meaningful Life Conversations, which I find tiresome but Teen Me would have found exciting and comforting. And yes, the characters smoke, drink, think about sex, and say “fuck”, but in that regard it’s a somewhat accurate portrayal of high school. Granted, I didn’t smoke or drink in high school, but I knew people who did. Seeing it in a book wouldn’t have opened up A Whole New World of vice to me that wasn’t already available if I wanted it. And if seeing people I knew in real life do those things wouldn’t change my mind about my own choices, random book characters certainly wouldn’t. Luckily, most of the challenges above kept the book in libraries, at least. Maybe next year I’ll challenge a bunch of books for Manic Pixie Dream Girl portrayals of women. Since we can just do that for anything in books we disagree with now.

Previously: Habibi
Next: I Am Jazz

Title: Habibi
Author: Craig Thompson
Challenged Because: Nudity, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

This graphic novel is set in what turns out to be a post-apocalyptic Middle East where the only source of non-polluted water is controlled by a decadent sultan and the majority of the populace is starving and living in piles of trash. The main characters are two escaped child slaves doing anything they can to try to survive. Which mostly involves lots of prostitution.

While the art is lavish and beautiful, I don’t know enough about Islam to critique this book effectively. All I know is, it made me uncomfortable. Craig Thompson has clearly researched the Qur’an, Islamic folktales, and art styles, but the main character’s time in the sultan’s harem complete with bitchy concubines, eunuchs, and opium addiction seems straight out of a bad 1970s romance novel. I guess when your book is set in a ~fantasy future~ you’re not really worrying about historical accuracy, but employing these tired stereotypes seems sketchy at best. Plus, every man is a rapist who sees women solely as sex objects! The only man who is not portrayed as such is a eunuch, and became one specifically to escape his desire.

So I didn’t like this book, but of course that’s not a reason for it to be taken off library shelves. As to the complaints against it, there’s a lot of sex in it, and, since it’s a graphic novel, the visuals always get people more riled than all the sex in, say, Shakespeare. I think “unsuited to age group” pops up in these challenge reports anytime a parent realizes that there’s not some gate that keeps kids out of the adult stacks where ~they might encounter a book with boobs in it~ and freaks out. The answer to that, of course, is to watch your fucking kid since librarians aren’t babysitters or the Book Police.

Previously: Nasreen’s Secret School
Next: Looking for Alaska

Title: Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan
Author: Jeanette Winter
Challenged In: Duval County, FL public schools; Eau Claire, WI public schools
Because: Violent subject matter; “promotes a religion that is not Christianity”; contains an Islamic prayer

This book definitely contains all the things the complainants list, but I don’t really see any of them as a problem, especially since it also contains courage, feminism, and the importance of reading and education. This book is awesome. It follows the story of a young girl named Nasreen whose parents are “taken” by the Taliban. Rather than simply give in to despair, her grandmother enrolls her in a secret school for girls. Since the Taliban have banned all education for girls and women, the girls must be sneaky and use cunning to meet and learn despite the danger. The story is truly inspiring and shows how education can improve life even in the harshest conditions.

True, Nareen’s parents are taken by the Taliban (the book doesn’t show anything beyond that), and I wouldn’t read it at storytime. This is for a slightly older child, or at least one who is more mature. Most libraries that own it shelve it in the non-fiction section (along with the same author’s other awesome title The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq). The circumstances of the story are sad, but so is the world. The book’s message turns that sadness into strength, which is a good lesson at any age.

As to the “challenge” that it features a religion that’s not Christianity and how that’s somehow perceived as a problem, fuck you.

Previously: Banned Books Week 2016
Next: Habibi