Ban on 'unrealistic' books is not realistic by Sarah Littman

published March 7, 2006

"Curiouser and Curiouser." Alice said when confronting the weird and illogical world of Wonderland. I know exactly what she means.

Recently, a fellow member of Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom forwarded an article from the Los Angeles Daily News reporting that 23 books, including the latest "Harry Potter," were removed by Wilsona, Calif., School District trustees from a list recommended by a parent-teacher committee for the Vista San Gabriel Elementary School library.

Among the other books removed were two from the Artemis Fowl series, "Peter and the Star Catchers" and three bilingual "Clifford the Big Red Dog "books.

OMG! Clifford?! What could possibly be objectionable about Clifford? Didn't the McCarthy era end half a century ago?

Trustee Marlene Olvarez, a teacher who retired from the district two years ago, explained: "For the last eight or nine years, we've been pushing character education in our school district. There are so many issues changing in the society we are living in. With this ever-changing society, we just have to stick back to the traditional thing of what kids are supposed to be learning."

"The traditional thing of what kids are supposed to be learning ..."

See, this shows why Ms. Olvarez and her book-banning cohorts are so off the mark. Back in the Stone Age when I was in school, I had a wonderful teacher who told me that she wasn't teaching me what to learn, she was teaching me how to learn. No one told me what I could and couldn't read. I had free run of the school and public libraries.

Unlike the people who voted on the book ban, I've actually read the books in question, and I struggle to see what there is to object to in any of them. Sure, Harry Potter is set in a school of "witchcraft and wizardry," but essentially it's a story about the struggle between good and evil, both in the world at large and within us as we try to make the right choices. "Peter and the Star Catchers," a hilarious prequel to the story of Peter Pan, also focuses on the struggle between the good guys and, if you'll excuse the Bush-ism, "the evildoers."

Ms. Olvarez said the latest "Harry Potter" book was rejected because it is fantasy. "We want books to be things that children would be able to relate to in real life," she said.

It's hard to believe this woman was once entrusted with young minds. I'm the mother of a highly imaginative boy who is an avid reader of all sorts of books including nonfiction, but who relates to fantasy more than any other genre. I struggle to think of a more stupid reason to take a book out of a library.

As fellow author Brent Hartinger observed, "Let's reject all books that might be different from real life -- as in, every genre book ever written! Then we can be absolutely sure that kids will never read for pleasure again!"

Recently, Carmelita Seufert, a teacher at John Jay High School in New York, fought an attempt to stop her teaching "Grendel" by John Gardner to her ninth-grade honors English class. "The world is made up of both good and evil, and for students to decide where they stand, they must first explore the nature of good and evil, argue about it, change their minds a few times, and then come to a decision," wrote Ms. Seufert. "Frankly, I think this frightens some parents because many would like their children to simply believe what they believe and value what they value -- but this simply cannot be. It is human nature to question."

If we had more teachers like Ms. Seufert, this country would be a much happier place. Learning how to question has been part of a good education all the way back to Socrates. It might not always be comfortable for us as parents when our kids question our beliefs, but it's part of what makes them good grownups. In an "ever-changing society," it's all the more important that kids learn how to question and make decisions.

The growing number of attempts to censor the books our kids read is deeply disturbing. As Susanna Kaysen, whose widely acclaimed book "Girl, Interrupted," about her teenage experiences in a psychiatric hospital, was recently challenged at a Maine high school, observed: "We've all seen civilizations that ban books, and we've seen how well they've turned out. It's not a good way to go."

Sarah Littman, who lives in Greenwich, is author of "Confessions of a Closet Catholic," published by Dutton Children's Books.