The Sunday Salon and The Official Start of Banned Books Week!

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! This is the day during the week where we get together and talk books! So grab a cup of joe, find a comfy chair and relax! What bookish things have you been doing this week?

The Big news this week is that it is Banned Book Week! Be a part of the movement to save freedom of speech and read a banned book! There are all sorts of events thru-out the United States, including...

* Read-Outs, which are where people read "out loud", parts of their favorite banned books. Check out the state by state list at Bannedbooksweek.org  to see what's going on near you.

* Banned Books Week Twitter Party 2013! "For the first time this year, Twitter parties will help promote the message of Banned Books Week. A party will be held on Monday, Sept. 23, from 10 a.m. to noon, Eastern Time, and Wednesday; a second party is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 25, from noon to 2 p.m., Eastern.  Supporters are urged to tweet using the hashtag #bannedbooksweek. And additional tags: #bannedbookparty, #heroes, @OIF, @KidsRight2Read, @freadom, @FTRF."

* Virtual Read-Out on YouTube... The American Library Association (ALA.org) asked for submissions of readers reading from their favorite banned book that they had uploaded to YouTube. So search YouTube for tags such as "Virtual Read-Out" or "Banned Books" to see what people are reading virtually. The only requirement that the ALA asked was that the readings were no more than 5 minutes.

There's also a great Banned Books Week Blog Hop hosted by Mary at BookHounds and Kathy at I Am a Reader, Not a Writer. Follow the links to enter for some great banned book giveaways!

My Banned Books Week choice is Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Stop by monday to learn more about this book and follow my progress. I thought I might get in a rereading of Charlotte's Web by E.B.White if I have time.

What else happened this week? I read about Nelson DeMille's new book, The Quest. I was very excited about the premise, but discovered that it was a "version" of a book he wrote 40 years ago. Read what I have to say about that in I Can't Wait for that New Novel... Or Is It New? Share what you think about reissues. And here's my take on Banned Books with my opening post about Banned Books Week Sept. 22 - 28th.

What are you planning for Banned Books Week? Share what you're reading and what you think about censorship!

Happy reading... Suzanne

Rewriting History One Word at a Time... Huckleberry Finn in the 21st Century

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." ... Mark Twain on the Censorship of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Since its publication in 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been the center of numerous censorship challenges. Originally the objections to the book were for the "coarse language", and the use of slang throughout the book, which was called demeaning and damaging. Even favorite author Louisa May Alcott publicly criticized Mr. Twain saying, that if "Mr. Clemens cannot think of something better to tell our pure-minded lads and lasses he had best stop writing for them." But soon the focus of all the objections turned from the coarse language, to one particular word - the "n" word. The "n" word is without question offensive, but taking the "n" word out of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn doesn't change the fact that racism existed, or that that was the language of the day. Instead of ignoring our past, and Huckleberry Finn is America's past, wouldn't it be more beneficial to open up a dialogue about the wrongs of the past?! Putting The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn back in the classroom gives teachers and parents an opportunity to address the objectionable language and racism, to teach the history of that Jim Crow era and to help a child to understand how the attitudes expressed at the time are wrong.

Rewrite Huckleberry Finn? really? Are we gonna take the Holocaust out of Anne Frank's diary too? Or maybe rewrite Lolita so shes 18 yrs old? ... @Jury_Jury Jackson Harris comment on Twitter

Ernest Hemingway called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "the best book we've had. The book where all American writing comes from." T.S. Eliot called it a "masterpiece", and Twain scholar Alan Gribben's intensions seem to be to get Huckleberry Finn read by more children who otherwise would not be "allowed", by rewriting the text of Huckleberry Finn with a less hurtful word. But at what cost?

"For a single word to form a barrier, it seems such an unnecessary state of affairs," he said.

Is this censorship or compromise? I say censorship. What do you say? Jamelle Bouie, in an online article for The Atlantic entitled Taking the History Out of Huck Finn, writes: "erasing "n*****" from Huckleberry Finn—or ignoring our failures—doesn't change anything. It doesn't provide racial enlightenment, or justice, and it won't shield anyone from the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination. All it does is feed the American aversion to history and reflection." I couldn't have said it better myself.

The "n" word appears 219 times in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and NewSouth books is initially printing 7500 copies of Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The NewSouth Edition, which will change the "n" word to "slave". NewSouth books is not looking to ban the original version, just add an option to those who find the original version uncomfortable to read. Looking at it in a different light, is it better to change "the word" and have schools embrace the book in their reading programs again or dig our heels in in the name of justice for the authors work? Maybe just by changing one word, a new dialogue will open up...

Was Mark Twain the inspiration for Rap?

... by cartoonist Jeff Stahler

Are You a Reading Rebel? Banned Books Week comes to a close...

It's a wrap for Banned Books Week...

Have YOU been subverted, converted, corrupted, poisoned, or ruined because you read a book? Oh, I mean because you read one of the MANY books that have been Challenged or Banned? Speak to me... Oops, let's not go there, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was recently called "pornographic". Even though thousands of young people have written to the author to acknowledge the positive impact, even life saving, that Speak had on their lives. It (there's another challenged book- It by Stephen King) created quite a stir in the blogging and reading community, and the publisher, Penguin, took out a full page ad in the New York Times featuring testimonials of the impact of Speak. There is a Chocolate War, I mean war because The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a banned book, going on between censors and readers, and we must keep our eyes open to what's going on. I am My Sister's Keeper (Ok, just had to get that in for Jodi Piccoult fans...) so I take Banned Books Week to highlight some of the books, many of which have won numerous honors in the literary community, that we may not have been able to read if the people who wanted to remove them from library & school shelves, and even bookstore shelves had their way. If Hansel and Gretel could get challenged I knew there was no hope for Snow White! And All I have to say is Where's Waldo?! (When you find him, tell him he's been Banned too!) ttyl, Suzanne

Banned Book Week and Guest Post by Author Carrie Ryan

As readers our freedom to read is without question important to us. But how do authors view banning and censorship?! YA author Carrie Ryan shares her thoughts with this important piece that really hits home the reason why we need to fight against the banning and removal of books from our schools and libraries for ourselves and most importantly for our children...

Won't someone please think of the children?

I'm so proud and pleased to live in a world where young girls are never sexually abused. Where women in high school or middle school aren't raped. Where teen boys never contemplate suicide (or, heaven forfend, actually attempt and accomplish it). I'm blessed to live in a world where there's no bullying, no cyberbullying, no eating disorders or emotional abuse. Where girls don't stick fingers down their throats and slide knives or blades over their skin intentionally. Where teachers don't sleep with students, where fathers don't sleep with daughters, where no one under consenting age has sex, thinks about sex, comes close to having sex, gets pregnant, gets a disease, has an abortion or has a child when they're still in their tweens. How lovely that all girls and boys are virgins throughout middle and high school. That nary a drop of alcohol or a whiff of drugs passes their lips, their noses, their veins.

Surely each child at every school is well loved, well nourished, well cared for. Well clothed and well mannered with bright futures ahead that don't involve peer pressure and binge drinking and drugs and gangs.

Clearly none of those terrible things ever happens in the lives of REAL teens. So why would we ever need books about such horrid and odious happenings? Why would we allow such texts to enter the hallowed halls of our children's schools? Or, worse, to actually be offered on a list of recommended reading? Or even more awful to contemplate, used in a classroom? Forget that such books may have won awards or received starred reviews or been included list after list. Forget that teens have written to authors in tears, in gratitude, in awe that some of those books have changed their lives. That some of those books have saved them.

We don't need those books anymore! Therefore, we don't need them in our classes, in our schools or in our libraries. Hasn't anyone ever wondered what would happen if we let our perfect, pure, untouched and untarnished teen minds read such smut? They might contemplate drugs or sex or suicide. Clearly, all it would take is one page - one paragraph - of Laurie Halse Anderson's book Wintergirls to change even the healthiest girl anorexic! No girl today would ever have such thoughts otherwise!

Won't someone please think of the children? What are we teaching them with these books?

Unless... unless we've somehow failed. Unless we missed something. Unless there are teens out there that are in trouble. That have faced obstacles that their parents don't know about. Unless there are teens out there with secrets -- secret pains and secret fears -- that they can't take to their mother or father or sister or priest or teacher. Maybe they're ashamed. Maybe they're afraid.

Maybe they need to be shown that they're not alone. That you can survive abuse. That you can overcome bullying and peer pressure. That your friends could be facing these issues. That you can find help. Or even, what happens when you don't.

Maybe we need to have more faith in teens that reading a book won't brainwash them. That maybe instead it will expand their horizons. And maybe as the adults of the world that's our job - to show them the world and be there to answer questions and support them.

I get it. I understand that its easier to keep teens in the dark. It's easier to believe that teens aren't dealing with these difficult issues. What parents want to introduce their precious child to all the bad things in this world? What father wants to explain what rape is?

But I need to make this clear, and this comes from my experience and from my friends experiences and from the teens I've talked to: this stuff happens. And it happens to teens and tweens far younger than any of us would ever want to contemplate. They deal with these issues whether we want them to or not. This is life and life can really suck and it can be messy and dangerous and sad. And hiding from it doesn't make it go away.

So whenever someone screams "Won't someone please think of the children" and then they propose banning books or removing them from the classroom or the library, I want to ask them what they think it accomplishes. Because not talking about the difficult issues in this world doesn't make them not exist. Not letting teens read about them doesn't mean teens are somehow not going to face them.

We're not protecting anyone by keeping them ignorant. And banning books or pretending this stuff doesn't happen is the height of ignorance.

Thank you to the authors who write about these difficult topics and to those who fight to keep them in schools.

Carrie Ryan is the author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, The Dead-Tossed Waves and the soon to be released The Dark and Hollow Places. You can learn more about Carrie and her books at www.Carrieryan.com. And you can read Carrie's original post on her blog, Carries Procrastinatory Outlet.

I want to thank Carrie Ryan for permission to share her wonderfully written article! This post really resonated with me and I can only hope that it reaches out to many other readers in the same way.