Module 15: Censorship Issues

I've read a lot of banned books, it turns out. Although I can recognize for many books why some people would have a problem with it, I feel that people overall are too sensitive. No one forces you to read a book with sensitive issues in it (I don't count the use of magic a sensitive issue. I think it's ridiculous to challenge fantasy). Most, if not all, schools will provide an alternative for controversial books. If you don't know about an element of the book or aren't sure about it, then perhaps you should at least read the reviews on Amazon before you check it out or buy it. That's just my two cents.

I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the story of 15-year-old Charlie. The book is written in Charlie's letters to an unknown person and start with his entry into high school, not long after his best friend committed suicide. Charlie, a natural wallflower, finds friends in a group of older kids, and he is introduced to drugs, sex, and love.

The book has been challenged on the basis of drug content, sexually explicit content, homosexuality, suicide, and the inappropriateness for the age group. While it is an extremely difficult book to digest, it is extremely valuable to teens whose feelings are reflected by Charlie's. I read an article (http://www.wordriot.org/template.php?ID=552) where Chbosky said he learned of two kids who decided not to commit suicide because of this book. It is heart-wrenching to see Charlie overcome his psychological issues and get to a place where he can be happy, and there are too many kids who can relate to that feeling and can possibly be helped by this story.

"Grounded in a specific time (the 1991/92 academic year) and place (western Pennsylvania), Charlie, his friends, and family are palpably real. His grandfather is an embarrassing bigot; his new best friend is gay; his sister must resolve her pregnancy without her boyfriends support. Charlie develops from an observant wallflower into his own man of action, and, with the help of a therapist, he begins to face the sexual abuse he had experienced as a child. This report on his life will engage teen readers for years to come." -- School Library Journal

"Aspiring filmmaker/first-novelist Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angstthe right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists, though some might object to the sexuality, drinking, and dope-smoking. More sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger, though Chbosky pays homage by having his protagonist read Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Charlie oozes sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.). But Charlies no rich kid: the third child in a middle-class family, he attends public school in western Pennsylvania, has an older brother who plays football at Penn State, and an older sister who worries about boys a lot. An epistolary novel addressed to an anonymous friend, Charlies letters cover his first year in high school, a time haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend. Always quick to shed tears, Charlie also feels guilty about the death of his Aunt Helen, a troubled woman who lived with Charlies family at the time of her fatal car wreck. Though he begins as a friendless observer, Charlie is soon pals with seniors Patrick and Sam (for Samantha), stepsiblings who include Charlie in their circle, where he smokes pot for the first time, drops acid, and falls madly in love with the inaccessible Sam. His first relationship ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest, though he proves a loyal friend (to Patrick when hes gay-bashed) and brother (when his sister needs an abortion). Depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about Aunt Helen. A plain-written narrative suggesting that passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety. Perhaps the folks at (co-publisher) MTV see the synergy here with Daria or any number of videos by the sensitive singer-songwriters they feature." -- Kirkus Reviews

Ideally, I would like to facilitate an open discussion between teens and parents on the subjects talked about in the book. This would require all participants to have an open mind and be honest and willing to talk. If I felt that would not be possible, a second idea would be to have both teens and parents anonymously write what they like about the book or the concerns they have with it and illustrate it in the style of Postsecret. (www.postsecret.blogspot.com). I would display their postcards during Banned Books Week.

Module 14: Poetry and Story Collections

I have to rave about one of the books I read for this module and the author. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones is so excellent! I had never read a book written in verse before (not counting The Canturbury Tales), and I think Sones does an excellent job of not only developing her characters but also creating a world for her book that writing in a normal style would ruin the mood.

Now, to actually tell what the book is about.... Sophie is a normal teenage girl. Her thoughts and feelings, even the embarrassing ones, are told with heartfelt honesty as she chronicles her experiences with her first love, the rebound she thinks she loves, and the boy she's really meant to be with. I don't want to give anything away, but I have to say that if I were a teenager, I think I'd want to be Sophie's best friend.

"Drawing on the recognizable cadences of teenage speech, Sones (Stop Pretending) poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy. The author keenly portrays ninth-grader Sophie's trajectory of lusty crushes and disillusionment whether she is gazing at Dylan's "smoldery dark eyes" or dancing with a mystery man to music that "is slow/ and/ saxophony." Best friends Rachel and Grace provide anchoring friendships for Sophie as she navigates her home life as an only child with a distant father and a soap opera-devotee mother whose "shrieking whips around inside me/ like a tornado." Some images of adolescent changes carry a more contemporary cachet, "I got my period I prefer/ to think of it as/ rebooting my ovarian operating system," others are consciously cliched, "my molehills/ have turned into mountains/ overnight" this just makes Sophie seem that much more familiar. With its separate free verse poems woven into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending, Sophie's honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike." -- Publishers Weekly

"In a fast, funny, touching book, Sones uses the same simple, first-person poetic narrative she used in Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy (1999), but this story isn't about family anguish; it's about the joy and surprise of falling in love. Sophie, 14, thinks she has a crush on handsome Dylan, but she discovers that her most passionate feelings are for someone totally unexpected, a boy who makes her laugh and shows her how to look at the world. And when they kiss, every cell in her body is on fire. Meanwhile, she fights with her mom--who fights with Sophie's dad--and she refuses to wear a pink flowered dress to the school dance, secretly changing into a slinky black outfit with the help of her girlfriends. Their girl talk is hilarious and irreverent in the style of Naylor's Alice books. The poetry is never pretentious or difficult; on the contrary, the very short, sometimes rhythmic lines make each page fly. Sophie's voice is colloquial and intimate, and the discoveries she makes are beyond formula, even while they are as sweetly romantic as popular song. A natural for reluctant readers, this will also attract young people who love to read." -- Booklist

I would definitely recommend this to girls who are reluctant readers because the free verse style makes the book much less overwhelming. I would also use this book as a selection in a girls-only book club, or even a mother-daughter book club.