Banned Books

No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often as important as what you do read."
— Lemony Snicket


I was recently talking a handsome man about books, something more people should make a habit out of, specifically banned books. We were looking at the lesser known artwork of Dr. Seuss, which is creepy. It's not creepy because of the subject matter really but creepy because it is Dr. Seuss art depicting rape, pool playing and covered faces. Something about a covered face really makes me squirmy. This one is pretty tame, I didn't want to shock people.

I had a point, I promise.

Books. I mentioned the banned Dr. Seuss book and he confessed (much to his chagrin) that he did not know about it but I could not recall the name of it.

It was The Lorax and was not banned everywhere and is no longer banned anywhere, I believe but once upon a time.. someone thought The Lorax was evil. Can guess who or why?

Children's writer/illustrator Theodor Seuss Geisel, most known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, created an imaginary cast of characters in his book The Lorax. It was written in 1971 on the heels of forest industry bad press on environmental issues unfolding in the United States' Pacific Northwest dealing with the Northern spotted owl and the health of coastal redwoods and Douglas firs. It influenced children's (and parents) environmental perceptions for decades.

At the end of September is Banned Books Week. The banning of any books offends me no matter the subject.

List of banned books by governments

An unofficial list of banned books, not complete. I made the ones I have read .. red. How many have you read? How many WILL you read?

Books Banned at One Time or Another in the United States

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (I read this in High School BECAUSE they banned it)The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

Recycled Rambling

Little guys fall allergies are kicking his butt. He just fell asleep at 7:30.

The kids downstairs are firing guns. At least it sounds like they are.

One of my cats keeps trying to eat my hair.

Big guy took off to see the PawSox game and will be gone until tomorrow.

I did not go to Yoga so I could wait for a text and now realize I should have gone to yoga.

I like eating ice cream in the sun even if I can only eat a tiny bit and I feel groggy for an hour afterwards.

I could trade a bath tub for high ceilings.

I can learn how to install shelving.

I need new winter shoes.

I spend to much time on FaceBook.

Kimmy A was an awesome friend to have growing up. I wish we had not grown apart. I wish I had worked harder to keep her.. grounded.

Chip clips are over rated. Yea I did say it!

Pumpkin beer is also over rated.

Librarians are awesome.

You should blog more.

I should enjoy this down time while i have it.

Good Night Blogosphere.

First Day of School

It wasn’t so long ago that I was in middle school, was it? I remember it like it was last week. My keds that I drew little hearts and flowers on, side ponytails and extra large bangs, day glo socks that matched my shirt perfectly. I remember passing notes, folding them up into tiny perfect footballs. I remember pegged jeans tucked into those awesome day glo socks. Off the shoulder shirts (so daring!). I remember school dances at Peck Junior High. I remember hot dogs at Nicks Nest. I remember Community field, my first kiss, Chamura pool with April and Kimmy. I remember the triangle, the stream, the bridge, Old Jarvis, the back way to HCC. I took sewing in grade 7.. which I gloriously failed (Who knew pillows were so dang hard!) I remember 1988 like it was last week.

Today I dropped my oldest off for his first day of grade 7. I never saw a more handsome seventh grader, have you? Of course you haven’t.



Thanks kid, for the clothesline. Thanks for finding my key, thanks for grabbing my coffee mug but most of all.. thanks for kissing me goodbye even though all your friends could see.


I also dropped off my little guy for fifth grade. On the first day of my fifth grade Ms. Laliberty, at Sullivan School, said to us.. “I don’t want to hear that you can’t remember your times tables and then see you turn around and sing the Top 40!” That woman was terrifying. Seriously. I sucked at math.. but knew all the lyrics to all the top 40 songs. My little guy is just the same as I was. But infinitely more adorable, you agree of course.



He got a wonderful teacher this year and even though I often want to switch schools for him, I won’t now that he has her. I know she ‘fits’ his personality well. For my little guy having a teacher who ‘gets’ him is important, if he feels uncomfortable he cannot learn.

In grade 5 I hit puberty.. I hit it exceptionally hard to tell the truth. I hope his launch into the world of body hair and funky odors is much less horrifying then mine was. I hope the girls are nice to him. I hope he doesn’t get picked on. I hope that when he does get picked on he stands up for himself. I hope he gets at least one really good friend in his class this year.

I hope that my shouting at the office staff this morning doesn’t get held against my kids. I know I probably shouldn’t have done that but you know.. Motherhood happens