It got busy this week! Lots going on at home, work, and otherwise as well. Life My daughter's school decided to close on Friday, along with several other schools in the area, with some being closed from Thursday. Not enough staff. The school had been on a mask mandate since the beginning of the pandemic, dropping it only for one week when the pandemic had appeared to have stabilized last year. And yet, they dropped the mandate completely at the beginning of this year, when cases were exponentially rising, only to bring it back again starting next week. I've gone from being very annoyed to angry to feeling fatigue in these first two weeks already. I won't lie - we all mask around here and try to avoid going where we don't have a need to be in, and still, we are not taking anything close to the extreme precaution we all took at the beginning of the pandemic. I cannot and don't want to keep my kids home - I have at least that much faith in the schools' precautions
...Any student found in possessionof the magazine The Quibbler will be expelled.
Next week is Banned Books Week. This is probably the first year in over four years that I don't have a plan to read any banned book. Not because I don't want to, but more because I haven't yet got the time to choose a read. Maybe by this weekend, I'll decide one, maybe I will just let this year go by and celebrate the week in spirit.
It's funny though, how, with the Banned Books week just around the corner, we already have a few parents clamoring to ban another popular book, Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park, and calling to discipline the librarians who chose that book. What??
I don't think I quite get the whole ban philosophy. I know I've said that repeatedly. I grew up reading whatever I wanted, even erotica, and I turned out fine, thankyouverymuch. It boggles my mind why people would want to ban books, rather than call for a discussion or fill one of those opt-out forms. According to me, banning books will do what banning The Quibbler did to Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter. All the kids are now for sure, going to want to read Eleanor and Park. They are going to be very curious about what the "dangerously obscene" thing is in the book. This incident brings to memory that whole ugly ban of Speak that happened a few years ago (that book was considered pornographic!).
The things some people say!
If I had a child, I would be more worried about the child reading Twilight, for its domination and subservience themes than something like Eleanor and Park.
I am going to start Eleanor and Park today. And I cannot wait. I've been looking forward to reading this one for so long.
Comments
And as you say, the whole theme and tone of a book is far more important than any isolated incidents of swearing etc.
I also admit I think Banned Books week is a bit of a misnomer and more of a marketing ploy. Books in the US aren't REALLY banned - they may not be in the school library, but they are pretty easy to find. But it's good to bring attention to incendiary novels, anyway!