Tuesday Thingers: *Where’s Waldo*? He’s hanging out in the banned books list!

The Boston Bibliophile connects us with Banned Books Week today, with this task:  For this week’s Tuesday Thingers, I’ve copied the list of the most-challenged books of the 1990s straight from the ALA website. I’ve highlighted the ones I’ve read. Highlight what you’ve read, and italicize what you have in your LT library.

I took a shortcut and bolded the books I’ve read, but skipped the italicizing for today.  Skim my highlighted books, then scroll down for a few additional thoughts … 

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice(Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. ArizonaKid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

 I noticed that many of the books I’ve read are children’s books – either books I read as a kid (!), or books I’ve read more recently with my own children.  I was curious as to why these books wound up on the list; (I’m curious as to why any of them are challenged/banned, but that’s a post for another time! ) Here’s what I found about some of the children’s books:

Where’s Waldo:  from an article in the Rogue Librarian:

One of my Reference Librarian colleagues, Ms. Frances Piesbergen, did some research and discovered a couple of interesting leads on this infamous Waldo issue.
According to the October 2003 “Banned Bookslut” column by Chris Zammarell, the author claims that one of the Waldo books contains (gasp!) a bare breast.

An amazon.com book reviewer, Mr. Sir, wrote: I have looked into it, and it appears that the reason “Where’s Waldo” got banned was because it features adult material such as “topless sunbathers,” and other adult “hidden pictures.”

How to Eat Fried Worms:  from an article on everything2:

 Th

e novel was banned for two primary reasons, each of which raised a great deal of concern in front of many school boards in the 1990s.First, the book encouraged children to partake in socially unacceptable activities. In this book, the activity is eating worms, which is perceived as being disgusting and not socially acceptable. Thus, concerned parents argued that this book encourages such disgusting antisocial behavior.

Second, the book encouraged children to bet on things, or in essence gamble. Since gambling is perceived as an activity of low morals and also presents the risk for great economic loss, it was felt that impressionable children could begin to fall down the slippery slope of gambling because of this book.

Both concerns meet at one central point: they both assume that the book is doing the parenting and not the parents. By laying the blame for antisocial behavior and other activities that a parent might not approve of on an otherwise strong piece of youth fiction, the parents miss the point that they are in fact responsible for the raising and morals of their own children.

  

 

 

The links in the above article are from the original source.  The emphasis on the last sentence is mine.   We allow our kids to be exposed to all kinds of worlds through the books we read – it gives us a great opportunity for discussion; gently at the younger ages (“it’s not nice to tease.  Sally is sad now.  What do you think the girl in the story should have said?”), and more intently as our children mature.  LW12 is finishing up a class discussion on James Howe’s The Misfits.  As she has worked through essays based on the book, we’ve had several conversations about tolerance, diversity, and, because this is an often-challenged book, it led to a discussion about censorship as well. 

Challenging Waldo, that’s the wackiest thing I’ve heard today!