banned books - Macmillan Library

Banned Books Week 2013: Adventure!

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Anne Spieth

Normally on Thursdays we're all about Thrillers, but since it's Banned Books Week, we're talking about Adventure--specifically those of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Mark Twain is well known for his wit and satire--two traits on full display in his classic novels THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and its sequel, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. The titular characters get involved in all kinds of hijinks: murder is witnessed, deaths are faked, treasure is stolen... and that's only the first book!

HUCKLEBERRY FINN, commonly named one of the "Great American novels" is often called into question over racial stereotypes and frequent use of one particular racial slur.

Keep sharing your favorite banned books with us @MacmillanLib using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek2013.

[...]

Know More...

Banned Books Week 2013: Foreign Cultures

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Anne Spieth

Today we check out Banned Books in Foreign Cultures:

STEPPENWOLF by Hermann Hesse

Hesse's best-known and most autobiographical novel, STEPPENWOLF blends Eastern mysticism and Western culture, portraying one man's struggle to deal with a divided society and a divided self. During World War I, Hesse was labeled a traitor as a result of his antiwar sentiments, anti-propaganda behavior, and pacifist attitude, resulting in his work being banned in Germany from 1939 to 1945.

THE OLD GRINGO by Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes is one of the most influential and celebrated voices in Latin American Literature, and THE OLD GRINGO is one of his greatest works. In it, Fuentes imagines the fate of the American writer/soldier/journalist Ambrose Bierce and of his last mysterious days in Mexico living among Pancho Villa’s soldiers.

CANCER WARD by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn's semi-autobiographical novel examines political theories, mortality, and hope through the lens of a small group of cancer patients in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. The patients' malignant tumors represent their moral responsibility in the suffering of their fellow citizens during Stalin's Great Purge, when millions were killed, sent to labor camps, or exiled.

What other international Banned Books do you enjoy? Let us know @MacmillanLib using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek2013. See you at today's Twitter chat from Noon - 2 pm!

[...]

Know More...

Banned Books Week 2013!

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Anne Spieth

Banned Books Week (Sept. 22-28) is upon us once again librarian friends!

This is the week to read and re-read all your favorite banned and challenged books.

If you're feeling inspired to read aloud, we highly recommend that you submit a banned book reading video on the Virtual Read-Out page on YouTube. And don't forget to join the conversation on Twitter today (Monday) 9/23 from 10 am - Noon and Wednesday 9/25 from Noon - 2 pm using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek2013.

Let's keep fighting for our FREADOM!

Banned Books Week 2013

[...]

Know More...

Starred Review for See Now Then

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Talia and I have a girl crush on Jamaica Kincaid. We spent a little time with her before the Freedom to Read Foundation's Banned/Challenged Author event at Seattle Town Hall during ALA Midwinter. She completely won us over in, oh, approximately four minutes.

Kincaid joined us in Seattle to talk about her journey as a reader and a writer and the experience of having her book, LUCY, challenged in a Pennsylvania high school as "most pornographic." More on that event here.

We're excited to see that SEE NOW THEN, Kincaid's first novel in ten years, has some great press already. The New York Times ran a piece called "Never Mind the Parallels, Don’t Read It as My Life" in which Kincaid clarifies how much of her new book is autobiographical (spoiler: only some). And Publishers Weekly interviewed Kincaid in "The Age of a Mountain: PW Talks with Jamaica Kincaid" about the phrase "see now then" and her experience creating characters of all ages.

"Kincaid has created a measured, bewitching, and metaphysical fable, as well as a venomous, acidly comic, and plangent tale of love, betrayal, and loss that is at once slashingly personal and radiantly universal in its mystery, passion, and catharsis." -Booklist (starred review)

[...]

Know More...