Over at the Janesville Gazette, there’s a blog entry entitled, “Blacklisted” on Stacy Vogel’s Cover to Cover blog.
Vogel ably lists some of the books that have been the target of book banners, including, impossibly, a book by Shel Silverstein, as she recounts:
And if you’re worried the works will be dirty or violent, fear not. Readings will include selections from Shel Silverstein’s “A Light in the Attic,” which was challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School in Beloit in 1985 because the book “encourages children to break dishes so they won’t have to dry them,” according to the UW-Rock news release.
A few parents may find nothing wonderful and charming in Silverstein, and here I would disagree. A smaller number might petition their schools and public libraries to remove the book, and here I would be compelled to resist and defend.
There are two solutions to all this — (1) the right of parents to opt out for their children without banning the book for all, and (2) private school alternatives where book banners would, alternatively, have either great influence or none.
A public institution, however, should not have its reading list comprehensively censored to the restriction of all.