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highlyeccentricYou may or may not remember that around the time of Banned Books Week I got the list of books most frequently banned in the US, 1990-1999 (the links for later data being broken at the time), and determined that I had only read six of them (actually it's seven, somehow I missed Brave New World). Accordingly I selected ten books from the list to read by the end of the year. Well, it's not going to happen before the end of the year, but I will get the ten read before Banned Books Week next year. And I shall post about them, because that is what I do.
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
This book is adorable. I'm not sure why I didn't read it as a kid. No one gave it to me, I guess. Which is a pity, because it is adorable, but, while being adorable, it never talks down to children or infantalises the ten year old characters. Basically, Jesse Aarons is a kid with too many responsibilities, a love for art and music which he can only indulge in secret, and a determination to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. Except that Leslie Burke moves into the house next to his and - while doing defiant things like wearing cuttoff shorts and a tomboy haircut, and not owning a television - she decides she'd rather run races with the boys than play hopskotch with the girls, and turns out to beat them all.
Somehow, through the process of Jesse Being Basically A Nice Kid combined with Narrative Imperative, they become fast friends and resolve to build themselves a private kingdom, 'just for us'. They establish themselves as King and Queen of Terabithia, a realm accessible only by swinging over the dry creek-bed on a rope. There they have their castle, and their chapel is the pine grove in the woods behind. Terabithia becomes more than a playhouse: as the plot moves on, Terabithia and their sovreignty there becomes a staging-place fortheir real life adventures, particularly as they take on the indomitable seventh-grade bully Janice Avery.
Bridge to Terabithia is delightfully meta (er. is that even an adjective?): Leslie introduces the concept of their secret kingdom with reference to Narnia, and, as they spend more and more time there, she, the better-educated of the two, retells stories for Jess' entertainment: Moby Dick and Hamlet are the two references which stick in my mind. A big part of Leslie's influence upon Jess comes under the heading of Expanding His Horizons, as she introduces him to literature, gives him a real paint set for Christmas, and introdcues him to her academic father. (Side note: Leslie calls her parents Judy and Bill, and they eat strange food. I don't know whether or not they wear special underpants, but they're an entertaining counterpoint to Harold and Alberta, IMHO.) There's Miss Edmunds the music teacher, Bill's record collection, and an art gallery involved at some point, too. Basically, it is a book wot looks kindly upon a bit of culcha in a kid's life.
The exchange isn't all one-way, however: Jess defends Leslie against bullies, earns Bill and Leslie's respect with his handyman skills while helping them renovate, and takes Leslie to church with his family. The book's low-level theological discussion starts up here, as Leslie, who 'doesn't have to believe it', finds Easter to be a fascinating story, while Jess and his family are bored or scared by the easter story. A short discussion between Leslie, Jess, and Jess' little sister May Belle raises the question of hell, and who if anyone God will send there.
It's not a romance - Paterson, with the aforementioned knack of not talking down to children, doesn't try to go there. But it is a love story. Two kids, best friends and soulmates... yeah. Somehow Peterson manages to express all the depth of the relationship without being corny at all. The King and Queen thing helps a bit, I think.
Two things about the book bugged me slightly: Jess' family seem too much like a caricature: until Leslie's death we never see anything but complaints from his momma, his elder sisters are uniformly greedy and distasteful... you get the idea. It works, because in a way you get the feeling that's just the way Jess percieves them, and we do see a bit of a shift in the family relationships, mostly after Leslie's death. The second thing which bugged me is that Leslie herself has no faults. She helps Jess to overcome his fears, but aside from that one time when she didn't want to help the distressed Janice Avery, we don't see Leslie grow or develop at all. Her father says to Jess 'she loved you, you know', which is true, but I would have liked to see more change in her, as she changes Jess.
To conclude: I'm not sure why anyone would want this book banned. I think K's right, it must be because of the character death. I wonder if it's because Leslie dies in possession of a loose sort of spirituality but no Organised Faith? I wonder if it's because of the theological discussion threaded through the last half: what happens when you die? Does God send people to Hell? That little discussion resolves itself with Jesse's father's input, declaring that 'God don't send no little girls to hell'. I wonder if that conclusion bothered some straight-laced hellfire and brimstone type?
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
This book is adorable. I'm not sure why I didn't read it as a kid. No one gave it to me, I guess. Which is a pity, because it is adorable, but, while being adorable, it never talks down to children or infantalises the ten year old characters. Basically, Jesse Aarons is a kid with too many responsibilities, a love for art and music which he can only indulge in secret, and a determination to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. Except that Leslie Burke moves into the house next to his and - while doing defiant things like wearing cuttoff shorts and a tomboy haircut, and not owning a television - she decides she'd rather run races with the boys than play hopskotch with the girls, and turns out to beat them all.
Somehow, through the process of Jesse Being Basically A Nice Kid combined with Narrative Imperative, they become fast friends and resolve to build themselves a private kingdom, 'just for us'. They establish themselves as King and Queen of Terabithia, a realm accessible only by swinging over the dry creek-bed on a rope. There they have their castle, and their chapel is the pine grove in the woods behind. Terabithia becomes more than a playhouse: as the plot moves on, Terabithia and their sovreignty there becomes a staging-place fortheir real life adventures, particularly as they take on the indomitable seventh-grade bully Janice Avery.
Bridge to Terabithia is delightfully meta (er. is that even an adjective?): Leslie introduces the concept of their secret kingdom with reference to Narnia, and, as they spend more and more time there, she, the better-educated of the two, retells stories for Jess' entertainment: Moby Dick and Hamlet are the two references which stick in my mind. A big part of Leslie's influence upon Jess comes under the heading of Expanding His Horizons, as she introduces him to literature, gives him a real paint set for Christmas, and introdcues him to her academic father. (Side note: Leslie calls her parents Judy and Bill, and they eat strange food. I don't know whether or not they wear special underpants, but they're an entertaining counterpoint to Harold and Alberta, IMHO.) There's Miss Edmunds the music teacher, Bill's record collection, and an art gallery involved at some point, too. Basically, it is a book wot looks kindly upon a bit of culcha in a kid's life.
The exchange isn't all one-way, however: Jess defends Leslie against bullies, earns Bill and Leslie's respect with his handyman skills while helping them renovate, and takes Leslie to church with his family. The book's low-level theological discussion starts up here, as Leslie, who 'doesn't have to believe it', finds Easter to be a fascinating story, while Jess and his family are bored or scared by the easter story. A short discussion between Leslie, Jess, and Jess' little sister May Belle raises the question of hell, and who if anyone God will send there.
It's not a romance - Paterson, with the aforementioned knack of not talking down to children, doesn't try to go there. But it is a love story. Two kids, best friends and soulmates... yeah. Somehow Peterson manages to express all the depth of the relationship without being corny at all. The King and Queen thing helps a bit, I think.
Two things about the book bugged me slightly: Jess' family seem too much like a caricature: until Leslie's death we never see anything but complaints from his momma, his elder sisters are uniformly greedy and distasteful... you get the idea. It works, because in a way you get the feeling that's just the way Jess percieves them, and we do see a bit of a shift in the family relationships, mostly after Leslie's death. The second thing which bugged me is that Leslie herself has no faults. She helps Jess to overcome his fears, but aside from that one time when she didn't want to help the distressed Janice Avery, we don't see Leslie grow or develop at all. Her father says to Jess 'she loved you, you know', which is true, but I would have liked to see more change in her, as she changes Jess.
To conclude: I'm not sure why anyone would want this book banned. I think K's right, it must be because of the character death. I wonder if it's because Leslie dies in possession of a loose sort of spirituality but no Organised Faith? I wonder if it's because of the theological discussion threaded through the last half: what happens when you die? Does God send people to Hell? That little discussion resolves itself with Jesse's father's input, declaring that 'God don't send no little girls to hell'. I wonder if that conclusion bothered some straight-laced hellfire and brimstone type?