We have expressed a desire to keep The Book Case non-political. But there is one issue we feel should not be a source of contention - and that is book banning and book challenges. We have been looking for a relatively safe way to approach the issue and think we’ve found it in a book by Amy Sarig King entitled Attack of the Black Rectangles. The "black rectangles" to which she refers are those black stripes that represent redactions of language. Amy writes for young people— target audience probably 11 to 16. But this book reads well for adults as well and addresses an important subject. It is a fictionalized account of an actual book redaction that her son discovered in a school assigned novel about the Holocaust. Amy argues, persuasively we feel, that young people don’t need this kind of ‘protection’ and that it’s a slippery slope from redactions to actual book bans. She has both a lovely book and a powerful argument.
Afterwards we talk with Jonathan Friedman of PEN America who has written a thorough report about how the number of book challenges and bans are growing across the United States at an alarming rate.
Books mentioned in the podcast:
- Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King (A.S. King)
- Me and Marvin Gardens By Amy Sarig King (A.S. King)
- The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Dig by Amy Sarig King (A. S. King)
- Ask the Passengers by Amy Sarig King (A. S. King)
- Reality Boy by Amy Sarig King (A. S. King)
- Everybody Sees the Ants by Amy Sarig King (A. S. King)
- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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