Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I missed Friday, I know. Summer with the kiddos home (or at places they need schlepping to) is complicated, okay? But last night I finished listening to Alan Gratz’s Ban This Book, and let me tell you what–it was fantastic. Amy Anne is a lovely character who has trouble speaking up; even when she discovers that her favorite book (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) has been removed from her elementary school library’s shelves and goes to the school board meeting at her librarian’s request, she can’t bring herself to stand up and give the speech she worked over so painstakingly. Her parents buy her her very own copy, and she supposes that’s the (unhappy) end of it. When other kids in her class start talking about some of the other books on the removed list, however, Amy Anne lends her new copy to one of them and borrows a copy of a different book that she wants to read for the first time–which somehow leads to Amy Anne running a secret ‘banned books library’ out of her locker. More books start appearing on the ‘remove’ list, however, and when Amy Anne is given a second chance to speak up, she’s determined to do it.

I loved Amy Anne’s mantra, given to her by her school librarian–“Nobody has the right to tell you what books you can and can’t read except your parents.” My parents had no idea what was in some of the books I was reading in junior high, but they instilled enough principles in me that I eventually started to be more discriminating in what I chose; I rarely tell my own children they can’t read something. (I do tell them things like ‘Let’s talk about what’s in that one before/after you read it’, or ‘I don’t think you’ll actually like that one, but it’s up to you’, or ‘I think that one’s written for older readers–it might embarrass you at this stage of your life.’) I occasionally read books and return them to the library without passing them on, but my attitude there runs along the lines of ‘if they find this one on their own, whatever, but I’m not going to put it into their hands myself.’ (Because it’s my job as a parent to feed them real food, so to speak–they’ll find enough junk food on their own.) As long as, say, Fifty Shades of Grey doesn’t end up in my kids’ school libraries, I’m pretty anti-censorship.

I also loved, however, that the so-called villain of the piece isn’t vilified in the end–Amy Anne herself comes to see her as a good but misguided person, and the way she deals with her at the end is masterful. Amy Anne’s parents sometimes drive me crazy–I have strong opinions about treating kids fairly–but they ultimately come through for her in a big way. And while there’s a serious PTA accounting no-no in the last third of the book, it works out nicely for the plot, so I’m not inclined to quibble. (The accountant-by-profession state PTA treasurer most certainly would, though.)

At the end of the day, you should absolutely read Ban This Book. And while I didn’t actually like all the books on the removed list–you may recall my scathing review of Harriet the Spy–you could read those too, if you wanted.

I’M certainly not going to stop you.