Free speech advocates defend anthology about teen homosexuality

Egypt is not the only place where authors run afoul of censorship. It also happens with distressing regularity in the so-called Land of the Free to Canada’s south. In the latest instance, the New Jersey chapter of conservative pundit Glenn Beck’s 9.12 Project has succeeded in getting an anthology of writing and art focusing on teen homosexuality removed from Rancocas Valley Regional High School. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, 9.12 member and local grandmother Beverley Marinelli challenged the book Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology for being “pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate.”

Marinelli might have a fight on her hands. An article in the Guardian claims the issue has galvanized free speech and pro-GLBT organizations, which are rallying in support of Revolutionary Voices and two other books Marinelli’s group is attempting to get banned:

“There are undoubtedly GLBTQ [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning] students at Rancocas Valley High School, regardless of whether they are openly recognised. Removing any of these titles would send a clear message to those students that they are the objects of social disapproval – different, vulnerable, and marginal – whose needs for information of particular relevance to their lives are not respected,” wrote the directors of a collection of organisations to the school’s board. The letter, the signatories to which include the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, and PEN America, added that there was “no question that these books are not obscene.”

Marnielli, who insists that she “is not a homophobe,” is also trying to get Revolutionary Voices removed from the Lenape Regional High School District, New Jersey’s largest high school district.

When not trying to ban books, Marinelli spends her time protesting “indoctrination” of vulnerable American youth. The Philadelphia Inquirer points out that she recently participated in a demonstration at New Jersey’s B. Bernice Young Elementary School after seeing a video of schoolchildren singing a song praising U.S. president Barack Obama.

She told the Philadelphia Daily News: “We did it for the children.”

Egyptian author could face jail term for novel accused of “insulting Christianity”

Last year, Egyptian author Youssef Ziedan won the Man Booker prize foundation’s $60,000 International Arabic Fiction Prize for his novel Azazeel. This year, that same novel could land the author up to five years in jail if his book is found guilty of “insulting Christianity.” From the Guardian:

Azazeel has provoked controversy in Egypt ever since its publication. The Coptic church denounced it as offensive for its violent portrait of Coptic church father St. Cyril, and one critic said it “tries to Islamise Christian beliefs and takes the side of heretics.” Now a group of Egyptian and international Coptic organisations have filed a complaint with the country’s public prosecutor against Ziedan, a philosophy professor, accusing him of insulting Christianity.

Ziedan claims not to have expected the book to be charged with “disdaining religions,” and goes on to say that he and “the majority of intellectuals” in the country thought the charges would be dismissed. Instead, they have been referred to the Egyptian State Security Prosecution for trial.

Azazeel has already been the subject of numerous attacks and attempts to have it banned, according to the Guardian:

The author said that there had been many calls to ban Azazeel, with four books written attacking his novel, but so far the Egyptian government has not complied with the demands. “Other books have been published to defend the novel, not to mention hundreds of pro-Azazeel articles,” he added. “Azazeel has kept on its wide circulation; 18 editions have been published within two years – an unprecedented incident in the history of Arab literature. All such events have increased the ire of the church, which resorted to a new technique last week.”

Controversial children’s novel allowed to remain in Toronto schools

Three weeks after a parent complaint prompted pro-Israeli groups and at least one school trustee to call for the banning of children’s novel The Shepherd’s Granddaughter, it seems that calmer minds have prevailed, with the Toronto District School Board opting to keep the book on library shelves. According to a report in the Toronto Star, the school board’s executive officer of student and community equity, Lloyd McKell, wrote in a letter to trustees that the novel, about a young Palestinian girl whose family is harassed by Israeli settlers, “does not cross the line into literature promoting hate or animosity towards others.” McKell went on to acknowledge that while the book is written from a “Palestinian-sympathetic point of view,” it can be used as a teaching tool to spark debate about the current Middle East conflict. From McKell’s letter to trustees:

The Shepherd’s Granddaughter contains several themes for creative discussions in our classrooms, such as multigenerational families and relationships; aging; experiencing loss; influences of religion and faith; gender role, and gender stereotypes; effects of family separation through emigration; the value of education.… As well, this book can certainly be used to explore issues of bias and prejudice…

Last week, the book’s publisher, Patsy Aldana of Groundwood Books, called on the TDSB to stand up for freedom of expression. From Aldana’s letter to the school board:

Librarians are a bulwark for freedom of speech. They are the most effective reading promoters we have. The TDSB should be lauding them and supporting them unconditionally – not allowing this kind of attack upon them.

The Shepherd’s Granddaughter censorship controversy heats up

The war of words surrounding children’s book The Shepherd’s Granddaughter (Groundwood Books) has escalated, with a Toronto District School Board trustee calling on the country’s largest school board to ban the book and to suspend its involvement with the Ontario Library Association, which is promoting the book as part of its province-wide Forest of Reading program.

Toronto Centre-Rosedale trustee Sheila Ward, who admits she hasn’t read the novel, told the Jewish Tribune last week that she will “move heaven and earth to have The Shepherd’s Granddaughter taken off the school library shelves.” Ward also alleged an anti-Israel bias on the part of the OLA, which selected a similarly controversial book, Deborah Ellis’ Three Wishes (also published by Groundwood), for the Forest of Reading in 2007. From the Jewish Tribune:

“This is the second book in three years [...] that has made a winning list [on the OLA] and that in my view is biased against the Israeli people,” [Ward] continued. “One can be a genuine mistake; two is a pattern. I’d like an investigation. Until I have some really hard answers, I’d like to suspend our involvement with the OLA.”

Groundwood publisher Patsy Aldana has responded to Ward’s comments in an open letter to TDSB director of education Chris Spence, reminding him of the TDSB’s “duty to integrate and reflect the multiple communities which make up this city.” From Aldana’s letter:

Librarians are a bulwark for freedom of speech. They are the most effective reading promoters we have. The TDSB should be lauding them and supporting them unconditionally – not allowing this kind of attack upon them.

Written by Toronto librarian and teacher Anne Laurel Carter, The Shepherd’s Granddaughter is told from the perspective of a young Palestinian girl whose family’s land and home is destroyed by Israeli settlers. The TDSB first received a complaint about the book last month. The book has since been condemned by Jewish advocacy groups B’nai B’rith and Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (read Quillblog’s report).

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, on the blacklist?

If you thought dictionaries were offensive to children, you should also be wary of Bill Martin, Jr.’s beloved picture book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas’ State Board of Education banned the kidlit book from the third-grade curriculum after confusing its author with another Bill Martin, who wrote the 2008 book Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation. From the Morning News:

Board member Pat Hardy, R-Weatherford, who made the motion, cited books [Martin] had written for adults that contain “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.”

[...]

Hardy said she was trusting the research of another board member, Terri Leo, R-Spring, when she made her motion and comments about Martin’s writing. Leo had sent her an e-mail alerting her to Bill Martin, Jr.’s listing on the Borders.com Web site as the author of Ethical Marxism. Leo’s note also said she hadn’t read the book.

The author of Ethical Marxism is a philosophy professor at DePaul University in Chicago, while the kidlit author, who died in 2004, never wrote anything more political than a book teaching kids the Pledge of Allegiance, the Morning News notes. A final vote on curriculum standards will take place in May.

No “oral sex” in California school dictionaries

The Guardian is reporting that the 10th edition of The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary has been yanked from classrooms in the Menifee Union district of California after a parent complained about a “sexually graphic” definition for the term “oral sex.” The dictionaries were purchased four years ago for use in fourth and fifth grade classrooms; the offending entry was deemed not “age appropriate.”

While some parents have praised the move – “[it's] a prestigious dictionary that’s used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern,” said Randy Freeman – others have raised concerns. “It is not such a bad thing for a kid to have the wherewithal to go and look up a word he may have even heard on the playground,” father Jason Rogers told local press. “You have to draw the line somewhere. What are they going to do next, pull encyclopaedias because they list parts of the human anatomy like the penis and vagina?”

There is a panel in place to assess whether the ban will be made permanent, but in the meantime, district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the Menifee Press-Enterprise that she will remain vigilant:

“It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” Cadmus said.

Vancouver librarians told to cover up non-Olympic logos

According to CTV, librarians in Vancouver have been warned by city officials to use only approved Olympic sponsors in any Games-themed events they host next month, and to conceal the logos of any non-Olympic companies that may pass in front of patrons’ eyeballs.

The memo, written by marketing and communications manager Jean Kavanagh, tells staff to avoid such companies as Pepsi or Dairy Queen – neither of which is an official sponsor, unlike, say Coca-Cola or McDonald’s. And she suggests taking unusual steps to avoid displaying the logos of non-sponsors, writing: “If you have a speaker/guest who happens to work for Telus, ensure he/she is not wearing their Telus jacket, as Bell is the official sponsor.”

She also writes that any rented sound equipment have its brand name covered by cloth or tape – if it’s not a machine from sponsor Panasonic.

Though Kavanagh goes on to say that her list of Olympic dos and don’ts doesn’t constitute censorship, Alex Youngberg, president of the local library union, disagrees:

“There’s something in my library to offend everybody,” [Youngberg] said. “And that’s our job. Our job as library staff is to not ever censor any information.”

Christian publisher gives Joseph Conrad a makeover

In order to protect the public’s delicate sensibilities, conservative Netherlands-based Christian publisher WordBridge Publishing has reprinted Joseph Conrad’s The Nigger of the Narcissus as The N-word of the Narcissus. According to the publisher’s website, “the past needs to [be] translated into the present.”

The book, now on sale via Amazon for $9.99, includes this description from the publisher:

WordBridge Publishing has performed a public service in putting Joseph Conrad’s neglected classic into a form accessible to modern readers. This new version addresses the reason for its neglect: the profusion of the so-called n-word throughout its pages. Hence, the introduction of “n-word” throughout the text, to remove this offence to modern sensibilities. The N-word of the Narcissus tells the tale of a fateful voyage of a British sailing ship, and on that voyage the ability of a lone black man to take the crew hostage. The ability of this man to manipulate an entire ship’s crew can no longer be seen as a mere exercise in storytelling. Conrad in fact appears to have been the first to highlight the phenomenon of manipulation based in white guilt.

As hard as it is to swallow this latest version of Conrad’s book, author John G. Peters makes a good point in The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad (Cambridge University Press):

The unfortunately titled The Nigger of the Narcissus (titled Children of the Sea in the first American edition) is Conrad’s best work of his early period. In fact, were it not for the book’s title, it undoubtedly would be read more often than it is currently. At one time, it was one of Conrad’s most frequently read books.

Where to draw the line between “public service” and censorship? Is it better to read this strangely titled version rather than the original? Judging by the one-star Amazon reviews and the reaction of the online community, maybe not.

The latest book-banning news: Catholic school board proposes a list of “acceptable” novels

In the past year or so, a handful of parental complaints have resulted in books such as Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird being banned in several Toronto-area schools. In an effort to avoid such controversies in the future, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, which comprises schools in and around Brampton, Ontario, has come up with a heavy-handed solution that would effectively ban every novel from classroom use unless it is pre-approved by a special committee. From the Brampton Guardian:

Catholic school administrators are proposing all novels and books undergo a central review and approval process before being used in classrooms.

The process would also allow the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board to create a book list teachers can use to select acceptable material for classroom lessons.

“We’re working on a report to take to the board in November that would propose a centralized process around how resources are selected for use in classrooms,” said Marianne Mazzorato, the board’s program superintendent.

The article makes no mention of what titles the board deems “acceptable,” but you can be sure that anything with a whiff of controversy would be relegated to the slag heap. The Catholic board, meanwhile, is spinning the move as being more about pedagogy than straight-up censorship:

Mazzorato said the process is less about “gate keeping” and more about allowing the board to develop resources around those individual literary choices that support a teacher’s lesson plan.

“What we’re attempting to do through this process is ensure that centrally we’re aware of all the novels that teachers are wanting to use in their classrooms,” she said. “If we’re aware of those novels being used then we can help support teachers and develop strong lesson plans.”

Besides ensuring the development of critical literacy skills and delivery of relevant messages for students, she continued, the process should also help mitigate against some of the sensitive subject matter that might occur in novels.

Scholastic [U.S.] tries to censor kids’ book with same-sex couple characters [UPDATED]

Publishers are often called upon to defend their books against people and organizations (parents, school boards, governments, self-appointed morality squads, etc.) who attempt to ban or suppress them.

In the case of a new tween novel by Colorado author Lauren Myracle, however, it’s another publisher that is doing the censoring:

Don’t expect to see Lauren Myracle’s new book Luv Ya Bunches (Abrams/Amulet, 2009) at Scholastic school book fairs this year. It’s been censored – at least for now – due to its language and homosexual content.

Luv Ya Bunches, about four elementary school girls who have little in common, but bond over the fact that they’re all named after flowers, is the first installment of a four-book series. But Scholastic says the book, released on October 1, failed to meet its vetting process because it contains offensive language and same-sex parents of one of the main characters, Milla.

The company sent a letter to Myracle’s editor asking the author to omit certain words such as “geez,” “crap,” “sucks,” and “God” (as in, “oh my God”) and to alter its plotline to include a heterosexual couple. Myracle agreed to get rid of the offensive language “with the goal – as always – of making the book as available to as many readers as possible,” but the deal breaker was changing Milla’s two moms.

UPDATE: Under pressure, Scholastic U.S. has released a statement saying it will include Myracle’s novel in its middle school book fairs (though presumably not its elementary school fairs), and furthermore, that the company “does not censor books.”