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School Strikes Up The Banned

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By MEGAN HUSSEY, Tribune correspondent

Published: October 7, 2007

HUDSON - The cabinet inside the Hudson Middle School media center was draped in black and covered with caution tape, and only narrow peepholes offered glimpses of what was inside.

Inside were books - 'Gone With the Wind,' the Bible, 'My Friend Flicka' and the children's reader 'Captain Underpants' - all of which have been challenged or banned outright in schools and public libraries, at one time or another.

The display is part of the school's observance of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, which ended Saturday. The annual campaign is aimed at raising awareness of book-banning.

'It makes me angry when people pull books out of kids' hands,' said school media specialist Michelle Lott, who worked as a youth librarian with the Pasco County Library System for 12 years. 'We tell them to read, then tell them they can't read. It's discriminating and degrading.'

'If you give up the freedom to read, you give up the freedom to think.'

With that in mind, Lott and fellow media specialist Marcia Pringle put together a display to get students talking.

'This is the first year we've acknowledged Banned Books Week at the school,' Pringle said. 'This is an important project, as it opens kids' eyes to the issue of banned books. They should be able to choose what they want to read.'

When she talked about the issue last week on the school's morning news show, Lott brought along a bag filled with books that have been questioned or banned in the past, including Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' described by one critic as 'a filthy, trashy novel.'

Lott told students she owned several banned books, including the Harry Potter series, which the American Library Association ranks as the most challenged book series of the 21st century.

Hudson Middle, in fact, owns many of the books listed on the ALA's list of banned or challenged books. Pringle said that, in all of her years there, a parent had never challenged a book the kids were reading.

The idea that someone would want to keep people from reading books seems to surprise and anger students, the teachers said.

'It's stupid to ban books,' said eighth-grader Michael Carmack, 13, who works as a student assistant in the media center. 'If we don't read about the mistakes and prejudices of the past, we're doomed to repeat them.'

Opinions were especially strong among members of the school's student news crew.

Students rattled off the names of favorite books - 'Where the Sidewalk Ends,' 'Lord of the Flies' - that have turned up on lists of banned books.

'When kids read books about real-life problems, it helps them to understand and deal with those problems,' said seventh-grader Vladimir Stillman, 12.

'They say it's a free country,' said 13-year-old Kendall Wickstrom, a seventh-grader. 'If we can't read what we want, it's not free.'

In the future, school officials hope to incorporate discussions of book-banning into classroom lessons, encourage students to make presentations on the topic or write letters to elected officials.

At Hudson Middle, opinions aren't hard to come by on the topic of banning books.

'America will be shaped by the next generation,' said eighth-grader Maggie Mancuso, 13. 'We need books that inspire us.'

For information, go to www.ala.org/bbooks.

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