The Life of Bon: THIS BOOK IS BANNED!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

THIS BOOK IS BANNED!

Announcing Banned Book Club!

Today was our first official meeting of the year of the Banned Book Club.

You see, a couple of year ago Mr. Shields started the Banned Book Club- a club where rebel smart kids could get together and read the books their parents and snooty teachers won't let them read.

Last year I thought, "HEY!  I'm a rebel and I'm smart so I wanna join!  I wanna join!  Please, please, please Mr. Shields- (who from here on out I am going to call Jamie because I feel weird calling him Mr. Shields because that is what his students call him and I am not his student)- can I be in your cool rebel club?"   And he said, "Fine, Bonnie, do whatever you want just stop throwing a tantrum, will you?"  So I did.  I went to the meetings, I read the books, and I enjoyed discussions with a unique group of students at the high school.  Admit it, any kid who is joining a club so that they can rebel through reading is pretty much the coolest kid out there.

This year Mr. Principal tried to shut it all down.  He said we weren't allowed to teach the kids Banned Books.  Oh, but we are because it's after school hours!  Don't you try to shut this down on us!  So I said, "No Jamie!  Mr. Principal can't get away with this!  You must stop him! I was just starting to feel young and hip and rebellious!"  Or something like that.  Slightly less dramatic,  but you get my drift.  So Jamie went to bat for us and I sat comfortably in my room grading papers until I got the good news via email... Banned Books was back!

And thus it was that today we had our first meeting.  Jamie's BFF, Mr. Sundquist, also helps with th eclub and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to be in the club just so that I could be cool.  You see, Shields and Sundquist and the young, hip teachers in the school.  All the high school chicas have crushes on them.  I figured if I joined in on their club I could be hip and young by association, right?

ANYWAY... What I have been trying to say this many paragraphs and circles and laps is THIS.  Today we voted on books to read for the year.  There were 50+ kids there.  They nominated books they would want to read and then everybody voted for their top three.  The nominees and winners are pictured.  (Notice to the left of each title is the number of people who voted for it.  R.I.P. Animal Farm, I guess nobody likes you.)



What would YOUR top three be?
And would you join a Banned Book Club?
And would you have joined on in high school?
And what are you reading RIGHT THIS MINUTE?!?
(I am reading What is the What by David Eggers.  It's about the transition of the Lost Boys of Sudan into American life.  It is fascinating, but also a bit tedious.  Plus it's 500+ pages.  I feel like I've been reading it FOREVER.)

You want to join in on my high school's Banned Book Club?  We're reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for November.  Read it with us and then we can talk books on the blog!  HOLLER!

 

35 comments:

  1. What a great book to start out with...and a great theme for a book club!

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  2. I would love LOVE LOOOOVE to be in a banned book club. I'm so jealous. My principal would NEVER allow this. Plus, my school is so small, I'd probably only have 2 people show up.

    And those are all such good books! I'm currently reading Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, but now I may be going back to reread some banned books. :P

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  3. Alot of the books on your Banned List I read in high school for classes! Too funny!!! I definitely thought In Cold Blood was an interesting book to discuss.

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  4. hahah I love this. What a fun club for the kids. And i would have totally joined to be cool too.

    sjdmiller.blogspot.com

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  5. I love this! It sounds like such fun!

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  6. I wish I had thought of this in high school! I would be all over it like a rash.

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  7. Aww no votes for Kite Runner. :( I loved that book. I would love to be in a banned book club. I'm reading The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht right now.

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  8. what a great way to get your kids to read!

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  9. catch 22 and all quiet on the western front are banned??? what the what??? but i say thank you to whoever banned the color purple. i hated that book.
    i wouldve voted for all quiet, kite runner, and...... um....sure, the perks of being a wallflower.

    and what the heck is a principal doing banning a book club? are there not any other risque clubs out there to be more worried about?? i mean, i bet he's read catch-22...

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  10. I would have loved any book club back in high school! I would still love that! A decent portion of the books on that list are on my to read list. I would have voted for "Lolita," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."

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  11. I definitely would have piked Kite Runner and 1000 Splendid Suns, but that may be because I've read them before and absolutely love them. The same for To Kill a Mockingbird and Catch 22. I absolutely cannot understand why any of those are banned by anyone!

    I've read Slaughter House Five, but I wasn't that impressed. I do not enjoy Their Eyes Were Watching God; I read it in high school and college and just don't get the big deal. I read Animal Farm in ninth grade, and I might enjoy it if I tried to re-read it, but a horrible group project (the WORST) gone wrong has forever tainted it for me.

    Others I'd like to read that I haven't yet: Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Color Purple, and Lolita. I've heard of some of the others, but don't have any inclination to read them.

    Sorry for the novel (as usual)!

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  12. LOVE these books (say yes to 1000 Splendid Sons, Catch-22, Slaughterhouse 5, 13 Reasons Why, and basically anything else with a number in it!). And thank you for choosing edgy but literary books. None of that 50 Shades of Pornography crap. I appreciate that.

    :)

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  13. That's awesome! I HAD to read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in high school! That would be top 1, I'm not sure about the other two. Possibly Animal Farm (although it was pretty weird, and was also a requirement for me), and Perks of Being a Wallflower simply because I haven't ever read it.

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  14. All Quiet was my favorite of the required reading books I read in high school. The fact that it along with to kill a mockingbird is on the banned book list is straight up crazy. I haven't read the majority of those books on the list or even heard of some of them so I'm not sure what my top 3 would be. I'll skip this month's read because I need to finish up my read-On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Keep us posted about the next book choice, please!

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  15. I can't believe To Kill a Mockingbird and Kite Runner are on the list of banned books! Those were both on my REQUIRED reading list for my 9th grade honors English class.

    And when I saw Handle With Care on the list, my jaw dropped. Jodi Picoult is my favorite author so I've read almost all of her books and can't imagine that they would ever be on a list of banned books!

    This is a really great idea though, and you are totally right about this group of kids being the coolest in the school. :)

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  16. LOVE the idea of the banned books club. The English teachers I had in high school seemed to be drawn to banned books, so we read quite a few of them. "Fear and Loathing" is a great read, even if it is somewhat over the top.

    Right now I'm reading "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides.

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  17. Sweet club! Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of my favorites, so that would be my number one. I would also pick The Color Purple and Animal Farm. I'm glad my boys enjoy books as much as their sports, so I hope they have a teacher as cool as you when they get into middle and high school!

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  18. I just read perks of being a wallflower and I loooooved it. I saw the movie with my book club afterwards and I was very happy with how close to the book it was. I would recommend it.

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  19. To Kill A Mockingbird is banned??? I read that in high school and loved it. Weird. I've also read Crank, Tweak, Beautiful Boy and several others on there. I'm glad you're helping push these kids outside the limits. And if the most rebellious thing they do is read a book, then good for them!

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  20. I've read about a third of the books on your list, a few of them for school. My high school library always celebrated Banned Book Week by putting on display all the books that had been challenged or banned in libraries across the country. Controversial books are often great reads!

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  21. love love love this idea! and now I have a great list of books to add to my to-read :)

    I just recently read 13 reasons why and I LOVED it. I finished it on sitting and its stayed on my mind ever since I finished. Think its an important book for high schoolers to read.

    I've only read a couple other books on the list so I'm excited to find some new favorites in there! Downloaded a sample of fear and loathing in las vegas, so hopefully I can join in the fun :oP

    xo michelle
    peggyandbea.blogspot.com

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  22. Some of the books on the board that are banned were our required reading books. Crazy how different region-to-region can be!

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  23. Lolita was quite the book...I will say that. Be warned. To Kill a Mockingbird is banned? I love that book!

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  24. I would've totally been in that club. Can't believe the principal tried to shut it down!

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  25. I can't believe some of the books that are banned that were definitely on our required reading list where I went to HS. The place I live now had this happen in the 70's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanawha_County_textbook_controversy

    Craziness!

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  26. Anonymous2:47 PM

    This is a great club idea! I feel like I should email my fave high school english teacher and tell her it would be a great idea!
    Crank was a good book!
    I feel bad for the Kite Runner :( I've never read it, but it's been on my nook forever.

    Animal Farm was required for 9th graders at the school I graduated from. I didn't go there that year so I had to read To Kill A Mockingbird instead. (Um, I had to read it in class with everyone else, out loud, for weeks! I finished it in the first week b/c I only had 55 minutes a day to read it and then had to wait for everyone else. It was so annoying!)

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  27. What a cool idea!

    I can't believe some of the books on the list! To Kill a Mockingbird is my all time favorite book and was required in High School.

    I just embarked on "A Game of Thrones" and am loving it so far.

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  28. I want to preface this comment by saying this: I think that a Banned Books Club is a TERIFFIC idea!!!!! There are tons of amazing books out there that are banned- books waiting to be read and enlighten minds to a new side of the story. That being said, my Junior year of HS, my teacher had us read Slaughterhouse Five. And I HATED it. The story is interesting. But the details Vonnegut includes.... You've probably read it. But in case you haven't, it gets quite pornographic. I personally was quite offended. And I understand this is a student led club... but maybe reconsider that one? Because it leads to thoughts that are no bueno for anyone, but especially for a bunch of curious high schoolers. That's my two cents. Maybe you don't care. But i do. :)

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  29. I see Crank on there! ANYTHING by Ellen Hopkins is a MUST READ! Just sayin'....

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  30. Your points are very true and heart touching. I must try to keep these points in my mind. I am sure these points ‘ll definitely help me in future. Thanks for the tutorial.Rinoplasti

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  31. Anonymous11:58 AM

    So glad you got the club saved and that so many kids were there! I would have been in a banned books club in high school Also, I'm going to get that book to read!

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  32. I had a teacher in high school, Mr. Lowry, who put together a whole AP English Lit class for one student...me. I spend my study halls hanging out with Mr. Lowry, reading awesome books. I feel like you would do that for a student, you're someone's Mr. Lowry.

    I would absolutely join that club!

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  33. The Autobiography of Malcolm X would be a great one.

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  34. Wait, these books are banned?!? That's ridiculous. Good for you and your colleagues for sticking up for these things!

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  35. I would have joined in high school, but not today. I have read many banned books and they just aren't that big of a deal. In high school, I would have thought I would be reading some dark, demented stuff and it just isn't the case.

    Now, I might enjoy sharing the experience with students and discussing it.

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