Parents in Williamson County, Tennessee, have been asked to sign an anonymous petition demanding that the classic To Kill a Mockingbird be removed.

The petition cites profanity in the novel as a reason to can it, as well as its “adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, [and] incest.” It also suggests that the book could encourage “racial hatred, racial division, [and] racial separation” and that it “promotes white supremacy.”

Now, I admit that I haven’t read a whole lot of Southern writers. But I have read To Kill a Mockingbird. And while I agree that it has a lot of mature themes in the book, it’s hardly something that a middle schooler is unaware of. And the main character is a child. The book is written from a child’s point of view.

And if whoever wrote the petition feels that this book encourages white supremacy, when the whole crux of the story focuses on a travesty of justice perpetrated against an African American man by a white police and justice system simply because of his race, then they have a severely warped sense of what white supremacy constitutes.

Heaven forbid we ask our children to think about big issues. They already think about big issues. They just don’t necessarily share them with adults.

And shame on the Board of Education if they even consider a ban.

Via Bookslut.

I thought I’d add a new end-of-the-month feature where I share my recent book acquisitions. Some months that will be very light. Other months — particularly months when I attend book-related conferences — will be heavier.

January is a “heavy” book month because I attend the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting during it. Somehow I managed to acquire 11 books this month. Now I just need to come up with someplace to put them… (more…)

I know, I know. You’ve been sitting around for days reading other people’s lists of what they consider to have been the best things they read over the last year. You’ve even come up with your own winners. But where, you’ve asked, is soe’s list?

Wonder no more. I offer here for your review, my own thoughts on the best books I read over the last year: (more…)

Last week was Children’s Book Week, but I was a little slow in finishing this post, so I’m officially extending it to make it Children’s Book Fortnight.

As such, I encourage you to check out what’s out there in children’s publishing, particularly if you haven’t looked recently. Some of it is pap and some of it is overly moralistic, but some of it is amazing. And you just won’t know which it is until you start thumbing through…

Here are some children’s books (appearing in no particular order) I’ve enjoyed through the years:

1. Horton Hears a Who!, by Dr. Seuss
2. The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
4. The Little House series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5. Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
6. Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer
7. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
8. Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type, by Doreen Cronin
9. The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper
10. Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt
11. The Chronicles of Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis
12. The Great Good Thing, by Roderick Townley
13. The Please and Thank You Book, by Richard Scarry
14. Summerland, by Michael Chabon
15. Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
16. The Princess Diaries, by Meg Cabot
17. The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg
18. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
19. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares
20. The Conch Bearer, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

So I’ve given you my twenty. Who wants to contribute some of their favorites?

Oxford is home to C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, and Lewis Carroll. At one point or another I have had trouble finishing their works, but I eventually did and am so glad I did.

1. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith (I read about half of it before putting it down at the start of a semester in grad school. I still haven’t gotten back to it yet.)
2. Ulysses, by James Joyce (I only made it through a few pages of it before I had to return it to the library.)
3. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (I got further into this one than Ulysses, but not much further. But at least I own my copy of this one.)
4. How to Be Good, by Nick Hornby (I hated it from the beginning. Really couldn’t get into it.)
5. How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn (I read a surprising amount of this before reaching one of those moments in the text where the main character, whom you’ve come to love, is about to screw up his life. I couldn’t prevent him, so I just stopped reading. I’m not sure I’ll ever go back.)

We’re visiting Hay-on-Wye today, so I thought I’d share some favorite authors.

1. Jane Austen
2. J.R.R. Tolkein
3. J.K. Rowling
4. Jasper Fforde
5. James Herriot