Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Congratulations to Brandyllyn, whose review for Where’s Waldo was the winner by a considerable margin in our 2007 Banned Book Week Review contest.

To all who entered: thank you for the excellent reviews and for generating a great discussion on why books get banned, and what we as readers and book lovers can do about it. 

UPDATE: A ha! Silly script does not like apostrophes. So I have rebuilt it without apostrophes and behold, we seem to be working. So, please feel free to cast your vote again.

The voting is open until 14 October, so please vote now - and please only vote once. If you'd like a convenient place to read all the reviews again, this page may help. Also, this entry will remain at the top of the page until voting ends. It's my special and annoying way of being a total nag.

Thanks to Martin at our host, Esosoft for assistance when I was a total doobass installing it.

Voting has ended - thanks for participating!

Submitted by Dooley

My younger kid is nuts about penguins. So, while I was browsing the banned books stand at my local library, I wasn’t surprised when he squealed with delight upon spying “And Tango Makes Three” on the top shelf. I flipped through the picture book. It seemed right in his age range so I handed it down to him, and he said he couldn’t wait ‘till his brother got home from school so we could all read it together.

“And Tango Makes Three” topped the list of most challenged books in 2006. It is the true story of two male penguins, Roy and Silo, at Central Park Zoo, who form a relationship, hatch a donated egg, and raise the chick, named Tango, together.  A kindly zookeeper arranges for them to have the egg after noting that the couple had been attempting to hatch a rock. The book ends on a happy ever after note as the three penguins snuggle up contentedly and fall asleep

I was intensely curious as to what my sons would make of the book, and upon finishing reading the story to them I asked them what they thought of it. My younger son (aged four) thought it was cool that the chick had two daddies teaching her to swim. My older son (aged six) thought the best part was when the penguin couple got the egg after trying so hard to hatch a rock. When I asked him what he thought of the chick having two daddies, he shrugged and spoke of how his friend at school didn’t have a daddy at all. This led to a discussion about all the different kinds of families there are, and my son informing me that some kids don’t have a mommy or a daddy, and that these kids are called “orfings.”

I’m not naïve enough to be surprised that this book was so frequently objected to, but I am saddened. The people who objected to the book claim to have been blindsided by the pro-homosexuality message wrapped up in a seemingly innocuous children’s book. I saw the book’s message to be that having a loving parent is more important than that parent’s sex or sexual orientation. The whole subject is beautifully handled, and it’s a perfect springboard for a discussion about what a family actually is, and how different families can be. I recommend it to any parent who is actively trying to raise their children to be open-minded, thoughtful, and tolerant. 

My kids now want to go see Tango at the Central Park Zoo on our next visit to NYC, and I see another teaching opportunity in the future. Roy and Silo’s relationship did not last. In fact, one of them went on to form another relationship with a female penguin.  It seems the love lives of penguins are as complex as those of humans. I’d love to see a follow-up book that helps me explain that one to the kids. 

Submitted by Evil Auntie Peril

Bio:I wanted to send you my non-review of The Color Purple for banned books week, just in case it could be squeezed in, because no one’s done it yet, and I think it’s an incredible book. If it counts, I re-read it and started writing about it during banned books week…

It’s a non-review, mainly because I don’t really go into characterisation, prose style, craft or any of those book-review-related matters. I just wanted to get on my soapbox about why the only reason anyone should ever remove this book from a library shelf is to read it.

Take care,
EAP (as of 10 o’clock this morning, a real auntie, excitedly plotting evil as I type)

The Color Purple isn’t an easy book. The writing is stark and uncomfortable, slashed with moments of piercing beauty and incredible pain. It’s been called a novel of sisterhood, of womanhood, of redemption and it is all of these things, but it’s also a book that fearlessly tackles hard and painful ideas about race, the cycle of abuse, identity, family, religion and sexuality. It’s the kind of book for which anti-censorship legislation was made.

So no, it’s not an easy book. The first letter (it’s an epistolary novel – a collection of letters) is like a fist in the gut. We learn that the narrator and main protagonist, Celie, is 14 years old, has been repeatedly raped by the man who she believes to be her father (Alphonso) and is now pregnant with her second child by him.

Over the next few letters, all likewise addressed to God, Celie’s mother dies in childbirth, cursing her, and we learn that both of Celie’s babies have been taken away, either killed or sold by Alphonso. Shortly thereafter, Alphonso marries her off to an older man who Celie calls “Mr. ____”. Abused, called ugly, fat and stupid by her husband and his children, Celie continues writing her letters to God.

At the start of the novel, these letters reveal Celie as someone who is unable to make sense of what happens to her. To endure, she has become numb. She starts to write her letters to God in order understand her life and express her fears for the future, and they become her salvation.

While the film made much of the power of sisterhood, the novel also stresses the importance of narration as the key to Celie’s personal growth and empowerment. By telling her own story, Celie becomes self-aware and gains the power to redefine her relationships with everyone in her life: her friends, her sister, her abusive husband and even God. From addressing a distant, paternalistic figure as “Dear God” in her first letter, Celie’s final letter starts, “Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God.” This line makes me cry every time I read it. Her transformation shines – it’s overwhelming.

It’s impossible to compress The Color Purple into a few hundred words. Every time I read it, I find new ideas and layers of meaning. It’s an incredibly powerful and rich book, whose many themes cry out for discussion, which is probably why it’s a set text for many literature courses.

So why ban it? Well, in addition to the rape, incest, abuse and unorthodox ideas of God mentioned above, there are also things I haven’t touched on at all, including: woman’s sexuality, graphic language, racism, poverty, and discrimination. It has also been heavily criticized for its portrayal of black men as abusers. And above all, perhaps, The Color Purple is a profoundly disturbing book.

But we need to be disturbed. We need people to ask uncomfortable questions and shake our complacent certainties. Banning The Color Purple on the grounds that it might upset readers, even teenage readers, is exactly the wrong response. It completely goes against the very soul of this book. By telling her own story, Celie becomes self-aware, and thereby empowered. She saves herself. Silencing voices perpetuates the very cycles of oppression, discrimination and abuse she describes so harshly.

No one should ever ban this book. We should read it, share it and discuss it. It needs to be made personal. If its contents make us uncomfortable, upset or angry, we need to understand why.

Submitted by: Brandyllyn

Of the most banned books of the nineties, none stood out to me with such a force as Martin Hanford’s Where’s Waldo? series.  Indeed, while I was stunned to find several of my childhood favorites present, it took me quite some time to come to terms with the fact that this was not a typo. 

What did this bespectacled, befuddled, behatted man do to earn the ire of some proportion of the American public?

Waldo (or Wally in the original UK print), a brunet in perhaps is early thirties, perpetually wanders the world in blue jeans and a candy-cane striped shirt with matching toque.  He is also perhaps the only man in the world who hides for a living… all the time.  He is joined on his travels by his dog, Woof, and his girlfriend, Wenda/Wanda.  Occasional sightings of Waldo’s ex-girlfriend Wilma have been known to happen, but as Wilma is Wenda’s identical twin, it is uncertain if these sightings are always genuine.  Plotting against Waldo is his arch-nemesis, Odlaw.  Odlaw has stolen both his name and his wardrobe from Waldo and it is little wonder that he lurks amongst the pages of the Where’s Waldo? series hoping to in some way undermine Waldo’s efforts at… um… hiding. 

Waldo himself could certainly stand to be more selective on the company he keeps.  Seen at Viking banquets, courthouses full of lawyers and at an area suspiciously similar to a brothel, Waldo shows a remarkable lack of morals when choosing his associates.  And yet, I find it hard to fault him for it.  Sure, Waldo could show some discretion, but it sends a powerful message of inclusiveness out to today’s children that Waldo is not afraid to be seen with court jesters; and is as ready to submit himself to their company as with the fine men and women establishing the first moon colony.  Waldo’s childlike sense of wonder at the world should be an inspiration to us all.  Waldo finds joy in almost any situation – from seaside resorts to the dungeons of the furthest Neptunian moons.  And he never gives up.  Never mind if you find him in Bangladesh, he’ll move on, gathering up his friends and assorted lost belongings before he goes.  (If nothing else, everyone could take a leaf out of Waldo’s book whilst traveling.)

Waldo is welcoming.  He always smiles and keeps the company of both a good woman and a good dog.  And no matter what terrible things his enemy does to him, he never retaliates.  And he never gives up.

Should we ask anything less than that of our children?  Can we afford to ask anything less than that of ourselves?

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Cassie Edwards Articles

• A centralized document of the Cassie Edwards texts (Rev. E, 2/21/2008, Tracks 22 Books, Added a Table of Contents)

One Big-Ass Bastard

• Bill Napoli, who’s a real sexist ass-hat
• Engaging in some friendly Googlebombing
• Another Napoli Update
• Smart Bitch Endorsed Art Auction
• WE WIN AT THE INTERNET