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Elizabeth's Musings

Concluding My Challenged Books Challenge

9/24/2021

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Back in April, I read the American Library Association's list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020, and I decided that I was going to read and review all ten of those books. As I made my way through these books, I took the time to think deeply about each of them; I considered why people have had concerns about and made complaints against each book, whether any of these concerns or complaints were worth consideration, and just what goes into selecting books for suggested or required reading. These 10 books encompass a wide variety of literature: children's, adolescent, young adult, and adult are all represented; fiction and nonfiction; old and new. The only completely unifying thread across all of these books is that they were challenged heavily last year--individuals and groups lodged formal requests or demands to remove them from curriculums or libraries.
Picture

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Elizabeth Reviews: The Hate U Give

9/3/2021

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas front cover
The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas
Genre: realistic fiction, YA
First published 2017
Khalil drops the brush in the door and cranks up his stereo, blasting an old rap song Daddy has played a million times. I frown. "Why you always listening to that stuff?"

"Man, get outta here! Tupac was the truth."

"Yeah, twenty years ago."
​

"Nah, even now. Like, check this." He points at me, which means he's about to go into one of his Khalil philosophical moments. "'Pac said Thug Life stood for 'The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.'"
                                                          p. 17

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Elizabeth Reviews: The Bluest Eye

8/20/2021

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Front Cover of the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Genre: literary fiction
​First published 1970
The Breedloves did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjustitng to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly. Although their poverty was traditional and stultifying, it was not unique. But their ugliness was unique. No one could have convinced them that they were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly. Except for the father, Cholly, whose ugliness (the result of despair, dissipation, and violence directed toward petty things and weak people) was behavior, the rest of the family--Mrs. Breedlove, Sammy Breedlove, and Pecola Breedlove--wore their ugliness, put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong to them.
​                                                          p.38

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Elizabeth Reviews: Of Mice and Men

8/6/2021

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first edition front cover of Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Cover image depicts two men, one larger than the other, walking off into the distance along a dirt road between a couple of trees.
 Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
Genre: novella, fiction, tragedy
First published 1937
Candy cried, "Sure they all want it. Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus' som'thin' that was his. Somethin' he could live on and there couldn't nobody throw him off of it. I never had none. I planted crops for damn near every'body in this state, but they wasn't my crops, and when I harvested 'em, it wasn't none of my harvest. But we gonna do it now, and don't make no mistake about that. George ain't got the money in town. That money's in the bank. Me an' Lennie an' George. We gonna have a room to ourself. We're gonna have a dog an' rabbits an' chickens. We're gonna have green corn an' maybe a cow or a goat." He stopped, overwhelmed with his picture.

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Elizabeth Reviews: To Kill a Mockingbird

7/23/2021

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First edition book cover of To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee. A dark burgundy background on which a black tree trunk and branches with pale green leaves is the cover image.
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Genre: literary fiction, Southern Gothic, Bildungsroman (coming of age)
First published 1960
"We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe--some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it... But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal--there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court.... A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up."
         - Atticus Finch, to the jury, p.234

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Elizabeth Reviews: Something Happened in our Town

7/9/2021

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Front Book Cover of Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice, written by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard. Illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin. Text and background resemble the front page of a newspaper. On top, two children stand back-to-back: a White girl and a Black boy. The newspaper features black and white images of a police car and a man's profile.
Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice

written by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard; illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin

Genre: Illustrated Children's Fiction (recommended for ages 4-8)

​First published 2018
After school, Emma asked her mother: "Why did the police shoot that man?"

"It was a mistake," said her mother. "I feel sad for the man and his family."

"Yes, the police thought he had a gun," said her father.

"It wasn't a mistake," said her sister, Liz. "The cops shot him because he was Black."

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Elizabeth Reviews: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

6/25/2021

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Front cover of book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. A Novel by Sherman Alexie, art by Ellen Forney. Cover features images of two toy figurines, a cowboy and an Indian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie, art by Ellen Forney
Genre: YA, Fiction
First published 2007
Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger.

I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other.
​
It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job. And it didn't pay well at all.

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Elizabeth Reviews: Speak

6/11/2021

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front cover of first edition of the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. A young woman's face is partially obscured by a tree branch.
Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Genre: YA, fiction
Originally published 1999
It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.
 ....
​I see IT in the hallway. IT goes to Merryweather. IT is walking with Aubrey Cheerleader. IT is my nightmare and I can't wake up. IT sees me. IT smiles and winks. Good thing my lips are stitched together or I'd throw up.
                                     Melinda, Speak 

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Elizabeth Reviews: All American Boys

5/28/2021

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book cover: front cover of ALL AMERICAN BOYS by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. Image is of a black boy seen from behind with his hands raised
All American Boys
by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Genre: YA, fiction
Originally published 2015
I wasn't sure what I was drawing.

That's not true.

I knew exactly what I was drawing. The only thing I could. I was going to re-create the scene, what had happened to me, what was playing constantly on the news, on the page.

First the outline. A teenage boy. Hands up. No. Erase. Hands down. No. Hands behind his back. Outline of a figure behind him. Bigger than he is. Holding him around the neck. No. Not that. Fist in the air. No. Not that either. Hand pushing through the teenage boy's chest. A building behind him. A store. Person in the doorway. Cheering.
               - Rashad, All American Boys

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Elizabeth Reviews: Stamped

5/14/2021

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Front book cover of STAMPED: RACISM, ANTIRACISM, AND YOU. Authors: Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds. A REMIX of the National Book Award-winning STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING. Cover image is a profile silhouette of a Black person's head over a white background, with red stripes over it and the title
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
Genre: Non-fiction
Originally Published 2020, a remix of Stamped From the Beginning (2016)
This isn't a history book....Instead, what this is, is a book that contains history. A history directly connected to our lives as we live them right this minute. This is a present book. A book about the here and now. A book that hopefully will help us better understand why we are where we are as Americans, specifically as our identity pertains to race.
                            - Stamped, Chapter 1

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    Elizabeth Wilcox. Writer, Avid Role-Player, Amateur Mixologist. Survivor.

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