From what I have read from the letters about the controversy of the book "The Sheperd's Granddaughter," I DO NOT think that this book should be pulled from the competition because the book didn't say that every Israelis did those things. And they did do those things so why shouldn't people know about this? It's not fair to the author too because of an organization (that dislikes it), her book is now put in jeopardy. Think about it, the author wrote this book for who knows how long and worked so hard on it, and then she is told that her book is going to be pulled out from the competition AND libraries. How do you think she would feel? How would you feel if your book that took you a long time to write was suddenly just kicked out? I know I would be very angry and upset. I also don't get why Brian Henry thinks why kids shouldn't know these things. I understand that he worries for his children but hey, there gonna find out one day, so why not today? But if you really don't want to, then just don't let your kids read it but it should not be taken away from the Red Maple competition. Also, I think if kids find out a book is banned from a library, they would be even more eager to read that particular book so what's the point of banning it then? Adults ALWAYS (maybe not always) encourage kids (more teens) to look at world events and controversial stuff, right? Then shouldn't' this book be a great start then? Besides, they might even see it on the newspaper anyways.
I think that teachers and librarians should decide which books should be part of competitions like Red Maple. Or maybe just a couple of librarians and teachers choose a bunch of books and then the rest of the librarians and teachers vote for the books that they think are the best. And then the top 10 books will be in the competition for the students.:) As for a library, I think the librarian should choose the books because they are the experts on the book so they should be the one's to decide which book are suitable for us. I think that I am old enough to read controversial books (and my classmates) because when you get into your teen years, you start making decisions so of course we can make the choice of reading whatever books you like and we are old enough to choose the books we want to read. And besides, if you don't really like the book and you feel uncomfortable reading it, you can always stop reading the book- its all up to you. If you think your not old enough to read certain books than don't read it.
2 comments:
I agree with you. I did not think in the perspective of the author. Now to imagine if I had probably written a book which might have taken quite a long time because of the information gathering, then having someone take it out of this competition, which I think would be totally unfair. Even if this book were to be taken out I hope this author will keep her passion of writing and show us more of the happenings in this world.
Casey, you make some good points in your entry. I, too , think that you are old enough to read some of these "controversial" books. As long as we can put things into context and discuss them, I think it will be better than if we ban things.
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