Banned Book Week and Anastasia Krupnik
Yesterday was the last day of Banned Book Week. To celebrate book freedom, I picked up Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry for the ChickieNob. It was one of those books I loved as a kid but hadn’t thought to pass along to the kids until I saw it on a banned book list.
It speaks volumes that I had no clue why it was banned. I have no memory of anything controversial happening in the book.
As I stood in the library line waiting to check out, I started flipping through the pages and immediately remembered how much I felt a kinship with Anastasia. While I never had a small, pink wart, she had always seemed like someone I would be friends with if we lived in the same town. She was like Ramona Quimby or Margaret Simon; nice, smart girls who sometimes made mistakes while trying to figure out their place in the world.
Like wanting to name her baby brother One-Ball Reilly Krupnik.
Please? Is that why it was banned? I already knew about testicles from Then Again, Maybe I Won’t.
There is a part in the book where Anastasia talks about the poetry book her father dedicated to her, and I always think about Anastasia and the dedication when I dedicate a book to someone. And my heart still breaks when I read the line, “I’m getting memories, all of a sudden! And they don’t feel good!”
Moreover, I STILL keep an Anastasia-inspired notebook of things I love and things I hate. I love magic (real magic AND illusions), Doctor Who, and interactive fiction. I haven’t put anything on the hate list, even though I often think hateful things about other drivers on the road, so I could probably jot those things down. It makes me feel like a virtuous person that my “love” side is so long and my “hate” side is empty.
Anastasia is right, it feels good to write down the things that make you happy. So in honour of Banned Books Week, one day late, join Anastasia (and me) in listing three things you love. And if you’re feeling it, too, three things you hate.
Side note: Tomorrow is #MicroblogMonday. Get writing.
14 comments
I loved Anastasia Krupnik!!! Can’t believe that book is on the banned book list.
I love the light peaking into church.
I love the feeling of a fresh made bed.
I love cooking.
I must say I hate banned book lists. It seems so against civilization, thinking and common sense to ban books.
I WAS Anastasia Krupnik as a little kid. Why was she banned???
I did find this:
http://www.theledger.com/article/20050224/NEWS/502240409
My copies of the entire series are on DC1s bookshelf. Have you figured out why she was banned yet?
I do remember her refusing to write rhyming poetry when that was the assignment. I’m not sure how I feel about that lesson. (Yes, poetry doesn’t have to and doesn’t usually rhyme, but being able to do different things different ways is important too.)
I still think a tower room would be cool. And it was good of her to point out potentially bad nicknames for her brother before her parents settled on his name.
I never heard of this book… I Googled it & found it was published in 1984, when I was 23, so I guess I was a little out of the target audience range by then. 😉
Three things I love:
1. Books
2. Fall colours
3. Chocolate
Three things I hate:
1. Intolerance
2. The months of November & February :p
3. Snakes
I love Lois Lowry’s The Giver quadrilogy.
(I hate that I don’t know off the top of my head what to call a set of 4 books in a series.)
I love fresh sheets.
(I hate wiping down a kitchen counter.)
I love it when there’s great conversation in a blog post’s comment section.
(I hate it when trolls come out with intentions to hurt others.)
I recently read “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” which my colleague told me had been banned somewhere. I keep meaning to look up the details to see why, although I think I can make some guesses. The whole issue of why books get banned is something I’d like to look into further. I’m quite curious about the thought process of the people who want to “ban” them, what that means, and why “banning” instead of say, choose not to teach it on the curriculum.
Three things I love:
1) Reading a book
2) Baby cuddles
3) Feeling somewhat in control of my life
As for things I hate, I had a truly dreadful dream last night that I had to join the school’s football team. It was a girls’ football team which actually sounds kind of cool, but still a horrifying dream. I don’t “get” team sports on a fundamental level. (I can watch and sort of enjoy a hockey game sometimes, but that’s it). Being forced to play them is a nightmare. 😉 I’m sure there’s other things I hate but that’s all I can think of right now.
I love The New York Times new mini crossword puzzles
I love my adult beginning ballet class
I love reading at night with my children
I love travelling. (I hate not being able to travel at the moment).
I love ice-cream. (I hate my weight.)
I love beauty in nature.
(I hate injustice.)
Spending ALL morning in bed with the TV on, my laptop, coffee and breakfast.
Shopping.
Fritt candy.
I hate being ignored.
Getting up in the mornings.
Grocery shopping.
Was it actually banned or was it just “challenged”? A lot of books on these “banned” lists were never actually taken off shelves anywhere, but merely complained about by a few cranky parents.
Oh, I love strawberries, female pirates, and Chris Hatfield. Hate racism, bad drivers, and shops that have Christmas goods before Halloween.
I have this vague memory of her wanting to write a book report on gone with the wind, and an argument about what happens in the bedroom for scarlet and rhett vs Ashley and Melanie Maybe that’s it? I think that was anastasia. I did my list last week (on travel, but still a list of love and hate)
I know that I loved Anastasia even though I have no memory of the book at all.
Things I love:
1) Apple Cider
2) Sweatshirt weather
3) Changing leaves
Things I hate:
1) That the apple cider I just bought exploded all over my trunk and now my car smells bad and I have no apple cider to drink
2) Winter coat weather
3) Snow