The Worst Library on the Internet
Can Smilla solve the mystery of the young boy's death and defeat the space worms? I dunno.
Requested by @biblioteksgudin as part of the patreon!
Subscribe on iTunes or our feedburner RSS feed to get new and old episodes or donate to the Patreon for even more!
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Meet Margaret. She's a godless child about to embark on the mystery of puberty and boys and other sinful stuff that's really boring in retrospect.
OR
Margaret only wants three things: drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Kidding. She wants religion, boobs, and her period. What a long, strange trip.
1980 - Arizona - removed from Gilbert elementary and jr high required parental consent
1982
Alabama - Challenged in the Tuscaloosa School System
Wisconsin - Challenged in Fon du Lac school systems because the book is "sexually offensive and amoral"
1983
Minnesota - Restricted in Zimmerman to students with parental permission. After the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union sued the Elk River, Minnesota school board (1983), the Board reversed its decision.
Ohio - Challenged at the Xenia school libraries; "is built around just two themes: sex and anti-Christian behavior"
1985 - Montana - Challenged as profane, immoral, and offensive but retained in Bozeman school libraries
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
High school cults, library wars, evil teachers, and chocolate. Oh yeah, we had fun with this one.
1981 - Michigan - Challenged and temporarily removed from the English curriculum in two Lapeer high schools because of "offensive language and explicit descriptions of sexual situations in the book."
1982 - Maryland - Removed from Liberty High School in Westminster for language, violence, and degradation of schools and teachers
1983 - Rhode Island - Challenged at the Richmond High School as being deemed "pornographic" and "repulsive"
1984
Arizona - Removed from Lake Havasu High School freshman reading list. The school board said the teachers were not setting good examples, fostering disrespect in the classroom and failing to support the board.
South Carolina - Banned from the Richland Two School District middle school libraries in Columbia due to language but later reinstated for eighth graders.
1985
New York - Challenged at Cornwall High School as "Humanistic and destructive of religious and moral beliefs and of national spirit"
Pennsylvania - Banned from the Stroudsburg High School library for being "blatantly graphic, pornographic, and wholly unacceptable for a high school library"
1986
Florida - Removed from Panama City school classrooms for language
Massachusetts - Challenged at Barnstable High School in Hyannis for profanity, masterbation and sexual fantasies, and "ultimately for its pessimistic ending." The novel fostered negative impressions of authority, schools, and religious schools.
1987 - California - Challenged at Moreno Valley Unified School District libraries for profanity, sex, and themes that encourage disrespectful behavior.
1988 - Florida - West Hernando Middle School principal recommended all Cormier's books removed.
1990
Connecticut - Challenged as suitable curriculum material in Harwinton and Burlington schools for profanity and setting bad examples and giving negative views of life
New Hampshire - Suspended from classroom use at Woodsville High School in Haverhill for language, masturbation, sexual fantasies, and derogatory characterizations of a teacher and religious communities
1992 - Connecticut - Challenged at New Milford for language, sex, violence, subjectivity, and negativism
1993 - Arizona - Challenged at Kyrene elementary for masturbation
1994
Georgia - Returned to the Hephzibah High School in Augusta after lack of educational content and a parent said "If they ever send a book like that home with one of my daughters again I will personally burn it and throw the ashes on the principal's desk."
New York - Challenged at Hudson Falls schools for rape, masturbation, violence, and degrading treatment of women
1995
Massachusetts - Challenged at Nauset Regional Middle School in Orleans for profanity and sexually explicit language
Pennsylvania - Challenged at Stroudsburg school sytstem that the book will "foster disobedience."
1996
California - Removed in Riverside Unified School District as inappropriate for seventh and eighth grade to read without sclass discussion for mature themes, sexual situations, and smoking
Pennsylvania - Removed from East Stroudsburg after complaints for language and content
1998
Oklahoma - Banned from Broken Arrow schools as the "antithesis of the district's character development curriculum."
Texas - Removed from Greenville Intermediate School library for "blasphemy, profanity, and graphic sexual passages"
1999 - New York - Challenged on required reading list at Colton schools for masturbation, profanity, disrespect of women, and sexual innuendo
2000
Colorado - Challenged at Silverheels Middle School's supplemental reading material in South Park after parents objected to sexually suggestive language
Massachusetts - Challenged on the eighth grade reading list at Lancaster School District for language and content
Ohio - Challenged at Maple Heights School for teaching immorality
Pennsylvania - REtained as optional reading at Rice Avenue Middle School in Girard after a grandmother found the book offensive and didn't want her grandchild reading it.
Virginia - Challenged in York County due to sexually explicit language
2001
Florida - Challenged but retained at the Dunedin Highland Middle School in St. Petersburg after objections of profanity, masturbation, sexual fantasy, and segments of the book that were considered denigrating to girls
Ohio - Challenged at a Beaver Local Board of Education in Lisbon as "pornographic"
2002 - Virginia - Challenged along with seventeen other tiles in Fairfax County elementary and secondary libraries by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools after the group contended the book had profanity, drug abuse, sexually explicit content, and torture.
2006
Connecticut - Challenged and retained at King Philip Middle School in West Hartford parents thought it was unsuitable, had language, sexual content, and violence
North Carolina - Challenged for "vulgar and sexually explicit language" by Wake County parents who received support of the ban from Called2Action, a Christian group that says its mission is to “promote and defend our shared family and social values.”
2007
Indiana - Challenged at Coeur d'Alene School District after parents say the book should require parental permission.
Illinois - Challenged at required reading at John H Kinzie Elementary School in Chicago
Maryland - Removed from Harford County High School because it's message of bullying is overshadowed by vulgar language including homophobic slurs. In Nov. 2007, the superintendent reversed the decision.
Ohio - Challenged at Northridge School in Johnstown because "if these books were a movie, they would be rated R. Why should we be encouraging them to read these books?"
Oregon - Lake Oswego junior high school because the novel is “peppered with profanities, ranging from derogatory slang terms to sexual encounters, and violence.”
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging our Freedom to Read. 2014.
Banned Books Awareness, AVClub, Marshall University Libraries, Time.
Subscribe on iTunes or our feedburner RSS feed to get new and old episodes or donate to the Patreon for even more!
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
The Harry Potter that started it all! Join Evan as he talks about wizards, wizardry, how Hogwarts is a hellscape, and how unicorns are not innocent.
1999
California - Parent's objected to the book's use in two Moorpark elementary schools
Colorado - Parents objected at Douglas County schools
New York - Parents objected in suburban Buffalo among other districts
South Carolina - Challenged in schools because "the book has a serious tone of death, hate, lack of respect, and sheer evil."
2000
Ontario, Canada - Challenged but retained in the Durham School District because of witchcraft
Brisbane, Australia - Banned from Christian Outreach College library, being considered violent and dangerous
Alabama - Challenged but retained in Arab school libraries, claiming the author "is a member of the occult and the book encourages children to practice witchcraft."
California
Challenged but retained in the Simi Valley School District after a parent complained the book was violent, anti-family, had a religious theme, and lacked educational value.
Challenged but retained at the Orange Grove Elementary School for magic and bad experiences.
Challenged in the Fresno Unified School District by a religious group voicing concerns about sorcery and witchcraft.
Florida - Challenged in six Santa Rosa County schools in Pace for witchcraft.
Iowa - Challenged in Cedar Rapids school libraries because the book romantically portrays witches, warlocks, wizards, goblins, and sorcerers
Illinois - Challenged but retained in Frankfort School District 157-C after parents complained of lying and smart-aleck retorts to adults.
Michigan
Zeeland schools restricted the book to parental permission for fifth to eighth graders as well as no future installments would be purchased. Restrictions were overturned by the superintendent except one: teachers are prohibited from reading the book aloud to students below sixth grade. Restrictions place because the book contained an intense story line, violence, wizardry, and the sucking of animal blood.
Removed from Bridgeport Township public school for promoting witchcraft
New Hampshire - Challenged but retained in the Newfound Area School District in Bristol despite complaints the book was scary.
New York - Challenged at the Salamanca elementary school library for dark themes
Oregon - Challenged in Bend at Three Rivers Elementary school for witchcraft and concerns that the book would lead children to hatred and rebellion
Texas - Restricted to parental permission in the Santa Fe School District because of witchcraft promotion
2001
Florida - Challenged but retained in the Duval County school libraries despite complaint of witchcraft.
New Mexico - Burned in Alamogordo outside Christ Community Church as being "a masterpiece of satanic deception."
Pennsylvania - Challenged in Bucktown's Owen J. Roberts School District because the "books are telling children over and over again that lying, cheating, and stealing are not only acceptable, but that they're cool and cute."
2002
Moscow, Russia - Challenged by a Slavic cultural organization that alleged the stories about magic and wizards could draw students into Satanism
United Arab Emirates - one of 26 books banned from schools that contradicts Islamic and Arab values
Arkansas - Originally challenged for characterizing authority as "stupid" and portrays "good witches and good magic" and placed on restricted access. Parents of a fourth-grader filed a federal lawsuit against the restriction and the federal judge overturned the restriction.
Kentucky - A teacher's prayer group in Russell Springs proposed this for ghosts, cults, and witchcraft as well as fifty other titles for removal.
2003 - Connecticut - Challenged but retained in the New Haven schools as it "makes witchcraft and wizardry alluring to children"
2006 - Georgia - Gwinnett County for guess what, but the school board rejected it. Georgia Board of Education ruled December 14, 2006 that the parent had failed to prove her contention that the series "promote[s} the Wicca religion and therefore that the book's availability in public schools does not constitute advocacy of a religion." On May 29, 2007, Superior Court judge Ronnie Batchelor upheld the Georgia Board of Education's decision to support local school officials. County school board members have said the bo oks are good tools to encourage children to read and to spark creativity and imagination.
2007 - Massachusetts - Removed from the St. Joseph School in Wakefield because the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic school.
2010 - Calgary, Alberta, Canada - Salvation Army post refusing to take donations of Harry Potter items because they “promote black magic and the occult.”
2019 - Tennessee - Rev. Dan Reehil, the pastor of St. Edward Catholic School, consulted with exorcists and the Catechism of the Catholic Church before making the decision to remove the book series from the school library due to the possibility of risking “conjuring evil spirits” as well as concerns that the book teaches Machiavellian approaches to problem solving. Students may still read the book on school grounds.
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.
Willingham, AJ. “A Catholic school removes 'Harry Potter' from its shelves, claiming the books' spells are real.” CNN.com. CNN, September 3, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2019 from https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/03/us/harry-potter-catholic-church-st-edward-nashville-trnd/index.html
Subscribe on iTunes or our feedburner RSS feed to get new and old episodes or donate to the Patreon for even more!
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
The Hardy Boys are on the case when Tower Mansion is robbed and poor people are the worst! Wigs and hobos abound!
Anti-authority, cops and parents are dumb
Riddled with crime, especially against dumb, greedy rich people
1959 - contained negative racial and gender stereotyping among its supporting and minor characters, many of which would shock modern audiences, but which were also considered unpalatable by readers in 1959 - Mental Floss
1978 - Massachusetts - "In our library traditionally we have never had this kind of mediocre book. Two-to-one my librarians [want to] uphold the superior selections we have," explained Virginia Tashjian, Chief Librarian for Newton, MA, to The Hour in 1978. Also referred to the books as "soap opera narratives."
1980 - Washington - The Spokane Daily Chronicle also noted in 1980 that the library banned Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles "be cause they 'lacked literary merit'” but still “retained Braille editions of Playboy magazine."
Subscribe on iTunes or our feedburner RSS feed to get new and old episodes or donate to the Patreon for even more!
Google News
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
What would happen if you took Lovecraft and made him believe in the power of love? That's the heart and soul of this book, traveling across the stars on the wings of math, facing horrible abominations and alien figures, and finding out the universe ain't so bad after all. While my first reaction as an adult is to reject the ending as too neat, too concise and optimistic in how easily little Meg defeats the monster and saves her family, I see how a young child would love it. Thinking back, I do not remember much about the story when I first read it in sixth grade, but the love of math and the ideas of science that it implanted in me has always stuck. A quick, fun read, this book holds up as a fun entry for children but lacks a strong narrative for adults. Kinda gotta love a big, furry, tentacled, blind creature named Aunt Beast, though.
#22 on the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 from ALA, #90 for 2000-2009
Jerry Falwell Ministries claims it undermines faith and religious beliefs and contains offensive language
1985 - Florida - Challenged but retained at Polk City Elementary where a parent believed it promoted witchcraft, crystal balls, and demons
1990 - Alabama - Challenged at the Anniston schools for sending mix signals about good and evil, as well as a parent complaining the book listed Jesus Christ with other artists and thinkers.
1996 - North Carolina - Challenged but retained by the Catawba Count School Board in Newton after a parent requested for undermining religious beliefs.
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging the Freedom to Read. 2014.
Subscribe on iTunes or our feedburner RSS feed to get new and old episodes or donate to the Patreon for even more!
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
When evil comes to pray on poor Dudley the Stork, he calls upon his animal friends to help him. Too bad they are all crazy idiots. The quick and funny ghost story is written for just beginning to read children as a first chapter book containing surprises with a bit of complexity in the language. Honestly, the twist at the end is not one I will spoil as written, but it is sure to make you say Hay! I hate puns. Stand out character is the medium Madam Creepy, the mystic alligator. The drawings are fun and in keeping with the artist and writer's other collaborations. A fun time.
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Meet Carrie. She's a sad and lonely girl who gets picked on until she kills everyone. With super powers. Like you do. The novel is a blend of third person narration and secondary fictional material outlining some history, background, and context for the events of the novel where Carrie gets picked on and kills everyone. This blend can be jarring, but also aids in the suspense. The reader knows where all this bullying, premarital sex, cursing, and general shitty teen behavior will lead as soon as we learn the crazy girl can move things with her mind, but the "nonfiction" additions help stretch out the quick pacing. If you are a Stephen King purist, you already know this book by heart. Everyone else deserves to check it out from the library.
1975 - Nevada - Challenged at Clark High School Library in Las Vegas, considered “trash.”
1978 - Vermont - Delegated to a special closed shelf at Union High School library in Vergennes citing it could “harm” students, especially “younger girls.”
1987 - Iowa - Book removed from West Lyon Community School library in Larchwood, Iowa cited as “it does not meet the standards of the community.”
1991 - New York - Banned from all of the district libraries of Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, New York.
1994
Pennsylvania - Challenged by a parent in the Junior High East Library located in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. Complaining of “the book’s language,” sexual descriptions and a “satanic killing” sequence.
North Dakota - A minister from Bismarck, North Dakota wanted this book and eight other King novels (Cujo, Christine, The Dead Zone, The Drawing of the Three, The Eyes of the Dragon, Pet Semetary, The Shining, and Thinner), to be banned from the school libraries. He challenged the books because of “age appropriateness.”
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
As a treasure hunt type of novel, when the action revs up, you find yourself turning the pages faster and faster to see what happens next, then going back to see what pop culture references you missed. And that is what makes half this book fun, the references. If you were a child of the 80s that grew up on movies, TV and video games as your primary child rearing devices, this book should hit every chord in your brain bringing back memories on nearly every page. If you don’t know a lot about that kind of stuff... well, the story is enjoyable, just get ready to skip a lot of sections describing in detail various video game scenarios and tricks. A solid book that leans heavily on nostalgia, but still makes you wonder what is going to happen next.
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
A novel told from the point of a young girl that deals with racism, sexism, classicism, and violence in the deep south. Join our narrator as he gets into the issues of his homeland and also shares stories about rolling in tires and old pianos in gymnasiums.
deals with racial injustice, class systems, gender roles, loss of innocence, language, violence, rape, incest and authority
1966 - Virginia - Hanover for immoral use of rape as a plot device
1968 - #2 National Education Association list receiving the most complaints from private organizations
1977 - Minnesota - Eden Valley School Committee for being too laden with profanity, temporary ban
1980 - New York - Vernon-Verona-Sherill School District where "Reverend Carl Hadley threatened to establish a private Christian school because public school libraries contained such "filthy, trashy sex novels" as A Separate Peace and To Kill a Mockingbird"
1981 - Indiana - Warren where "three black parents resigned from the township Human Relations Advisory Council when the Warren County school administration refused to remove the book from Warren junior high school classes. They contended that the book "does psychological damage to the positive integration process and represents institutionalized racism""
1984 - Illinois - Waukegan School District over racial slurs.
1985
Missouri - Kansas City and Park Hill Junior High School for profanity and racial slurs
Arizona - Casa Grande School District "by black parents and the NAACP who charged the book was unfit for junior high use."
1990s - New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada for racial language, “The terminology in this novel subjects students to humiliating experiences that rob them of their self-respect and the respect of their peers. The word ‘nigger’ is used 48 times [in] the novel… We believe that the English Language Arts curriculum in Nova Scotia must enable all students to feel comfortable with ideas, feelings and experiences presented without fear of humiliation… To Kill a Mockingbird is clearly a book that no longer meets these goals and therefore must no longer be used for classroom instruction.”
1995
California - Santa Cruz Schools for racial themes
Louisiana - Caddo Parish's Southwood High School Library for language and objectionable content
1996
Mississippi - Moss Point School District over racial epithet.
Texas - Lindale advanced placement English reading list for “conflicted with the values of the community.”
2000-2009 - #21 on ALA's most frequently challenged books
2001
Georgia - Glynn County School Board for profanity
Oklahoma - removed from Muskogee High School for racial slurs after years of complaints from black students and parents, but returned
2004
Illinois - Normal Community High School as "being degrading to African Americans."
North Carolina - Durham for racial slurs.
2006 - Tennessee - Brentwood Middle School for profanity, sex, rape and incest as well as racial slurs promoting "racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy"
2007 - New Jersey - Cherry Hill Board of Education for objections "to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression and feared the book would upset black children reading it."
2009 - Canada, Ontario - St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton due to language and racial slurs
2016 - Virginia - The superintendent of Accomack County Public Schools confirmed the district had removed Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” after a parent voiced her concerns during a Nov. 15 school board meeting, reported WAVY-TV.
2017 - Mississippi - Removed from the 8th grade course work in Biloxi schools due to "some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable
2018 - Minnesota - Duluth Public Schools removed the book from the curriculum for use of the "n" word.
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.
Caron, Christina. "‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Removed From School in Mississippi." New York Times. Retrieved Oct 16, 2017 from
Philips, Kristine. "A school district drops ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’ over use of the n-word." Washington Post. Retrieved on 2018 February 9 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/02/07/a-school-district-drops-to-kill-a-mockingbird-and-huckleberry-finn-over-use-of-the-n-word/?utm_term=.f2df4a0b9d2d
Subscribe on iTunes and get new and old episodes or donate to the Patreon for even more!
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
