Debate rages on about book banning. I believe we can all agree that adults in the United States have the freedom to read whatever they choose to read. Our minds are fully formed at about age 21, according to neuro-science.
X-rated, R-rated, and M-rated movies would not be allowed in public elementary or middle schools because they are considered inappropriate for younger viewers.
If we apply the same standards to literature in school libraries, what is the objection?
But let’s consider what reading material is age appropriate for younger readers. We can measure reading comprehension. Students learn to handle increasingly complex levels of vocabulary and sentence structures as they age.
What of content? Movies have ratings based on the subject matter, vocabulary, levels of violence, and sexual content. Lately, I’ve seen warnings in movies about smoking shown in them.
When my daughter was 13, she spent the night at another girl’s house and watched Psycho. She demanded to use the bathtub instead of the shower for six months. This tells me she was not mentally prepared to handle the level of blood and violence in that movie at that age.
I firmly believe our minds absorb what we feed them. Fear, violence, the glorification of evil in all its forms have an effect on the mind.
I support choosing books to support the age level of the reader. I strongly object to banning books because someone wants to rewrite history or condemn past cultures and civilizations.
It is absurd to demand historical novels portray the values of today’s society. They cannot. They reflect the values and conditions of their time. In fact, public outrage over Wilkie Collin’s 1859 book The Woman in White led to changes in British law to protect women with greater legal rights.
Let us educate young minds and encourage creativity and freedom of thought without burdening kindergartners to decide on their future sex lives or set their identities in cement.
Teach the Golden Rule–to treat one another the way we want to be treated–along with math, science, history, language, social studies, art, and sports.
Leave out the race-shaming, revisionist history, and vogue social agendas. We don’t allow religion in public schools, so how about if we stop forcing opposite value systems on kids?
We are falling behind other nations scholastically. Less indoctrination. More basic education.
Thank you, readers! You have chosen the cover for East of Evil. Nefi is back and her life is turned upside down by a crime she needs help from her friends to solve.
A colossal fortune. A secret reaper. A young woman whose drive for due process makes her the target of dangerous people…
Nefi Jenkins dreams of becoming an FBI agent. After outing her mom and dad’s heartless killer, the Harvard grad focuses on getting into a stellar criminal justice Master’s degree program. But her career goals take a back seat when she inherits a ten-million-dollar trust from her late parents… with a hefty chunk gone.
Seeking the help of a forensic accountant, Nefi is dismayed to discover a cunning thief has been stealing from her inheritance. And with her legacy at stake, the hidden enemy’s scheme to swipe her cash could turn deadly.
Can Nefi restore her parent’s wealth before her investigation turns fatal?
What do you think of this book trailer?
East of Evil is the fourth book in the page-turning Compass Crimes suspense series. If you like strong heroines, greed-driven motives, and jaw-dropping twists, then you’ll love Joni M Fisher’s hunt for the truth.
The cover was created by the artists at Damonza.com. After readers and fans voted on their favorite of two cover choices, it was decided that the Nefi figure in one cover and the Boston Harbor background were the favorite elements, sooooooo the best of both was combined.
And the result is this cover. Thank you, everyone for your feedback!
Nefi Jenkins dreams of becoming an FBI agent. After outing her mom and dad’s heartless killers, the Harvard grad focuses on getting into a stellar criminal justice Master’s degree program. But her career goals take a back seat when she inherits a ten-million-dollar trust from her late parents… with a hefty chunk gone.
A colossal fortune. A secret reaper. A young woman whose drive for due process might land her on the wrong side of a lethal bullet…
Seeking the help of a forensic accountant, Nefi is dismayed to discover a cunning thief has been stealing from one of the estate’s properties. And with her legacy at stake, the hidden enemy’s scheme to swipe her cash could turn deadly.
Can Nefi restore her parent’s wealth before her investigation turns fatal?
East of Evil is the fourth book in the page-turning Compass Crimes suspense series. If you like strong heroines, greed-driven motives, and jaw-dropping twists, then you’ll love Joni M Fisher’s hunt for the truth.
Please vote for the cover you like best, and if you have a moment, explain why. Thank you for your help!
To celebrate International Literacy Day, take a look at the most translated books of each country. How many have you read?
Have you considered how challenging it is to translate books from one language to another?
Oh, the idioms!
My daughter had an exchange student in her high school who came from France. When my daughter mentioned that I spoke some French, he wanted to meet me. He had a few burning questions he was uncomfortable asking his host family. We met at the bowling alley one evening while the students were teamed up to bowl.
After his turn, he dashed over to the table where I sat and whispered in French that his host family was very kind, but he was tired of eating from a window. Ah, yes. The host family had children in many after-school sports, so fast food was their go-to meal. He said he was a fine cook and wanted to stay home to make dinner, but he didn’t want to offend the hostess. I assured him the hostess would cook if she had the time. He should offer to cook dinners and make a list of the items he needed. The cultural exchange worked both ways.
The other burning question on his mind was that some girls at school said he was hot and others said he was cool. He wanted to know which ones liked him.
Yes, English is a complex language with many connotations for the same word.
May you discover great stories from other cultures and nations in their original language or through brilliant translation. Happy reading! Click below for the list.
The American Library Association tracks requests to ban books. Sure, I think we can all agree that the Kama Sutra would be inappropriate for a grade-school library even though it could be considered a picture book. But what if your local public library removed all copies of Brave New World, The Color Purple, Twilight, the Bible, and the Harry Potter Series?
WOULD YOU SPEAK UP?
The LA Times reported that in 2017 the Accomack County school district in Virginia considered removing copies of To Kill A Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from their libraries because one parent objected to the use of the N-word in these books. Has this parent been in a school lately? Or listened to rap music? The casual use of the N-word among blacks makes me wonder–who is offended?
Just for the record, I am offended by the word. But then, I was alive when the word was used as an insult and not as a greeting or term of endearment. In the historical stories above, the characters who use the N-word are portrayed as severely uneducated or hateful, so why not use these stories to teach children about why we shouldn’t use it now? Shall we let political correctness or the opinion of one person dictate which classics the rest of us should be allowed to read?
Shall ladies return to wearing corsets and covering our ankles if a small segment of society decided to return to the good old Victorian era dictates of decency? Why not let the tail wag the dog and surrender to every segment of society’s whims and sensibilities?
I am speaking up because even though a book might offend me to the core, I don’t expect the world to kneel to my feelings. I’m a grown up. I can survive being offended. I’m likely to grumble about things from time to time, but I don’t force my will on others or throw a tantrum when the world doesn’t comply with my demands.
My favorite book has elements of the supernatural, erotic poetry, war, natural disasters, political intrigue, romance, adventure, and more. But it’s banned or heavily restricted in these countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, China (People’s Republic), Comoros, Djibouti, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen. Apparently, the Bible threatens the culture or governments of these countries. I can’t recall extremist Christian-led riots, bombings, or other acts of terrorism endangering any governments, but hey, they run their countries their way. Making the Bible forbidden is their loss.
In America, we enjoy the freedom to read whatever we want. If we don’t like a book, we don’t burn it or ban it. We don’t threaten the author and publisher. We just don’t buy it. We use the power of the free market to support the books we enjoy and treasure. We can, of course, post negative reviews or ignore books that offend us. We allow individuals to decide for themselves.
Judge me if you will, but I firmly believe public and private schools need to consider the appropriateness of books in their libraries based on the age of their students. In a time when student suicides are rising, is it smart to offer books that glamorize suicide instead of offering books on how to cope with depression, stress, and trauma? Let’s expand their imagination and breadth of knowledge while they are young without introducing self-destructive ideas. I lost a friend to suicide in fourth grade. We become that with which we fill our minds.
ARE YOU A REBELLIOUS READER?
To celebrate Banned Books Week, I encourage you to look through the list of the top banned or challenged books from 2000 to 2009. The list was compiled by the American Library Association. How many of these books have you read?
What’s your rebel reader score?
1 to 25 books – Streak of rebellion reader
26 to 50 books – Proud rebel reader
51 to 75 books – Rockstar rebel reader
76 to 100 – full-fledged freedom fighter rebel reader
The Top 100 Banned Books:
Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Forever, by Judy Blume
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
King and King, by Linda de Haan
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris
Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
The Fighting Ground, by Avi
Blubber, by Judy Blume
Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby: The First Graphic Novel by George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the creators of Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey
Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco
The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole
Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green
When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle
The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney
Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen
Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert
The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
Black Boy, by Richard Wright
Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher
Cut, by Patricia McCormick
Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar
Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
Grendel, by John Gardner
The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
America: A Novel, by E.R. Frank
Now imagine your life without access to any of these books because someone was offended and didn’t think you should be allowed to read them.
West of Famous developed from a desire to create powerful women role models. This is the third book in the Compass Crimes collection. The stories are connected by the ensemble cast of characters whose lives intersect because of crimes. Like the previous two books, this one features a heroine whose life is overturned by a crime, but she does not react as a victim waiting like a fairy tale princess to be rescued.
I was raised on stories like Cinderella, but I wanted my stories to be more like the 1998 movie Ever After. My favorite scene in that updated version of the Cinderella story is when Drew Barrymore, playing Danielle, rescues the prince from a band of gypsies.
In West of Famous, Martina Ramos is mistaken for a celebrity by kidnappers. She does not have the option of waiting to be rescued because only the kidnappers know where she is, and they don’t value her life. Those who value her life don’t know she’s missing.
My desire to create strong women role models comes from a deep-seated sense of rebellion. When I was in grade school oh, so long ago, society expected girls to choose from a short list of roles: teacher, nun, wife, and mother, nurse, secretary, waitress, or stewardesses. But I wanted to write. It was as though all other career options were considered unsuitable for good girls. To say I wanted to write was tantamount to declaring I wanted to be homeless or insane. An outlier. An outcast.
Like Sara Paretsky so brilliantly describes in Writing in the Age of Silence, women have been told by society to be quiet, to keep their opinions to themselves, to be seen and not heard. But Dorothy Parker, Pearl S. Buck, Harriet Tubman, Virginia Woolf, and Harper Lee told entertaining stories that challenged people’s perceptions about the status quo.
My high school guidance counselor tried to dissuade me from going to college even though I was an honors graduate. By then I’d already started earning money as a writer. I told her that if she wasn’t going to help me, she should get out of my way. So off I went to Indiana University to earn a degree in journalism.
I write stories about bold women who fight to overcome whatever life throws at them because we need role models like that.
I have one. While I was in college, my mother was widowed for the second time. So, after raising three children and surviving two toxic marriages, she announced at age 55 she had quit her job as a legal secretary to go to law school. It was as inspiring as it was heartbreaking that she was finally going to do what she wanted to do.
I’d like to be a bold role model for my daughter Jessica, but if she gets any bolder, I’ll have to raise bail. There is quite a strong similarity between her and the heroine of West of Famous, but don’t tell her that.
___________
This article first appeared in Mystery Scene Magazine, Winter 15, 2019 edition.
By the way, In my forties I fulfilled a lifelong dream and earned my pilot’s license. Only 6% of pilots are women, so yeah, this was life-affirming and empowering. I then earned my instrument-rating. My husband also flies, so we have to take turns to prevent a wrestling match into the cockpit. I want to lead by example and encourage other women to be bolder.
Just for the record, I am offended by the word. But then, I was alive when the word was used as an insult and not as a greeting or term of endearment. In the historical stories above, the characters who use the N-word are portrayed as severely uneducated or hateful, so why not use these stories to teach children about why we shouldn’t use it now? Shall we let political correctness or the opinion of one person dictate which classics the rest of us should be allowed to read?
