[Larry_OHF]

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Dear fellow readers, The Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), will celebrate the 20th annual Banned Book Week from September 22 to 29. I encourage all of you to protest censorship by purchasing and reading a banned book. Banned authors include Mark Twain, Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, and Maurice Sendak -- a children's author best know for Where the Wild Things Are. Often books are singled out for reasons based on preconceptions rather than knowledge. The Devil's Arithmatic by Jane Yolen, for example -- a powerful and sensitive historical novel dealing with the holocost -- has found its way onto banned book lists simply because of its title. Books such as Too Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn offer a rebuke to racism, yet some folks would have us shun them because the depicted racists use "racist language." (Gee. Go figure.) According to ABFFE president Chris Finan, the 10 most challenged books of 2000 were: (1) the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (2) The Chocolate War (3) the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (4) Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan (5) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (6) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (7) Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers (8) the Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwarts (9) The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney (10) The Giver by Lois Lowry The world is full of enjoyable, worthwhile books. All of us, regardless of our tastes and interests and sensibilities, live in a world that offers more than we could possibly fit into a lifetime of reading. That range, that diversity, accomodates us all. Censorship diminishes us all. Please join me in quietly protesting those who insist that their right to choose implies a right to dictact the choices of others. To learn more about the ABFFE, see the article link below. http://article.publishersweekly.com/...2.6.1750746770 Best regards, Elaine Cunningham ]www.elainecunningham.com

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Father of the wicked but cute child known as MaryBeth

Padre de una niña bien traviosa pero guapa
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Aisukuríimu ga tabetái desu.

[This message has been edited by Larry_OHF (edited 09-09-2001).]