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  Cathy,
 Yes, authors censoring themselves is another form of censorship, called 
self-censorship. In Places I Never Meant to Be, edited and introduced by Judy 
Blume, different young adult authors discuss their experiences with censorship and 
its effect on them. The book also contains an original short story from each of the 
12 challenged and censored authors. In the introduction Judy states "...I mourn the 
loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be 
silenced--writers' voices, teachers' voices, students' voices--and all because of 
fear. How many have resorted to self-censorship?" On Judy's Web site, 
www.judyblume.com, she also has some excellent thoughts on censorship, and 
reiterating her above concerns, she states, "But it's not just the books under fire 
now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will 
never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will 
be the real losers."
 
 Besides Judy Blume, Places I Never Meant to Be contains some other statements from 
other authors that are worth mentioning. On page 35, Norma Fox Mazer ponders, "Has 
censorship affected me, otherwise? I fervently hope not. Still, where once I went 
to my writing without a backward glance, now I sometimes have to consciously clear 
my mind of those shadowy censorious presences. That's bad for me as a writer, bad 
for you as a reader."
 
 Katherine Patterson, who forgoes the honor of having her writings included in 
textbook anthologies due to her refusal to have anything in her texts altered, 
notes, "I try not to let incidents of challenge or censorship affect my writing. 
Self-censorship can be very damaging to a story. When our chief goal is not to 
offend someone, we are not likely to write a book that will deeply affect anyone." 
She also is cognizant of who is really on the front lines of protecting readers' 
rights, as evidenced by her last paragraph on page 71.
 "I know that when a book is challenged, I will not be the one who suffers. It will 
be the teacher or librarian who is called upon to defend what I have written who 
must stand in the line of fire. They are the true heroes to me--the guardians of 
the constitutional freedoms which make this country great. I admire them more than 
I can say. If we lose their witness, we will have lost democracy itself."
 
 David Klass is adamant about being true to his characters in his writing. He 
exclaims, "There is no way I can truthfully render characters if I must constantly 
worry about offending censors" (p. 140). 
 
 Paul Zindel, on p. 163, acknowledges the importance of teachers and librarians in 
the battle against censorship when he states, "How protected I am, I now think, by 
the undaunted teachers and librarians and booksellers who are on the front lines 
and face the extreme attacks of some of The CensorKooks. And what an excellent job 
they do of protecting me and so many other writers."
 
 There are many more excellent thoughts on book censorship in Places I Never Meant 
to Be. Above are just a few that I found particularly fitting to our current 
discussion.
 
 Kathy Reel
 Former English/Writing Teacher
 New Librarian, Yes, Still Looking for a Job, But Very Optimistic of Late
 Owensboro, KY
   
 
 
 
  
 -----Original Message-----
 From: crettberg@MENLOSCHOOL.ORG
 To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
 Sent: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:31 PM
 Subject: Re: censorship vs. selection
 
  First let me say that I think this is a fabulous discussion. 
 
 The whole censorship vs selection thing is truly a slippery slope IMO. There's a 
pretty fine line between "I won't buy this book because it has a word (a topic, a 
concept) that I think is inappropriate or because parents will complain" and "I 
won't buy this book because it doesn't suit my readers/my collection." It's a 
concept I've always struggled with - the fact is, banning a book from a library (in 
an official sense) has never prevented a reader from getting the book elsewhere, so 
I think it's hard to use availability elsewhere as rationale for not calling it 
censorship. It's a personal decision that we make in a professional and very public 
manner - one person's logical decision is another person's censorship. 
 
 For my part I've already bought the book, which I might not have done without the 
controversy (I don't necessarily buy every Newbery) - I plan to use it as a 
springboard for discussion with my students who are convinced that book banning 
doesn't happen. 
 
 Last point, in reference to the NYT (I think) reference to authors including racy 
words to grab attention: a local author spoke at my school today. She has published 
a YA book (her first) that she originally wrote intending it for an adult audience. 
The original book included some "salty characters" (the author's words) whose 
dialogue she changed when she decided to target a younger audience. I asked her 
about the nature of the changes and brought up the present Newbery situation. She 
said she and her editor had lengthy discussions and even looked at the book line by 
line examining it for appropriate language. I found that a little scary - another 
form of censorship perhaps? 
 
 Cathy 
 ----------- 
 Cathy Rettberg, MLIS 
 Head Librarian, Menlo School, grades 6-12 
 Atherton, CA 
 crettberg@menloschool.org 
 
 On Feb 26, 2007, at 6:45 PM, Carol Bandre wrote: 
 
 > I am in a high school library and like to think that deciding what > books to 
 >purchase is selection. We belong to a library consortia > of 60 libraries, and we 
 >teach students to order their own books > through the online catalog. I consider 
 >it censorship if I don't > allow them to get certain books through other 
 >libraries. 
 > 
 > Carol Bandre 
 > Mater Dei High School 
 > Breese, IL 62230 
 > cebandre@charter.net 
 > 
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