The American Library Association has asked supporters to modify a canned "letter to the editor" and send it to their local papers to remind people that this is "Banned Books Week." I haven't seen this on the Daily Kos website, so what follows is my modified version:
Throughout the country, a new academic year is underway and teachers are handing out their lists of required reading. But in some cases, classics most of us take for granted -- books like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "The Catcher in the Rye," and "To Kill a Mocking Bird" -- may not be included in the curriculum or available in the school library due to challenges made by parents or administrators.
For example, in 1996 Harper Lee’s "To Kill A Mockingbird" was banned from the Lindale,Tex. advanced placement English reading list because the book "conflicted with the values of the community." Imagine living in a town whose values were at odds with Atticus Finch’s! And as recently as 2001 another favorite target of censors, J.D. Salinger’s "The Catcher in the Rye," was challenged by a Summerville, South Carolina school board member on the grounds that it is "a filthy, filthy book."
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