Content-Free Friday Presents: A New Game!

[featherynscale]

Well, it's not exactly content-free, because it might be educational. This is my new journal game. It's called Top Ten.

In Top Ten, I have a list of ten things, often the Top Ten of whatever the thing is. The lists might be the Top Ten Science Fiction Movies of the 1980s, or the Top Ten Cities in Europe by Population, or the Top Ten Things You'll Find On My Nightstand, or anything, really. The only requirement is that it must be a list of ten things, and it must be a list that actually relates to something in the real world that is fixed (i.e. it can't be Top Ten Things I'm Thinking of Right Now, because that list is not verifiable and changes all the time).

Your job is to guess items that might be on the list. If you guess one right, I will add it to the Top Ten post, in its proper position on the list. Points are awarded for correct guesses, as follows: The first three guesses that appear on the list, regardless of their position on the list, earn their guessers 1 point each. The second three correct guesses earn 2 points each. The third three earn 3 points each, and the person who finishes the list by filling in the last spot gets 5 points.

Googling is cheating, and will undoubtedly be recorded by the angels in charge of such things. I hear they like to keep you from getting laid. :-P

For the first round, I'm celebrating Banned Books Week way out of season. To complete this list, give me one of the top ten most challenged books in school libraries in 2006 (the 2007 list isn't out yet, so this is the latest and greatest). HINT: Harry Potter doesn't make the list this year. People are much more worried about... what?

TOP TEN CHALLENGED BOOKS 2006:
1. “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group (published 2005)
2. (published 2002-2007)
3. “Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language(published 1995-2007)
4. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group(published 2004)
5. “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group (published 1970)
6. “Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity(published 1981-2006)
7. “Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language (published 2002)
8. (published 1999)
9. “Beloved” by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group(published 1987)
10. “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence. (published 1974)

CLUE: I'm adding publication dates to the blanks. Dates listed as a range represent a series.

Comments

[otterkin.livejournal.com]

The Golden Compass

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nope.

[bountifulpots.livejournal.com]

The Higher Power of Lucky... There was quite the hubbub over that one...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Didn't make the list, though.

[bountifulpots.livejournal.com]

Ooh, but that may not be until the 2007 list, now that I think about it...

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

I imagine Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher was challenged.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yep. #7 on the list. Well done!

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

The Color Purple

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nope.

[bountifulpots.livejournal.com]

I'll say Catcher in the Rye, too, just for history's sake. Are they all new ones?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

They're all pretty new. I think also that 2006 was the first year that long-standing list dwellers Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn didn't make the list. Which means that we've apparently grown a bumper crop of offensive lately. :)

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

What about And Tango Makes Three? I remember some shite hitting the fan when the ALA named it a notable book.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Ding Ding Ding. Gay penguins were, hands down, the most offensive thing going in 2006.

[dop4.livejournal.com]

Was "The Geography Club" up there again? It's matter of factly dealing with being gay in High School should put it on many fundies radars.

Also "Godless" was a popular whipping boy of their. I only wish that FSM had been around when it was written. (Bereft of fSM, these kids had to make do with deifying the local water tower.)

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Neither of those make the list, but they sound like worthwhile books anyway. :)

[lightonthesill.livejournal.com]

Erm, Da Vinci Code?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nope.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Um. Last Tempatation of Christ?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nope. I've read it, and I imagine it would be deadly dull to most of the free world. (I liked it, though.) The movie was much more obnoxious to people, being much more 'accessible'.

[bountifulpots.livejournal.com]

Possessing the Secret of Joy?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

No, but you're in the right area for a couple of them.

[daneya.livejournal.com]

Is Daddy's Roommate still on the list?

Daneya

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nope, it seems to have dropped off after an amazingly quick rise to the top of the charts.

[loraca.livejournal.com]

“The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a wonderful book, actually.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Didn't The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier come out in 1974?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yes, it did, and it's #10 on the list, so two more points for you.

[daneya.livejournal.com]

The Anarchist's Cookbook?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nope. Not a popular stock item in school libraries to begin with, I'm afraid. :)

[celticwhistlin.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Mais non. Gay penguins way more offensive than teen wizards. Although now that Dumbledore's been outed, I anticipate a return of the Hogwarts crew to the most challenged list next year. :)

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

Sweet! I actually get to play!!!!

Beloved by Toni Morrison (and if it isn't on the list the makers of said list haven't been paying attention. Juicy, dramatic, bloody, and full of sex. What every puritan fears, and a great, powerful story to boot.) Also Bluest Eye by the same author; I haven't read that one yet, because I haven't gotten my hot little hands on it yet, but it sounds just as deliciously wicked as Beloved.

[crookedface.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's it! I knew I remembered fussing about Morrison!

Also...

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

Watership Down? Any of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony....and what about Angela's Ashes?

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Some guy named Schwartz (Alvin? Albert?) has collections of scary stories that often get challenged. I've got a couple of the editions in the classroom library that my boys adore. One of those, maybe? They only come on my radar as extraordinary (more than say, Goosebumps) because they're illustrated by Stephen Gammell, who is simply effing brilliant in everything he does.

[crookedface.livejournal.com]

I've had to peruse book shelves for younger readers of late, so that name looks familiar. Um...Scary Stories (or somesuch)? I remember the title being fairly direct.

Incidently, the books I'm giving the girls (my daughter and her sisters--why I've been perusing the young reader shelves) include Pullman (His Dark Materials), L'Engle (The Time Quartet), deLint (The Blue Girl), and a vampire novel I'm blanking on (and it's already wrapped). I know L'Engle has been challenged in the past and I suspect deLint's work would be if it ever showed up on a fundie's radar, so I'm happy to have some o' that there radically dangerous writing to be giving this season!

[dramaticaddict.livejournal.com]

umm... when i went to the library for banned book week, my friends recommended i pick up alice, i guess its a series, and i think that made it in the top 5... still havnt picked it up tho....

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Correct!