Banned Books Awareness: James and the Giant Peach

Many know of the childhood story about a boy who tragically lost his parents to a rhinoceros attack and had to live with his evil aunts and then perceives through the hardship and joins a magical world of creatures and friends. This story is James and the Giant Peach what I am sure many of your do not know is that James and the Giant Peach has been banned many times. 

As shocking as it may seem this timeless tale has been banned for: being too scary for the targeted age group, mysticism, sexual inferences, profanity, racism, references to tobacco and alcohol, and claims that it promotes disobedience, drugs and communism. 

It has been challenge by such places as Indian River County, Florida, Altoona, Wisconsin and Hernando County, Florida. 

Read the rest of this article to find why it is banned in these cities, background on the author of this beloved book and much more. http://bannedbooks.world.edu/2011/05/22/banned-books-awareness-james-giant-peach/

The Diary of Anne Frank: Too Explicit?

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

In Michigan, Gail Horalek, a mother of a 7th-grade girl at Meads Mill Middle School, has some issues with the district's curriculum. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was a part of her daughter's language arts class, and Gail thinks there's something quite wrong with that. She states, "It's pretty graphic, and it's pretty pornographic for seventh-grade boys and girls to be reading." Furthermore, she insists, "It's inappropriate for a teacher to be giving this material out to the kids when its really the parents' job to give the students this information." In response to her anger, Gail Horalek filed a complaint with the school district, and she proposes that the diary is an inappropriate version of Jewish families hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust. 

The Diary of Anne Frank has been a frequent visitor in classrooms all over the United State since it was first published in 1947. Does this mean that Gail Horalek's attempt to protect her child is too extreme? Or, should America's middle school classroom's reconsider what they use for their curriculum? 

Watch Gail Horalek's interview with her local news station here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/anne-frank-diary-pornographic-7th-grade-michigan-parent_n_3180134.html