Friday, October 26, 2012

Harris and Me / Gary Paulsen / 157 pages / October Challenge Banned Books

Harris and Me was #73 on the ALA Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books 2000-2009.  There certainly is a great deal of inappropriate language, some "dourty peectures," alcoholic parents, and shenanigans none of us would want our children to be a part of, but I certainly don't think this merits a book banning.  Harris and Me is at times quite funny, although it is heartbreaking to realize the lack of stability in the protagonist's life.  One teacher who professes herself to be against book banning, said she encountered difficulty when reading the book aloud the year she had a Japanese-American boy in her class.  The characters have been likened to Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  They are just as picturesque, just as irreverent, and perhaps, just as shocking.

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