I touched on some issues involving physical characteristics with last week’s banned book, James and the Giant Peach. The conversations that resulted on several Facebook pages were still fresh in my mind when I sat down to write the next installment of my series; so when I came across a title like The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler, at number 34 on the ALA’s Top 100 Banned Book List it caught my eye.  The young adult novel, written in 2003, follows the world of Virginia “Ginny” Shreves, a girl who is self-conscious about her weight and begins a personal journey of self-discovery.

So, as long-time readers of this series might expect, another soul-affirming, positive, and honest novel about self-image, and what it means to be yourself once again quickly finds itself on the list of challenged and banned books.

The novel was banned or challenged in school libraries across the nation in the last 5 years. The common charges included sexual content, being “anti-family”, offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.

Read on and Share the Knowledge:
http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/column/2011/05/29/banned-books-awareness-earth-butt-big/