It's a very cute picture book about penguins with possibly the most cunning title ever. On account of its infamy, it's experiencing a flurry of sales this week, hooray! I'm off to buy…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/30/american-library-association-banned-books

Good Jelly the Nun?

Nuns in jelly?

Fletcher: you're right – and sending your newspapers to the tip rather than recycling them means more trees will be grown and more carbon pulled out of the atmosphere

Yes, but it takes a lot more energy to transform wood into paper products than paper into recycled paper and land…

Which turned out to be a pattern book.

Surprised I found a link, the reference is down the bottom of the page,

And what earned Captain Underpants a place on the list?

It's... bordering on hilarious the way it manages to portray librarians as unAmerican enemies of free speech, and book challenging as both a sure way to protect children, and too ineffective to worry about.

I think we can put it down as being yet another example of reality's well-known liberal…

I've been doing a thing where I've been rereading the books I read as a child...including quite a lot of Judy Blume.

I'm definitely feeling a lot more subversive. And I haven't even got to Forever yet.

Wait till you get to Wifey. It was certainly an education to me…

We've been so used to recycle because we 'must save trees' but we're in a different world now – taking carbon…

That Wikipedia list is blowing my mind. Deenie? The one about the impossibly attractive teen with scoliosis? What... oh, that's right. Wanking. There's wanking in Deenie.

Oh Danielle, Judy Blume is the most dangerous author of them all.

I've been doing a thing where I've been rereading the books I…

Actually it's better than carbon neutral – if it ends up in a landfill

As it happens, when the subject under discussion is "book burning" the landfill quotient is usually close to zero...

But this does raise one of my personal bug-bears with "standard" carbon accounting...

When it comes to…

Sweet Gwendoline "Ah! Who will save her!"
Faithful Frederick (our hero).
Sir d'Arcy d'Arcy (the foul fiend).
Dad (poor but honest).
The Mysterious Countess.

(Throwing it on the desk mid-lesson and calling the author a hack then getting into an hour long "debate" with the English Lit teacher maaaaay have had something to do with it...)

Seriously, Aleister Crowley wrote limericks? Now that is scary. Do demons materialise if you recite them out loud, I wonder?

I was surprised when reading "Diary of a Drug Fiend" to discover the lyrics of Head Like A Hole's "Over the Top"

It's really not that good a book though.…

No they wouldn't – paper is carbon neutral.

Actually it's better than carbon neutral – if it ends up in a landfill

I can't believe I just wrote that...

Well, I'm glad you did! I've had "stinky poo, stinky poo, knickers, knickers, knickers" in my head for the past few weeks, for some reason, and now it has been laid to rest.

No they wouldn't – paper is carbon neutral.

Oh, but I'm sure that they make the paper especially from old-growth Amazon rainforest.

Badjelly's cat's name was bowdlerised from Fluffybum to Fluffy – some more innocuous part of it's anatomy.

Stinky excrement! Stinky excrement! Undergarments, Undergarments, Undergarments!

Good Jelly the Nun?

Excellent!
Tho not too far from reality. There was a local amateur stage production in the 80s where Badjelly's cat's name was bowdlerised from Fluffybum to Fluffy – some more innocuous part of it's anatomy. Kids voiced their protest, and were berated by a member of…

Though if bad writing were the trigger for bookburning, then the collected works of Dan Brown would be making a huge contribution towards global warming.

No they wouldn't – paper is carbon neutral.

If my memory serves me, there was a school in Bethlehem, Tauranga, in the mid 90s that banned 'Bad Jelly the Witch' because it had a witch in it. Or was it just that they censored it?

I was homeschooled (in part) because a teacher came to school on dress-up…

If my memory serves me, there was a school in Bethlehem, Tauranga, in the mid 90s that banned 'Bad Jelly the Witch' because it had a witch in it. Or was it just that they censored it?

Good Jelly the Nun? No, wait, that's another banned title I'm thinking of.

I bet every under 16 year old who gets pregnant (or an STD,…

Summer of my German Soldier

Is that one offensive because it makes girls cry their eyes out? (Or was it just me?)

There were horses involved?! You must have gone to a far more liberal school than I.

She was raised by actors.

when I was at high school we got our sex ed in secret so at least some of it wouldn't be after the horse had bolted.

There were horses involved?! You must have gone to a far more liberal school than I.

Lots of people need that information before they are sixteen regardless of the letter of the law and everyone should have that information before they actually need it so, yes it is disturbing.

I agree. Otherwise, one could make an argument for banning representations of cars, driving or road safety…

I know a librarian who had problems in a suburban Auckland library with intolerant Christians taking library books into the library toilets and ripping them up and trying to flush the pages. The toilets got blocked and one of them went and confessed to the library staff.

Hmm. At the…

Restricted to 16 and over? Not that disturbing, is it? And none restricted since 1990 so presumably those published since have sailed straight through.

Lots of people need that information before they are sixteen regardless of the letter of the law and everyone should have that information before they actually…

Sometimes it’s all a bit more overt and depressing:

Better than the even more depressing covert stuff. While browsing in a secondhand bookshop in Melbourne, I came across a tome on the Satanic Verses affair — and it was frankly stomach-turning and it was frankly nauseating to be reminded of…

I take it to Kill a Mockingbird was a standard English text here too ?

Almost all of my high school English set text novels are on that list. Mockingbird, Catcher, Lord of the Flies, The Go-Between, even Summer of my German Soldier.

Restricted to 16 and over?

Honestly? No,…

Actually, the book is far far far more graphic than the film. It's pretty hard to read a book whilst peeking out from behind your hands, but that's what I had to do to get through it.

And rather interesting that the film was directed and co-written by women, which…

I take it to Kill a Mockingbird was a standard English text here too ?

The Autobiography of a Flea

Now that got me really curious......

Really? Wow, I must re-read it. Racist against Southern white trash?

Well, I'm not saying I agree with the arguments but I can't understand why people get rather twitchy about a novel where racial slurs like "nigger" are routinely used; Tom Robinson sits pretty neatly in the paternalistic stereotype of…

Disturbing to see books about birth control, pregnancy and childbirth restricted.

Restricted to 16 and over? Not that disturbing, is it? And none restricted since 1990 so presumably those published since have sailed straight through.

As for the Crowley limericks, I doubt that the ones Emma linked are of the…

Racist against Southern white trash?

Racist in the same way this play is anti-Semitic. If you depict discrimination, you must be supporting it...

Disturbing to see books about birth control, pregnancy and childbirth restricted.

Yeah, sex is bad. Anthony Comstock said so:

The Comstock Act, (ch. 258 17 Stat. 598 enacted March 3, 1873) was a United States federal law which made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through…

To Kill a Mockingbird is there is because it's been challenged, often successfully, because of its racism.

Really? Wow, I must re-read it. Racist against Southern white trash?

And boy are they... something...

You can see why he was called the Wickedest Man in the World. Truly, truly awful, and that should be enough reason to ban them. Though if bad writing were the trigger for bookburning, then the collected works of Dan Brown would be making a…

Seriously, Aleister Crowley wrote limericks? Now that is scary.

Isn't it? And apparently entirely true, he did. And boy are they... something...

And books of limericks! I'd like to see the SST tackle that one. Zero…

Only that in bygone days "rugby songs" was shorthand for very rude and ribald ditties sung amongst men. And not songs about rugby.

Like this one?

http://www.youtube.com/v/srqEcHUzuys&hl=en&fs=1&

Well, banning "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture" really worked, didn't it?

In 2002, I wrote this:

Matt Talbot was kind enough to send me through a couple of startling URLs from Amazon.com. This one for Uncle Fester's Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture and this one for Jack B. Nimble's The Construction and…

Most developed nations…

And on the (formerly) banned books theme, I just started reading "Lady Chatterly's Lover" for the first time yesterday. I'm waiting for…

Would American Psycho negatively affect under 18 year-olds in book form? Many have now seen it on DVD – isn't that worse?

(Oh no, I'm about to be one of those insufferable people that goes on about the book vs. the movie – please excuse me for a moment.)

Actually,…

That Wikipedia list is blowing my mind. Deenie? The one about the impossibly attractive teen with scoliosis? What... oh, that's right. Wanking. There's wanking in Deenie.

Oh Danielle, Judy Blume is the most dangerous author of them all.

Wow. So you could buy the record, but not the book...

Heck you can download the MP3 of I Like The Girls Who Say They Will

I was going to say that some of the songs might have been racist but it seems the songs were more disturbing than that.

Wow. So you could buy the record, but not the book...

Why Was He Born So Beautiful and Other Rugby Songs

I was going to say that some of the songs might have been racist but it seems the songs were more disturbing than that.

If, however, anyone knows anything about Why Was He Born So Beautiful and Other Rugby Songs, banned in 1968, I've love to hear it.

Only that in bygone days "rugby songs" was shorthand for very rude and ribald ditties sung amongst men. And not songs about rugby.

Are books ever removed from the banned list?

People can apply to have decisions reviewed, which is why towards the end of the list some books are appearing multiple times. But unless somebody actively takes an interest in doing that, I believe they just sit there.