Chris Crutcher responds to book banning
Chris Crutcher is known nationally as a no-nonsense author of serious-themed novels for young adults.
Name the issue, and Crutcher has been addressing it for the past 23 years in such books as “Running Loose,” “Stotan!” “Athletic Shorts” and, most recently, “The Sledding Hill” (HarperCollins, 240 pages, $15.99).
So it’s probably not surprising that some parents across the country – and one or two regionally – have objected to Crutcher’s books being in school and even public libraries.
According to the American Library Association, Crutcher’s novel “Whale Talk” (Laurel Leaf, 224 pages, $6.50 paper) was one of the 10 most frequently challenged books of 2005.
“Whale Talk,” which tells the tale of a teen boy of black, white and Japanese ethnicity, was challenged “for racism and offensive language.”
The school board in Limestone County, Ala., removed the book from the school district’s five high school libraries because of its use of profanity.
“We can’t allow students to go down our halls and say those words, and we shouldn’t let them read it,” one board member said. “That book’s got a lot of bad, bad words.”
Crutcher, who has been a family therapist for more than three decades, responded to the school board in a letter that can be found on his Web site (www.chriscrutcher.com). His point: Such “bad words” can used as a teaching tool.
“Censors can make a case for zero tolerance in language,” he wrote. “They can make the argument that since we don’t allow our children to use that language in schools, we also shouldn’t give them stories in which it is used. But that’s an easy thing to deal with, and I’ve seen it done a hundred times.
“Teachers bring up the offensiveness of the language and talk about why it’s used to make a story real. We don’t have to use the language to talk about the story in the classroom, but we can certainly talk about the raw power of any good story told in its native tongue.”
Seems pretty clear to me: You can’t protect your children from the nastiness of life, but you can give them the skills to deal with it. And those skills are best taught by confronting that nastiness exactly as it exists in school, in the street and in your own back yard.
A ‘Late Night’ finalist
ForeWord Magazine, a trade publication that showcases independent presses, gives out annual Book of the Year Awards to the top three works in 55 categories. Some 1,540 books were submitted for the 2005 awards, which have been culled down to 604 finalists.
Among the finalists for poetry is “Late at Night in the Rowboat,” a collection by Donald Junkins that was published by Sandpoint-based Lost Horse Press. The winners will be announced May 19.
Nature’s out there
Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” will give a speech titled “Reconnect with Nature: Restore, Renew, and Reignite” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Mirabeau Park Hotel, 1100 N. Sullivan Road.
Louv’s talk, which is open to the public, is the keynote address for the annual conference of the Environmental Education Association of Washington.
Reviewing Louv’s book in Publishers Weekly, James Levine wrote: “Gathering thoughts from parents, teachers, researchers, environmentalists and other concerned parties, Louv argues for a return to an awareness of and appreciation for the natural world. Not only can nature teach kids science and nurture their creativity, he says, nature needs its children: Where else will its future stewards come from?”
Admission to the talk is $35 (hors d’oeuvres will be served beginning at 6:30). Tickets can be purchased by phone at (360) 943-6643, by e-mail at info@eeaw.org or at the door.
Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.
Book talk
“Playwright Workshop, 2 p.m. today, Valley Barnes & Noble, 15312 E. Indiana (922-4104).
“Poetry Reading Group (230-0950), 3 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
“Dark City Mystery Book Group (“Maisie Dobbs,” by Jacqueline Winspear), 7 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“Modern Fiction Discussion Group (“The Good Earth,” by Pearl Buck), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Valley Barnes & Noble.
“Who Reads What Discussion Series (“The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” by Mitch Albom), 7 p.m. Thursday, Whitman County Library, 102 S. Main, Colfax (877-733-3375).
The reader board
“Gregory C. Maddigan (“Morning Gravity”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“Sandy Compton (“Archer MacClehan and the Hungry Now”), Tom Villelli (“The Undoing”), readings, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.