This blog chronicles a literary project based in Ithaca, NY. Over the course of the fall, we will hold public events around the city focusing on children's literature that has been challenged or banned. Our style is "guerrilla" publishing and our media are whimsical and fleeting.
A few weeks ago disBANNED hosted a reading of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak followed by a viewing of the 2009 film directed by Spike Jonze.
Though the book won a Caldecott Medal in 1964, it has been challenged due to its dark themes.
A few weeks ago disBANNED performed a poetry reading of selections from Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic at the Blue Frog Cafe in the Ithaca Mall.
Some libraries and parents have attempted to ban the book based on controversial poems. The poem “How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes” supposedly encourages disobedience and messiness in children, while “Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony” has been criticized for its description of a girl’s death after her parents refused to buy her a pony.Other reasons for challenging the book include its supernatural themes and depictions of devils, ghouls and demons.
The book was banned by the Fruitland Park Elementary School in Lake County, Florida, but has since been reversed.
Earlier this month, disBANNED tabled in the North Foyer of Emerson Suites at Ithaca College about the controversy surrounding an image in the original Where’s Waldo? book.
The image, found in the “On the Beach” scene, was challenged by schools and libraries because of a woman’s exposed breast. A censored version was re-released in 1997.
Where’s Waldo was ranked at #87 on the American Library Association’s “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books” list between 1990 and 1999.
Mark Your Calendars!
disBANNED will be hosting THREE events in the next two weeks, so if you’re in the Ithaca, NY area please stop by!
Thursday Nov. 10: “Where’s Waldo?” table from 9 am - 3 pm in the North Foyer (outside Emerson Suites) - Ithaca College
We will be tabling an exhibit about the book “Where’s Waldo?” by Martin Handford and featuring a blown up spread from the book that was challenged based on a particular image. Visitors are free to try to “find” the banned image and sign up for our raffle to win a copy of the book.
Wednesday Nov 16: “A Light in the Attic” reading at 6:30pm (Blue Frog Cafe in the Ithaca Mall next to Best Buy).
We will be reading poems from Shel Silverstein’s “A Light in the Attic.” The Cafe also holds an open mic night, so after our reading, visitors are welcome to read their own work or works that have been challenged based on controversial content.
Thursday Nov 17: “Where the Wild Things Are” reading, viewing and discussion from 7pm - 9pm (Textor 103) - Ithaca College
We will be holding a reading of “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, along with a viewing of the Spike Jonze version of the film. A discussion centered around the controversy of the book and film will follow.
These events are open and free to the public, so please stop by and tell your friends!
The finished product! We distributed our Tango postcards throughout the Ithaca College campus, along with small disBANNED pin tags.
Here are some more photos from our Tango postcard making process! We made them all by hand out of poster board, paper, crayons, glue and a whole lot of determination and trial & error!
I know it’s been awhile since we updated, but as you can see above we’re finally cracking down and getting our postcards made for our And Tango Makes Three event.
More details to come as we finalize our plans!
Making fiction for children, making books for children, isn’t something you do for money. It’s something you do because what children read and learn and see and take in changes them and forms them, and they make the future. They make the world we’re going to wind up in, the world that will be here when we’re gone.
