We did get as far as to read the book and initial pages with pictures we most wanted to mount. Sure, I knew about Curious George as a kid. Somehow, I didn’t realize how terrible the story was.

Now, I don’t mean to sound extreme. Lord knows my views are extreme enough for this small town I call home. And my husband says some of my liberal views are a bit over the top even for those in the distant state from which I was born, the land of fruit and nuts. But still, as much as I love animals, I’m not giving up red meat, which I think evens me out a bit, right? But have you read Curious George lately? I’m talking about this one, the one I presume is one of the first, which tells the story of how The Man in the Yellow Hat meets George. It goes like this: Yellow hat man is in the jungle and sees George and says, “What a nice little monkey.” He throws down his hat and when George comes down off his nice tree in the jungle he calls home where, presumably, his mother and father monkey parents live and have raised him, yellow hat man grabs George and throws him in a bag. He then whisks George on to a ship and they sail to the big city and George wreaks havoc on the town because he is curious. I’m thinking The Man in the Yellow Hat gets everything he deserves for snatching George out of his happy jungle home and moving him across the pond to a”better place.”

Because I don’t believe in banning books, and the PBS show is cute and entertains my son, I am willing to oblige when my boy pulls that book from his bookshelf and asks me to read it. But I do point out as we read that although George seems happy with yellow hat man now, it sure isn’t nice to snatch animals – or people – up from where they happily live just because you want to play with them.

I also point out that even though George smokes a cigar to relax in that book, my son might not want to light up one himself. My, how stories have changed over the years …

What do you think? Do you have a problem with the origin of that cute little monkey story, or am I just being a bit too extreme?

Photo, my Curious George book

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Is This Kid’s Book Sending a Bad Message?

Every teen and every parents should register for Teen Read Week (you could win great prizes) but you can also learn tons about teen readers and books!

Click here to register for Teen Read Week.

Become a member of YALSA.

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Register for Teen Read Week!

The Caldecott Medal began in 1938 and is given annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished picture book published in the previous year in the United States. It is announced at the Annual ALA Mid-Winter Convention and awarded at the convention.

The medal was named for Nineteenth-Century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott.

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What is the Caldecott Medal?

Not only that, but Tuesday, April 15, 2008 is National Library Workers Day.  Why not say a special thank you to your local or school librarian for all the hard work they do?

National Library Day and National Library Workers Day are sponsored by the American Libarary Association.   2008 marks the 50th anniversary of National Library Day and Julie Andrews was named the Honorary Chair of National Library Week 2008.  You can watch her public service announcements below.

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Celebrate National Library Week

First on the agenda – vote for the Teens’ Top Ten. Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year. To view the nominations for this year, you can download the list here as a pdf.

The 2007 nominees were chosen by book groups in Connecticut, Kansas, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Utah. The nominating groups change every two years; applications for 2009-2010 will be considered by YALSA’s YA Galley Committee in June 2008.

Books which are eligible for nomination are those published in the current or past year, and cannot have been nominated previously for TTT. Click here to see the TTT Nomination Criteria.

After you’ve reviewed the nominees, teen readers who are between the ages of 12 and 18 can vote online for their favorites during Teen Read Week, October 14 – 20, 2007. Voting closes on October 21 at 12:01 a.m.

The results will be announced in November.

Last year’s winners were:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic Press, 2005).

2. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2005).

3. Eldest by Christopher Paolini (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2005).

4. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Delacorte Press, 2005).

5. Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (Razorbill, 2005).

6. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson (HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2005).

7. Poison by Chris Wooding (Orchard Books, 2005).

8. Captain Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth by J.V. Hart (Laura Geringer Books, 2005).

9. If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince? by Melissa Kantor (Hyperion Books for Children, 2005).

10. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2005)

Check here to see the 2005 winners.

This year’s theme is LOL at your Library.  There’s a lot going on, courtesy of the American Library Association.  Check back during the week for more information.

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It’s Teen Read Week!

And Tango Makes Three, a book about two male penguins parenting an egg topped the ALA’s list of most challenged books in 2006 by parents and administrators, due to homosexual themes. In fact, four of the top ten books were challenged due to homosexual content.A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.The 10 Most Challenged Books of 2006 are:

1, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell;

2, Gossip Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar;

3, Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor;

4, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler;

5, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison;

6, Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz;

7, Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher;

8, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky;

9, Beloved by Toni Morrison;

10, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

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Banned Book Week