Julie Douberly Reflection 1

Harry Potter and the Censorship Issue

The clock strikes midnight and millions of fans pour into their local bookshops. Its July 22, 2007 and the final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has just been released. Countless childrenand if we are perfectly honest, adults toohave been encouraged to read by J. K. Rowlings worldwide phenomenon since the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone in 1997. Yet there are some who argue that these books are dangerous and should be banned from school libraries. Typically when books are challenged it is on grounds of explicit language or sexual content deemed inappropriate for a particular age-group. However, one would be hard pressed to find either within any of the Harry Potter books. Sure, Harry shares a few awkward kisses with Cho and then Jenny, and Molly Weasley does call Bellatrix a word that rhymes with witch, but thats the extent of it. No, it isnt language or sexual content that some people find objectionable in these books; it is the presence of witchcraft. As Laura Mallory, a mother of four students at a Gwinnett County elementary school, states, I want to protect children from evil, not fill their minds with it . . . . Harry Potter teaches children and adults that witchcraft is okay for children (Harry Potter Wins). Mrs. Mallory has made three unsuccessful attempts to have the Harry Potter series removed from her childrens school on the grounds that the books promote the Wiccan religion.

In her article Harry Potter and the Witch Hunters: A Social Context for the Attacks on Harry Potter, Amanda Cockrell (2006) attempts to explain why Harry Potter has caused such uproar among some conservative Christian parents like Laura Mallory when other series that feature magic such as The Lord of the Rings and even many traditional fairytales are not often challenged. She theorizes that this distinction is because Harry is too close to home and that Harrys detractors are skillfully parodied in Harrys books (p. 25). As Cockrell points out, Harry Potter lives in our world, not some fantasy place that has never existed such as Middle Earth. The world of magic that Harry comes to experience is right there beside the real, non-magic world; one just needs to know where to look to find it. Cockrell suggests that this is more or less the image that many fundamental Christians also have of witchcraft that, like angels or the voice of Satan, it is out there unseen but ready to swallow up the hapless child who can be turned toward its seductive allure (p. 26). She goes on to say that this assumed pervasiveness of the occult can be likened to the Dursleys attempt to isolate themselves from the letters from Hogwarts in the first novel. Try as they mightthey even move to a deserted island they cannot escape the influx of invitations to the world of witchcraft and wizardry. The Dursleys, according to Cockrell, represent the very people who see the Mark of the Beast in Harrys magic (p. 28), parents such as Laura Mallory. They are parodies of thought-with-blinders-on, of the idea that there is one proper way to be and that they know what it is (p. 28). Anyone who has read even just the first book will clearly recall the venom with which Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia speak of Harrys magical nature. Cockrell points out that it is this very loathing of the magical community by his human father which leads the major villain of the series, Voldemort, to become evil (p. 29).

Personally and professionally, I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. Besides being a fun and absorbing read, these books contain a wealth of literary merit. Almost any form of literary criticism can be applied to them with interesting resultsgender studies, philosophical and psychological readings, economic and archetypal criticism, and, yes, even religious interpretations. This opens up the world of academic scholarship to students through a series that they actually enjoy reading. I agree with the American Library Association and feel that it is a violation of students rights to ban books such as the Harry Potter novels. Book-banning sends a message to students that it is okay to ignore and to do away with any bookor other work of artthat doesnt fall into line with their own personal beliefs. This message is the beginning of a very slippery slope into disregarding and perhaps even hating anyone whos religious or philosophical beliefs disagree with their own. In just the two short years that I taught high school, I saw parents complain that Dracula promoted Satanism and that studying Greek mythology encouraged students to worship false gods. Ive always found these arguments about banning books on religious grounds to be quite hypocritical. Would the same parents who want to ban Harry Potter for promoting witchcraft agree that school libraries should not have a copy of the King James Bible on the shelf? That book certainly promotes a particular religion, a religion that not all students may adhere to.

References Cockrell, A. (2006, March). Harry Potter and the witch hunters: A social context for the attacks on Harry Potter. The Journal of American Culture, 29 (1), 24-30. Harry Potter wins third Georgia challenge. (2006, December 15). American Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/ december2006/ gwinnett%20harry%20potter-dec1506.cfm

Julie Douberly Reflection #2 Picture Books and Controversy: Whats All the Fuss about Now?

But you can see his wee-wee! Its not a phrase you hear very often, particularly not in a graduate-level course, but thats exactly the argument one of my classmates raised in our Childrens Literature class when we read Maurice Sendaks In the Night Kitchen. Personally, I didnt see what all the fuss was about. After all, the wee-wee in question was just a couple of curved lines and not what you would call anatomically correct, and having chased my three year old nephew around the yard, trying to convince him to put his clothes back on, I know that kids dont have the same hang ups about nudity that grown-ups do. However, the same argument about the nudity in Sendaks book has been raised since it was published back in 1970. In the Night Kitchen isnt alone as the only challenged picture book; others have even been pulled from shelves for containing content deemed inappropriate for young children. Some books have stirred up controversy because of their less-than-enlightened depictions of certain groups of people. Our text book mentions picture books that have been pulled from shelves for portraying women as subservient to men and books from the past which are now seen as overtly racist, portraying African Americans in the most stereotypical of ways. However, I believe that a great deal of controversy today is generated by books that seek to be inclusive of one particular group, the GLBT community. Last semester one of my courses required us to choose a book that had frequently been on the banned books list and write a blog about it. As part of the assignment, we were supposed to choose a book that also challenged some of our personal beliefs. I was shocked to see how many of my classmates chose to write about Peter Parnell and Justin Richardsons And Tango Makes Three, a sweet little picture book about two male penguins that hatch and raise a baby penguin together.

Overwhelmingly, those writing about this book agreed that it should be removed from library shelves because it raised the issue of homosexuality and that had no place in our schools. As a lesbian who has worked in those schools and met other gay teachers and many gay students, I would beg to disagree. In Missing! Picture Books Reflecting Gay and Lesbian Families (2007), Elizabeth H. Rowell discusses this deficit of picture books depicting children in households headed by gays and lesbians or in families with homosexual members or friends (p. 1). Childrenand adultswhat to see themselves and their lives in the books they read. As Rowell explains, that lack of gay-friendly picture books means some children cannot see their own lives or the full diversity of family life reflected in books (p. 1). Although this is slowly changing, many childrens books still depict a family to mean a mommy and a daddy, two kids and a dog. A great number of families do not look like that. There are single family homes and blended families with step-parents and step-children, just to mention a few. Reading books that show that there are other ways to be a family helps children see the commonalities of family life (p. 3) despite how different that family may look on the outside. Homophobia is still rampant today, especially in our schools where it is treated as a taboo subject. One need only look at the news to see the rash of suicides by gay teens over the past few years to understand that there is a problem. Pretending that homosexuals and homosexual families do not exist in elementary school is the start of this negative mindset that leads to so much bullying and intolerance in high school. Rowell suggests that Inclusion of some of these books *picture books containing representations of homosexuals] throughout the curriculum may help make the early childhood classroom a safer, more just and equal place for children of lesbian and gay families and more welcoming and supportive of their parents or homosexual relatives and friends (p. 3)and I couldnt agree more.

References Rowell, E. H. (2007, May) Missing! Picture books reflecting gay and lesbian families. Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web. Retrieved June 12, 2011 from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200705/Missing-Rowell.pdf