"I had to read this junk."

Small Pennsylvania town pitches a fit over Adam Rapp's The Buffalo Tree.

These parents want reading lists of everything assigned to their children, complete with summaries and notes on possibly objectionable content.

I feel a little queasy. This is hardly unusual, but the things that caught my eye here were the district superintendent's willingness to interpret the ban as loosely as possible (keep the book available, just don't teach it) and the article's slant toward connecting this issue to the rise of the evangelical side of the right wing:

Judith Krug, director of the library association's office for intellectual freedom, attributed the most recent spike to the empowerment of conservatives in general and to the re-election of President Bush in particular. The same thing happened 25 years ago, she said. "In 1980, we were dealing with an average of 300 or so challenges a year, and then Reagan was elected," she said. "And challenges went to 900 or 1,000 a year."

I love librarians.

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I've read a lot in the last few weeks. I'd link to my most recent review, but it's not very good, so I'll spare you. Apparently, though, I'm just lazy. Like all habits, I need to get in the swing of posting.