Banned Books Week is coming! September 27th-October 4th marks the celebration of the American Library Association’s annual celebration of the freedom of expression. I prefer to call it Get a Life Week. I can understand why some books upset conservatives; but there are others that make one wonder: “Why do you care? Honey, get a life!” Chief among these is that great hero of the toddler set: Captain Underpants. Yes, Captain Underpants is listed by the ALA as one of the most banned or challenged series of the twenty-first century.
In the April 2008 edition of The American Educator, Gary D. Askins writes:
There is an incredible wealth of literature written for young people that is life affirming, humorous and fun to read. I do not include the writings of Dav Pilkey among them. His body of work is largely built on the lowest common denominator: the humor of bodily functions and frat-boy disrespect toward teachers, parents and adults in general.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_teacher/apr08/speakout.htm
There may be lots of books that Askins thinks are “fun to read,” but there’s a problem. Boys aren’t reading them. Most boys don’t think the approved canon of children’s books is fun at all. So, boys don’t read: not for pleasure, not for higher grades, not even if you threaten them.
If we are to turn boys into willing readers, we must start with their interests. Boys like gross humor, action, adventure. Boys like antiheroes. Such characters have been favorites for centuries. If we ban Captain Underpants, should we ban Shakespeare’s Puck? The coyote tales of the American Southwest? Aristophanes? Peter Pan? What about Gulliver’s Travels or The Wife of Bath’s Tale?
Let’s face it, the Captain Underpants series falls squarely into the tradition of world literature. If boys like the series, more power to them. If we kick the Captain in his pants, we’re kicking world literature, too. So, to those who would ban Captain Underpants (and there are a lot of you out there), I say again: “Honey, get a life.” I also say, “Sweetie, reread the Western canon. You’ve missed a few things.”
