"Where's Papa Going with That Axe?" — Banned Books Readings at the Southern California Authors Guild

The meeting kicked off with a Woody Guthrie anthem ...

This land was made for you and me.

Then the authors lined up for readings of their favorite banned books.

Some selections were serious, some funny, some surprising. Books are often challenged precisely because they make people think, question, laugh, or see the world from a different perspective.

Me, Skip and Deirdre

I chose one of the most abrupt and suspenseful opening sentences in children's literature:

"Where's Papa going with that axe?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

Do you recognize it?

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White.

It's hard to imagine a gentler or more beloved children's book.

Yet over the years it has appeared on challenged-book lists for reasons ranging from talking animals to discussions of death.

"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing... After all, what's a life anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die... By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that."

The fact that such a classic has occasionally found itself under scrutiny says something about how broad the category of "banned books" can be.

Diana, Skip, Deirdre

Most "banned books" in America are not banned nationwide. Rather, they have been challenged, restricted, or removed in particular schools or library systems. The result is a patchwork of decisions that varies from one community to another.

Here are some titles that have been challenged or banned at some point in time:

• To Kill a Mockingbird

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

• The Catcher in the Rye

• Fahrenheit 451

• The Grapes of Wrath

• Beloved

• Of Mice and Men

• The Color Purple

• Slaughterhouse-Five

• 1984

• Brave New World

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Like the Author's Guild, I support the freedom to read widely, even when I don't agree with every book on the shelf.

Rather than banning, I'd rather folks write another book to explain a different perspective.