October Mourning by Leslea Newman (A song for Matthew Sheppard)

It was October 6th, 1998,a crisp fall evening, when 21 year old Matthew Shepard left a Wyoming bar with two young men about his own age.  Matthew was gay, and he was under the assumption that these men were as well.  In fact, that was not true. 

Instead, Matthew was driven to a remote area, beaten horrifically and tied to a fence.  At that time the two men left in their truck .

Several days later after Matthew was found, he died of his severe injuries.

Matthew never regained consciousnesses from the time he was tied to the fence to die.

At this time, Gay Awareness week was just beginning for Wyoming University and the keynote speaker Leslea Newman was scheduled to be in town days after Matthew’s beating.   The crowd in light on the resent tragedy was much bigger than expected.

October Mourning is Leslea’s novel in verse of her thoughts of what happened that night…

Why did I want to read this book?

The Matthew Shepard story is one that has always touched me deeply.  Hate crimes boils my blood but they also break my heart.  When I see this book on Shelf Awareness and that the anniversary date was coming up, I knew I wanted to read it.

First of all I have to admit when I ordered this book after seeing that above video, I did not pick up on the fact (my error) that this was a book of free verse poetry.  In my haste, I thought it was a book being told from Leslea Newman’s perspective of the happe.nings of that tragic event and about the speaking engagement she had shortly after. I am not a big fan of free verse books

I did read October Mourning and I have to say many of the poems were touching.  Her first poem in the book, Outnumbered (which she also reads in the video clip, is breathtaking.  I honestly can not even imagine…

I truly can not imagine.

This book will remain on my shelf and while it was not what I thought I was getting, it did inspire me to pick up another book I own called The Meaning Of Matthew written by Matthew’s mom, Judy Shepard.  

 

I would like to say the world has grown since that tragic day in 1998, but sadly I am not sure if that is true.  There are still people out there hating people.  Please take a moment today to think about and or pray for Matthew Shepard and his family.  And if you want to know more about Matthew’s story, I have just mentioned two books here that may be of interest to you.

The Lorax by Dr Suess (Yes, another banned book)

 

In the event that you are sad that is the last day of banned books week for 2012 and you either have not had time to read a banned book this week or you wish there was time to read one more – no fear!  There is time! 

The LORAX is 72 pages of  glorious pictures and short sentences.  AND if you are more the audio type… the audio book was 30 minutes long AND that included another Dr. Suess book on it as well.

Narrated by a nameless, faceless “Oceler”, The Lorax is a tale of mass marketing before mass marketing was cool.  In this case, our Onceer discovers this beautiful area filled with Truffala Trees that make lovely hats and shirts, socks and gloves.  The Onceler starts to chop down the trees and selling his wears against the Lorax’s wishes.

The Lorax is a fuzzy yellow creature (bigger that the Travelocity Gnome, but not my much) and he speaks for the trees, for as he points out, the trees can not speak for themselves.    Despite the Lorax’s repeated warnings the Onceler is making money selling his product he does not care.  As time passes, the wildlife that lived with the trees disappear and even the Lorax himself sadly goes away leaving only a rock behind that says “Unless”.

What will become of the forest of Truffala trees as one by one and then two by two they disappear to be made into products that are sold?  What will become of the fish and the ponds, and the Onceler, once all the trees…

are gone?

Why did I want to read this book?  There are many banned books out there that deal with subjects that some may find too bold, or too mature or too out of their own personal comfort zone…. The Lorax has always been my go to “laugh out loud” at banned book, and I love sharing with people who, when you think banned books… you also need to add in The LORAX.

I love The LORAX and its messages about handling our earths resources wisely is as timely now as then it written in 1971.  It’s a fun read and an easy red – and apparently s I recited memorized line, a book for all ages. 

 

So Sheila…. ummm… why was The Lorax Banned?

 

In a nut shell (or in this case, in a wood chip) The Lorax was banned because it portrays the foresting industry in an arguable negative way. Some people felt that this book was persuading children to be against logging.

Yup, that’s it. 

 

 

 

With this final banned book post for banned book week 2012 I want to thank you for reading the banned book posts this week as well as a huge thank you to all of you who have commented, contributed posts, and giveaways.  May you always feel at liberty to read the books you choose to read – the books that make you think, care, love, hate, cry, shout, dream and put on the shelf.

Sheila

CELEBRATE Banned Book Week Day 7 (and a couple of annoying pictures…)

Good morning!  It is Saturday and I feel like I am recovering from some extreme event.  In truth, although I was gone all day yesterday it was nothing that extensive.   I got up at 5 am yesterday to drive my friend Connie to the cities for her doctors appointments.  We did not get back into town until 8 pm last night and all the way home traffic (on a Friday after 5) AND construction knocking it down to one lane… made our 2 hour and 15 minute drive almost 4 hours.  After arriving home, I was wiped out and was in bed by 9:30 pm.

Before I get into the awesomeness of banned book week – I want to take a brief moment and add a couple pictures for Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot which I love to participate in when I have some pictures I want to share and this morning…I do.

Here is what I woke up to this morning:

Front deck this morning

Back deck this morning

 

Yes.  SNOW.    Now you can fall into one of two camps here:

 

Camp 1.  Yeah Sheila, its just a little snow , it will be gone by noon!  Suck it up – its pretty.

Camp 2.  Oh no, that’s horrible don’t you have a bike ride tomorrow?  Snow SUCKS!!!!

 

Ok, Camp one… you may exit the blog now… nothing here for you to see, obviously you do not know how I feel about snow. 

Camp two, you are my people.  Thanks you for feeling my pain and yes, I do have a bike ride tomorrow with friends in Mankato on my ROAD BIKE.  The snow… must go away. 

 

Alright – that is it for the pitty party because it is the final day of Banned Books week and I am a little bummed about that.  This week I had the opportunity to read some great books that are on that list:  PREP, Perks Of Being A Wallflower, The Giver, The Chocolate War, The LORAX and watched the last Harry Potter movie.  All of what I just mentioned has been banned or challenged somewhere in the world.  AND there have been a whole ENORMOUS team of awesome bloggers who have helped out this week by also reading and reviewing banned books and posting about them and offering giveaways and seriously – a good good time. 

Here is today’s posts by these bloggers.  I hope you can check out what they have to say, many of them are having giveaways to go with their posts:

 

Laurel from Rainy Days And Mondays fantastic post on The Catcher In The Rye was linked wrong yesterday so I am bringing it back today.. She is also having a book giveaway.  Please check it out!

Will from Henderson’s House Of Cards shares a brilliant post called “If I Were A Banned Book”

 

 

Erin from Quixotic Magpie wrote a review of The Awakening and is offering a book giveaway!

 

 

Julie from My Book Retreat shares about the banned/challenges books of the Junie B Jones series.  Julie is also having a book giveaway!

 

 

Liza from Reading With ABC is talking about Forever by Judy Blume and offering up a book giveaway!

 

 

Marie from The Boston Bibliophile is discussing The Handmaids Tale (one I need to read!) and giving a book giveaway!

 

 

Rachel from Resistance Is Futile has posted some interesting titles this week and today she talks about Roll Of Thunder, Hear Me Cry by Mildred D Taylor

 

 

Kristin from My Little Heart Melodies wrote about The Things They Carried, a book that has graced my shelf a long time and I still need to get to.

 

 

Marj from In Library Paradise shares about The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and has a book giveaway!

 

 

Priya from The Faceless Author shares her thoughts on child sacrifices in the Hunger Games – she is giving away one of her custom made comic strips!

 

 

Sue from Great Books for Kids and Teens shares a YA review of The Chocolate War

 

 

Sue also posts at Book By Book and shared about Brave New World Today.  A book I am still hoping to read this year!

 

 

That is today’s line!  I hope you can visit them – if your Saturday is cold and damp like mine why not grab a second (or third cup of coffee or cocoa) and check out some of these posts.  You may be surprised what you learned about why these books were challenged.  AND for that matter, dont forget the posts from earlier this week as well – many of them have giveaways that will end after today so get in on those deals – some of the giveaways are truly “drool-worthy” and I have been checking them out and tweeting about them all week. 

 

Here are easy quick links to get to those posts:

The Chocolate Wars and chocolate giveaway

The Giver and a copy to give away!

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

PREP and a giveaway!

Day 6

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

I am refilling my coffee now and going to check out these links and posts.  Later today I will pack up the jeep for my trek to Mankato where I will stay with friends tonight, tomorrow ride my bike in the Mankato Ramble and then I am hanging out with College Son all day Sunday and staying at his place and coming home Monday morning.  I will be posting throughout the weekend as Laptop will be making the journey with me. 

Thank you to everyone who posted about banned books this week.  Thank you to everyone who read these posts and learned something new about banned books and thank you for a great week.  I have had a blast and really wish it was two weeks long… I have two more banned books checked out from the library I have not even started yet! 

Any plans this weekend for you?