There's really no place like home

I've always wanted to use this title for a blog post. I always thought I knew and appreciated what home was. But my life this year and last has seen my view of home undergo a cataclysmic shift. And while it has taught me a lot about that I was previously clueless about, it's also taught me a little humility, which is always a good thing.

The topic of this post - banned books - has been a joy to research. At first I thought I'd really struggle, I kept harking back to the book I'd used in the last challenge two years ago and thinking 'I'm never going to be able to find another banned children's book'... ...I clearly wasn't looking hard enough last time.

It turns out that, particularly in America (sorry to my good friends across the pond) there were a lot of children's books banned or challenged over the past hundred years. 'And Tango Makes Three' was banned for promoting guy fostering, 'Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone' for promoting witch craft and paganism, but my all time favourite, which literally had me choking on my morning cup of coffee, was Where's Wally (or Waldo in the States) being banned and then subsequently reprinted to edit out a particular scene where a woman on a beach poses topless and you can see (yep you guessed it) a boob which would probably be no bigger than the round bit in this letter  'b'. I have to ask who was searching that hard for Wally that he found that? Who ever it was needs to be applauded for having the worlds sharpest eyesight!

Whilst traipsing through the seemingly endless list of harmless children's books that members of the public found offensive at some point or other, I noticed this gem of a novel in there.

If you're anything like me you see the title of this book and you instinctively see a rosy cheeked, fresh faced young Judy Garland clutching little Toto in her arms and sporting those fabulous ruby slippers (which in the book are actually silver). Such has been the enthusiasm with which we've embraced the story, we have seen it spawn a variety of films and even it's own 'spin off' style musical 'Wicked' which flips the original tale on it's head somewhat.

Imagine my complete shock then when I discovered that it was banned for several reasons more than once because it was claimed it had "no value" for children and brought children's minds to a "cowardly level"*. One group of families in a southern American state petitioned (actually sued) for it to be stripped from their children's curriculum because it promoted women as strong role models and witches as good people. Don't witches have feelings too?

I was honestly flabbergasted, how can a book with such saccharine sweetness be at the heart of so much controversy? Well of course I had to read it to find out.

Written by L. Frank Baum and first published in 1900 it starts with a young girl, Dorothy who lives in the middle of Kansas with her aunt and uncle. The life there is grey and routine, until a cyclone whisks her and her dog Toto, house and all off to a magical world bursting with colour! The world of Oz has four regions, north, south, east and west (these regions being under the rule of the four great witches) but at it's heart is the magical emerald city, ruled over by the great and terrible wizard of Oz.

With Dorothy unable to get back home to her aunt and uncle, she is told to see what the wizard can do, thus begins the perilous journey to the emerald city and beyond, where there is bad witch smiting, good witch bonding and a wizard who's really nothing more than a gifted illusionist - or in laymen's terms a con artist.

The chapters are fairly small, I think the longest is only about 20 or so pages, which makes them easy to get through as each chapter always feels like a rounded little mini story in it's own right. The pace is fairly slow, the don't make it to the emerald city till about half way in the story and by that point, you've enjoyed a story all on its own.

The vocab is definitely of it's time, with the more complex formal words being casually dropped in as if they were a part of the every day conversational language, which - if I could describe the entire tone of the text in one word - would be the exact word I'd use: conversational. I felt like I was being told a story rather than reading one and I was easily able to envision myself sat by the fireplace with granddad in a rocking chair regaling us all in this wonderful story of friendship and hope (yep, maybe my mind is working overtime).

Characters are lovable and well rounded without too much distracting backstory or drama added to them. But the real stroke of genius is in how well the story ties up at the end, it's like a neat little Christmas or birthday present wrapped perfectly and topped with the most beautiful bow! And at the very end, when Dorothy finally gets home and sees her aunt for the first time there's no frills, no fuss, just a simple, heart warming exclamation that she's glad to be home.

The whole book is an exercise in youthful innocence, even the more violent bits seem prudishly written. So I am more surprised than ever that people could have found it so offensive to their sensibilities. Its no coincidence in my book that these harsh judgements have come from people decades later, who can't see the book as a product of its time or enjoy it at face value, they're finding subtext that isn't really there, which begs the question: have we as a society become more picky and overly sensitive over the years?

I won't voice my full opinions here, that would take far too long!

Book 12 of my 52 and a book that was once banned.

Book Title: The  Wonderful Wizard of Oz 

Author: L. Frank Baum 

First Published: 1900  Number of Pages: 272 Suitable for: children aged 9 and up (year 4) 

Interesting words: reproachful, trodden, assemblage, yonder, vexation, deprive, earnestly. 

*wikipedia page, quote taken from Detroit Director of libraries who banned it in 1957.