MAYA ANGELOU, JUDY BLUME, STEPHEN KING

I was surprised to read in this USA Today article that Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic was banned at Fruitland Park Elementary School library in Lake County, Florida because for "...inappropriate content" that "promotes disrespect, horror and violence."

And according to the article, as many of us know, "...virtually everything by Judy Blume" has been challenged and/or banned at one time or another. But the article states, and it's true, that "...many women (and men!)...swear Judy Blume saved their lives by being the only adult who didn't lie to them."

Madeleine L'Engle's classic A Wrinkle in Time was challenged in Anniston, Alabama schools in 1990 for, among other things, promoting witchcraft. This same challenge has been leveled at the Harry Potter books.

It seems that whether a book is too realisitic, as in the case of Judy Blume's writing, or too fantastical—in the wrong way—as the in the case of Madeleine L'Engle's, there will be someone(s) who will dispute what is perceived as either an objectionable portrayal of reality or an objectionable portrayal of a fantasy world. Either way, readers lose.