Filed under: probably unlikely, but dang fascinating and a whole lotta fun. (Not to mention book recommendations.) Check it out here.

Thanks to Kailana for the link.

I’m just a white gal, just a reader, and not necessarily a scholarly or heavily critical thinker.

I had to get that out of the way before I posted a link to this. (The link appeared in a comment on my review of Caddie Woodlawn.) It’s by a Native American woman, a scholar, and one with a mission to change the way that Native Americans are portrayed in literature. All of which I can support. But something about her post on Caddie Woodlawn bothered me. It wasn’t that she couldn’t find evidence for scalp belts (probably there were never any), or that she disagreed with the use of squaw or brave to identify Native American men and women. Fine, that’s racist, and I can understand that. No, it was this:

With deeper knowledge of American Indians, we all might be able to get books like Caddie Woodlawn off the shelves. They have use for study and discussion of stereotypes and bias, but the misinformation they impart to children must not continue to go unchecked.

Tell me, how is this different from an ultra-conservative trying to get the book about the gay penguins off the shelves? Or the anti-Harry Potter diatribes? Or any other book that someone wants banned? Are there no allowances here? If her logic holds, then we should probably take everything off the shelves that wasn’t written before, oh, say 1970. Yeah, there’s a lot of racist and insensitive stuff out there. But even Shakespeare was racist. Does that mean it’s not good? What’s the line here?

To finally (finally!) make a film of The Dark is Rising? (See here for slightly more info.)

For the Bridge to Terabithia movie. Go here for the full scoop.

This is just wrong.

I was going to go on a long rant about how terrible it is that Katherine Paterson has sold out and allowed this movie to be made. But, it’s late and I’m tired. Still, some movies just shouldn’t be made. At least not like this.