
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995                   TAG: 9509260031
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SOME FOUND THESE BOOKS OBJECTIONABLE

The theme for Banned Books Week 1995, which began Sunday and runs through Saturday, is "Celebrating the Freedom to Read." The list of books challenged or banned across the country in the past year is 11 pages long. Here are some highlights:

A book entitled "My Teacher is an Alien" was challenged in Elizabethtown, Pa., schools because it "portrays the main character as handling a problem on her own, rather than relying on the help of others."

In Milton, Wis., "What's Happening to My Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons," was challenged in an intermediate school library. One parent complained "I don't think my 10-year-old son, or anyone's, needs to know that stuff."

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" was challenged in the Bedford, Texas, school district because the pictures in an illustrated edition were said by some parents to be "pornographic" and "satanic."

"Julie of the Wolves," a Newberry Award-winning book, was challenged at the Erie Elementary School in Chandler, Ariz., because of "a passage that some parents found inappropriate in which a man forcibly kisses his wife."

Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" was challenged as required reading in the Corona-Norco (Calif.) Unified School District because it is "centered around negative activity."

Books of art by Renoir, Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, M.C. Escher and Manet have been called "pornographic," "perverted," and "morbid" by concerned parents across the country.

by CNB