"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

[Democrats_win]

This is young-adult fiction and is one of the most frequently challenged books of 2004. It was challenged "for homosexuality, sexual content and offensive language."

The cover describes it as "Catcher in the Rye" meets "A Separate Peace."

The book is about a straight teen, Charlie, trying to find his way during his first year of high school. Charlie is a wallflower but he's trying to participate more and cope with the usual problems that teens face.

Some of Charlie's descriptions will make you happy. For example, he describes the first time as a baby he started laughing while his mother and aunt watched. The thought of a baby laughing is perhaps one of the more pleasant things in life and Charlie brings many such joyful moments to the reader's attention.

Charlie does have problems and he makes mistakes such as during a game of truth or dare, he is told to kiss the most beautiful girl in the room and he doesn't pick his girlfriend!

As far as the book being challenged, the issues given for the book being challenged do exist in the book and actually add to the book's quality. However, the main character only observes these things (wallflower remember?) and may not even be the real reason the book is challenged. You'll need to read the book to see what I mean.

I read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" because someone at DU posted this link to the list of 2004's most challenged books in honor of Banned Book Week:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.htm#mfcb









http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.htm#mfcb

[Metta]

1. Thanks. Your post is the opposite of a book burning.

Whatever that is. Celebration comes to mind.

[MountainLaurel]

3. Flowering of information access?

Since openness is the opposite of the close-mindedness that leads to censorship.

I haven't read Perks, but probably will at some point. YA librarianship is where I really want to work, even though I'm in an academic medical library now.

[catbert836]

2. I read it.

It's kind of unbelievable, to me, that Charlie would be so clueless while going through everything. I guess a lot of the book's premise is how smart Charlie is intellectually, but how he doesn't know what to do in any kind of social situation. It's a good kind of irony, but it doesn't really seem to work with this kind of book. As far as the issues go, I think it's great the Chbosky decided to tackle homosexuality, abortion, et al.
The thing to remember is Chbosky is a filmaker, not an author.

[MountainLaurel]

4. OT, but it's kinda funny

Funny in a sad, strange way, not funny ha-ha.

I had to read "A Separate Peace" in high school, mainly because the author was a native of our county (who fled WV as soon as he got accepted into that New England prep school). At no point was even the idea that the two main characters were gay mentioned in class discussion. And it didn't occur to me until ages later, when I read a review. Sad, that one of the main concepts necessary to understanding the book remained so hidden.