This Book From 2012 Makes Me Wonder If Censors Have Common Sense

“Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell

Photo by Alex Jackman on Unsplash

If I haven’t mentioned it by now, or you’re new to my work, here’s a reminder. I teach fifth grade. I read banned books all the time, but I hesitate on what I would let my fifth graders read. It sucks, but it’s not my place to tell a parent what their child is ready for, especially when I see most of my students for an hour a day.

The banned books my students have read are ones that are already in our curriculum. It’s the only reason my students have read Walk Two Moons, for example, and why they’re hearing The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963. Even with those books, I do one of two things.

• I give them a brief content warning, depending on what happens in the chapter to warrant it.
• I might skip over parts of it, depending on what’s in it.

I don’t skip over paragraphs often, but that’s because there isn’t anything sexual in the comments. I let them read about kissing, but it doesn’t go farther than that in my reading.

I bring this up because of the next banned book we’re talking about: Eleanor and Park. Somehow, it’s banned from middle schools, but as a middle school teacher, I can tell you it wouldn’t be in my classes anyway.

What Is The Book About?

It’s 1980s Nebraska. Eleanor is back at her mom’s house after a falling-out with her creepy stepdad. She befriends Park, a half-Korean student who rides her bus. The two start an unlikely friendship over music and comics and eventually fall in love. When someone starts writing sick things on Eleanor’s things, the couple need to make a hard decision.

Books like this can be hard to describe. It’s not that the plot is complicated. It’s a slice of life from the 80s with modern themes. However, I’m always afraid of spoiling it for a future reader, so here’s to hoping I did the book justice.

One of the things I enjoyed the most about this book was the protagonist. Do you know how hard it is to find a fat, female protagonist? Eleanor is chubby! I haven’t found a chubby protagonist since I read a Julie Murphy novel! She’s not expected to lose weight, nor does she have a major makeover like movies do with so-called “ugly” characters. She is herself through the whole book.

The character you see a change with is Park. He starts off as your typical guy’s guy, but he evolves into something more. He fights for Eleanor while experimenting with his identity.

And the way their relationship blossoms is wonderful. One of my favorite things is the comfortable silences they feel. They don’t always need to have long conversations. Sometimes, sitting together is enough. You can’t help but wish more people felt the same.

Why Is This Book Banned

Eleanor and Park was published in the early 2010s, but it didn’t take long until people found reasons to get rid of it. The reasons are exactly what you expect.

• Profanity and vile language
• Sexual themes, pornographic
• Placement of the book on middle school reading lists

The scariest one of all of these was the one about the middle school lists. Not because they were put on Middle school lists but because lawmakers wanted to dismiss any teacher or librarian that disagreed. And that crap was happening in 2017!

Paul Woodford is a blog writer, and he mentions reading Eleanor and Park after finding out it was banned. His quote intrigued me.

I’m at the point of no longer bothering to read and review young adult books targeted by right wingers and religious zealots, because it always turns out this way: perfectly good stories, relevant to and loved by readers, attacked for out-of-context quotes or illustrations, for being sympathetic to minorities, for exploring aspects of history not taught in school, for having gay or lesbian characters. — Paul Woodford

He’s right. He’s right about the critiques about Eleanor and Park, and he’s right about most YA novels targeted by the kinds of people he describes. Every time they put these claims out there, they always end up unfounded or out of context.

But something he isn’t saying out loud is the lack of common sense among the challengers. As someone who teaches fifth grade in a middle school, allow me to explain

Younger Grades In Middle School Can Still Be Treated Like Elementary Students

My work has 4th and 5th grade in middle school. As a 5th grade teacher, my primary subject is Science, but I have a block of English, and a half-hour of a math supplement.

I’m still teaching most subjects without teaching most subjects. Students are still choral reading out loud like they would in elementary school. We’re teaching them reading and writing skills. They still get exposed to so-called “specials” classes like art, music, and gym, if the school has the teacher for these places. We keep the younger grades separated from the older grades.

Why do I bring this up? Because despite the protagonists of Eleanor and Park being elementary school-level chaste, we wouldn’t put books on our reading lists with words any worse than “damn” or “ass.” They may be exposed to outdated language that describes people, but it doesn’t get worse than that.

And as for things involving sex? Maybe a kissing scene. The students might hear the word sex, but it’s up to them if they want to read the word or not. I make sure the kids know that I will not force them to read any words or scenes that make them uncomfortable. I can’t speak for every teacher, but I know I wouldn’t be thinking about giving my students a book to read with anything worse than above until maybe ninth grade. And even then, I’d want a parent-survey before I tried it.

Granted, I work in a very small, very conservative rural area. I don’t think a more liberal, urban school would be showing mature themes for fifth graders, either, but they wouldn’t be as hesitant to experiment.

It sounds contradictory hearing all of this from someone as anti-censorship as I am, but there has to be some common sense here. Many books that get put on the banned book list aren’t books that most fifth grade teachers would read, or assign, to their students. And if they were, it’s not my job to tell parents what their students are ready for. I see most of these kids for an hour a day. It’s not enough time to gauge a student’s readiness.

Yet Again, Censors Are Hiding What Could Be An Important Tool For Struggling Readers

I said this same argument when I wrote about Speak. I wrote the same argument when I wrote about I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I wrote the same thing when I wrote about The Color Purple. People get scared to show children stories of other children being abused, but it can be a healing tool when someone who’s survived it is ready.

There are no scenes of sexual abuse in Eleanor and Park, but Eleanor is constantly finding her stuff vandalized, and someone is writing sick things towards her. Neither Eleanor or Park swear, but the language comes from the abuse of other characters. Those sick things she finds are the so-called “pornographic” content in the book.

John Green once famously said, “Text without context, is meaningless.” It rings true in this book. I guarantee someone flipped through the book and found the right page to freak about, and they raised an army of parents to get rid of it. No one wants to read the book to find out why the scenes are there. They get scared of the thought of their kids seeing it. As a teacher, I can tell you the kids are hearing and saying much worse from the brain rots and video games they play.

We can go after books like this over and over again, but when we do that, we’re taking an important tool away from someone. We’re taking away a tool to help someone build empathy. We’re taking away someone’s sense of belonging when we block a book like this. We’re taking away the exposure to new ideas.

Why Do People Go After Books When There Are Much Worse Things Out There?

I have a theory about why people are ramped against books. Yes, they breed new ideas, but it’s not the main reason why I think they’re after them.

Banning a book feels like something someone can control. Schools and libraries are places where students have free access to books, and there are people who want to control that.

Meanwhile, there are video games, brain rots, film, and TV shows that are far worse for our kids than some of these books. But books feel easier to control. Why? Our capitalistic thinking. We don’t see books as objects for profit as much as we see them as tools for growing our brains. They’re beacons of new ideas and empathy, giving a brain superfood. We don’t have to pay for books if we don’t want to.

We do have to pay for video games. We have to pay for the internet, film, and television. All of these things we see as beacons of profit.

What if it’s not as much about finding new ideas as it is about profit? What if politics behind books like Eleanor and Park and other YA novels is a convenient cover for the real goal? What extremists are helping companies destroy one of the last places where people can exist for free?

It’s Speculation, I’ll Admit, But It Suddenly Makes Banning Tame Books Make Sense

Eleanor and Park is one of the most tame YA books I ever read. However, when you think of it in terms of profit instead of ideas, then you find yourself thinking, “It makes sense.”

Many issues go back to billionaires making profits. You look at things like censorship, human rights, and exploitation, and you realize all of it is in the name of profit. We’ve lived in a society that values profits over people for so long that it’s taken us years to go after issues other countries have taken care of already.

Fighting book bans is more about protecting the freedom to read. It’s protecting people’s right to express themselves in ways they see fit. It’s about giving people access to stories and tools to grow empathy for one another. It’s about giving people a space where they can exist without having to pay. It’s about resisting the idea of profits over people.

When I think of the phrase, “Reading is resistance,” I think of resisting consumption. I don’t have to buy everything I read. I don’t want to live in a world where I have to pay to exist. Reading banned books is part of resisting.

Did you enjoy this article? Here is a link to my last banned book article!

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