I love Utah politics

[Maximus]

"dystopian censorship regime". Ha.

I hope you dont actually believe they were pornographic material

[frank ryan]

Judy Bloom books are pornographic? That is some weird dystopian talk. Was it Blubber or Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing?

[BigFatMeanie]

How is it a statewide ban if you can still buy them and read them in the state

You can still check them out in public city/county libraries as well. It’s only in school libraries that they are banned.

And, for the record, here is the plot synopsis of Judy Blume’s book from Wikipedia:

In the town of Westfield, New Jersey, a high school senior, Katherine, finds herself strongly attracted to Michael, a boy she meets at a New Year's party. As their relationship unfolds, the issue of sex comes up more as an emotional and health issue than as a moral one. Both of them are aware that physical intimacy is both common and complicated.

Their relationship progresses slowly as they begin to go on dates and trips together; they are accompanied on various meetings by Katherine's friend, Erica, who has known Katherine since the 9th grade and believes that sex is a physical act and not very romantic, and believes Katherine should "just get it out of the way." Erica and Katherine are also joined by Michael's friend Artie, who gets together with Erica. Katherine is reluctant, cautious about intercourse. When Michael is fondling her inside her panties for the first time, she stops him. Even though he says they can satisfy each other without the whole thing (actual intercourse), she stops his fondling. Then Katherine and Michael go on a skiing trip, where they plan to have sex, but Katherine has her period, and they are disappointed. Gradually, in successive times together during the skiing trip, alone in Katherine's bedroom, their intimacy increases. Katherine takes off her nightie, and Michael removes his pyjama top. They lie together, kissing, with their bodies moving against each other until Katherine has an orgasm. Now she decides to satisfy him, and asks him to show her what to do. Michael teaches Katherine how to hold his penis(nicknamed "Ralph") and how to rub it correctly, stroking rhythmically, until he ejaculates. (The book explains that Michael shows Katherine "how to hold him, [moving her] hand up and down according to his rhythm. Soon Michael moaned and [she] felt him come — a pulsating feeling, a throbbing, like the books said — then wetness. Some of it got on [her] hand but [she] didn’t let go of Ralph.") Their growing intimacy continues, including mutual masturbation. Days later, when Katherine and Michael do have sex (penetrative intercourse) with an unlubricated condom, on Michael's sister's living room floor in her apartment, she is not physically satisfied, but they are sure it seals a love that will be "forever". A few weeks later, after starting to use the birth control "pill", following her grandmother's frank advice, Katherine reaches orgasm when she and Michael are having sex. They both fall asleep briefly after Michael comes too quickly, and he is able to last longer when he wakes. They talk about this, Katherine saying how close she now feels to Michael. And then they shower together. A few days later Katherine has two orgasms during intercourse when he lies on his back, and she straddles him and can control their actions. Michael buys Katherine a necklace for her birthday that says "Katherine" on one side and "Forever...Michael" on the other.

[frank ryan]

You can still check them out in public city/county libraries as well. It’s only in school libraries that they are banned.

And, for the record, here is the plot synopsis of Judy Blume’s book from Wikipedia:

Clearly it's not a statewide ban. It's a statewide ban within the public school system. They need to get rid of Songs of Solomon.

[YOhio]

You can still check them out in public city/county libraries as well. It’s only in school libraries that they are banned.

And, for the record, here is the plot synopsis of Judy Blume’s book from Wikipedia:

Yikes! From what I understand women can’t even have orgasms what the heck are they teaching these kids!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Yikes! From what I understand women can’t even have orgasms what the heck are they teaching these kids!

[falafel]

You can still check them out in public city/county libraries as well. It’s only in school libraries that they are banned.

And, for the record, here is the plot synopsis of Judy Blume’s book from Wikipedia:

Is this available in Large Print?

[Donuthole]

You can still check them out in public city/county libraries as well. It’s only in school libraries that they are banned.

And, for the record, here is the plot synopsis of Judy Blume’s book from Wikipedia:

Sounds like something I would not want my 13 year old daughter reading, but something I might be ok with my 17 year old daughter reading. And I could see someone else being ok with their teen reading. Why are we banning it from being in school libraries? And assuming there is a valid reason to ban it (big assumption, IMO), why are we only doing it 49 years after it first hit school libraries?

[MartyFunkhouser]

Sounds like something I would not want my 13 year old daughter reading, but something I might be ok with my 17 year old daughter reading. And I could see someone else being ok with their teen reading. Why are we banning it from being in school libraries? And assuming there is a valid reason to ban it (big assumption, IMO), why are we only doing it 49 years after it first hit school libraries?

This whole thing with books in schools has become an absurd circus on both sides of the coin. We are taking a cute little picture book about a penguin with 2 dads out of schools, because people are running around yelling groomers! and indoctrination! You also have the other side trying to place stuff in school libraries that would clearly be age inappropriate Then you have all this performative outrage about it on both sides, which is probably going to lead to some children seeking out these exact books through other sources.

Eff them all.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Sounds like something I would not want my 13 year old daughter reading, but something I might be ok with my 17 year old daughter reading. And I could see someone else being ok with their teen reading. Why are we banning it from being in school libraries? And assuming there is a valid reason to ban it (big assumption, IMO), why are we only doing it 49 years after it first hit school libraries?

Let your teen read it at home. Problem solved.

[Pelado]

Let your teen read it at home. Problem solved.

He doesn't want that trash in his home!

[frank ryan]

Sounds like something I would not want my 13 year old daughter reading, but something I might be ok with my 17 year old daughter reading. And I could see someone else being ok with their teen reading. Why are we banning it from being in school libraries? And assuming there is a valid reason to ban it (big assumption, IMO), why are we only doing it 49 years after it first hit school libraries?

This is a really reasonable post.

[Donuthole]

Let your teen read it at home. Problem solved.

Well, that's probably where anyone would read it, since that's the entire reason you can check books out from the library. But that doesn't answer the questions as to why this book should not be available via public schools (that already own it) and why it took 50 years to make this decision. Also, why do these books need to be destroyed and not just sold? Seems like this is an attempt to book burn disguised as a public policy issue.

[Jeff Lebowski]

The notion that kids are going to get an inferior education if this particular book is not available in public school libraries is absurd. I have news for you: lots of books are not selected for school libraries. You can bitch about where the line should be drawn, but the line is drawn somewhere.

[Donuthole]

The notion that kids are going to get an inferior education if this particular book is not available in public school libraries is absurd. I have news for you: lots of books are not selected for school libraries. You can bitch about where the line should be drawn, but the line is drawn somewhere.

We are talking about a book that is already in school libraries being removed and destroyed because of its contents. Conversely, the notion being discussed is the notion that kids are going to get an inferior education if this particular book IS available in public school libraries. That is probably the only notion more absurd than the one you mentioned.