A book ban, Neil Gaiman’s cranberry jelly and more book news
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The book ‘Bless Me, Ultima’ may be one of First Lady Laura Bush’s favorites, but that hasn’t kept it from offending one central California school administrator. Newman Crows Landing Unified School District Superintendent Rick Fauss decided that the coming-of-age novel ‘is not suitable for teenagers’, the San Jose Mercury News reports, and has ‘banned it for the rest of the school year.’
English teachers accuse Fauss of circumventing the district’s policies on book challenges and ignoring the findings of a committee of teachers and a committee of administrators from the Stanislaus County Office of Education and Modesto City Schools. Both groups recommended keeping the book, with limitations such as not allowing it as a summer reading book or sending warnings home to parents.... Fauss said the book was not appropriate for any teenager. ‘I think there’s room for exposing students to other experiences, but do we have to sacrifice the values of our families and our community to do that?’ asked Fauss, a former high school English teacher. He hasn’t read the entire book but said he’s ‘read enough.’
At the Telegraph’s book blog Paper Tiger, Peter Robins points out that struggling Woolworth’s, the original five and dime, played a crucial role in the world of publishing. Without it, Penguin probably wouldn’t have lasted. An archived Sunday Herald review of the book ‘Penguin Special: The Life and Times of Alan Lane’:
Legend has it that the turning point came three weeks before publication when he called at Woolworths head office. Its chief buyer was not impressed by the Penguins, finding the unillustrated, typographical covers in orange and white livery uninviting. His wife, however, was enthused, perhaps as much by Lane’s charm as by his books. The buyer capitulated, Woolworths ordered Penguins in their tens of thousands, and the rest is publishing history. The first 10 Penguins were published on the Tuesday before the August Bank Holiday of 1935. In little more than a year Allan Lane had revolutionised publishing and inaugurated a brand that would become as familiar as Guinness and Rolls Royce.
At the time, Penguin paperbacks sold for sixpence, which was the maximum price of a Woolworth’s item. And quite a bargain.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Thanks to La Bloga for pointing out the story.
In completely unrelated book news, author Neil Gaiman has posted his recipe for homemade cranberry jelly. ‘And seeing I have to sit in the kitchen for another twenty minutes, and only stop to stir or skim sometimes,’ he wrote on his blog Wednesday, ‘I thought you might possibly need to know about cranberry jelly.’ I like to picture Gaiman sitting in the kitchen with his laptop, thinking that with nothing to do but stir, he might as well blog.
