I'm doing an assignment on censorship for my Adolescent Lit class, and I just looked up the list of 100 most frequently challenged books. There were quite a few on there that I'd read - I mean, Harry Potter was right there near the top, and the most challenged book is Scary Stories, which I'm pretty sure we all read in elementary school. My roommate Mandy just bought them in October to read to her 7th grade practicum class on Halloween. But my favorite challenge was number 88: Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford.Where's Waldo?
Really?
I looked it up to see if I could find out why - apparently there is an "exposed woman" in the beach scene. It was changed in later editions, so don't worry.
Insidious book, bombarding our eyes with centimeter high naked cartoon women. Down with such trash! Burn it! Also Harry Potter. Evil!
My teacher had a different story. She said it was challenged because apparently there is a picture in which Waldo is looking in a mirror and he has no reflection! Meaning . . . what? He's a vampire? A devil? I prefer to believe the first story, if only because there is some actual case for objecting, but I wouldn't put it past those Harry Potter hating book burners. (I'm sorry, did that sound like an attack? Because it was.)
Yeah. Keep up the good work, people. Protect our children.
