Banned Books Week: Answers to the Quiz

Thank you to all who sent in your guesses for last week's quiz. It was a little tough, I have to admit.

Here are the answers to the quiz. Now, if these quotes intrigue you enough, I hope you go pick up the book. I've read all but maybe one, and to be honest I probably read that one but don't remember. And let me know what banned or challenged books you enjoyed most.

1. How could someone not fit in? The community was so meticulously ordered, the choices so carefully made. (The Giver, Lois Lowry)

2. It is like the hole in your mouth where a tooth was and you cannot keep your tongue from playing with it. (Ordinary People, Judith Guest)

3. “I believe that love is better than hate. And that there is more nobility in building a chicken coop than destroying a cathedral.” (Summer of My German Soldier, Bette Greene)

4. He was seething inside with new emotion. Nothing seemed very important except the Princess. He was single-minded about her. He was enchanted. He was possessed. He was in love. (Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett)

5. I'd soon as go to jail than take that damn relief job. (Native Son, Richard Wright)

6. Last night while I lay thinking here
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:
(A Light in the Attic, Shel Silverstein)

7. It had been all right as long as they could laugh at me and appear clever at my expense, but now they were feeling inferior to the moron. I began to see that by my astonishing growth I had made them shrink and emphasized their inadequacies. (Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes)

8. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corn cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee)

9. My first-born. All I can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread. Can you beat that? Eight children and that's all I remember. (Beloved, Toni Morrison)

10. "She won't be coming down here with the spray. She'll be coming down here with a shovel. It happened to my brother. Split him right down the middle. Now I have two half-brothers." (James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl)

11. We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semidarkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren't looking, and touch each other's hands across space. We learned to lipread, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way, we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June. (The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood)

12. I expected Daddy to explain everything on the way home—all that stuff Dr. Griffith had been talking about—that I didn't understand. Instead, he and Ma argued about whose fault it was that I have something wrong with my spine until we pulled into the driveway. It was almost as if they'd forgotten I was there. (Deenie, Judy Blume)

13. I was getting to where I could see the truth. Someday I'll be brave enough to speak it. (The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton)

Our Town - Review by Carole

Thornton (You don't meet a lot of Thorntons these days--some names are fading out of use--I think that's a shame) Wilder's Our Town is one of my favorite plays. I have read it many times, most recently reading it aloud with my family. Chris recently posted on her Top Fave Summer Reads; Our Town would be on that list for me.

The simplicity of the play as it examines small-town life, particularly the lives of the Webb and Gibbs families, just has a staggering impact on me every time I read it. My family had to sit around and wait patiently for me to collect myself and blink back tears as I read the play to everyone (Cue the eye-rolling for my children, who would argue that I do that for almost everything we read at least once).

What struck me this time was how strongly I reacted to what was happening in the parents' lives throughout the play. When I was younger and read the part of Emily for a class play, I identified most with young Emily's role. Her certainty about life, her views of life in black and white, I could relate to all of that.

Reading it later as a wife, I sympathized greatly with George and how his life turned out. While I still feel for him, this time I was really touched by what was happening in the parent's lives throughout the play. As a parent, my heart just ached for Mr. and Mrs. Webb.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the only other work that I can say has touched me in the same way. You get one perspective when you read/watch it as a child, another as an adult, and yet another, more intense one, as a parent. I could relate to Scout and Jem as children, I admired Atticus' integrity and strength as an adult, but I felt his palpable fear and his abiding love for his children most keenly as a parent.

Works such as these are rare indeed--I treasure them.