Annie on My Mind and Book Banning

            If I were going to teach the novel Annie on My Mind, I would want to pair the novel with the nonfiction article "Annie's Day in Court: The Decision from the Bench" by Randy Meyer as part of a unit plan for Banned Books Week. In pairing these two works together, students would be able to see an example of a banned book and the controversy that surrounded it through a nonfiction text. I think students could get excited about talking about banned books. Reading is sometimes viewed as a boring activity, but talking about books that have been controversial might spark the interest of some reluctant readers who may want to know why a book would have been banned and why people think students should not read a particular book. Students would be able to gain perspective about the significant role they can play in making a difference in their community as they read about a court case where students truly did effect change. This particular nonfiction piece about the court case would work well in the classroom as it presents many opportunities for learning and offers a reflection of a community's reaction to a work of young adult queer literature that mirrors the reaction of a community to a young adult lesbian relationship in Annie on My Mind.

            The pairing of these two texts create several different opportunities for learning in the classroom. In my classroom, I would have students read the Meyer article along with Annie on My Mind and have them research the court case so they can better understand the concept of Banned Books Week and controversial books. This unit could also be tied into a lesson about the First Amendment in a Social Studies or Civics class as the article offers excerpts from the judge's decision that the actions taken by the school district violated the students' First Amendment rights (Meyer 22). Students could work on their own case to defend the book and argue that it should be placed back on the library shelves. Students could collaborate and present their case to the class through a skit, or students could demonstrate their learning through writing a persuasive essay that argues their case. There are many options on how the novel and article can work well together in the classroom.

            It would also be interesting to have students examine how the outcome of the court case in the article is reflective of the outcome of the trial for Liza in Annie on My Mind. The article states that "local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books" (Meyer 23). Similarly Ms. Poindexter is not allowed to remove Liza from the school simply because she does not agree with her lifestyle. Additionally, Mrs. Poindexter is forced to leave the school on account of "'continuous overextension of authority to the point of undermining democratic principles'" (Garden 219-20). This statement also mirrors the school district in the court case as the judge ruled that the school district had violated the First Amendment rights of the students in the district by limiting their access to queer literature. Just as the books were returned to the libraries in the Kansas City area, Liza was also returned to her school.

            The pairing of Annie on My Mind and "Annie's Day in Court: The Decision from the Bench" could be beneficial to students in many ways. Students would be able to see beyond the surface of the love story in the novel and see how the Annie on My Mind comments on larger issues in society such as discrimination, human rights, and conflict. In looking at the book along with its controversy, students who may have not been interested in the book might be more interested in reading it if they knew that the book had been challenged. I also think it is important for students to recognize that their voices and opinions matter, and just like the students who were involved in the lawsuit over the banning of Annie on My Mind, they can take action to make a difference.

Works Cited

Garden, Nancy. Annie on My Mind. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.

Meyer, Randy. "Annie's Day in Court: The Decision from the Bench." School Library  Journal           42.4, (1996): 22-25. Web. 15 June 2015. http://libproxy.shepherd.edu:2052/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9604221946&site=ehost-live