What’s it all about?:
Welcome to New York City’s Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep—sometimes with each other.
S is back from boarding school, and if we aren’t careful, she’s going to win over our teachers, wear that dress we couldn’t fit into, steal our boyfriends’ hearts, and basically ruin our lives in a major way. I’ll be watching closely . . .
You know you love me,
gossip girl
Logo designed by Luna’s Little Library
Welcome to our eleventh banned book of 2016! As always, we’ll be looking at why the book was challenged, how/if things have changed since the book was originally published and our own opinions on the book. Here’s what we’ll be reading for the rest of 2016…
DECEMBER – My Sister’s Keeper- Jodi Picoult
But back to this month….
Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
First published: 2002
In the Top Ten most frequently challenged books in 2006 (source)
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group
Do you understand or agree with any of the reasons for the book being challenged when it was originally published?
BETH: As one of the more recent releases, I don’t believe opinions have changed much in the last ten or so years so I don’t agree with any of the challenges to the book. First of all (getting ready to jump on soap box) the homosexuality. There is no reason on earth why homosexuality should not be portrayed in a book, especially one aimed at teenagers. In fact, if teenagers don’t read about the wide variety of people and sexual orientations we have on our planet aren’t they more likely to grow up to be bigots when they’re older? Just saying. Offensive language – I don’t really remember a lot of bad language in the book it either passed me by completely or didn’t offend me in the slightest. Yes, it does talk about sex but I don’t think it’s particularly explicit and no worse than you’d hear on the television or in other forms of media.
CHRISSI: My opinion on this is exactly the same as Beth’s. I think the TV series is so popular and so many teenagers have seen it. I don’t think the book is as explicit. It may have sexual content but it’s nothing more than what they’d see on TV, read in other books or hear from their friends. I think we need to treat teenagers with some level of maturity and if they’re of the age that can handle sexual content, I don’t see the harm in allowing teens to read this book. Would I teach it? No. I wouldn’t deny teenagers the chance to read it though.
How about now?
BETH: Guess what? Same answer. I think the Gossip Girl books are particularly aimed at teenage girls and I don’t think there’s anything in the books that girls wouldn’t hear from their friends or elsewhere. As a result, I think that saying it’s unsuited to the age group is a bit strange. I’m a big fan of the TV series, that Chrissi got me into and while that is slightly more graphic it’s still not something that I would be worried about a teenager seeing.
CHRISSI: Definitely not now. Teens talk and they can speak in much more graphic terms than teens would experience from reading this book.
What did you think of this book?:
BETH: I enjoyed it! As I came to the TV series first, a few things were different and surprised me a bit but on the whole I think the series stayed very true to the book in general. I already felt like I knew the characters so well and obviously had the actors faces in mind as I was reading so it was almost like reading a nice, familiar book that I had read before.
CHRISSI: I did enjoy it but I do have a fond place in my heart for the TV series.❤ I did think of Leighton Meester and Blake Lively particularly when reading about Blair and Serena!
Would you recommend it?:
BETH: Probably!
CHRISSI: Yes!
BETH’S personal star rating (out of 5):
Join us again on the last Monday of December for our last banned book of the year when we will be discussing My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
