(mannino) well, i'm hoping that the decision-- people make bad decisions. i mean, not every book that's taught in the public schools is a wonderful book. i mean, i think we can all agree to that. there are books-- i mean, i've known people who've read goosebumps books aloud to third grade, and i think, you know, i'd let them read 'em themselves. that doesn't seem, to me, to make a very good read aloud. i agree with judy. i mean, i think if someone came in and said, "you know, i really want to question "whether this is really appropriate for somebody in the fourth grade," i would want to talk about that. and it would depend on what the person said that i might not teach that book again. but they would have to be awfully convincing if i'd thought-- which we would hope ahead of time teachers had-- about appropriateness before they selected the book. i find my bigger problem with teachers is not taking risks, but, you know, it's that they're not taking risks. not that they are and getting in trouble. it's that they're censoring before the book ever reaches the

(mannino) well, i'm hoping that the decision-- people make bad decisions. i mean, not every book that's taught in the public schools is a wonderful book. i mean, i think we can all agree to that. there are books-- i mean, i've known people who've read goosebumps books aloud to third grade, and i think, you know, i'd let them read 'em themselves. that doesn't seem, to me, to make a very good read aloud. i agree with judy. i mean, i think if someone came in and said, "you know, i really want to question "whether this is really appropriate

herron, whose critically-acclaimed book, nappy hair, was challenged in a brooklyn school, and cammie manninobookseller who took a stand against censorship. welcome to all of you. i have to begin with judy. you know, there are these lists every year about the most banned books. each and every year, you're in the top five. you're sort of the beatles of banned books. how did you obtain this status, and what are you doing wrong? uh-oh, you know, you're asking the wrong person. it's never the-- the person who wrote the books is always surprised.