i said, "what about shabanu: daughter of the wind?" she said, "let me tell you about shabanu: daughter of the wind." that's how i found out the book had been censored. so at that point, i began a two-year campaign to wear down the school administration till they finally got so sick of me that they finally ended up putting the book back in the curriculum. and it was quite a process. at the end of it, the author, suzanne fisher staples, who has her books censored like judy's all the time, i e-mailed her to tell her that it was back in the curriculum. and she wrote me this wonderful e-mail in which she was--she said, "i'm weeping into my computer, because this is the first time "i have ever had any of my books reinstated in a curriculum after being censored." i have a question for you. i can understand that you went to-- you went to battle because of one line that offended one person. but there's also-- there's also been criticism of the book from the islamic community-- mm-hmm, yes. i addressed that too, actually. as being a stereotype.

and when the teacher that taught shabanu, who was the most wonderful woman-- i mean, she should really be here. she was the genius behind how the book was taught. when at the very end of this process, someone-- the final salvo with somebody at the administration calling her in and saying to her, "well, why would you want to teach a controversial book?" and she had the most wonderful response. she said, "well, can you name any book "that is meaningful and meaty that i could teach that wouldn't be controversial to someone?" you know, any book that really has content-- someone is going to be offended by it. it's only the most bland kind of literature, the kind of formulaic literature with no voice and no character and no whatever that's going to meet the test of-- everybody's going to be yawning, but no one will be offended. i do want to speak on behalf of the publishers for a moment, because after years and years and years of running scared-- and i'm not saying that they still aren't scared, but i do--i think i see a new dawn coming, where they've had it. they've had enough, and they are