Heaven, Neverland, Paradise: All Lost
THE DEFENDANT: The Amber Spyglass, part 3 of the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. See also Shannon’s reviews of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife.
THE VERDICT: Pullman himself has no idea why Harry Potter gets in trouble while his own books fly under the radar. As he says, “The people who complain that Harry Potter promotes Satanism or witchcraft obviously haven’t got enough in their lives. Meanwhile, I’ve been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.”
THE CHARGES: “political and religious viewpoints,” violence, sexuality, and an overall attitude that morality is relative. By my count this book includes killing God, destroying hell, insinuating that heaven cannot exist, and touches on topics like cannibalism, euthanasia, intelligent design, evolution, child sexuality, and then there are some gay angels thrown in there just in case the rest wasn’t enough. In some publications a paragraph describing Lyra’s sexual awakening was removed.
Geek Parenting: Comics for your Teen Titans #2
My friendly neighborhood comic book expert brings you a second installment of his Geek Parenting series with more reading suggestions for your teen titans to help geek parents (and regular parents) raise their nerdlings right. Remember, most comics are not all-ages and everyone has their own ideas of what is or isn’t age-appropriate. If more parents did a little research beforehand, there might be a lot less banned comics and graphic novels.
Welcome back parents of the geeky and geek-adjacent variety. I got a lot of attention on my last Geek Parenting article so I’m back to offer a few more suggestions for those looking to support their double-digit Supermen and Wonder Women.
This list is once again going to look at books I’d suggest for nerds at that in-between age of 10 to 15.
This time we’re going to look at a couple of old classics that are currently out of print but should be easily available online or at comic conventions.
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Bound and Gagged 