Amanda Jones is an award-winning middle school librarian in Louisiana.
Let’s back up. Mark Twain wrote a book in 1884 and gave it a simple title, Huckleberry Finn. It’s arguably the finest work of American literature ever.
It’s about a “thirteen to fourteen or along there” boy whose father is a drunk. Huck has a rugged life sleeping outside and depending on food from others. He’s considered “idle, lawless and vulgar,” so other boys admire him while mothers dread him.
Huck helps Jim, a slave, escape from someone who intended to buy him for $800. The two head for freedom, adventure and the Mississippi River. They learn a lot. Every day.
The book was banned in Boston one month after publication, considered racist and filled with rough language (N word!)
It has been censored as recently as 2024, and even rewritten so Pap isn’t a drunk and Jim isn’t a slave, yada yada.
Amanda Jones is fighting to keep towering, ethical and descriptive American texts in schools so students can learn about us and themselves.
How will kids become writers if they’re told what not to read?
And re-write Mark Twain? Oh, please.