Student’s mother regrets her comment about burning the book

By Jennifer Moody
Albany Democrat-Herald

HALSEY — A story about a parent refusing to return a book of grim cartoons to the Central Linn High School library has drawn national interest and may have led to a change in the book’s fate.

Taffey Anderson, whose 13-year-old son checked out “The Book of Bunny Suicides,” said at first she would burn the book rather than return it to the district. Now she says she will make it available for the district’s review committee to screen.

The comment about burning the book was made out of anger, Anderson said Tuesday. “That was one thing I should have never said.”

The 2003 book of cartoons by British humorist Andy Riley depicts rabbits killing themselves in various ways: sitting in front of a blowtorch, leaping into the turbine of a jumbo jet, waving goodbye as Noah’s Ark sets sail.

A bookstore in Shanghai, China, reportedly took the book off its shelves last month amid reports of children attempting to commit suicide.

Anderson told the Democrat-Herald last week she does not believe the book has any place in a school library and she would never return it. On Friday, she turned in paperwork requesting a formal review. The Central Linn School Board will appoint members of a review committee as part of a special meeting Monday. Parents, teachers and board members usually make up such a committee.

Anderson said she has been deluged with calls from national media wanting to hear her story. Several people have commented to news outlets they plan to supply Central Linn with a new copy of the book, and at least one person has done so.

Anderson said she’s horrified by the response.

“To accept a book that is in review to be banned, that is talking about suicide?” she said. “A book that’s not good for kids, let’s start giving the school hundreds of them?”

Principal Julie Knoedler said Central Linn, too, has been swamped with calls, letters and e-mails, all of them supporting the school’s choice to have the book on library shelves and many offering to replace it.

And yes, she said, one man did give the school a new copy of the book, but it will not be allowed in the library until after the review — and then only if the committee believes it should be kept.

If more are received, she said, they will be distributed to committee members. Should the book be found unacceptable, any donated copies will be declared as surplus and offered to book wholesalers who generally buy from the district.