photo by MICHAEL OLFERT Navigate Books of the Month: Intro 10 books banned in U.S. schools last year. 5 books to further your education. The Shape of the River by William G. bowen and Derek Bok The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. On the Outside Looking In: A Year in an Inner-City High School by Christina Rathbone The Word on the Street: Fact and Fable About American English by John McWhorter Previous Books of the Month: August: SEX July: AMERICA June: SUMMER May: WOMEN

Books of the Month>> EDUCATION Education seemed so much easier when all you had to learn was the three R's and the most plausible excuses for not having your homework done. The big picture is fraught with complexity and, too often, failure. Will we ever learn? 10 BOOKS BANNED IN U.S. SCHOOLS LAST YEAR I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou Walking Across Egypt, by Clyde Edgerton American Indian Myths and Legends, edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz One Hundred Questions and Answers About AIDS, by Michael Thomas Ford Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain The Color Purple, by Alice Walker ...and the censors' perennial favorite: The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger ALL THAT BOOK LEARNIN' WON'T GET YOU NOWHERE--OR WILL IT? FIVE BOOKS TO FURTHER YOUR EDUCATION Learn Medical Spanish While You Drive Writing Erotic Fiction (the Teach Yourself Series) The Feng Shui Fundamentals in Eight Easy Lessons Bungee Jumping for Fun and Profit How to Discourage Impeccable Birdfeeding     originally published September 30, 1998