We've received hundreds of comments from around the world on the story about a mother, father and student requesting a book be removed from the sophomore advanced English reading curriculum at Fond du Lac High School.

"I know why the Caged Bird Sings," is Maya Angelou's autobiographical account and includes passages about being raped and her subsequent unwanted pregnancy.

It made me think about how books and authors influenced my thinking, my beliefs, my values during formative years.

In the 70s we rarely read alone. With much enthusiasm and conversation we shared our story finds with friends as if we were the first to stumble upon some buried treasure.

Knowing that there were people - in the form of characters - out there that felt as confused and lost as us, people who actually talked about these feelings, gave us all hope.

Some highlights:

Carlos Casteneda and his series of books about his relationship (real or imagined) with a Yaqui shaman named Don Juan. It pretty much blew our minds.

Kurt Vonnegut: "Slaughterhouse Five," "Cat's Cradle," "Breakfast of Champions." His character Kilgore Trout taught us that even sad losers can be heroes.

"Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters," "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "Franny and Zooey." J.D. Salinger, with his adventures of the Glass family, particularly the patriarch Seymour Glass, revealed the normalcy of dysfunctional families.

Poet Richard Brautigan who committed suicide in later years, showed us how to say so much with few words.

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown was a shocking revelation on genocide, done by our own country, and confirmed all the reasons why we had to continue to "stick it to the man."

A rekindled cult following brought us down on our knees before Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." To put a book down and weep your heart out..... I don't think words can convey what Frodo taught us. T-shirts worn around the east side of Milwaukee carried the phrase "Frodo Lives."

Books and stories have done many things to me, none of which were ever bad.

I wonder why most of the controversy is always over sex.

Sitting in the gym at Woodworth Middle School last week I listened and watched as Norman and Millicent Dachman of Madison told middle school students about the Holocaust. Kids were crying, I was crying, teachers were breaking down.

We heard about Freedom fighters urinating on their bread to soften it enough to eat.
We saw heaps of naked, skeletal bodies, crematoriums and Dr. Mengele's creepy place where he experimented on people.

I wonder if parents complained.