Objectors Dislike ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Oz’

Here is a sampling of stories that seven fundamentalist Christian families objected to in the Holt, Rinehart, Winston series of reading books:

--”Cinderella,” because it mentions magic. (Peter Pan was not objectionable because it depicted flying and not growing old as make-believe rather than magic.)

--”Macbeth,” by William Shakespeare, for its mention of witchcraft and magic.

--”The Wizard of Oz,” by L. Frank Baum, because it portrays a witch as good and because it depicts traits such as courage, intelligence and compassion as personally developed rather than God-given.

--”The Diary of Anne Frank,” because it suggests that all religions are equal in a passage by Anne: “Oh I don’t mean you have to be Orthodox. . . . I just mean some religion. . . . It doesn’t matter what. Just to believe in something.”

--”The Revolt of Mother,” by Mary Wilkins Freeman, a seventh-grade short story about a woman challenging her husband’s authority, because it attacks the “biblical family.”

--A fairy tale by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen because it describes a child’s trip to a fortuneteller, which introduces children to the supernatural.

--Stories about dinosaurs if the creatures are said to be older than the biblical account of the beginning of the world.

--Stories about other religions, including worship by American Indians and followers of Islam.

--A story that depicts a child’s imagination as a “third eye” inside the child’s head because such representations are considered occult and put too much emphasis on a person’s imagination.