Another day, another ridiculous book challenge

Today's installment concerns The Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. CBS News reports that it was challenged at one school because it "encourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them." Further, it was outright banned in 1986 at another elementary school because the poems "glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient." (cbsnews.com). What was going on with parents in the 1980s?