Banned Books are Beautiful

Another official week is fast approaching....Banned Book Week!  If that doesn’t make you want to start reading, nothing will.

According to the ALA, the last week in September is reserved for “celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment”, which sounds a lot better than “reading books that your mother wishes you didn’t”.  

BBW is all about intellectual freedom and the right to read or express any idea, even if others hate it (see Terrible Tango post).  The week is sponsored by all sorts of groups and companies that love and sell books.  It is a week to be thankful for outspoken librarians, teachers, booksellers and passionate readers who stand up for controversial books - without their vigilance, many books would be off the shelf and in the dustbin.  

The top three reasons books are challenged, according to the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the ALA are because they are sexually explicit, contain offensive language and are considered inappropriate for specific age groups.  

But according to the Library Bill of Rights, “Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents—and only parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.”

In fact, if librarians do remove material for “protection or for any other reason” they are actually violating the First Amendment.

In 1953 Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stated the issue clearly, “Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”

So by now are you dieing to know the most challenged books in America?  

I am.  

Here is the list from 2010:

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson (see my blog post, Terrible Tango)
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and sexually explicit

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence

Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint

Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons:  homosexuality and sexually explicit

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence

Happy reading and if you didn’t find anything to suit you in this list, stay tuned for the list of challenged classics coming tomorrow!