Banned Books Week

It's Banned Books Week and the American Library Association is celebrating by posting an interactive map showing the books that have been banned around the country in 2007-2009. Viewers may be surprised to find a large cluster of these prohibited books in some of the bluest of the blue states.

Along with the locations of each reported book, the map also gives the titles and brief summaries of the cases against these books. The stories range from the predictable fears about magic-related books to the traditional opposition to classics like Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (the book was re-allowed in the Manchester, CT classrooms that it had been taken out of after some protesting letters to a local newspaper).

Other books included on the map are And Tango Makes Three, a picture book about a penguin family with two dads, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, for depictions of drugs, rape, and, yes, also homosexuality, and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy for its religious and political viewpoint. Check out the top ten banned books of 2008 at the ALA website.

For Banned Books Week events in your area and to find out what you can do to help, head over to the official Banned Books Week website.

Comments

[SewaneeLeftist]

As someone who read from Huckleberry Finn last year, and would have read from The Color Purple this year if I hadn't been ill, I testify that Banned Books Week is a very important contribution of the ALA.

[ChrisWarren]

How do I get my book onto the banned books list? It sounds like a brilliant way to get people to want to read it!!

People being people will always want something that they are told they cannot have.

Chris Warren
Author and Freelance Writer
Randolph's Challenge Book One - The Pendulum Swings

[Deepblu]

I can't say I disagree. It seems all of these these bans are related to schools, and some of the topics are adult issues kids may not understand. They should stick to things related to the curriculum unless they are prepared to address any unsettling or potentially disturbing content in a manner that is acceptable to parents.
If a kid wants a book that's not available in the library they can always get their parents to go buy it.

[independentlpaz]

And *that's* what's wrong with America!

Empty the libraries, to avoid unsettling or disturbing our 16 year olds. Sounds like an awesome solution to whatever problem Deepblu thinks we're having here. (Sarcasm intended).

As a former child bookworm (unreformed)...I say God bless the librarians for just doing what they do. I never knew what was going to be in the next book I picked up, and that's the beauty and power of libraries. The ability to expose us to all kinds of thoughts. Even if they are occasionally disturbing. Books enrich my life.

Try them sometime, Deepblu

[EduGator]

And Tango Makes Three is such a sweet story. And it's true. It's hard to believe this would be AT THE TOP of the list of most frequently challenged books.

Book bans are always unsettling. But somehow the Tango situation is really difficult for me to take. I guess that's because it's because the book is based on factual events that happen in the natural world. We don't shelter our children from the fact that animals eat each other, but we shelter our children from the fact that animals can love each other and even form adoptive families.

My colleague Jeff Sapp wrote post about gay-themed children's books on the Teaching Tolerance website. (http://www.tolerance.org/blog/gay-children-s-books) Some interesting comments there.