Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Banned Books Weeks 2011 will be observed September 24-October 1.
Jonah Goldberg claims that Banned Books Week (BBW) is nothing but hype. In a column he penned for USA Today in early September, Goldberg wrote that BBW “is an exercise in propaganda.” He continued, “For starters, as a legal matter no book in America is banned, period, full stop (not counting, I suppose, some hard-core illegal child porn or some such out there). Any citizen can go to a bookstore or Amazon.com and buy any book legally in print — or out of print for that matter.”
Evidently, Goldberg thinks that books which have been removed from the shelves of public and school libraries “due to pressure from someone who isn’t a librarian or a teacher” don’t count as “banned books.” He appears to believe they can only be considered banned books if they have been banned on a national level. So what if books are removed from school and public libraries? One can always get a copy at a book store or from Amazon.com. Right?
Goldberg got into the numbers of challenged books to demonstrate how “overhyped” stories about banned books are. He wrote that reported challenges had dropped from 513 in 2008 to 348 in 2010—and that the “historic norm is a mere 400 to 500 bans or challenges” a year. He said there are almost 100,00 public schools in this country educating approximately 50 million students—as well as 33,000 private schools and 10,000 public libraries. According to Goldberg’s math—if there were “500 parent-driven ‘bans or challenges’ in a given year in public schools, that would mean for every 200 public schools, or every 100,000 students, at least one parent even complained about an age-inappropriate book. What an epidemic!”
Reported challenges…a mere 400 to 500 bans or challenges…only one book challenge per 100,000 students. What’s the fuss all about? Why should people be concerned? Maybe the American Library Association, public libraries, and schools in this country should only begin to worry when the censorship, challenging, and banning of books becomes an epidemic. Why address the problem when the numbers are so small?
Well, one could conclude that many book challenges aren’t reported. As noted on the ALA website: “We do not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges as research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five that go unreported.” And I have little doubt that there are many librarians, teachers, readers, and defenders of the First Amendment who feel that an historic norm of 400 to 500 challenges a year are a few hundred too many.
I have to wonder at Goldberg’s motives for writing his column. Was it so he could get in a dig at teachers’ unions? Here’s what he wrote about them:
“These days, teachers unions are fond of claiming that apathetic parents deserve more of the blame for the woeful state of education today. Maybe so. But a national policy of bullying parents interested in what their kids are reading hardly seems like the best way to encourage them. Indeed, from these numbers, the real scandal might be that so few books are “banned or challenged.’”
I’m not sure how Goldberg drew the conclusion that there is a “national policy” of bullying parents who are interested in what their children read. He didn’t provide any proof that there was. And why would Goldberg suggest that the real scandal is that so few books are being banned or challenged? Does he think that more books should be banned and challenged every year?
Molly Raphael, President of the American Library Association, responded to Goldberg’s column. She wrote:
“When a library removes a book from its shelves because someone disapproves of the ideas or opinions contained in the book, that is censorship. When it is done by publicly funded schools and libraries — government agencies — it is a violation of the First Amendment.”
Raphael said we should remember that when a book is removed from a library it is an act of censorship that affects an entire community—not just one individual or one family. She also said that public libraries “serve everyone, including those who are too young or too poor to buy their own books or own a computer.” She added that the reason librarians and library users celebrate BBW is as “a testament to the strength of our freedom in the United States. We celebrate the freedom to read because we all know that we are so fortunate to live in a country that protects our freedom to choose what we want to read. If you doubt this, just ask anyone from a totalitarian society. That is why we draw attention to acts of censorship that chill the freedom to read.”
Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
You may kill him — another will be born.
Deeds and words shall be recorded.
~ Czeslaw Milosz, Poland
The lives of artists are more fragile than their creations. The poet Ovid was exiled by Augustus to a little hell-hole on the Black Sea called Tomis, but his poetry has outlasted the Roman Empire. Osip Mandelstam died in a Stalinist work camp, but his poetry has outlived the Soviet Union. Federico García Lorca was killed by the thugs of Spain’s Generalissimo Francisco Franco, but his poetry has survived that tyrannical regime.
We can perhaps bet on art to win over tyrants. It is the world’s artists, particularly those courageous enough to stand up against authoritarianism, for whom we need to be concerned, and for whose safety we must fight.
~ Salman Rushdie, 19 April 2011
Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2010 (Out of 348 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom)
- And Tango Makes Three*, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
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
(*And Tango Makes Three is a picture book.)
Sources and Further Reading
Column: Banned Books Week is just hype (USA Today)
Banned Books Week celebrates freedom to read (USA Today)
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read (ALA)
Frequently Challenged Books (ALA)
Banned Books Week 2011 (Amnesty International)
The 11 Most Surprising Banned Books (PHOTOS, POLL) (Huffington Post)
Letter re: Slaughterhouse Five Ban in Republic, MO (National Coalition Against Censorship)
First Lady Laura Bush Cancels Poetry Gathering Fearing Anti-War Poems: Democracy Now! Hosts Its Own Poetry Slam with Def Poetry Jam Stars Staceyann Chin, Suheir Hammad and Steve Colman (Democracy Now, 2/7/2003)
Other Turley Blog Posts on the Censorship, Challenging, and Banning of Books
Publisher Announces Intention to Edit Huckleberry Finn To Remove N-Word
On the Banning, Censorship, and Challenging of Books
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?—I See Anti-Marxists Looking at Me!
“Banned Books Week”
Constitutional Law Prof Blog
September 25, 2010
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2010/09/banned-books-week.html
Excerpt:
The last week in September is the American Library Association’s “Banned Books Week”: “an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment,” which “highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.”
A classic example of the situation “banned books week” is meant to address occurred earlier this month when a school board in Stockton, Missouri unanimously banned Sherman Alexie’s National Book Award winning novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian from the school curriculum.
Otteray,
I hope you’ll post a link to your Daily Kos diary about your wife here at the Turley blog. Please know that my thoughts are with you and your family at this difficult time.
I will be looking for your column over at the Daily Kos, O.S.
OS,
You presence is warming….Thank you for taking the time…I/We hope to hear from you soon…
Welcome back OS, even if it is just temporary. Hang in there.
I have been offline for the past several days. I was unaware that Elaine had posted the announcement of the loss of the love of my life after 55 years. For the first time in more than a week, I logged on and was reading comments in this thread when I saw her note and the kind responses.
I will be writing a diary about her over on Daily Kos and also Street Prophets in a day or two. The memorial service will be on Thursday–we had hoped sooner, but that was the soonest we could get it scheduled.
It will be a long time before I am back to anything resembling normal. Maybe never. But I am passionate about many of the issues debated here, as was she, but she was not a blogger herself. I did get ideas from her as she would read over my shoulder and make suggestions for comments. Some of the trolls and right-wingers got her Celtic dander up and she used some language about some of them that could not be put in a family newspaper. When I did use some of her comments, I must admit I had to do a little censoring myself. Not for content of course, but for style.
Why do gay penguins make people so mad? ‘Tango’ tops banned books list — again.
LA Times
April 12, 2011
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/04/why-do-gay-penguins-make-people-so-mad-tango-tops-banned-books-list-again.html
Excerpt:
It’s just an orphan penguin with two daddies. Why can’t people let it alone?
Once again, “And Tango Makes Three,” the award-winning children’s book, has topped the American Library Assn.’s list of most frequently challenged books, announced Monday. “And Tango Makes Three” tells the true story of two emperor penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo who hatched and parented a baby chick. What about the book has gotten feathers ruffled? The emperor penguins were both male.
Written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole, “And Tango Makes Three” has spent five years on the most-challenged list. For 2010 it again took the top spot. The library association writes that objections to the book include it being deemed “unsuited for age group.” “Religious viewpoint” and “homosexuality” have also been cited as reasons for challenging the book.
Student Runs Secret Banned Books Library from Locker
http://www.care2.com/causes/student-runs-secret-banned-books-library-from-locker.html
Excerpt:
A Catholic school student who identifies herself by the avatar name “Nekochan” started an unofficial library of banned books that she runs out of her locker at school. She began to lend books to her classmates when her school banned a long list of classic titles, including The Canterbury Tales, Paradise Lost and Animal Farm.
Concerned about getting in trouble for violating school rules, Nekochan wrote a letter to an online advice column to ask if it was “ok to run an illegal library” from her locker.
Nekochan wrote about the recent book ban: “I was absolutely appalled, because a huge number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well… I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book because he heard it was very good AND it was banned! This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list.”
I understand the appeal of reading banned books because they are banned. When I was eleven, I bought a banned books poster at a school book fair and proceeded to read each of the titles on the poster, crossing each one out as I went. It still hangs on the wall of my childhood bedroom.
Books are banned for many reasons, but in a lot of cases, such as Nekochan’s, the complaint originates in religion. Amelia T.’s Care2 post discusses the case of a public school that banned books for “contradicting the Bible.” In that case, only one member of the school board had read all of the books under consideration for banishment. Books are often banned by school boards whose only knowledge of the books is a brief, out-of-context quotation.
Ten Books About Censorship For Kids & Teens
by Rocco Staino
Huffington Post, 9/18/2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rocco-staino/banned-book-week_b_968389.html#s364518&title=Places_I_Never
Excerpt:
The annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment, Banned Book Week is September 24th — October 1st. Each year the list of frequently challenged books is highlighted and this year the American Library Association is encouraging people to participate in a Virtual Read-Out.
Despite the high visibility of the event, there are few stories for kids and young adults with censorship as the theme. To help celebrate Banned Book Week I have compiled a list of 10 books that deal with censorship in various areas.
Vonnegut Library Donates Copies Of ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ To School District Where It Was Banned
Huffington Post
8/5/11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/kurt-vonnegut-republic-missouri-slaughterhouse-five-book-banning_n_919455.html
Excerpts:
In response to the Republic, Mo., school board’s controversial decision last week to remove “Slaughterhouse-Five” from its high school library and curriculum, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis announced that it would offer a free copy of the modern classic to 150 of the school’s students, thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous donor.
Julia Whitehead, the Executive Director of the Vonnegut Library, told HuffPost that the gift was part of an effort to raise public awareness of the school board’s decision, and that she hoped parents in the school district might get involved.
“All of these students will be eligible to vote, and some may be protecting our country through military service in the next year or two,” Whitehead said in a statement. “It is shocking and unfortunate that those young adults and citizens would not be considered mature enough to handle the important topics raised by Kurt Vonnegut, a decorated war veteran. Everyone can learn something from his book.”
The school board voted unanimously last week to eliminate “Slaughterhouse-Five,” as well as Sarah Ockler’s “Twenty Boy Summer,” from Republic High School’s curriculum and remove copies of them from its library, after a local resident publicly complained about their “inappropriate” content and said they promote values contrary to those found in the bible.
When the school board’s decision was announced, The Vonnegut Library began working with Doug Bonney, an attorney and legal director of Western Missouri’s ACLU organization.
Bonney said that the ACLU has been following this situation ever since a Missouri State University professor, Wesley Scroggins, wrote an article in the Springfield News-Leader last fall complaining about what he viewed as inappropriate content featured in “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Twenty Boy Summer,” as well as in another book, the award-winning young adult novel, “Speak.”
*****
Wall of Separation, the official blog of the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, recently revisited a 1982 censorship case in a New York school district, which had also tried to remove “Slaughterhouse-Five” from its curriculum.
After the case was presented to the Supreme Court, Justice William Brennan led the charge against the book’s removal, writing that school boards cannot remove books “simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books” and “seek by their removal to ‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.'”
Now, almost thirty years later, the book has come up against similar opposition. In a statement from the Vonnegut Library, Whitehead quoted Vonnegut himself, who wrote: “All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values… and I say let’s get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States — and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!”
Great links Elaine. The more I read, the more disturbed I get.
Are these books not for our kids?
State ACLU issues list of what’s been deemed improper school reading
Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/life/article/Are-these-books-not-good-for-our-kids-1699531.php
When books are banned in schools, it’s usually because of sex.
But profanity, violence, religion, politics, race — they get their face time, too. The same issues that spark hot tempers and raised voices between friends also pit First Amendment devotees against protective parents.
Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of the freedom to read, begins Saturday. And for the 14th year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has compiled a report on books challenged and banned across the state.
“Sometimes challenges are denied, sometimes books are banned, sometimes there is restricted access,” says Dotty Griffith, public education director for the ACLU of Texas.
Twenty books were banned and 87 challenged in Texas public schools during 2009-10. Bans and challenges are made district by district.
The list of banned books ranges from older titles, including Forever and Then Again, Maybe I Won’t, by Judy Blume, to newer books, such as Cecily von Ziegesar’s Would I Lie to You: A Gossip Girl Novel. Among the notable literature challenged: Flowers for Algernon, The Catcher in the Rye and The Kite Runner.
To some extent, what gets banned or challenged depends on what’s in fashion. In the past, Harry Potter books were challenged because of their focus on witchcraft. Similar cases were made against vampire books, although Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series was challenged by only one district in 2009-10.
Yet some topics always fall under scrutiny. This year, as in years past, some of the banned books have gay themes.
“When we talk about a book being banned, we mean being taken off the shelf,” says Gloria Meraz, communications director for the Texas Library Association. “A ‘challenge’ is when questions about a book are raised.”
The greatest number of challenges came from Leander Independent School District north of Austin, followed closely by Round Rock and Cypress-Fairbanks independent school districts. In Leander, nearly every challenge came from a parent or guardian.
The Houston Independent School District did not report any challenges or bans. This is big news; two years ago HISD reported more challenges than any other district.
Katy and Conroe Independent School districts reported no challenges. Fort Bend ISD reported one challenge: Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes. Ultimately, the book was retained and no restrictions were placed on it.
Incident in Humble
Middle schools across Texas saw the most controversy, with 50 percent of banned books removed from their shelves or class reading lists.
“The genre of young adult or teen lit increasingly does try to deal with real life in many ways,” Griffith says. “I think there is a desire to shield kids from some of the tougher situations, but if young people weren’t being confronted with certain kinds of situations, there wouldn’t be books about them.”
The recent incident at the Humble Independent School District with author Ellen Hopkins – whose young-adult books were restricted in a few districts this year – is a case in point.
When the bestselling author was pulled from a lineup of writers to appear at a Teen Lit Fest in Humble, cries of censorship burst from the literary community. After other authors backed out of the event to support Hopkins – whose books have tackled meth addiction, teen prostitution and suicide – the district canceled the festival.
Knight: Banned Books Week promotes, protects freedom
By Bill Knight
Pekin Daily Times
Posted Sep 19, 2011
http://www.pekintimes.com/opinions/columnists/x827640680/Knight-Banned-Books-Week-promotes-protects-freedom
Excerpt:
Now, parents have the right — the responsibility — to guide their own children’s reading, of course. But that right does not extend to other people’s children. The rights and protections of the First Amendment extend to children and teens as well as adults.
A list of banned books includes not just trendy teen titles about vampires or coming-of-age tales. Titles that have been forced off the shelves include classics and respected authors: “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Great Gatsby”; “Brave New World” and “1984”; John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway; “Catch-22” and “The Catcher in the Rye”; “Invisible Man” and “The Color Purple”; Mark Twain and Jack London.
Objecting is not always illogical or insane, of course. Some books are vulgar, offensive or disturbing. But what’s troubling can be provocative; what’s provocative can lead to good results.
After all, in some places, the Qur’an and Holy Bible have been banned. Even within faiths, authoritarians include and exclude Scriptures. Institutional Christianity centuries ago banned the Books of Mary and Thomas; today, Catholic Bibles include Old Testament Books of Judith, Maccabees, Sirach, Tobit and Wisdom that Protestant Bibles omitted.
So, to protect our right to be informed and inspired, we must challenge attempts to censor by watching for, attending and participating in relevant public meetings, by writing letters to public officials and local media, by supporting local libraries, schools and booksellers, and by working with others to protect the freedoms we share and enjoy.
Also, the best tool against censorship, like most disease, is prevention. That requires us to keep informed. Groups providing news on censorship and banned books range from the First Amendment Center (www.firstamendmentcenter.org/research-articles/) to the McCormick Foundation’s Freedom Project (www.freedomproject.us/post-exchange). Other organizations include the American Booksellers Association, the Freedom to Read Foundation and the National Council of Teachers of English, plus the National Coalition Against Censorship, the PEN American Center and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Elaine, You must have struck a nerve for Goldberg to reply to you specifically. Well done girl! Well done 🙂
OS, I’m so sorry to hear of your loss and offer my most sincere condolences.
darby,
The more Irish here the better!
Book banning, coming to a library near you?
Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), Public Information Office (PIO)
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/book-banning-coming-library-near-you
Excerpt:
“The removal of one book is the equivalent of stripping away the rights of hundreds to choose books for themselves,” said ALA President Molly Raphael. “As we have seen this year, too often the voices of a few have restricted the rights of many.”
The Republic (Mo.) High School banned Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” due to a complaint that the book “teaches principles contrary to Biblical morality and truth.” The book was banned, and more than 150 students and their families lost access to the American classic.
In many cases, it is only through public concern and citizen involvement that books are saved from confiscation or from being kept under lock and key.
Only after national outcry the Republic School Board of Education in Missouri has agreed to reconsider the banning of “Slaughterhouse-Five.”
In Norwalk, Conn., Ponus Ridge Middle School Library retained the first book written entirely in the format of instant messaging, “ttyl,”by Lauren Myracle, after the book was facing removal due to complaints that the book’s text was “grammatically incorrect” and used foul language. After a public outcry and a board review, school officials decided to keep the controversial novel for young adults in the library.
Raphael continued, “Library collections should reflect the diverse viewpoints of our nation. We may not share the same viewpoints, but we cannot live in a free society and develop our own opinions if our right to access information freely is compromised.”
My sympathies go out to OS and his family too. He is a solid contributor on this blog and the Daily Kos. Loved the story he told about his grandson, the young chef.
Not by the Hair of our Chinny Chin Chin!
Libraries will say “no” to censors, big, bad, and otherwise, during Banned Books Week.
http://oxford-ct.patch.com/articles/not-by-the-hair-of-our-chinny-chin-chin
Excerpt:
During the last week of September, libraries nationwide participate in Banned Books Week, a celebration of the First Amendment. The American Library Association uses this event to promote “the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship.”
Because censorship is illegal, it may be assumed that no one challenges the placement of books on school and public libraries’ shelves. That’s not true.
In 2010, 348 challenges were reported to the American Library Association. In these cases, people requested that books be removed from library collections or that they be restricted to certain age groups. Complaints were based on content that was deemed unsuitable. “Unsuitable” could mean “sexually explicit” or “offensive” or “too mature” or any number of other adjectives that are entirely subjective.
In most instances, nothing came of these challenges. That fact combined with the relatively low number of reported complaints has caused some to dismiss the value of Banned Books Week. In fact, syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg recently suggested that Banned Books Week uses “propaganda” to combat “mythical censorship.”
To emphasize the supposed ridiculousness of Banned Books Week, Goldberg focused on parents’ challenges to school books. He wrote, “If you complain that your 8-year-old kid shouldn’t be reading a book with lots of sex, violence or profanity until he or she is a little older, you’re not a good parent; you’re a would-be book-banner.” Goldberg seems to believe that there is “a national policy of bullying parents interested in what their kids are reading.”
Goldberg missed the point.
The purpose of Banned Books Week isn’t to judge parents’ decisions for their children. Rather, among other things, the week supports parents’ right to make choices for their own children – without making choices that could affect someone else’s kids. It is one thing for a parent to complain that his or her child should not be expected to read a book that that individual believes is inappropriate. It is a completely different issue for a parent to suggest that no other children should have access to that material.
Often book challengers have good intentions. When it comes to school books, those who complain may claim to simply be protecting children. But sometimes there may not be anything for children to be protected from.
The truth is, people actually have questioned whether or not “The Three Little Pigs” is suitable for children. According to BBC News, in 2008, a British government agency declined to give an award to a children’s story based on “The Three Little Pigs,” partially because the agency feared the story could offend Muslims. Due to their religious beliefs, Muslims do not eat pork.
Objections to “The Three Little Pigs” have been made in our country, too. According to the book Banned in the USA, citizens of Hawkins County, Tenn., protested the use of a Basic Reading textbook series in their public school system in 1983. Among the many complaints regarding these books, one in particular stands out: the books contained the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” In a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, a concerned citizen criticized the classic tale for featuring a punishment when a crime hadn’t been committed.
If these viewpoints seem far-fetched, then it should be easy to understand the significance of the First Amendment. No one should be denied access to even one book based on the opinions of another person. Who is to say one opinion is more valuable than another?
Critics like Jonah Goldberg can suggest Banned Books Week is flawed, but this event directs attention to an important fact: challengers can huff and puff, but they can’t blow the First Amendment down. That’s something to celebrate during the last week of September and all year long.
I am not understanding what you are saying. Are you speaking to me or this AY person. I have less than a half hour to home. I will stop by Tompkins before I get home.