Library Calendar

Monday, September 26, 2011

Banned Books Week

Once again, it's Banned Books Week. During this week, the American Library Association celebrates the freedom we have in this country to read about whatever we choose even if the material includes ideas that are unpopular or offensive to some.

According to the ALA, the ten most challenged titles of 2010 were:
  • And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Crank by Ellen Hopkins
  • The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins
  • Lush by Natasha Friend
  • What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
  • Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
  • Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer

 Some of the reasons given for challenges are:
  • drugs
  • homosexuality
  • inaccurate
  • insensitivity
  • offensive language
  • political viewpoint
  • racism
  • religious viewpoint
  • sex education
  • sexism
  • sexually explicit
  • unsuited to age group
  • violence

The library has a set of four books in our Reference Department that give the history of censorship challenges of specific titles on Sexual Grounds, Social Grounds,  Political Grounds, and Religious Grounds.  Some of the authors whose works are mentioned are currently popular authors like Toni Morrison,  Maya Angelou and Stephen King. Children's authors like J.K. Rowling, Judy Blume, Lois Lowry, and Dav Pilkey have been challenged. The list also includes Presidents Jefferson and Carter. Others familiar authors who have had their works challenged include: Mark Twain, Charles Dickens  Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Kurt Vonnegut, William Faulkner, Lewis Carroll, Anne Frank, and John Updike. Religious leaders Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, and John Wycliffe have not been exempt from having their work challenged. And finally, Mary H. Weir's last husband, Jerzy Kosinski, can also be found among the challenged authors.

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