I’m surprised there isn’t already a thread on this… The last week in September each year is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. It’s a week for reading banned and challenged books, to protest against censorship. Myself, I went over to the local public library today, and headed straight for the display of frequently-banned books.
Some of the books on display were no surprise. The entire Harry Potter series, of course, is disliked by fundamentalists. The Bible isn’t often banned in this country, but it often is elsewhere. And I haven’t read it (yet; I picked up a copy), but I can see how 1984 might ruffle some feathers. But there were surprises, too… Who on Earth has challenged Little House on the Prairie? The librarian on duty wasn’t sure about that one, either.
What banned books are you folks reading this week?
I didn’t see it on the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week site, but I read somewhere that Little House on the Prairie was banned for being offensive to Native Americans.
Ugh. If I had more time I’d start the obligitory Pit thread about the banning of books. I almost vomited when I saw that even “Bridge To Teribithia” pissed someone off to ban it. :rolleyes:
A slight hijack, when I was in 10th grade (public school) we had an English teacher that bucked the system a bit and had us read books that were banned in other places and that raised a brow in our own community. He encouraged us to write about whatever the hell we wanted to write about because he didn’t believe in silencing creativity, even if that creativity was considered risque and macabre for a 10th grader. He passed out a handout one day containing a list of hundreds of books that had been banned or challenged throughout the U.S. and told us that before we die we should have read every book on that list and to never let anyone tell us what we can and cannot read.
R.I.P. Keith Malcolm; the best teacher a student could have.
Sorry for the highjack, now back to the OP. I just finished A Handmaid’s Tale and will be picking up “Cunt” by Inga Muscio. No doubt that book will be turning up in any high schools or colleges.
I picked up another of the “Alice” books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The first one I tried was so innocuous I couldn’t believe it was banned/challenged, but her books have been in the top 10 in challenged books for a while now.
My post last year on the subject pretty much sums up my feelings about this.
Here are some of the situations that met the condition of a book being considered “banned” for the marketing purposes of “Banned Books Week”:
It wasn’t banned, it was removed from the “required” list to the “suggested reading” list, and alternatives were listed for those parents if they had a problem. The book is still available, still open as a class assignment… it’s just not “required” any more.
Sorry, but that’s not banning. The kids still have the option of reading the book for their assignment, but due to subject matter and the age of the kids in question (13-14) an alternative was offered. Whoop-de-doo.
Some idiot takes a unilateral action, going against professional recommendations, and gets his ass handed to him. If the book was reinstated after the process worked, can you still count it as a “banned” book?
Sorry, but this is much ado about nothing.
*You can do the same with the 2006 report. Or I could just link to it here.
