Banned and Challenged Books

1. Banned and Challenged Books The American Library Association promotes the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinions even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

2. What's the difference between a challenge and a banning? • A challenge is an attempt or effort to remove or restrict materials (books/magazines, music school textbooks, public speech), based upon the objections of a person or group, thereby restricting the access of others.  • A banning is the removal of those materials.  • Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection. • Censoring entirely is an extremely rare occurrence since it is so definitive. Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body. Origin: Latin, Roman magistrate, from censēre to give as one's opinion, assess.

3. Why challenge a book? • Books usually are challenged with the best intentions—to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information, yet they may not understand how censorship limits freedom in a democratic society. • The following were the top three reasons cited for challenging materials as reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom: • the material was considered to be "sexually explicit" • the material contained "offensive language" • the material was "unsuited to any age group"

4. ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) • "While we firmly support the right of every reader to choose or reject a book for themselves or their families, those objecting to a particular book should not be given the power to restrict other readers' right to access and read that book," says Barbara Jones, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). "As members of a pluralistic and complex society, we must have free access to a diverse range of viewpoints on the human condition in order to foster critical thinking and understanding. We must protect one of the most precious of our fundamental rights—the freedom to read."

5. OIF Censorship Database Challenge Reasons

6. OIF Censorship Database Challenge Groups

7. 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.” • Is there an age where this responsibility becomes the child’s and not the parents?

8. Who Challenges Books? • Throughout history, more and different kinds of people and groups of all persuasions than you might first suppose, who, for all sorts of reasons, have attempted—and continue to attempt—to suppress anything that conflicts with or anyone who disagrees with their own beliefs. • Parents challenge materials more often than any other group. • “People only challenge a book when they fear it has the power to influence thought and create change.” Justin Richardson, author of And Tango Makes Three

9. History of Destruction • European conquistadores in the Americas destroyed hundred of books on astronomy, religion and philosophy from the Mayan culture that can never be regained.

10. History of Destruction • In an effort to control thought and create a totalitarian state, the Nazis banned listening to jazz music and burned books.

11. History of Destruction • 21st Century Book Burning • March 2001 Penn Township, Pennsylvania • Books, videos, and CDs were burned including Harry Potter, Disney’s versions of Pinocchio and Aladdin, and music by Eminem

12. 1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald 2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger 3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck 4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee 5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker 6. Ulysses, by James Joyce 7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison 8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding9. 1984, by George Orwell 11. Lolita, by VladmirNabokov12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck 15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley 17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell 18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway 19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner 20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway 23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by ZoraNealeHurston24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison 25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison 26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell 27. Native Son, by Richard Wright 28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut 30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway 33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London 36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin 38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren 40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair 48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence 49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess 50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin 53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote 55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie 57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut 67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles 73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs 74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh 75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence 80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer 84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller 88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser 97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike Banned and Challenged Classics

13. Frequently challenged books of the 21st century Background Information from 2001 to 2010 • Over the past ten years, American libraries were faced with 4,660 challenges. • 1,536 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material; • 1,231 challenges due to “offensive language”; • 977 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”; • 553 challenges due to “violence” • 370 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and • Further, 121 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 304 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.” • 1,720 of these challenges (approximately 37%) were in classrooms; 30% (or1,432) were in school libraries; 24% (or 1,119) took place in public libraries.  There were 32 challenges to college classes; and 106 to academic libraries.  There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups.  The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 48%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% each).

14. 2010 Challenged Books • 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 AlexieReasons: 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 SonesReasons: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group • Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara EhrenreichReasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint • Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy SonnieReasons:  homosexuality and sexually explicit • Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence

15. To Find a Challenged 21 Century Book • http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged/index.cfm • You can find this link on our school website under Library>Challenged Books. • Judy Blume is one of the most frequently challenged authors of books for children and young adults.