Why We Still Need Banned Books Week

By Carol Baicker-McKee


Most Challenged Book of 2010

 First a few notes:
1. All the opinions expressed in this post are my own and not necessarily those of anyone else who writes for this blog.

2. In fact, these opinions are definitely not those of Cynthia Light Brown, whose post immediately preceding this one (Why Banned Books Week Needs Some Rethinking) takes the opposing view. I strongly suggest you read it along with mine, if you haven't already.

3. I know Cynthia well and like and respect her. She is one of the smartest, most thoughtful women I know - and she's an outstanding writer and excellent parent to boot. I am grateful that we can disagree about issues important to us and still remain friends. I am also grateful that she makes me think and reexamine my positions - and sometimes change my mind.

 Cynthia wrote that Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association, makes her mentally roll her eyes for several reasons. She raises some interesting concerns worth contemplating.

Cynthia first argues that the language surrounding the event is misused, that true censorship does not exist in the United States today - even if a particular book is removed from a school's curriculum or library, it is still available for purchase. In a sense, she's right. With exceptions for materials like child pornography, books today are not openly prohibited by most western governments or booksellers.


Second Most Challenged Book of 2010

 But as a midlist writer who struggles to get her books known, I can tell you that being excluded from schools or libraries does create a more subtle form of censorship. With the near-demise of brick and mortar bookstores, the shrinking of review outlets and the mountains of media available for consumption, schools and libraries play critical roles in bringing books to the attention of readers; what readers don't know exists, they of course won't read. (Though ironically, being challenged can increase a book's profile and eventual popularity). And even if potential readers know about a particular book and are interested, many will choose something else instead if they must buy it; after all, there are many other good books available free through the library. Some readers, particularly in these tough economic times, may not be able to afford it. And other readers will avoid excellent books - like the classic below - that they would read and love if compelled to at school - because they perceive them as likely to be too difficult or boring to attempt on their own.


Third Most Challenged Book of 2010

 Even more importantly, schools and libraries are such important markets to many publishers that if schools won't buy certain types of books, publishers won't publish them. Furthermore, many writers in turn will self-censor what they write so as to invest their efforts in something publishable. In this way, the preferences of a minority can in fact shape the kinds of books available to everyone.

Cynthia also notes, correctly, that the number of recorded challenges last year was miniscule, particularly in comparison to the number of schools and readers. I can only reiterate what ALA says, which is that we know the recorded challenges are only the tip of the iceberg - and speculate that were it not for events like Banned Books Week and the determination of librarians, teachers and booksellers to defend challenged books there might be many, many more challenges, including many more successful ones, and recognize that realistically a fair bit of "censorship" probably has happened at every stage of the process from writing and editorial to purchase and use-decisions. (I do understand Cynthia's point that many parents also choose not to challenge books that make them uncomfortable, but in the absence of numbers, my own sense is that unreported challenges greatly outnumber uncomfortable parents.)


Fourth Most Challenged Book of 2011

 Here is the part of Cynthia's post that gives me the most pause:

But my biggest problem with Banned Books Week is that it actually creates a climate that suppresses the voicing of opinions. The not-quite-said message is that anyone who challenges a book is a lunatic, and books should NEVER be challenged....Most challenges are related directly or indirectly to the suitability of books for kids. Here is the crux of the question for me: Who gets to decide what kids read?


I do support the right of parents to be active participants in their children's educations and I like the idea of local control of public schools. As a writer and illustrator I count on books to be powerful - to change people's attitudes and lives. As a result, the idea of questioning a book that a child will read, especially be compelled to read and discuss in the classroom, is not completely crazy to me.

I particularly feel sympathy toward parents of young children, who of course should monitor their youngster's media consumption. I also sympathize with parents who might have a special concern about their child or a cohort of kids. For example, in the immediate aftermath of a school shooting, it wouldn't be nuts for parents to prefer not to have an entire grade forced to read and discuss Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes about a school massacre. One of my favorite authors even censored himself: Terry Pratchett delayed the release of his YA novel Nation about a young man who is the sole survivor of a tsunami when it was due to be released just after the Indonesian tsunami; the timing seemed disrespectful to him.


Fifth Most Challenged Book of 2010

 The problem, though, is that most of the challenges do not fall  into these reasonable situations. First, while parents should have input about the books used in schools or bought for libraries - and most of the time they can - it seems reasonable to me that the ultimate decisions should be made not by a narrow group of vocal parents but by the representatives who are charged with balancing the needs of the whole community. In most communities, the "choosers" - teachers, administrators, librarians, school boards - are folks who know kids, literature and their communities well and who have the best interests of all the kids at heart. Will that mean that some parents are unhappy at times? Undoubtedly - but living as part of a community requires all of us to make compromises and at times to fail to have things the way we prefer. I'm sure it's a rare parent who never objects to any material or teaching approach. And most of the time the best way to deal with it will  not be to insist it be changed, but to talk with your kid about the materials and situation.
The Top Five Challenged Books of 2010 I've shown (see the whole Top Ten list here) are critically acclaimed books with well-recognized literary merit.  Do they deal with difficult subjects? Of course - good literature does. But they do so in ways intended to make people think, to grow in ways that help them become better individuals and better citizens. (And nearly all the most-challenged books are aimed at adolescents, who by and large have the experience and maturity to grapple with challenging ideas.)

My biggest concern is that the parents and organizations who lodge most of the challenges tend to be perhaps not lunatic, but often woefully uninformed. Friends who are on school boards or work in libraries tell me most of the parents who file complaints have never actually read the books in question; either they have "heard" that the books contain objectionable material or they have read a passage taken out of context either of the book's overall message or the classroom discussion. And context matters.

In the end, it's ironic that Cynthia feels like Banned Books Week silences parents who want to have a say in what their kids read; but for Banned Books Week, I doubt I'd have learned her thoughts about censorship and kids. And I'm quite sure I wouldn't have spent nearly so many hours thinking about or discussing it.

What are your thoughts about Banned Books Week and kids?

Why Banned Books Week Needs Some Re-thinking

By Cynthia Light Brown

First, some notes:

1. As always, but particularly in this case, the following represents my opinions, and not those of the rest of the Rt. 19 bloggers.

2. I love librarians and teachers. For both me and my kids, librarians have been extremely helpful in choosing books, finding resources for research, and just plain-old discussing books. My kids have had some truly amazing teachers over the years. Librarians and teachers work very hard and have pressures from all sides, including parents who may or may not be reasonable.

3. I’ve never challenged a book, and don’t intend to ever do so. My kids are ages 11, 15, and 17, and it’s really never occurred to me to object to a book they want to read, much less one they’re reading in school. If I had concerns about what they were reading, my approach would be to engage them in conversation (though for movies I have occasionally not allowed them to watch something they wanted to). Books are an important place for all of us, kids included, to explore other perspectives and experiences.

But whenever I see something about Banned Books Week, I mentally roll my eyes. There are a few reasons why:

I think people mis-use the term censorship and banning. Anyone can purchase any book in this country. So if a book is challenged for use in an 8^th grade classroom and subsequently taken off the reading list, that book can still be read by people. It’s still available, it’s just not required reading in 8^th grade.

I also roll my eyes because I just don’t see this as a big deal. There were 348 challenges last year. That’s for about 130,000 schools and about 50 million students. I know people say that that masks all the times that a teacher simply changed the book so that someone wouldn’t challenge, or never put it on the list in the first place, but it also masks the times that a parent continues to have an issue and just drops it.

But my biggest problem with Banned Books Week is that it actually creates a climate that suppresses the voicing of opinions. The not-quite-said message is that anyone who challenges a book is a lunatic, and books should NEVER be challenged. Even for writing this post I’m a little bit suspect, which is why I felt compelled to state my own personal approach to letting my kids read books.

Most challenges are related directly or indirectly to the suitability of books for kids. Here is the crux of the question for me: Who gets to decide what kids read? (I’m addressing the question of books in reading lists and school libraries—I think the question for public libraries is a different one.) Right now, librarians select books to be in the school library, and teachers select the books that are on required and optional reading lists.

In the great majority of cases, the librarians and teachers do a good job. But what if there’s an exception? On a popular writers bulletin board, someone noted that her child’s 4^th grade public school teacher assigned a book about a girl who comes to know and love Jesus. I don’t know what the book is, and whether it has other merits, but it certainly could be a prime suspect for a challenge. Likewise, if a teacher assigned a book to 4^th graders about a girl who came to lose her faith, that could also be a poor choice. And even if a book has literary benefits, why can’t parents have input into these decisions? Particularly for books on required lists, having your child read something different is problematic, especially in middle and high school when discussion is part of the class.

So I propose that instead of creating a culture of silence, we should encourage discussion and parents’ opinions. In its current formulation, I think Banned Books Week does more of the former than the latter. How can that change?

Freedom, what type of word is it?

Look at this picture and what do you see?

An adorable cover illustration by Garth Williams (The Rabbits' Wedding, New York: Harper & Row, 1958).

There were people who looked at this very picture an saw something so terrible that they wanted to burn the book. Just because of the cover.

Can you guess?

One rabbit is black and the other is white and that scared the beejeeeebers out of some folks because for them they saw black and white and the word wedding and that meant BURN THIS BOOK lest an innocent child see it!

Insane.

But then, when the word police (or image police) are on the lookout, well little bunny books, you'd best beware, you'd best take care.

The recent arrival of movie-making people and equipment has heralded the arrival of the crew filming "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (by Pittsburgh native, Stephen Chbosky). Well that arrival, along with the Fourth of July got me thinking about this Freedom word. Freedom vs censorship. Because, as far as I'm concerned if we aren't free to read, then we are not free. And what did we declare ourselves free from?

It really irks me when I hear of a teacher leaving a book off a reading list because someone might find (MIGHT FIND) it offensive for their child, well, darn it, that offends me!

Here is a list of ten books that were frequently challenged from 2000-2009

(http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/censorship/a/challenged.htm)

1. Harry Potter (series) by JK Rowling

2. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parness

5. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

7. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz

8. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman

9. ttyl, ttfn, 18r, g8r (series), by Myracle, Lauren

10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Why these books frighten anyone...well, sticks and stones.

Some of them have SEX! Some are SCARY! Some have drug use! Some dwell in other worlds.

There is one that is a very true story about two penguins and they adopt and egg and the egg hatches and the two penguins love the baby penguin. It just happens that the two penguins are male, so obviously their love for the baby isn't real, it's DANGEROUS! It will warp a child's mind!

Just like the image of the black rabbit falling in love with the white rabbit.

I want you to think about the Fourth of July and that word FREEDOM. I want you to ask yourself as a writer, just how much freedom do you really have?