It's 2010...are people still trying to ban books?

 

Well, the answer to that question is YES and that is why the American Library Association (ALA), the Library of Congress and others support Banned Book Week which took place from September 25th to October 2nd this year. According to the ALA, Banned Book Week is an annual celebration of "the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment." The goal of this event is to address the importance of maintaining our rights to share ideas and information.  It is also designed as a reminder that books are still being challenged in this country.  In fact, in the past 9 years, over 4,000 challenges were made to libraries in this country.  Most challenges came from parents and, according to the Christian Science Monitor, over half of the 2009 challenges came from Texas and Pennsylvania.  But it is happening in other places too.  Believe it or not, according to The Guardian, a few Merriam Webster dictionaries were taken off the shelves this year in some California classrooms because a parent complained about the content.

Here are the ALA's Top 10 most frequently challenged books from 2009:

10. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier.

9. "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker.

8. "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things" by Carolyn Mackler.

7. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult.

6. "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger.

5. "Twilight" (the series) by Stephenie Meyer.

4. "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

3. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky.

2. "And Tango Makes Three" by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.

1. "ttyl; ttfn; 18r, g8r" (the series) by Lauren Myracle.

So where do you stand on this subject?  Are there some books that shouldn't be printed and shared?  If so, who should get to make those decisions?  And once you let someone else make those choices, where does it end?  Or should we, as individuals, have that control?  Should we alone be the ones to make those decisions for ourselves and our children? What do you think?

 

 

Comments

[Reading Grandma]

As recently as this past month, September, 2010, all copies of a book, "Operation Dark Heart", were burned by the Pentagon. The book was reprinted afterwards, with the banned portions blacked out. I picked it up to buy it and put it down again because the marks are a distraction. Words and sentences are missing from the flow of the story. Supposedly there were parts of the book that were dangerous for other eyes to see. One man's transparency is another man's secret.