Censorship is alive and well, as highlighted by Banned Books Week—and you might be surprised by who the most vocal challengers of books are.
The importance of the First Amendment and the concept of "intellectual freedom" might not always be readily apparent to most kids, but Banned Books Week is a great opportunity to make those lessons come alive for children—and adults.
Banned Books Week is held annually during the last week of Sept. (Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2012). The week is an occasion for libraries and bookstores across the U.S. to help folks realize just how real and ongoing a problem censorship is.
More than 11,000 books have been challenged (though not necessarily successfully censored) since 1982, the inaugural year of Banned Books Week. According to the American Library Association (ALA), the vast majority of challenges to books are initiated locally by parents, likely in well-meaning attempts to protect their children.
Last year, there were 326 challenges reported to the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, based on everything from offensive language, to violence, insensitivity, religious viewpoint and sexual explicitness. In addition to those challenges, the ALA estimates that as many as 60 to 70 percent of challenges may go unreported.
Over the past year, the 10 most challenged titles were:
1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle
2. The Color of Earth (series) by Kim Dong Hwa
3. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
4. My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy by Dori Hillestad Butler
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
6. Alice (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
8. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
9. Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar
10. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Among banned and challenged classics you’re likely familiar with are:
If you’re interested in celebrating Banned Books Week as part of a lesson for your kids—or simply to feel like a rebellious reader—check out these additional resources:
Do you think books should be banned from schools, bookstores or libraries?
Thomas Wayne Shelton
9:02 am on Sunday, September 30, 2012
Ironic that Huxley's 1984 is on the list. No book should ever be banned on any grounds ... period!
Sean
2:33 pm on Sunday, September 30, 2012
"Ironic that Huxley's 1984 is on the list."
Brave new world indeed.
Sean
2:53 pm on Sunday, September 30, 2012
One point of this article seems to be that freedom of expression is being infringed upon by the banning of books. With no sense of irony, the author appears to desire --presumably on her own authority -- that the banning of books were banned.
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
– T.S. Eliot
Jake Lilley
10:09 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
I'm going to commemorate "Banned Books Week" by reading another historically significant document that is under attack, no longer read and near extinction...the U.S. Constitution.