To challenge a book is to request that it be banned from libraries, including school libraries, because it is "inappropriate". Inappropriate in what way, for whom? And who is to say what is inappropriate for me to read, or for me to decide my child can read.
Says Barbara Jones, director of ALA's office for intellectual freedom, "Even though not every book will be right for every reader, the ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values. Protecting one of our most fundamental rights - the freedom to read - means respecting each other's differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read."
According to the American Library Association (ALA), many hundreds of challenges are filed each year. The ALA records eighty-one instances in which materials were actually removed from schools and libraries in 2009.
According to the ALA, the ten most challenged titles of 2009 were:
1. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series) by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality
[See review of this book on this blog Thursday.]
3. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
What happens in the Cave doesn't always stay there... Conversations and news from Ellora's Cave Publishing, an erotic romance publisher.
4 comments:
Oh dear. It just makes me want to read a book if someone tries to ban it. OOOOOHHH. I just hit on a surefire way to sell mine. Ban them for being subversive!!!
Several years ago a friend of mine called, upset because her daughter's enriched language arts class (6th grade) was reading "My Sister's Keeper." I'd already read it and had to admit I'd forgotten a lot of the sexual explicitness included in it -- I just remembered the story. (It's also about the only Jodi Piccoult book I've ever liked.)
I could see her concern. I would never ban it, but I'm not sure it was the wisest choice for 12-year-olds.
Nearly every one of these had language as a reason for banning the book. Have you ever heard a teen talk? They didn't learn that language from reading books!
My oldest daughter is an avid reader. I'm thankful there is literature she enjoys that isn't condescending.
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things.
I haven't read it, but that's got to be the best title ever.
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