Banned Books in 2011

In April of 2012 the American Library Association released a list of the book most often challenged/banned in 2011.

1) ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2) The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3) The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

4) My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6) Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

7) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8) What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9) Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10) To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Offensive language; racism

To start with, nudity in a book with no pictures is just silly. Anyway, as you can see most of these books are generally read by grade school kids so we can guess the challenges came from parents. Parents don’t want our kids to grow up and that fact by itself explains pretty much all the reasons given for challenging a book. The one that upset me is To Kill a Mockingbird. I will let a disclaimer put in before all Looney Tunes DVD releases explain my opinion in that:

“The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in the U.S society. These depictions were wrong then and they are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today’s society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming that these prejudices never existed.”

~Aaron Greene~

Happy Banned Books Week!

In 1982, the American Library Association (ALA) created Banned Books Week in response to a rise in challenges to books in libraries, schools and bookstores.  Banned Books Week is sponsored by the ALA, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and the National Association of College Stores, and is endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.  Held annually during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the harms of censorship while “celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.” ALA Banned Books Week Site

In celebration of this year’s Banned Books Week, the CSL library is spotlighting historically banned or challenged books in a display case in the library.  The display includes Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird, Nabokov’s Lolita, Walker’s The Color Purple, Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, and many more.  For more information on the reasons behind the banning of certain titles, see the Banned or Challenged Classics page, here. We encourage students to drop by the display case during a study break or between classes.

According to the American Library Association, the 10 most challenged books of 2009 were:

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle

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

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

4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

5. Twilight (series), by Stephanie Meyer

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

7. My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult

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

9. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

10. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is featuring a series of blog posts on the creative ways libraries are celebrating Banned Books Week.  Readers and librarians are also celebrating Banned Books Week on ALA island in Second Life, and on Twitter with the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek. The OIF has also created a YouTube video to depict the top 10 most frequently banned or challenged books in 2009.

Thank you for celebrating Banned Books Week!  Read something you love!

- Lyn Batty -