The American Library Association (ALA) has issued their annual list of the 10 most frequently challenged books from US libraries. There's a number of the usual suspects on the list, and while I'm still flabbergasted that there are people out there who are so concerned about the content in these books that they are requesting that they be removed from libraries (To Kill a Mockingbird? Really?) I do take some comfort in the fact that these books are still readily available for those who want them.
What I do want to know is how you can cite nudity as a reason for banning a book? Unless these books have lift up flaps, and I am fairly certain they don't, an anatomy description shouldn't be grounds for a banning; especially when "offensive language" gets its own category.
To me the most offensive book in this list still got the top spot, just not for the reason I would have slotted it in. Lauren Myracle's TTYL series is written entirely text message shorthand (Pls no, I h8 it), and for that alone I think it should be banned.
1. The TTYL series by Lauren Myracle for Nudity, sexually explicit, drugs, offensive language,and being unsuited to the age group.2. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson for homosexuality.
3. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit content, anti-family, offensive language, religious viewpoints, being unsuited to age group, drugs, suicide.
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee for racism, offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer for sexually explicit scenes, religious viewpoints, and being unsuited to age group.
6. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger for sexually explicit scenes, offensive language, and being unsuited to age group
7. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult for sexism, homosexuality, being sexually explicit, having offensive language, religious viewpoints, drugs, suicide, violence, and being unsuited to age group.
8. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler for being Sexually explicit, having offensive language,and being unsuited to age group.
9. The Color Purple by Alice Walker for being Sexually explicit, having offensive language,and being unsuited to age group.
10. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier for nudity, being Sexually explicit, having offensive language,and being unsuited to age group.
I am glad that they are being somewhat more open about the list including challenged-but-not-banned titles. Frustrated me to no end in library school when a professor told me -- seriously -- how important it was to make sure every challenge gets put forward as a potential banning, and every librarian who agrees (including ones that agree that "mistakes were made" -- that just because it involves cartoony drawings doesn't mean hentai belongs in the kids' room, for example, and moves it to a different part of the library) should be publicized as a banning. She said that all of that -- removing a challenged book because it truly doesn't belong where it had been placed, or for another equally-valid "the cataloger just glanced at the cover and would have made a different decision if she'd opened the book" reason -- is what makes up the ALA's statistics. (Same librarian who thought legal action should be taken against the Catholic grade school where I was teaching (and which I'd used as an example in coursework) because they didn't have pro-abortion books in the library, but who did support the removal of "ex-gay" books from the university library, for what it's worth... so perhaps had somewhat of a skewed concept of what "banning" means!) We (a certain major city's public library system) lately had "A Picture of Dorian Gray" bizarrely catalogued as an easy reader (I guess because it had "picture" in the title?); I (library employee) challenged it as not appropriate for the age group, and it was moved to "classics" in the general collection. If I'd been a regular patron and filled out a comment form for it, that would be a "challenged book" statistic!
Seems to me, if you need to use that kind of reasoning and that kind of misleading publicity ("Someone questioned whether or not this book was appropriate, and the library told them it was! That's just like book burning or government censorship!") to get your point across, you might need to rethink things.
Posted by: Adrianne Truett | September 27, 2010 at 03:49 PM
damn liberal commie homos have infiltrated this deep, huh? No one cares, faggots! You failed at life! Try again next go round!
No Wilhelm Reich (the only author to have his books burned by the US government)?
No Anarchy cookbook? No Unabomber or John Zerzan?
No Apocalypse Culture? Apparently defending child porn and supporting mass-murder isn't as dangerous as fictionalized text-messages and anti-family themes.
No book out today can touch the sexual honesty of Lady Chatterley's Lover...
Could this list BE any more condescending? I suppose it only goes to show how obessesed our culture is with sexual repression, and then people wonder why they have slut daughters who have 3 babies before the age of 12...
Posted by: Juju | September 28, 2010 at 12:54 AM
I am honestly so surprised that The Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple and To Kill a Mockingbird are challenged books! That is more shocking to me that these books!!!! These are classics people! Deal with it!
Posted by: Pragmaticmom | September 29, 2010 at 06:42 PM
no surprise. this is America. our education system only goes to the 5th grade. ah, well you still have the right to read what you want.
remember the first amendment?
Posted by: eldavidson | October 09, 2010 at 11:32 PM
What can you say??.....Its pretty much a fact that the minority is telling the majority what they can and can not read....not an easy fact to swallow, but true none the less. If you think about it "NO" book is suitable for the age level its in according to all the challenges!! Welcome to America...
hummmm....Wonder if I should Challenge "On Walden Pond" or "The Grapes of Wrath"??...(Nothing like going over the edge). I wonder who decides what books should be made into Kindle Readers (Amazon.com) and if he or she will "Let" me read the books "I" want to read, and not the books "They" want me to read. This could get very interesting in the next few years.
Posted by: DaveS. | October 25, 2010 at 01:56 PM