I meant to blog about banned books last week. Since I work in a library there's probably nothing I'm more passionate about than our right to read whatever we please. Book challenging/burning/banning just . . . really. . . rubs me the wrong way. The only countries I know of that legally allow book censorship are dictatorships run by religious zealots (such as Iran and Afghanistan when it was run by the Taliban) and Communist countries like Cuba and N. Korea and so on. These are not nice places to live.
I'm all for parents putting restrictions on their kids. I don't have a problem with that at all. I respect everyone's right to determine what they find offensive, what they think their children are too immature to read, or too young to understand, and what they do not want in their homes. But I draw the line when others decide what is too offensive for everyone else's home.
Saturday October sixth ended this year's Banned Book Week 2007, and I forgot to mention it because I was too busy this past week. I had blogged about banned books a little bit last August and intended to revisit again. I already listed the most banned books of 2006 and of the past decade. You can find those blogs here: Challenged and Banned Books and The Top Ten.
The American Library Association offers a wonderful resource for learning more about challenged and banned books. I thought it would be nice to list this link where you can download a .pdf file that explains in a little more depth why certain books have been challenged or banned. I know some of you have been interested in this as you've asked me directly. It's called the 2007 Resource Guide. I'm not sure how big it is, so download at your own risk. :-)
Also-- another nifty section in the ALA site is the question/answer page on challenged and banned books. Just go here--ALA Question/Answer page on Banned books and scroll down about 1/4 and you'll find some question links.
I'm all for parents putting restrictions on their kids. I don't have a problem with that at all. I respect everyone's right to determine what they find offensive, what they think their children are too immature to read, or too young to understand, and what they do not want in their homes. But I draw the line when others decide what is too offensive for everyone else's home.
Saturday October sixth ended this year's Banned Book Week 2007, and I forgot to mention it because I was too busy this past week. I had blogged about banned books a little bit last August and intended to revisit again. I already listed the most banned books of 2006 and of the past decade. You can find those blogs here: Challenged and Banned Books and The Top Ten.
The American Library Association offers a wonderful resource for learning more about challenged and banned books. I thought it would be nice to list this link where you can download a .pdf file that explains in a little more depth why certain books have been challenged or banned. I know some of you have been interested in this as you've asked me directly. It's called the 2007 Resource Guide. I'm not sure how big it is, so download at your own risk. :-)
Also-- another nifty section in the ALA site is the question/answer page on challenged and banned books. Just go here--ALA Question/Answer page on Banned books and scroll down about 1/4 and you'll find some question links.
I would love to hear from you if you've read a banned book, what your favorite banned book was, and what you liked about it. I have read several on the top 100 list. My favorite has to be Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I can't imagine why it would have been challenged or banned. I am a big Ken Follet fan and Pillars is unquestionably my favorite book of his. A departure from his usual WWII war or spy/thriller novels, this was about architects building a church during medieval times. I read it several years ago now, and just talking about it tempts me to pick it up again.
And yes. . .I DO know the Bible has been banned all over the world, but it hasn't been banned HERE. The Bible doesn't count as a "banned book" -not here. Sorry. It isn't on the ALA banned books list.
And yes. . .I DO know the Bible has been banned all over the world, but it hasn't been banned HERE. The Bible doesn't count as a "banned book" -not here. Sorry. It isn't on the ALA banned books list.
4 comments:
"The American Library Association offers a wonderful resource for learning more about challenged and banned books." Really? Some people called BBW "NATIONAL HOGWASH WEEK. The last time a book was banned in the USA was 1946.
Hi Safe Library. The American Library Association keeps up-to-date records on challenged and banned books. If you click on the 2007 Resource Guide link you'll see that there were indeed a few books banned from public schools just last year in 2006. Hundreds more were challenged, but retained.
There are at least 6 books on that list that i really enjoyed as a kid in HS. Mice and men, catcher in the Rye, Bridge to terabithia,to kill a mockingbird?! My top favorite banned book would be the adventures of Huck Finn and the adventures of Tom Sawyer. my 2nd favorite would Be Carrie.
Dennis
It's shocking how many books on the list are American classics and award winners. Mark Twain used the n-word a lot, but challengers today fail to look at his message. The books were banned in the south because he challenged the hypocrisy of the Jim Crow laws when they were first published. Now people challenge them because of the use of the n-word! No one in the south ever called blacks anything else back then. If he had used another word, the dialogue wouldn't have been convincing.
When I was in high school, my favorite books were the ones that opened my eyes to issues swirling around us. The fact that teachers assigned literature with bad words, or sex or violence-- things we knew happened-- all you have to do is pick up the news (!)-- well it was great to see that revered authors wrote about these issues too, and they could actually change history because books make people talk.
:-)
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