SO, WHO'S ON THE BANNED BOOKS LIST?

     We put this year's Banned Books display right where people going to the nonfiction and fiction bookshelves, and to the Children's Library, would see it.  It's right where you go past it on the way to the restrooms.  It's right next to the audiobooks carousels.  Doesn't that sound like you can't miss it? Unless you go in the other direction, of course.
     Most everyone has heard of Banned Books Week, celebrated this year from September 30th to October 6th.  And libraries across the country, as well as booksellers, bookstores, and practically everywhere books are a big deal, will have some kind of display.  There's even a contest in libraries for the best Banned Books Week display.
     The reason we promote Banned Books Week is because this freedom, not only to choose what we read, but also to select from a full array of possibilities, is firmly rooted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  And we feel we must remain vigilant to ensure that access to this material is preserved; would-be censors who continue to threaten the freedom to read come from all quarters and all political persuasions.  Even if well intentioned, censors try to limit the freedom of others to choose what they read, see, or hear.
     Book banning efforts were alive and well in 2011.  The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) received 326 reports regarding attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves.
     The top ten most frequently challenged books of 2011 include the following titles; each title is followed by the reasons given for challenging the book: [a challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness]:
1) ttyl; ttfn; 18r, 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 Phillis 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.
     Of course there are many others that we've heard of and read, such as Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; The Awakening by Kate Chopin; Pat Conroy's Lords of Discipline; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey; The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver; The Giver by Lois Lowry; All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy; Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Bluest Eye, as well as Song of Solomon; the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling; The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain; As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; Joseph Heller's Catch 22; and how could we forget Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury!
     It should be noted that this bibliography is incomplete because many prohibitions against free speech and expression remain undocumented.  Surveys indicate that approximately 85 percent of the challenges to library materials receive no media attention and remain unreported.  Moreover, this list is limited to books and does not include challenges to magazines, newspapers, films, broadcasts, plays, performances, electronic publications, or exhibits.
     Take action and protect your right to read.  The rights and protections of the First Amendment extend to children and teens as well as adults.  While parents have the right - and the responsibility - to guide their own children's reading, that right does not extend to other people's children.  Similarly, each adult has the right to choose their own reading materials, along with the responsibility to acknowledge and respect the right of others to do the same.
     When we speak up to protect the right to read, we not only defend our individual right to free expression, we demonstrate tolerance and respect for opposing points of view.  And when we take action to preserve our precious freedoms, we become participants in the ongoing evolution of our democratic society.
(Information provided by the American Library Association.  Banned Books Week sponsored by American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, ALA, Association of American Publishers, Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Association of College Stores, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, and PEN American Center.)