Treasure Your Freedom to Read

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Treasure Your Freedom to Read

• Banned Books Week
• an opportunity to educate students about one of
  our most precious freedoms in a democracy and the
  role of libraries

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Banned Books Week

• ALA poster

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First a bit about our Constitutional Rights to
Intellectual Freedom

• poster

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Intellectual freedom

• The ability to express and explore diverse opinion

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Intellectual freedom

• Right to seek information

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Intellectual freedom

• Right to choice information from all points
  of view

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Banned Book Week

• Reminds Americans not to take this precious
  Right of Intellectual Freedom for granted.

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Why?

• Freedom of speech and press require an
  understanding that others have different opinions
  and ideas.
• However throughout world history, those with
  different ideas have been sought out and silenced.

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Book Burning

• Books and libraries have been burned as a method
  of controlling thought and knowledge throughout
  world history.

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1933 Nazi bonfires

• Thousands of books smolder in a huge bonfire as
  Germans give the Nazi salute during the wave of
  book-burnings that spread throughout Germany.

http//www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bookbur
ning/20thcentury/nazigermany/nazigermany.htm
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Year 1943

• Midway through World War II, the U.S. Office of
  War Information used this poster to help
  Americans understand why we were fighting.

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Still book burning happens today and even in
America.
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Fahrenheit 451

• by Ray BradburySet in the future when all books
  are banned, people called firemenburn
  confiscated books. Ironically, This book was
  banned as "dangerous." 451 degrees is the
  temperature that paper catches fire.
  http//library.dixie.edu/new/whybanned.html

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But as the author of Fahrenheit 451,

• Ray Bradbury, said, "You don't have to burn
  books to destroy a culture. Just get people to
  stop reading them."

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Censorship

• The act of getting rid of information that others
  consider not acceptable.
• Books are censored when they are banned or
  altered.

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What is meant by banned?

• A book that has been banned has been removed from
  the shelf. All readers are denied access to the
  material.

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James and the Giant Peach

• by Roald DahlThis book was banned in a Florida
  elementaryschool because "it promotes the use
  of drugs, tobacco, and whiskey."

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What is meant by altered?

• Objectionable words are erased
• whiting or blacking out words
• concealing or changing illustrations

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In the Night Kitchen

• by Maurice SendakWhen toddler Mickeyenters the
  Night Kitchen, he loses his pajamas and spends
  much of the story naked.

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Baseball Saved Us

• by Ken MochizuchiChallengedbecause of a
  racial slur used in the book.http//www.pacific
  citizen.org/content/2006/national/jun16-lin-baseba
  ll.htm

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Why are books challenged?

• Sometimes books are challengedbecause they have
  offended someone.

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The Lorax

• by Dr. SeussBanned in the Laytonville,
  California School District ongrounds that this
  book "criminalizes the forestry industry."

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Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

• by William Steig In 1977, the Illinois Police
  Association urged librarians to remove the
  book, which portrays its characters as animals,
  and presents the police as pigs.The American
  Library Association reported similar complaints
  in 11 other states.

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Little House in the Big Woods

• by Laura Ingalls WilderBanned for being
  "racially offensive" to Indians.

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Why are books challenged?

• Books are usually challengedby people with good
  intentions-to protect others, usually children,
  from difficult ideas and truths.

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Pinkerton, Behave!

• by Kellogg, Steven. Challenged, but retained
  despite complaints that the image of a masked
  burglar pointing a gun at woman is too violent
  for young readers.

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A Wrinkle in Time

• by Madeline L'Engle,one of the
  1990'smost-challenged children's authors. This
  Newbery book was banned because it "challenges
  religious beliefs".

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Who has the right to restrict?

• Parents-and only parents-have the right and the
  responsibility to restrictthe access of their
  children-and only their children-to library
  resources Free Access to Libraries for Minors,
  an interpretation of the American Library
  Associations Library Bill of Rights

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Harry Potter (the entire series)

• by J. K. RowlingChallenged based on the claim
  that the books promoted witchcraft, however the
  parents making the charge failed to prove that
  the series promotes the Wicca religion thus does
  not constitute advocacy of a religion.

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Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret

• by Judy Blume author of Tales of a Fourth
  Grade Nothing Its about girl stuffchanging
  bodies and a girls search inchoosing a
  religion.

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American Library Association (2004) announces
author Judy Blume ranks as second most censored
author of the past 15 years

• It's not just the books under fire now that
  worry me. It is the books that will never be
  written. The books that will never be read. And
  all due to the fear of censorship. As always,
  young readers will be the real losers. Judy
  Blume, author of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

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What does she mean?

• Publishers have told writersto change wording
  in fear of censorship
• Books have been pulled from the shelf in fear of
  complaints
• Writers hesitate to create unique and different
  works

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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

• by Mildred D. Taylor A parent in Florida
  demanded that this Newbery novel be banned from
  all schools in Seminole County. She objected to
  its depiction of Southern racism, which she
  considered inappropriate for kids. The
  award-winning book depicts the life of a
  African-American family in rural Mississippi in
  the 1930s and uses the N word.

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Challenged Books

• Although they were the targets of attempted
  bannings, most of the books featured during BBW
  were not banned, thanks to the efforts of
  librarians to maintain them in their collections.

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Captain Underpants

• By Pilkey, Dav challenged for encouraging
  childrento disobey grownups.

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Goosebumps (series)

• by R. L. Stineoften challengedin libraries for
  their sometimes-violent content.

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We still have the freedom to read
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How to Eat Fried Worms

• by Thomas RockwellThe idea of eating worms as
  part of a bet is thought to be disgusting by
  some. The book has been the frequent target of
  censors.

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A Light in the Attic

• By Shel SilversteinSome claim that it
  "encourages" childrento break dishes in order
  to get out of having to dry them.

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The Stupids (series)

• By Harry Allard, authorof Miss Nelson Is
  Missing! Challenged because it might
  encourage children to disobey their parents."

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Bumps in the Night

• by Allard, Harry Dudley Stork and his friends
  search for the cause the spooky noises in his
  house. Challenged for references to the
  super-natural.

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Where the Wild Things Are

• Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things
  Are has been challenged for involving
  "witchcraft/supernatural elements."

"witchcraft/supernatural elements."
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The Giver

• by Lois LowryA Newbery Award winner, this
  futuristicbook is about a perfect community
  where anyone who is different disappears.

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The Bridge to Terabithia

• by Katherine PatersonAnother Newbery Award
  winner, banned due to discussion of
  deathswear wordsdisrespect of adults,
  and an elaborate fantasy world which was felt
  might lead to confusion.
• http//www.library.ucla.edu/college/nwsevnts/exhib
  its/banned99/index.htm

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Tar Beach

• by Faith Ringgold Challenged for stereotyping
  African-Americans as eating fried chicken and
  watermelon and drinking beer at a family
  picnic. This same book won the 1992 Coretta
  Scott King Illustrator Award for its portrayal of
  minorities.

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American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language

• Challenged because it included the definitions of
  words considered obscene

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and the series most loved
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and despisedAmericas Favorite Kindergartener

• In 2004 Barbara Parkwas selected as one ofthe
  American Library Associations10 Most Frequently
  Challenged Authors

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Junie B. Jones(series)

• by Barbara ParkThe spunky kindergartener (first
  grader in more recent volumes)is prone to
  troublemaking, often calls people names and
  isnt averse to talking back to her teachers.
  And though she is the narrator of the stories,
  she struggles with grammar words like funnest
  and beautifuller are the mainstaysof her
  vocabulary.
• http//www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26junie.
  html?pagewantedall

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So

• I invite you to
• read a banned book.

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Veteran School Librarian Pat Scales

• suggests that banned books have important lessons
  to teach youth.

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These books can help to

• Spark open and honest discussion
• Understand and debate real-life issues
• Learn to function in a changing society
• Nurture intellectual growth
• Encourage creative and critical thinking
• Recognize and accept cultural differences
• Value literature of all genres

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ALA President Michael Gorman states,

• I believe the more we exerciseour freedom to
  read and read widely, the better equipped we are
  to make good decisions and govern ourselves,
• He said, Controversial ideas should be debated,
  not driven into dark alleys.

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Other noteworthy titles

• http//www.library.ucla.edu/college/nwsevnts/exhib
  its/banned99/index.htm
• A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
  Banned from the St. Lawrence School in Utica,
  Mich. (1997) because of a passage involving pig
  breeding.
• Mirandy and Brother Wind by Patricia McKissack
  Challenged at the Glen Springs Elementary School
  in Gainesville, Fla. (1991) because of the book's
  use of black dialect.

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Shrek!

• by William Steighttp//www.lib.virginia.edu/small
  /exhibits/censored/child.html
• Error
• The book in question was Sylvester and the
  Magic Pebble