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Banned Books Week 2016

September 27th, 2016 by pladd

It’s that time of year again! Banned Books Week! It kind of crept up on me this year, so I didn’t have as much time to read and prepare. Here are the ALA’s Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2015:

1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.

I haven’t read this one because I’m not a fan of John Green, but I will be giving it a try!

2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).

We all know I’ve read this one. And I’d have to agree that it’s poorly written.

3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.

My library doesn’t own this one, so I’ll be ILLing it.

4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).

I did read this one when it first came out, and it was great! I can’t really see the “anti-family” complaint since most of the teens featured came from very loving, accepting families. It was really interesting to see so many different people and the different ways they live their lives under the umbrella term “transgender.”

5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).

I tried to read this one 2 years ago as part of my Clear Out my GoodReads goal. My complaints were about how uncomfortably gimmicky it was.

6. The Holy Bible
Reasons: Religious viewpoint.

LOL. Perfect.

7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).

I really liked this graphic novel! It’s autobiographical, about growing up in a funeral home and Bechdel’s complicated relationship with her dad.

8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.

Another one my library doesn’t own that I’ll be ILLing.

9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.

And another.

10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

I haven’t read a David Levithan book since 2014, when he wrote the worst book I read that year. I guess I’ll be giving this one a go, but I don’t have high hopes.

Yay! Banned Books Week!

Previously: Banned Books Week 2014

Tagged: ALA, banned books

Posted in Banned Books |

Banned and Challenged Book List: 2012

April 22nd, 2013 by pladd

I know it’s not Banned Books Week yet, but last week was National Library Week and the ALA put out their list of the most frequently challenged books of 2012! Apparently there was a 25% jump in challenges last year, largely because the ALA has made reporting a challenge easier. As always when such lists come out, I automatically put any titles I haven’t read on my library hold list. I am pumped to read some Captain Underpants!

Here’s the list! I’ve bolded the ones I’ve already read.

1) Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3) Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4) Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5) And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6) The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7) Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8) Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9) The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10) Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

Get ready for some awesome reviews!! And for me to decide which Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark picture gives me the worst nightmares still because you know that’s going to happen and that is why they are awesome.

Tagged: ALA, banned books, lists

Posted in Banned Books |

Banned Books Week Redux: Revolutionary Voices

October 26th, 2012 by pladd

I just got this book through interlibrary loan! Not sure why my library didn’t own it; hopefully because it’s 12 years old and put out by a smaller publisher.

Title: Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology
Editor: Amy Sonnie
Challenged In: Burlington County, New Jersey public libraries; Mount Holly, New Jersey High School
By: the 9/12 Project
For: being “pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate”

I had to look up what the 9/12 Project was, because apparently they were challenging books all over the place. The ALA’s write-up of this challenge said that they are “a nationwide government watchdog network launched by the talk-radio and television personality Glenn Beck” and their website says their aim is to bring communities “back to the place we were on 9/12/2001”. I assume because they too just want to go back to a simpler time when N*SYNC was still putting out albums. I don’t know what that has to do with excising all positive information about queer youth, especially since this book was published in 2000–guys, it totally would have already been on those shelves on 9/12/2001! Especially since that was the year it was recognized by School Library Journal. Historical recreation fail, 9/12 Project. I am disappoint.

Revolutionary Voices is an anthology of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art submitted by queer youth aged 14-26 from around the world. The authors come from all different backgrounds and cultures, and their contributions don’t necessarily focus solely on sexual identity, but also on other problems or issues in their lives. Each author or artist also gets a brief biography page, usually with a picture. The book states many times that it is written and edited “by youth for youth”.

This book was pretty cool, although it felt outdated. Even though it was published in 2000, the editor first began to gather submissions in 1995. A lot of the author biographies mention multiple zines. Do people still remember zines? Does anyone younger than me even know what that is? I think most of the submissions would still resonate with today’s youth, especially since this anthology has such a focus on multiculturalism. Though there are other anthologies about sexual identity that have come after this one, I haven’t seen one with such a focus on writers with different backgrounds. As one of the authors writes in his biography: “For the first time in my life I feel no shame in telling the world I’m Hispanic and gay… Eventually I’d like to start an outreach program to educate Hispanic parents to better understand their gay kids. There are many outreach programs for English-speaking people, but in Texas the majority of Hispanics don’t speak English” (24). I love the concept of this book, and I wish the project had continued. It also made me wonder what a lot of these authors are doing now.

I’m not going to quote anything else because the only “vulgar” and “obscene” parts I could find were about homophobic abuse at the hands of friends, family members, and communities described in some of the submissions. Maybe it’s your hate that’s inappropriate, 9/12 Project. Banned Books Week is important, but it can sometimes leave me feeling drained and sad, so I’m going to cut this post short and go to the park.

Previously: What’s Happening to my Body Book for Boys

Tagged: ALA, banned books, Book Reviews

Posted in Banned Books |

Banned Books Week 2012!

September 14th, 2012 by pladd

It’s almost that time of year again! Banned Books Week this year will be celebrated September 30-October 6! I know two years ago I made a really big deal about it, but then last year it was like I totally forgot. Luckily, earlier this year I received some fan e-mail that reminded me that this project existed, so I decided to try again this year! Here’s the ALA’s list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011, compiled from all the challenges reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom:

Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011
1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2. The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3. The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: 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
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism

I’ve actually read all of these before except My Mom’s Having a Baby! by Dori Hillestad Butler, so I thought reading through them wouldn’t be much of a challenge. You might remember when I did this project two years ago, I used this collection of banned or challenged books from 2009-2010, which I liked because it included information about where the book was challenged. So I went looking for a more recent version for this year. Unfortunately, it’s probably still too early for the 2011-2012 version, so I went with the 2010-2011 edition to get this list.

Books Challenged in Public Libraries

The Notebook Girls: Four Friends, One Diary, Real Life
My Mom’s Having a Baby
The Awakening
The Koran
Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India
Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs
We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives by Paul Shaffer
Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology

I’ve bolded ones I’ve already read, although I’ll probably still do a post about them!! I’m excited to read some controversial literature because, in my experience, any book that gets people talking–positively or negatively–makes for an interesting read. As always, I’ll try to include more information about why it was challenged and what the outcome was as well as the juiciest part, which, if two years ago was any indication, will probably be disappointing to those of you led on by the false promises of “nudity”, “sexually explicit” ,and “pornographic”. Sorry.

And, if I have time, here’s the list of books challenged in school libraries from the same resource: Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: ALA, banned books, introduction, libraries

Posted in Banned Books |

Banned Books 2010: My New Hobby

August 30th, 2010 by pladd

To give myself a hobby besides complaining about the irrelevance of grad school, I’ve decided to read every book (well, almost every book) on the ALA’s bibliography of banned and challenged books from May 2009-May 2010. This list, which they’re showcasing for Banned Books Week, is slightly arbitrary, in that it only includes titles written up within the year in Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, but any banned books list is going to be somewhat arbitrary, as it will only discuss reported instances. I’m going to concentrate on the ones which were challenged in public libraries, since that’s my area of interest, and because I find the morality of most school-challengings somewhat murkier. If someone (usually a parent) wants to restrict all children who may or may not share their own beliefs from access to information, I can listen to their objections, go through the process, and generally fight censorship like the idealistic librarian I am. It’s when students are forced to read certain titles in class that I am slightly more uncomfortable. I personally can’t picture myself ever getting uppity over a required text, but I can understand the motivations of people who do. They just want what they think is best for their kids–as opposed to the public library cases, where they just want what they think is best for everyone’s kids. Natch I also don’t agree with helicopter parents constantly overriding teachers’ authority and judgement, and I’m happy to see that in a lot of instances discussed on this year’s list, everyone was content after alternative titles were made available if students decided to choose them instead.

A few titles on the list were challenged because parents thought that they were too easy for minors to get their hands on them on the library shelves. These include:

Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort
Sex for Busy People: the Art of the Quickie for Lovers on the Go by Emily Dubberly
Lesbian Karma Sutra by Kat Harding
Mastering Multiple Position Sex by Eric Garrison
The Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein

In most of these cases, the library involved decided to implement special library cards for minors which would only allow children to check out restricted titles with parents’ permission rather than remove the books from their catalog. I’m sorry to report that I will not be reading these titles as part of the challenge, partially because my library owns only Joy of Sex for whatever reason, partially because of the massive Check Out Embarrassment Factor (no, librarians are not immune), and also because I am way more interested in the children’s/YA titles on the list. Also, I will not be looking at:

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, which was “pulled from the Menifee, California Union School District [this year] because a parent complained when a child came across the term ‘oral sex’. Officials said the district is forming a committee to consider a permanent classroom ban of the dictionary.”

Maybe it’s been awhile since these people were kids, because I’m shocked that they can’t remember that looking up dirty words is practically what the dictionary is for until you start studying for the SATs and need to know what adjuration means.

Anyway, I’m sure I will think up other credible excuses why I can’t read things as this project progresses. Each review will include a brief summary, why it was challenged, if I think it really should have been, and a mostly fabricated list of other reasons why I think the book might offend you (including awful cover art). I will try to include quotes of the juicy parts so you don’t even have to read it for yourself to find them!

Tagged: ALA, banned books, introduction, libraries

Posted in Banned Books, Book Reviews |