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 The issue of challenging books is one that is unlikely to go away. After all, it has come up repeatedly in the 220 years the First Amendment has been part of the Constitution. But where are the challenges coming from, what prompts them and in what settings? That’s something the American Library Association has attempted to track.
Here’s what it discovered. From 1990 to 2010, there have been approximately 11,000 challenges in a variety of settings. Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority occurred in schools (4,048) and school libraries (3,659). Public libraries were third, with 2,679 challenges. Given that, it is likewise not surprising that most challenges are initiated by parents (6,103). The next largest category is “Patron” at 1,450. Interestingly, board members initiated more challenges (325) than clergy (115) and religious groups (150) combined.
As for the challenges themselves, “sexually explicit’ tops the list of reasons at 3,169. There is a cluster of challenges that follow, “offensive language” (2,658), “violence” (2,289) and “unsuited to age group” (2,232). The only other categories exceeding 1,000 are the catchall “other” at 1,346 and “occult” at 1,051. (The reasons exceed the number of challenges because often multiple reasons are given for a challenge.)
If there’s good news in the statistics, it’s that 2010 saw the smallest number of challenges, 348, since 1990, when there were 157. The mid-’90s were the prime era for challenges with 686 in 1993, 757 in 1994, 762 in 1995 and 661 in 1996. Perhaps people smarter than me have insight into what in our culture or the publication world led to that surge. I know Judy Blume attributes it to the rise of the so-called Moral Majority in the 1980 election. But she doesn’t attribute it entirely to that. She writes,
Those who were most active in trying to ban books came from the “religious right” but the impulse to censor spread like a contagious disease. Other parents, confused and uncertain, were happy to jump on the bandwagon. Book banning satisfied their need to feel in control of their children’s lives. Those who censored were easily frightened. They were afraid of exposing their children to ideas different from their own.
Unfortunately, the statistics I’m working from don’t go back to the 1980s but undoubtedly religious fractures continued in the 1990s.
Narrowing the focus to the last 10 years, there were 4,660 challenges. Again, “sexually explicit” was the most frequent reason given, occurring 1,536 times, followed by 1,231 challenges due to “offensive language. Approximately 37 percent of the challenges were in classrooms, with another 30 percent in school libraries and 24 percent in public libraries. The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (48%), suggesting that an increasingly digital world certainly has not reduced parental concern over the ability to control aspects of their childrens’ lives. As I’ll discuss tomorrow, exercising parental authority is crucial — but the question is how far it can reach.
I believe that censorship grows out of fear, and because fear is contagious, some parents are easily swayed.
Judy Blume, Censorship
Given the culture wars over the last number of years, it can be relatively easy for a book to gin up more than a bit of angst. Maybe it’s suggestions of homosexuality. Perhaps the book takes a different or skeptical look at religion. Or maybe the story involves an abortion, although Richard Brautigan’s The Abortion was among several of his books removed from a school library and classroom 30 some years ago. What we now call hot button issues have been around long enough that even books now considered classics haven’t been immune from challenges.
In 1998, the renowned Radcliffe Publishing Course (now the Columbia Publishing Course) was asked to compile a list of the century’s top 100 novels. According to the American Library Association, at least 46 of those books have been challenged. While the ALA has details on the reasons for the challenges, what follows is a list of those 46 books, along with where they ranked on the Radcliffe list. And for the heck of it, I’ve underlined the ones I’ve actually read.
- 1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
Now I guess no one should really be surprised that Tropic of Cancer and Lady Chatterley’s Lover are on the list considering the government went after them as obscene. But what I find stunning is that 11 of the top 12 novels of the 20th Century have been challenged.
…literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.
Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957)
(Justice W.O. Douglas dissenting)
As I wrote about yesterday, an August news story on book challenges in the schools had as a sidebar a list compiled by the American Library Association of 20 books “banned” by schools already this year. Yesterday’s post covered the first 10, listed alphabetically, and today I’ll take a look at the remaining 10.
I should note first, though, that given the date of the article, the list did not include Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Sarah Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer, which were banned earlier this year at a Missouri high school but have been kinda sorta restored. Likewise, it does not include Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, removed from 6th grade reading lists in a Virginia school district for as being age inappropriate for being derogatory toward Mormons.
As with yesterday’s post, I do not know the nature of the “ban” for any of the books. I found fascinating, though, the wide range of books, from preschool through high school. Thus, I’m providing some information on them and, because the list doesn’t mention the grounds for the challenges, I’m speculating about it based on those descriptions. Here is the second half of the list, again arranged alphabetically:
- My Darling, My Hamburger, by Paul Zindel. This Young Adult book is the story of two couples in their senior year of high school. One couple confronts pregnancy and the options available to them. From that point, it’s not hard to imagine that sexuality, abortion, etc., fuel any fire about the book. I think I am most intrigued by the title.
The Patron Saint of Butterflies, by Cecilia Galante. This book strikes me as having an interesting subject for younger readers (Grades 6 to 9 according to School Library Journal and Grades 6 to 10 according to Booklist). It tells the story of two 14-year-old girls who live in a religious commune in Connecticut. As may be necessary, one is a rebel and the other a “wannabe” saint. They end up running away after the rebellious one is subjected to punishment in the group’s “Regulation Room.” I speculate the religious overtones are seen as critical or anti-religion and, naturally, the physical and emotional abuse of teenage girls isn’t a subject about which kids of that age should learn.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. For whatever reason, Chbosky’s book didn’t make the list of most challenged books of 2010. This coming of age tale of a 10th grade boy talks about first relationships, sexuality, drug use, and even the suicide of his best friend. Kind of suggests the reasons people object — sex, drugs and teen suicide. None of which, of course, face any kids that age in the real world.
Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs, by Carl Semencic. This one may baffle me more than any other book on the list. The book gives historical information and breed standards on 22 dog breeds considered “manstopper” guard dogs. The criticism of one reviewer is with the concept “that a dog that is willing and able to maim an intruder is a desirable family pet. It is not.” I can see the point but that doesn’t seem to be the type of objection that would lead to a school complaint.
Push, by Sapphire. Even though this book and the movie it inspired (Precious) were highly acclaimed, it’s content isn’t pretty. After all, it deals with incest, pre-teen and teen pregnancy and an abusive mother. All sorts of things we don’t want kids to know about because not knowing protects them.
Shooting Star, by Fredrick McKissack Jr. This book also deals with an issue that has been on the front page for several years now — steroid use by athletes. The book, which School Library Journals says is for Grades 8 and up, deals with a high school football player who begins taking steroids, with “tragic results for himself, his team, and those he loves.” In addition, “[p]rofane and scatological language abounds, but it is not outside the realm of what one could hear any day in a school locker room.” Will the book encourage kids to take steroids? Will it teach them nasty words they haven’t heard? Is that risk greater than the other elements of life at that age that lead to such activity?
The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley, by Colin Thompson. Here we have a “laugh-out-loud picture book” that evidently addresses human nature through the story of a rat. Rats have short lives and they, or at least Riley, are born happy and die happy. Humans, in contrast, live far longer but are seemingly rarely, if ever, happy. Evidently because the book is aimed at children age 4 to 7 or 8, it reveals something about us that they are too young to learn.
Vegan Virgin Valentine, by Carolyn Mackler. Both School Library Journal and Booklist peg this book as being for Grades 8 and up. The problem with the story about an overachiever high school senior appears to be two-fold. First, her older sister is a “nicotine-addicted nympho” who evidently has “a fondness for the F word.” The other is that by the end of the story the main character is no longer a vegan or a virgin. I’m guessing it’s the latter that most concerns people.
What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones. This is the only book on the list that is on the list of top 10 most challenged books of 2010, a list it also made in 2004 and 2005. From the book’s descriptions, the challenges probably are based on age appropriatness. School Library Journal says it is for Grades 6 to 8 while Booklist gives a range of from Grades 6 to 10. The verse style of the book is told from the standpoint of a 9th grade girl and, according to Publishers Weekly, “poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy … [and] keenly portrays ninth-grader Sophie’s trajectory of lusty crushes and disillusionment.”
“What’s Happening to My Body?”: Book for Boys, by Lynda Madaras with Area Madaras. Oh, oh. Big problems here. The book is aimed at kids at age 10 and up. But (he whispers) it’s about sex education. It deals with a boy’s “changing size and shape, … reproductive organs, voice changes, romantic and sexual feelings, puberty in the opposite sex, and much more.” Not only does it deal with such icky and sensitive topics, it has “comprehensive … line drawings.” To many, that translates to written and visual filth.
I realize many of my comments are sarcastic, if not outright snarky. But what strikes me is that the vast majority of these books seek to impart information to kids about what is or will be going on in their lives or, at a minimum, what is happening to others their age. We all recall the difficulties of reaching adulthood. Why do we want to clamp down on information that might better enable kids to deal with that transition. I don’t have a problem with a parent saying their child is a “late bloomer” and maybe a book is more appropriate next year. But I do have a problem with a parent dictating that for everyone’s son or daughter.
Instead of asking–“How much damage will the work in question bring about?” why not ask–“How much good? How much joy?”
Henry Miller, “With Edgar Varèse in the Gobi Desert”
The debate over whether Banned Books week is propaganda or not continues. Before it started full bore, though, USA Today outlined the battle lines. Distilled to the simplest terms, the core question seems to be whether restricting access to/removing a book a parent believes is age inappropriate is “banning” a book or censorship, something I’ll have more to say about in a few todays.
Today and tomorrow, though, I wanted to review something that appeared in the USA Today article. It printed a list compiled by the American Library Association of 20 books “banned” by schools already this year. The article itself does not define that term, which is part of the underlying debate. But the scope of the books is interesting. I’m going to recap it in two parts because I want to provide a bit of information about each book and, since the list doesn’t mention the grounds for the challenge, I’m throwing in a bit of speculation given the books’ descriptions.
Here is the first half of the list, which is arranged alphabetically:
- Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher. This is a collection of six short stories which School Library Journal says if for Grade 8 and up and Publishers Weekly says is for age 12 and older. According to PW, Crutcher’s “athlete protagonists take on such weighty issues as racism, homophobia, sexism and the teenager’s essential task of coming to terms with his parents.” Ergo, I am guessing inappropriate for age and/or homosexuality are the grounds of the complaints.
Big Momma Makes the World, by Phyllis Root. PW, which says the book is for kids ages 4-7, calls it a “sassy creation myth that tweaks the first chapter of Genesis [in which] Big Momma ‘roll[s] up her sleeves’ and gets down to business.” Although PW also says this is “[a] gentle spin on the Genesis story sure to get youngsters talking,” I’m guessing almost any spin on Genesis raises religious hackles. Just take a look at the one star Amazon reviews.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter, by Amy Tan. This is a novel about an American-born woman finding the handwritten recollections of her mother, who was born in China and now has Alzheimer’s disease. Not having read the book, I must admit I am stumped by it being challenged and I find nothing online indicating why.
Burn, by Suzanne Phillips, School Library Journal , which says the book is for Grades 9 and up, describes it as having a “disturbing plot.” Perhaps that is because life as a high school freshman can be disturbing. Here, a young man is bullied, attacked and sexually assaulted and seeks revenge by killing one of his assailants. Hmmm, what are the odds a story of this type might rile someone?
Great Soul, by Joseph Lelyveld. Okay, you generally wouldn’t think a biography of Mahatma Gandhi could upset people. Evidently, though, PW says this book provides an “unexpected perspective … that focuses more on his failures and vexations than triumphs.” Perhaps that may offend people, even though Amazon picked the book as one of its best books of April 2011.
It’s a Book, by Lane Smith. Amazon’s description of this book, which School Library Journal says is for Grades 3-5, may suggest why it is on the list. Amazon calls it “[p]layful and lighthearted with a subversive twist” and “a delightful manifesto on behalf of print in the digital age.” We shan’t expose our children to any subversive manifestos. Evidently, though, the problem is Smith has the audacity to name a male donkey in the story “Jackass.”
Lovingly Alice, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Apparently, this book is a “prequel” in a series following the title character from third grade through high school. School Library Journal says this book’s chronicle of Alice’s 5th grade year is for Grades 4 to 6 while Booklist puts the range at Grades 4 to 7. Regardless, since School Library Journal says “Alice is concerned about being … muddled about sex, and there’s a fair amount of talk about it,” you can guess why it is on this list.
The Marbury Lens, by Andrew Smith. I’ll let School Library Journal clue you in. It seems the main character, Jack, “gets drunk and finds himself at the mercy of a crazed stranger who drugs him and holds him hostage. … But once he’s out of harm’s way, readers — like Jack — will begin to think being chained to the bed of a stranger was so much simpler than being on the run from a murder rap and hearing voices in his head. It all gets worse when he finds himself in London looking through some purple-tinted glasses into a parallel world of cannibalism and gore. … The four-letter words come fast and furiously, but they’re no stronger than the violent and gruesome situations that befall Jack… Smith spares no graphic details to depict the horrific world of Marbury.” Okay, even though the Journal says it is for senior high school students, it seems this is kind of a take your pick complaint menu for some.
Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris. I admit to not being a David Sedaris fan and, thus, that his sense of humor isn’t for everyone. My guess as to what leads to this book, his fourth, being on the list comes solely from Amazon’s review: “In the essay ‘Jesus Shaves,’ he and his classmates from many nations try to convey the concept of Easter to a Moroccan Muslim. “It is a party for the little boy of God,” says one. “Then he be die one day on two… morsels of… lumber,” says another. Sedaris muses on the disputes between his Protestant mother and his father, a Greek Orthodox guy whose Easter fell on a different day.” I’m thinking the first provided grounds for some one and the second may have just been icing on the cake.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Astray Vol. 3, by Tomohiro Chiba. Another admission: I don’t understand the fascination with manga. Of course, I also don’t grasp the current fixation on zombies and vampires. But my complete unfamiliarity with this genre leaves me wondering what it is about this particular volume of this particular manga series that got it on someone’s age inappropriate, violence or other radar this year.
Tomorrow I’ll complete the list, which includes two books where one or both have been on the most challenged list each of the last seven years.
Censors don’t want children exposed to ideas different from their own. If every individual with an agenda had his/her way, the shelves in the school library would be close to empty.
Judy Blume, Censorship
Although it was recently called an exercise in propaganda, Banned Books Week is here again, being “celebrated” today to October 1. At the risk of being called a propagandist, I’m going to try to again have daily posts on the topic for the week. (Although I can’t say I’m a fan of this year’s poster. It seems a bit too ’60s retro to me — says the guy who is artistically challenged drawing stick figures.)
If you think this is a hackneyed issue, in the past few weeks there’s been a few news stories about books being challenged in schools, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (now available in a restricted area accessible only to parents) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet. With school now underway throughout the country, it is also a prime time for challenges to crop up.
But what are the really “hot” items? Here’s the top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2010 and the reasons given for challenging each, compiled by the American Library Association:
- And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. For the fourth time in the five years since it’s been published, this book about two male penguins who take care of a baby penguin tops the list (it was in second place last year). The reasons cited against it? Homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group.
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence.
- Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and sexually explicit.
- Crank, by Ellen Hopkins. Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit.
- The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence.
- Lush, by Natasha Friend. Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group.
- What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones. Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group.
- Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich. Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint.
- Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie. Reasons: homosexuality and sexually explicit.
- Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence.
I’ve actually only read two of the books on the list but have The Hunger Games on my Nook. Interestingly, Twilight (which I haven’t read) and the movies it spawned have been highly popular. In fact, I think it’s responsible for the recent dramatic increase in popular culture fascination with vampires. I understand The Hunger Games is also very popular and the movie being made is already generating some excitement. Does a sense of forbidden fruit increase the buzz?
You can cage the singer but not the song.
Harry Belafonte, International Herald Tribune, Oct. 3, 1988
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