Banned Books Celebration

[packsaddle 753]

Yay! I always look forward to Banned Books Week (coming up next week). So to get a head start, here's a link to the google map of last year's distribution:

http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html

 

As usual, the most conservative states like Utah, Nevada, NM, etc. were least likely to ban books and the most liberal regions were most active in banning books. I'm still making my selection, so many to choose from.

 

I thought everyone would like to join in.

[Lisabob 13]

Pack, that's interesting. Thanks for sharing the link. But I wonder if the reason you see few attempts to ban books in places like Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, etc., has more to do with the relatively smaller populations and fewer school districts in many western states and less to do with the degree of conservatism vs.liberalism out west? If it were based on ideology in the way that you suggest, then we would also expect to see more bans in place in northeastern (typically liberal) states, and few bans in place in southeastern (typically conservative) states, too. Yet the map in your link shows a great many bans in southeastern states.

 

 

[packsaddle 753]

Yeah, normalized against the population it might be more evenly distributed. I wonder if the literacy rate has any effect?

[Nike 94]

Are these the books that were removed or only the ones that kicked up a fuss? I'm pretty sure a lot of books get pulled from school libraries and no one even notices or disagrees with the decision.

 

A school reading list is a delicatly crafted thing, or it ought to be. A lot of these books I question as to their historic impact on society and the development of literature in the Western Tradition, which is what is normally studied in American high school. I can say that my son is sick of books about death, poverty, and the hopelessness of life that present no redeeming value in the course of suffering.

 

That said, all of these books should be in a public library and available to all card holders.

 

[packsaddle 753]

Nike, how old is your son? we started our children into books by reading to them every night, a chapter or two from stories that didn't scare them. Son went through a R.L. Stine phase and soon we weren't reading enough for him so he learned on his own. Then by the time we got to the Will Hobbs books, we almost never had to lift a finger. For a while he devoured the magazines about videogames. Our attitude was that as long as he was reading, we'd give him some leeway on what he could read. Now he's a little like Scotty on StarTrek, just give him a good engineering manual.

 

My daughter just, one day, started reading. We'd help her a little now and then and read to her to get her interested. But she did the rest. I tried some books on adventure with her. The book, "Two in the Far North" comes to mind. But she didn't catch the fever on those. She was more interested in teen witches and similar topics. So I just enjoyed "Two in the Far North" myself.

Again, there's a lot out there that isn't so dreary and depressing.

 

As I looked over the list on the website, most of those books have been the subject of objections. I didn't see that they were banned but I could be wrong.

[Hal_Crawford 15]

Zoom in on the map and then click on the markers and you get a very different picture. In the densely populated Northeast there really aren't that many and some of them are cases where a book was challenged but not removed. At least on case was a Catholic School that banned Harry Potter books. Silly perhaps but it is not like a (tax payer funded) public school system banning books.

 

If you look in the Maryland-DC-Virginia area you see that most if not all the bannings or attempted bannings were in more conservative areas (North Stafford County for instance-they are to the right of Genghis Khan).

 

Really though, if that is all there is in the country, book banning doesn't seem to be that common. That, to me, is good news.

 

Hal

[BadenP 93]

packsaddle

 

You are as bad as the tabloid press bringing up such a useless topic about a few isolated and ignorant groups in this country who probably haven't read a book outside of school their entire lives. Calling attention to this ignorance just gives these crackpots a way to further spread their ridiculous philosophy. A total waste of time.

[Nike 94]

My son is 14 and his middle school reading list has been radically different from mine. The ones that stick out are Sounder, Ole Yeller, one about a Korean boy who lived under a bridge with an old man, Where the Lillies Bloom, and Anne Frank.

 

He recently finished "Scramble for Africa" and plans to move on to the "Washing of the Spears."

 

I've read a lot of the "banned and challenged books," mostly in school. Some are great, some are good, some are trash.

 

 

[CalicoPenn 729]

Could it be that there are more proposed bannings in liberal areas because there are more likely to be books right wing conservatives find objectionable in more liberal areas?

 

It's not unusual for at least one attempt per year to ban a book from libraries, schools or summer reading lists in the suburbs of Chicago. Chicago may be a liberal minded area but the suburbs are not (though that seems to be changing only because the suburbs prefer a moderate breed of conservative and the right wingers are scaring the real base of the GOP).

 

This past summer it was a parent objecting to "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven", by Shermam Alexie which a parent found objectionable because the protaganist, a teen, swears, dreams about girls, and talks about racism against Indians (of which he is one) at his high school.

 

She insisted that it be removed from the list or that folks have an alternate choice. It turns out the school district did have an alternate book and told her what the alternate book was when she first called to complain - and this district has had a policy of choosing alternate books for the past 20 years. Needless to say, she did not do well on her quest (many of us are wondering if what she was trying to protect her son from was the idea that racism is bad - but that's just conjecture).

 

A few years back, a right wing Christian was elected to the school board of a local high school district. At the time, she ran as a fiscal conservative, not a Big C Christian. At her first meeting, she proposed banning a number of books. The outcry was immediate. She lost re-election last year, and she lost because of her book banning stance.

 

Now it's that time of year again - time to choose a banned book to read - maybe this year I'll go with the Chocolate War - that one seems to be getting a bunch of attention

 

[AlFansome 10]

From the 6 total in all of California, we have:

 

- one challenge (not a ban) at a private school in Orange County which is a very conservative area

- one ban because of an anti-Catholic bias. The ban was opposed by the ACLU.

- one ban in the Central Valley (i.e. farming area) because it was anti-Catholic

- one complaint (not a ban) in Lodi about homosexual content in a book

- one challenge (not a ban) about a book describing suicide and lethal injections

- one ban south of San Francisco regarding a book that depicted men preparing to have anal sex with young boys.

 

 

The data in California at least doesn't support the hypothesis that liberal areas ban more books. In fact, it's just about the opposite here if you look at the details and what is being challenged.

[Lisabob 13]

I just want to add that I live in one of the areas where a ban was proposed. It ultimately failed, and I applaud the teacher, the school board, the students, and most of the community for standing up to the narrow-minded individuals who tried to enact the ban. However, one upshot of this was that at least a couple of folks from the group who supported the ban ran for, and won, seats on the school board.

 

The area is pretty conservative, but I was very pleased to note how many people came out in opposition to banning books, especially books intended to be included in a high school advanced literature course.

[packsaddle 753]

Lisa, do you know what the book title was? Nature of the objection?

I'm liking the Chocolate War suggestion but I haven't quite decided yet.

[Lisabob 13]

Yes I do pack, but I'd prefer not to identify exactly where I live on the web. Send me a pm if you want and we can discuss that way.

[packsaddle 753]

Sure thing, Lisa.

As I look over lists of books banned or ones for which attempts have been made, OK I get how some of these would stimulate some sensitivities. But others, like The Chocolate War, I don't get at all. I wonder if people have even read some of the books they object to. I suppose this is just one more in a long list of things I am out of touch with in American society, sigh.

[vol_scouter 365]

PAcksaddle,

 

Thanks for the link. I am always amazed at the list. Banning books , especially at public libraries, is dangerous. I do believe that school libraries should have age approporiate materials and that sensitivity to the community mores should be exercised in the ordering of library materials since school libraries are small. Banning though is never the best solution.