Censorship and the Freedom to Read The Fate of Children's and Young Adult Materials in Public Libraries By: Jessica Perham

Censorship “When you start removing books from a library, where do you stop?” Definition: aims to stop the expression of ideas that are allegedly harmful to the conventions of religion, morality, and the protection of youth Censorship poses an immediate threat to the existence of libraries whose goal is intellectual freedom and freedom of expression

What the ALA has to say… The first four amendments to the Library Bill of Rights: Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of the author Books should be provided presenting all points of view on current and historical issues Challenging censorship is the fulfillment of libraries’ responsibilities Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and access to ideas

What gets challenged? The large majority of censorship challenges revolve around children’s, juvenile, and young adult literature Challenges are mainly instigated by parents or groups of parents Books are challenged on the basis of being inappropriate due to differences in values, religious beliefs, or political views

Why are books challenged? According to one study, there were thirteen broad categories for censorship challenges (in order of most cited) Profanity, heterosexual activity, homosexuality, sexual activity deemed illegal/immoral, religion/witchcraft, violence/horror, rebellion, racism/sexism, substance use/abuse, suicide/death, crime, crude behavior, depressing/negative content, and “other Many books have more than one of these reasons cited for censorship challenges

Commonly challenged children’s authors Roald Dahl – Matilda and James of the Giant Peach Lois Lowry – The Giver, Gathering Blue, Number the Stars, the Anastasia series Judy Blume – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Blubber, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Tiger Eyes J.K. Rowling – the Harry Potter series Stephanie Meyers – the Twilight series

Commonly challenged classical literature F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby J.D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men* Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird George Orwell – 1984 J.R.R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings Alice Walker – The Color Purple

What are parents worried about? Parents are worried that if their children are exposed to topics such as homosexuality, violence, and drugs that children will be tempted to experiment with those unsuitable actions and behaviors Children, on the other hand, are looking for someone to relate to in an unbiased way

What actions are being taken? Legislation was introduced in Oklahoma that would prevent local funding to libraries unless materials with controversial topics were moved into special sections of the libraries Citizens Against Pornography wanted materials either to bear a warning label or be moved into the adult section of the library Governments have been known to ban materials as well

Are books actually removed? No Books can either be relocated, reclassified, relabeled, or restricted by age level Books can be relocated from children’s to YA, from YA to adult, from circulating to reference, reclassified, moved from one branch or another, or have nothing done to it at all

Why libraries shouldn’t censor Libraries and libraries are not in loco parentis – they do not take the place of the parent Libraries serve diverse communities and therefore must offer a diverse collection of materials “We tolerate different opinions not because we endorse them but because we wish to remain free to express our own”