Slideshow created by: Cheryl Youse at Coulquitt Co. High School

Banning a book is when a person or group decides that a book is so inappropriate in some way that NO ONE should read the book. Then the person or group has the book removed from the shelves of libraries.

An individual or group files a formal challenge with a school or library, requesting that a book or material be removed The school or library forms a committee to review the material The committee votes on whether or not the material should be removed or retained If the material is kept on the shelf, the person filing the complaint may file another complaint with the court system, which then will review the case 85% of challenges receive no media attention

In 2014, there were 311 (307 in 2013) REPORTED challenges. “A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” A book is challenged if someone requests that it be removed from library shelves. A book is banned if the library or school agrees to remove it from circulation. If a book is banned in one place, it is not banned everywhere. More challenges are filed against schools than against other institutions.

Books usually are challenged to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information. Most librarians see challenges as grounded in good intention and pure in conviction, but they are ultimately illegal and restrictive.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Books provide education on a wide variety of subjects and the opportunity to have an experience vicariously Without a wide variety of views, change cannot occur within a society Books offer history in context Many banned and challenged books become classics You can’t protect children from the ‘real world’ forever

Without examples such as Maya Angelou’s experiences in her childhood (I know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou), how would people who have not experienced racism learn about racism? Without The Scarlet Letter, how would we understand Puritan society and how it operated? Without Fahrenheit 451, how would you understand what effect burning books could have on a person and how the desire for banned items increases their interest and mystery?

In other words, reading is an opportunity to experience an event without actually living through it.

Parents and teachers are responsible for helping you select reading materials while they are still responsible for you. But as an adult, you have the freedom to read books of your choice and to decide what your own children may or may not be allowed to read.

Parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.” Censorship by librarians of constitutionally protected speech, whether for protection or for any other reason, violates the First Amendment.

Banned from public libraries in Wisconsin, Gwinnett County, Georgia, and Leon County Florida Objections: semi-pornographic, poorly written, does not suit community standards, erotica against policy (Will not be ordered by CCHS—does not fit our collection policy because it does not support or enrich the school curriculum. While it might encourage some of you to read, the books we choose are to be notable and those books that are controversial are to be carefully selected, with information on opposing sides made available.)

Offensive language (Banned at the time of publication in many places in the South because of it’s anti- slavery theme and in Russia because it was considered to undermine religious ideals)

Ordered BURNED in East St. Louis for indecency and obscenity—it actually was restricted to adults only instead of being burned

Banned in a number of places over the years because of objections to the language used and the perception that the book promotes racism.

Fahrenheit 451 is about book burning and the effect that banning or censoring books has on a society.

Many have objected to the “magical content” in this book, claiming it promotes witchcraft and evil content. (Katherine Paterson’s degree is in Christian education and she is the daughter of Christian missionaries.)

Many have objected to the “magical content” in this book, and the other Harry Potter books, claiming it promotes witchcraft and evil content.

In 1977 the Ku Klux Klan demanded this book be removed from school libraries in South Carolina and burned because it contained profanity. It has been challenged and banned in numerous places over the years.

Banned in 2010 in California because it contained a definition of “oral sex.”

This book was banned because there is a wine bottle in the basket on the cover of the book. Some people believed the book promoted drinking alcoholic beverages.

This book was banned for encouraging inappropriate behavior: eating worms and gambling

Banned for inappropriate content, promotion of cannibalism (The poem Dreadful)

Banned in some schools and libraries because of “inappropriate pictures” (beach page—some of our English students found it one year)

Banned in some schools and libraries in California and because of content about the logging industry— “criminalizes the forestry industry”

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian / Alexie (language, sex, drugs, bullying)* 2. Persepolis / Satrapi (gambling, politics, race)* 3. And Tango Makes Three / Richardson & Parnell (homosexuality, anti-family)* 4. The Bluest Eye / Morrison (sex, controversial issues, unsuited to age group)* 5. It’s Perfectly Normal / Harris (sex ed, unsuited to age group)* 6. Saga / Vaughn & Staples (anti-family, sex, unsuited to age group) 7. The Kite Runner / Hosseini (language, violence)* 8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower / Chbosky (drugs, smoking, homosexuality, language)* 9. A Stolen Life / Dugard (drugs, alcohol, smoking sex) 10. Drama / Telgemeier (sex)*

Black Beauty / Anna Sewell Hop on Pop / Dr. Seuss (violence to parents- Toronto, 2014) The Bible Animal Farm / George Orwell Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger Goosebumps books / R. L. Stine Scary Stories / Alvin Schwartz --and many more…..

Evans v. Selma Union High School District of Fresno County, 222 P. 801 (Ca. 1924) The California State Supreme Court held that the King James version of the Bible was not a "publication of a sectarian, partisan, or denominational character" that a State statute required a public high school library to exclude from its collections. The "fact that the King James version is commonly used by Protestant Churches and not by Catholics" does not "make its character sectarian," the court stated. "The mere act of purchasing a book to be added to the school library does not carry with it any implication of the adoption of the theory or dogma contained therein, or any approval of the book itself, except as a work of literature fit to be included in a reference library."

Rosenberg v. Board of Education of City of New York, 92 N.Y.S.2d 344 (Sup. Ct. Kings County 1949) After considering the charge that Oliver Twist and the Merchant of Venice are "objectionable because they tend to engender hatred of the Jew as a person and as a race," the Supreme Court, Kings County, New York, decided that these two works cannot be banned from the New York City schools, libraries, or classrooms, declaring that the Board of Education "acted in good faith without malice or prejudice and in the best interests of the school system entrusted to their care and control, and, therefore, that no substantial reason exists which compels the suppression of the two books under consideration."

Minarcini v. Strongsville (Ohio) City School District, 541 F.2d 577 (6th Cir. 1976) The Strongsville City Board of Education rejected faculty recommendations to purchase Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and ordered the removal of Catch-22 and Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle from the library. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled against the School Board, upholding the students' First Amendment right to receive information and the librarian's right to disseminate it. "The removal of books from a school library is a much more serious burden upon the freedom of classroom discussion than the action found unconstitutional in Tinker v. Des Moines School District."

 ”When a book is banned, a whole set of thoughts is locked behind the assertion that there is only one valid set of values, one valid set of beliefs, one valid perception of the world. It's a scary idea, especially in a society which has been built on the ideas of free choice and free thought.” AND “ Do I think that all ideas should be allowed in school libraries? I do not.”

A guy named Richard Swier in Florida thinks that SPEAK is "child pornography." I wish I were making that up. SPEAK is cautionary tale about the emotional aftermath of rape. It tackles bullying, depression, rape, sexual harassment, and family dysfunction. It teaches children that when bad things happen, they need to speak up, even when it's hard. It has given hope to tens of thousands of readers since It is a standard in curriculum across the country.

 “The point, is that they are trying to take away someone else’s ability to choose what they want to read, and you can’t do that.”

 I think that it's a pity that I'm not going to get a chance to do that (discuss the novel) with your whole school," Doctorow said on YouTube. "And it's not because I think you all should read my book or because I was hoping to sell you a lot of copies.... I was doing this because I think this whole discussion is important, and I think talking about it in schools is important.“  (On his book being removed from reading lists in Pensacola, Florida in 2014—he sent 200 copies of his book to the school and made it available for a free download.)

 “Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading. Stop them reading what they enjoy or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like—the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian ’improving’ literature—you’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and, worse, unpleasant.”

 May, Couer d’Alene, Idaho: Parents request that the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck be banned from the school curriculum. The school board voted 4 to 1 to keep the book, saying they “trust the judgment of our English teachers to use this book wisely, as we have since 2002.”  August, Jacksonville, Florida: Parents have requested that the books The Librarian of Basra and Nasreen’s Secret School, both by Jeanette Winter be removed from the curriculum because they don’t believe the topics of war and Islam are appropriate for elementary school students. The school board superintendent Nikolai Vitti urged leaving the books on the shelves because Jacksonville is a military town. The idea that the debate is over removing books that deal with saving books isn’t lost on Vitti. He commented, “Ironically, it’s the same themes that are discussed in the books themselves,” he said.

Exercise your rights! Read a banned book today Talk to your neighbors about why everyone should be allowed to choose for themselves and their families what they read If you want to know more, visit the ALA website on challenged and banned booksALA website

Book Cover Images from: Alibris Court Case citations from The American Library Association, Notable First Amendment Court Cases website: Images from: ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom: Freedom to Read Foundation Harry Potter Wiki Graphs from: American Library Association: King, Stephen. (1992). StephenKing.com. banners:_adventure_in_censorship_is_stranger_than_fiction_the.html banners:_adventure_in_censorship_is_stranger_than_fiction_the.html