1. Banned Books Week September 27-October 3, 2015
Images from: ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom: <

2. “BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS Any student found in possession of the magazine The Quibbler will be expelled. The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-seven. Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor For some reason, every time Hermione caught sight of one of these signs she beamed with pleasure. “What exactly are you so happy about?” Harry asked her. “Oh, Harry, don’t you see?” Hermione breathed. “If she could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school will read your interview, it was banning it!” And it seemed that Hermione was quite right. By the end of the day, though Harry had not seen so much as a corner of The Quibbler anywhere in the school, the whole place seemed to be quoting the interview to each other.” J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 26 Seen and Unforseen
Image from:

3. What does it mean to ban a book?
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.
What does it mean to ban a book?
Photo by: Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly. Retrieved from

4. How does a book get banned?
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
ALA: Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books (

5. How often are books banned?
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.
Statistics from the American Library Association

6. Why are books challenged or banned?
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.
The issue of protecting children from harmful material and censorship is one of this country’s biggest areas of conflict.
Wanting to protect children’s innocence from materials not suited to them is a noble goal, however when this leads to censorship, it is both illegal and restrictive to other individuals.
It is important to remember that books are often challenged by people and groups of all persuasions.
A good book highlighting this is Nat Hentoff’s Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other.
Books are often challenged by people and groups of all persuasions. The issue of protecting children from harmful material and censorship is one of this country’s biggest areas of conflict.

7. American Library Association: http://www. ala

8. Who Challenges Books?

9. What kinds of Institutions have to deal with challenges?

10. Does Banning a Book Protect People?
Graphs from ALA: <

11. Why not ban books? 1st Amendment rights--
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.

12. What’s wrong with Banning Books?
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

13. Effects of Banning Books
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?

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

15. Should other people decide what YOU read?
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.

16. According to the Library Bill of Rights…..
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.

17. Challenges by Year
American Library Association, retrieved from

18. What books have been banned?
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. Also, the recommended audience is adult and teenagers –whether you like it or not-do not fit that audience demographic.)
BANNED!
Book cover images from Alibris <

19. What books have been banned?
Offensive language, religious questions
Johnny Wheelwright lives in New Hampshire with his mom. Johnny never knew who his dad was, and was rather scrawny and wimpy so it was only natural for him to find a friend in Owen Meany. Owen was small for his age – and has damage to his larynx which leaves his voice very squeaky and needless to say, the blunt of many jokes. But – Owen is wise beyond his years and knows more about life at the age of ten than most people do well into their later adult years. When a tragic accident happens at a baseball game involving Owen… Owen feels this was foreseen by God, therefore – Owen is an instrument of God.
BANNED!

20. What books have been banned?
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)
BANNED!

21. What books have been banned?
Ordered BURNED in East St. Louis for indecency and obscenity—it actually was restricted to adults only instead of being burned
BANNED!

22. What books have been banned?
Banned in a number of places over the years because of objections to the language used and the perception that the book promotes racism.

23. What books have been banned?
Fahrenheit 451 is about book burning and the effect that banning or censoring books has on a society.
BANNED!

24. What books have been banned?
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.)
BANNED!

25. What books have been banned?
Many have objected to the “magical content” in this book, and the other Harry Potter books, claiming it promotes witchcraft and evil content.
BANNED!

26. What books have been banned?
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.
Steingbeck: <
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BANNED!

27. What books have been banned?
Banned in 2010 in California because it contained a definition of “oral sex.”
BANNED!

28. What books have been banned?
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.
BANNED!

29. What books have been banned?
This book was banned for encouraging inappropriate behavior: eating worms and gambling
BANNED!

30. What books have been banned?
Banned for inappropriate content, promotion of cannibalism (The poem Dreadful)
BANNED!
Dreadful—Someone ate the baby, It’s rather sad to say. Someone ate the baby So she won’t be out to play. We’ll never hear her whiney cry Or have to feel if she is dry. We’ll never hear her asking “Why?” Someone ate the baby. Someone at the baby. It’s absolutely clear Someone ate the baby ‘cause the baby isn’t here. We’ll give away her toys and clothes. We’ll never have to wipe her nose. Dad says, “That’s the way it goes.” Someone ate the baby. Someone ate the baby.

31. What books have been banned?
Banned in some schools and libraries because of ‘inappropriate pictures’ (beach page—some of our English students found it one year)
BANNED!

32. What books have been banned?
Banned in some schools and libraries in California and because of content about the logging industry— “criminalizes the forestry industry”
BANNED!

33. Top Books Challenged in 2014
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian / Alexie (language, sex, drugs, bullying)*
Persepolis / Satrapi (gambling, politics, race)*
And Tango Makes Three / Richardson & Parnell (homosexuality, anti-family)*
The Bluest Eye / Morrison (sex, controversial issues, unsuited to age group)*
It’s Perfectly Normal / Harris (sex ed, unsuited to age group)*
Saga / Vaughn & Staples (anti-family, sex, unsuited to age group)
The Kite Runner / Hosseini (language, violence)*
The Perks of Being a Wallflower / Chbosky (drugs, smoking, homosexuality, language)*
A Stolen Life / Dugard (drugs, alcohol, smoking sex)
Drama / Telgemeier (sex)*
Statistics from the American Library Association

34. Other books challenged--
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…..

35. Court Cases (Foundations of Free Speech)
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."

36. Court Cases (Foundations of Free Speech)
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."

37. Court Cases (Foundations of Free Speech)
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."

38. What do authors say about banning books?

39. Stephen King (author of Carrie, Cujo, and others)
 ”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.”

40. Laurie Halse Anderson (author of Speak)
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.

41. Jeff Smith (author of Bone series)
“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.”

42. Cory Doctorow (author of Little Brother)
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.)
Los Angeles Times: <

43. Neil Gaiman (author of Neverwhere)
“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.”

44. In the news…
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.
Los Angeles Times: <
Jacksonville News: <

45. What to do about banning books?
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 books
<

46. Sources: Book Cover Images from: Alibris www.alibris.com
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.