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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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”