Banned Books Week

I've done a lot of Banned Books posts over the years.  Since we have reached a decade marker, the ALA compiled the top 100 books that were banned or challenged over the last decade.  I have read less than I expected, but I read less picture books of late.  Some were assigned reading in school.  Some I adored.  Some I meh-ed.  Some I disliked and think are not great books, although having read many of these challenges I doubt the folks that challenged them were concerned about the same things I was.  

There are many books I have concerns about.  There are many books that are written by people who I don't think deserve the time and energy we have already spent on their thoughts.  There are many books that if I was reading with children or saw a child in my care read, I'd be like, okay we're gonna have a book club chat about that.  

And libraries weed collections, just as I occasionally take a deep look at the books on my shelves.  Some books wouldn't make me sad to see the reader numbers go down.  

But a lot of these books aren't on the list because they contain underdeveloped and or dated ideas about race and sex.  They are there because they make people uncomfortable.  Or they use words that have fallen out of favor and we somehow think people can't read a word and not use it in casual conversation.  Or they contain people being naked.  (Seriously, The Naked Cowboy is a picture book about a cowboy taking a bath.) 

And it isn't enough that folks want to not read or have their children read this book.  They want it away.  They think they know better than the collection librarians.  And librarians are - brace yourself - not perfect.  But they should be working on developing a collection for the whole community, not one segment of it. 

In other news, over on substack I talked about some baking recipes. 

Challenged or Banned

Again, I want to say that I understand as a parent or guardian making a decision that a book is not appropriate for your child.  Personally I lean more toward the let them read it with you and discuss it approach, but no one's waking me up with nightmares, so easy for me to say.  I am somewhat confused at the idea that a book should not be able to any child, or even adult who might make use of that library.  Sure, not every book should be in every kindergarten classroom.  But that is typically not what we are discussing. 
So, with that, I am going to poke a little fun at some of last year's challenges. 
P.C. and Kristin Cast's Betrayed was challenged for causing kids to think of sex.  Because without this book, they would not ever do that. 
A number of books on the list were challenged for nudity which never ceases to amuse me, because these are not graphic novels or picture books but words.  So, apparently the concern is not that a child would be exposed to naked people, the child would be exposed to words about people.  (Who might be naked.) 
I suppose that should make me feel marginally better that The Awakening by Kate Chopin was challenged because the cover had a painting of a topless woman.  Sadly it does not. 

You're Too Old For That Book

We have entered banned books week!  And for this post, I want to talk a little about a different kind of restriction.  My friend and I used to hang out a lot at the Greenbelt Mall.  (Ah, good times.)  And so when they added what looked like some sort of middle ground between a Chuck E Cheese and a Dave and Busters we were excited.  Now this was partly because this mall had limited food selections, unless one wanted to eat at the movie theater or the ice cream shop, and while certainly the greater Greenbelt/College Park area had a plethora of fast food choices, variety was always welcome.  (There were also non-fast food options afoot, our budgets were pretty firmly fast food most days.) Well, you can imagine our sadness to discover the pizza offerings at this new arcade and games joint were not available to us since we did not come with children.  Now, yes, I understand that sadly, some adults might be drawn to such and establishment sans their own children for nefarious purposes, and, yes, I want people's kids to be safe.  But my friend and I could not figure out why we couldn't play the games (through the windows it appeared, other than the ball pit, adults could partake in all of the games) or eat the food.  But no. 
But, it seems, as an avid reader of YA and the occasional middle grade (MG) book that letting me take out books from the library poses no risk.  Certainly, in a surfeit of cautiousness I could see why libraries might want to restrict kids areas from unattached adults, but I have to tell you I, kidless (not even a babysitting charge in sight) had the pleasure of hearing Flat Stanley read aloud by the author (although my mom was with me, does that count, even though I was fully grown?) and it was awesome.  And certainly I understand that libraries budgets are crunched (assuming they still have one to speak of) so if first priority for books aimed at kids went to kids, I'd be all for that.  But if a book is in the library and I cannot get it out because I am too old - well, I have to ask why?  Why is my reading something aimed at a different age group an undesirable thing?  Why should I have to produce proof of child to do this? 
When this came up on Twitter the issue of teachers was raised.  (In fact the person who mentioned it was a teacher.)  But also, this makes shelving marketing decisions super crucial.  After all, with talk that books like Huckleberry Finn and Carrie would be (and sometimes are) shelved as YA today, so who decides if I am allowed to get that book out.  And again, I am stuck on the why. Could I be planning to lure innocent children with my excellent library lending?  Could I be getting terrible ideas from these teen books?  Will I use my broadened knowledge of texting and teen slang to annoy my co-workers?  (Okay, that's actually possible.)
The only thing I can come up with is some sort of mirror law type thing where someone has decided if kids are going to be restricted from some books then adults should also get restricted.  Seriously, don't make me get a fake ID to take a book out of the library. 

 

Giddy About Banned Books

I confess to having reached a point of hilarity on the subject of banned books. (Exacerbated by reading an unrelated comment thread in which a Turkish woman noted several errors in a book that takes place in Turkey and was told she was wrong. Clearly she does not know her country.)*
So, there's another list of banned and challenged books here, in some cases with links to the parts the parents don't like (woot! - although some of the links within seem to be broken).
Lois Duncan's Daughters of Eve has been challenged (in fairness, these parents wanted it marked as PG-13 rather than removed) due to profanity and sexual content. I confess I read this book a really long time ago (in fact, I think I was in middle school) so I do not recall any profanity or sexual content (darn it) but, as several folks in the story point out it is a great story with an important lesson in it. A teacher, under the guise of enlightening the female students, turns out to have far more nefarious plans than education and it's a good story and an intriguing look at how sometimes platforms that start with some great ideas can get twisted. (And now I have made it sound boring and lessony. It's better than that.)
Lois Lowry's Anastasiawas challenged because a character stuffs her bra.
Lois Lowry's The Giver was challenged because it was depressing. (Seriously.) The parent in question believes that books should be historical or positive, so dystopian is apparently off the table. (There is apparently also some sex.)
And my new favorite challenge may be Louise Rennison's On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God not for the content (so, kudos to the parent for reading it before challenging it) because the title contains the words sex god which may lead to statutory rape.
Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were both challenged because they depict racism. Sadly, that suggests the challengers didn't get very far into either.
H/T to the tweetverse for the you don't know Turkey link here.