Banned Book Week 2024

Yet again, I must blog about Banned Book Week.

I've been doing this for years, and it seems things only get worse, years after years.  To quote one of my past Banned Books posts, from 2022:

 For those of us who love to read, we know we live in dangerous times.  The forces of censorship seem to grow stronger every day.  In 2022, we live in a state of constant crisis, which is why I try to keep world events out of my blog.  I strive to bring some peace and beauty to my readers.  But it's hard.  

 In the United States, everything has become political.  We are all, it seems, in crisis mode, with "breaking news" appearing on our television screens multiple times a day.  We are even questioning some of our core values, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  

But censorship is a different thing....

This year, Banned Books Week is September 22-28.

My local library has had a display of banned books up since early September.  I am thankful I had the freedom to photograph it.  Millions of people over the world don't have that freedom. 

No wonder the most banned book of all time is 1984, by George Orwell.

To quote the American Library Association:

The American Library Association condemns censorship and works to defend each person's right to read under the First Amendment and to ensure free access to information....

ALA documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship in 2023—a 65% surge over 2022 numbers—as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources. Pressure groups focused on public libraries in addition to targeting school libraries. The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023.

Of the top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023, many of them were challenged due to real or alleged LGBTQIA+ content.

Of other books frequently receiving challenges, these include such classics as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (a perpetual target of book banners), and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Even To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck are challenged.

The most challenged book of the 21st century? Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling.

Those who want to destroy our freedoms fear books.  Why?  Because books are powerful, more powerful than any of us realize.They educate us.  They encourage us to dream.  They challenge us to imagine a better world.  Just look at dictatorships around the world.  How many of them allow their citizens to read any book they want?  Free access of information would endanger their reigns.

Knowledge Wins poster, 1916, Westfield Public Library, New York (in public domain)

Knowledge wins.  That's why the book ban people fear books.

Don't let them win.

Let Freedom Read

It's become a sad tradition on my blog.  I so wish it was an unnecessary tradition.

October 1-7 is Banned Book Week. 

It seems that every year, observing this week (which actually is needed each and every week of the year) becomes more and more important.  Our freedoms are slipping away.  We will lose them if we don't value them. 

This year, the theme is "Let Freedom Read".  I wish I could copy an email I received yesterday from the New York Public Library, written by author Judy Blume.  She said it so much more elegantly than I can.

Here is an explanation of some of the terms being used below.

Here is an infographic.  One of these sobering statistics is how much censorship has been on the rise.  Incidents have almost doubled between 2021 and 2022. (I apologize for the size of this infographic; I can't make it any bigger.  However, you can find the original of this and the one below at the American Library Association website. ) Or, one can only hope, at your own public library, where you may also find a display of banned books. 

At our local library, my spouse picked up one of the books from a display of books that have been banned:  The Call of the Wild, by Jack London.  He loved that book as a child (as did I).

I've read at least two other books that have been banned from time to time as part of my schooling:  Animal Farm by George Orwell, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.  My son read another banned book as part of his schooling: The Giver, by Lois Lowry.

If you look at reasons books are challenged or banned, they will range widely, from the author's political beliefs, to violence, to descriptions of witchcraft, to profanity, to depictions of drug use.  

In 2022, Dr. Seuss Enterprises decided to no longer offer for publication six Dr. Seuss books.

Sometimes, all it takes is someone wondering if a library even has a book.

Take, for example, the example of the library in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

I was so fortunate to have parents who did not control my reading.  They would take me to the library, or to a bookstore, and just stand by while I made my selections.  Never once did they try to change my mind.  They might discuss a book with me, but I was free to read it.

These are the top "most challenged" books, noting there is a big difference between challenged and banned (as explained in a link at the beginning of this post). 

People can challenge books in an effort to protect children (the largest group challenging are parents) from difficult ideas or situations but too many times it comes down to a desire to censor beliefs that run counter to certain groups' or powerful interests' beliefs.  But don't take it from me.

Quoting from the ALA's website:

"As Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., in Texas v. Johnson , said most eloquently:

If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

If we are to continue to protect our First Amendment, we would do well to keep in mind these words of Noam Chomsky:

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Or these words of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (" The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports , vol. 7, no. 1, Jan. 1953, p. 20):

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."

Freedom of reading.  Freedom of thought.

Let Freedom Read.

Banned Books Week 2022

For those of us who love to read, we know we live in dangerous times.  The forces of censorship seem to grow stronger every day.  In 2022, we live in a state of constant crisis, which is why I try to keep world events out of my blog.  I strive to bring some peace and beauty to my readers.  But it's hard.  

 In the United States, everything has become political.  We are all, it seems, in crisis mode, with "breaking news" appearing on our television screens multiple times a day.  We are even questioning some of our core values, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  

But censorship is a different thing.  This week is Banned Books Week, running from September 18-24.

There are increasing calls for books to be banned from various venues including:  Schools. Bookstores. Libraries.

Take, for example the continuing situation in Idaho at the Boundary County Library in Bonners Ferry.  Five years ago, it was awarded the title "Best Small Town Library in America".

Or, take  what happened earlier this year at the Vinton, Iowa public library. 

Banned Books Week has never been just about words on a page (or an ebook screen).  Those who want to exercise absolute mind control over populations know that.

The Banned Books Week's website says:

"By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country."

The Top 10 Challenged Books of 2021 are listed on the site.  Most of these books may not be familiar to you.

But I bet this list contains books that many of us are familiar with.

• The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
  
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Here's another way to look at it:  46 of the top 100 books of the 20th century have had efforts to ban them.  On the list below, the highlighted books are the ones people have tried to get banned. (Sorry, these are from pictures I took so are a little hard to read).

 

It can be scary to resist these forces that want to control our reading, but people have resisted. Some who feel that certain books don't belong in school or public libraries use the argument that people can always buy those books.  But, what if they don't have money?  Or, worse yet, if banning books from libraries becomes OK, isn't pressuring bookstores just around the corner?  Or, if publishers "voluntarily" pull certain books off the shelves?

Wait-it's already happened. 

Censorship, even "self-censorship"  Is. Just. Plain. Wrong.

 I ask myself, will I have the courage if censorship forces come to a library or bookstore near me?  do from time to time?  Will I be reading banned books in public on the lawn of my local library like some in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, have done?

But, if people don't resist, what will our future look like?

The Boundaries of Libraries

I wish I could post pictures of butterflies or daylilies today.

OK, just one.  I'll post one, the Citrus Kick I bought last week. 

But today, I have to discuss something more serious than flowers or daylilies.

Our local library is running two adult reading programs. One, which all the county libraries are participating in, involves having a card stamped each time you visit a library.  The other, only for customers of Your Home Library in Johnson City, New York, involves reading a minimum of six books between late June and mid August.  I'm up to four, so I'm sure I'll make the reading deadline.

You don't have to pay me to read.  Back when I worked in downtown Binghamton, New York, I was in walking distance of the public library, and I would go there two or three times a week.  The library has a small flower garden with a covered picnic table and several benches and tables.  Since COVID, I was only in that garden once, to take some pictures.

When I was young, I wanted to be a bookmobile librarian.  I grew up in New York City and had access to one of the greatest library systems in the United States.  I was fortunate.  My parents allowed me to read whatever book I wanted. As an adult, I explored becoming a librarian when I lived briefly in Iowa.

In general, librarians are some of the most awesome people you'd ever want to meet.  They have been on the front lines of fighting against censorship for many years, but now, they are being tested like almost never before.

There's always been book banning and censorship, but it is reaching new levels.

I have a Facebook friend, someone I have never met, but I have read her blog for several years.  She lives in the Bonners Ferry, Idaho area (she writes about this town in her blog, but otherwise I am not revealing any personal information or linking to her blog).

Bonners Ferry. Idaho, a small town of about 2,639 people, was named after Bonners Ferry, operated by one Edwin Bonner.  His ferry was used to transport men and mules to the Canadian Gold Rushes of the 1870's. Its library, the Boundary County library, was once named "The Best Small Library in America". 

The Best Small Library in America is being besieged. The people doing it think they are doing right by their children and their beliefs.  But the situation is spiraling into harassment and possible violence.

If you read the library's Facebook page, you will see postings that may well alarm you, if you believe in free speech and expression.  The Spokane, Washington newspaper also featured an opinion piece on this situation this past Sunday. I am not linking to this directly, because I suspect Blogger has become sensitive to certain content not rated G or PG, but you can easily do a search engine search for that and the Boundary County library.  The opinion piece is also posted on the Facebook page.

The situation has a lot of detail, and I think it would be better to read it directly from the sources.

A regular meeting today of the Board of Trustees, meantime, was cancelled "in the interest of public safety".  The reason was "due to an increase in harassing behavior, derogative accusations, and a purported threat of violence".

I am thousands of miles from Idaho. My Home Library should be safe.  Why should I care?

Because if what is happening to the Boundary County library hasn't come to a library (or bookstore) near you yet, it may well be on its way.  What is happening in Idaho is happening elsewhere.  People are on edge.  People are fearful their liberties are being taken away.  Librarians are facing unceasing pressure, and it's only getting worse.  Communities are being divided.

It isn't just Idaho.  Here's another library, in Vinton, Iowa, facing pressure.

While I'm on the subject, it would also be a good time to mention that Banned Books Week isn't that far off - this year it will be September 18-24.  To quote from the ALA website:

"Books unite us. Books encourage boundless exploration and allow readers to spread their wings. Stories give flight to new ideas and perspectives. Reading—especially books that set us free—expands our worldview. Censorship, on the other hand, locks away our freedom and divides us from humanity in our own cages."

Our country is going to have to make a choice sooner rather than later. 

The alarms are ringing.  Will the American public respond?  Will they turn out and show their support and help libraries resist this pressure?

Belated Banned Books Week 2021

Shame on me!  I missed Banned Books Week 2021, held this year between September 26 and October 2.  In its honor, I will repeat (with some edits) my Banned Weeks Post from 2017.  This year's theme was "Censorship Divides Us"

So sad that everything I said in 2017 (noting some updates) is still true.

And now the post, with some edits (including a more recent banned books list than I had in the 2017 post.)

It is said that the Chinese symbol for "crisis" combines their symbols for "danger" and "opportunity".  It's not true, but it sounds good.

It seems we live in a state of constant crisis, which is why I try to keep world events out of my blog.  But it's hard.  Disasters all over the world.  Political crises, with our world edging closer to possible destruction.  Climate change.

In the United States, everything has become political.  We are all, it seems, in crisis mode, with "breaking news" appearing on our television screens multiple times a day.  We are even questioning some of our core values, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  And then there is reading.

Reading is safe, right?  Not so fast.

One article I read recently, about our local public libraries, point out that libraries are political, some more than others.  This is true, and we should also keep in mind that libraries are in the forefront of fights against censorship.

NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month (which I have participated in several times), sent its participants an email several months before this post was written.  It reads, in part:

As a creative writing nonprofit, we’re not a political organization. We don’t endorse candidates or support any particular party. In an ideal world, we would focus only on empowering people to write.

Yet we find ourselves in a time where people’s ability to tell their stories—and even to safely exist—is at stake.

NaNoWriMo strives to be a gateway and sanctuary for people’s voices. Our guiding belief is that every person’s story matters, and we celebrate the inclusion of all religions, races, genders, sexualities, and countries of origin. We help people find a safe space to be who they are—creators, storytellers, and world changers.....

So now, an organization devoted to encouraging people to write, and express themselves, finds themselves having to take a political position.

You might be surprised to know what books you have read that have been targets of censorship or outright attempts to ban them.  It isn't just this year, or last.  This is the "top 10" list of 2010 (quoting from the ALA website:)

Top 10 for 2010

Out of 348 challenges recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
   Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
   Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
4. Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
   Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
6. Lush, by Natasha Friend
   Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
7. What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
   Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
   Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint
9. Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
   Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit
10. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
    Reasons: religious viewpoint, violence

I've read several of these.  Many are considered classics.  Judy Blume has appeared on this list, as has John Greene, just to name two best selling authors beloved by children/teens.

UPDATE:  The 10 most challenged books of 2020.  As clickbait writers like to say, "Some of them will surprise you!"

If I were an author, I would love nothing better than to be in the company on this list.

How can you participate in Banned Books Week?  It takes a visit to a local library, or, better yet, reading a book on the list. Banned Books Week may be over, but our fight is not.  Because, dear reader, words have power.  Even the words of this blog.

That's why authoritarian regimes practice censorship. They know knowledge is power.  That's why freedom of speech (including freedom to write) is so important.  We must be exposed to different viewpoints and not stay in our little bubbles (as comforting as it might be nowadays).

Thank you to the courageous librarians and others who fight censorship, and those who fight to keep our freedoms to read as we choose.

Banned Books Week 2020 #BannedBooksWeek

Here we are again.  It feels like it was only yesterday.

It's Banned Books Week 2020, which started September 27 and ends on October 3.  So I am getting in towards the end, which is usually what seems to happen.

Each year, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom posts a list of the 10 most "challenged" books.  Books can be challenged for many different reasons.   The ALA, by the way, is the American Library Association.

Here's a blogger who goes in each year with a comprehensive post and a reading.

And here (drum roll) is the list of the 100 most challenged books from 2010-2019. 

(Just so you don't think this is a list of books that don't deserve to be read, please note that the Holy Bible weighs in at #52 most challenged in the past decade.)

You might be surprised at the lists of books that have been banned, at least once, somewhere, by a government, a school, or some other "authority".  They include such classics as:

The Handmaid's Tale
Two Mark Twain classics:  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Black Beauty
To Kill a Mockingbird
Flowers for Algernon
Where's Waldo?
In the Night Kitchen (I read that one to my son when he was young.  He's a productive adult, hopefully not scarred for life).

Also, there's a series my son got into big time growing up:  Harry Potter. (Sadly, the challenges to that series probably don't surprise you.)

Here are some of the scary facts.

Do you really want someone to be determining what you should be reading?

I don't.

How many banned books have you read? 

Banned Books #blogboost

Should a book ever be banned?  I asked this question in 2013, again in 2018, and again today.  This year, Banned Book Week was September 22-28, and I somehow (big oops) managed to miss it.  Again.

So, for my first post of the October Ultimate Blog Challenge, I want to talk about banned books.

Some people do a lot for Banned Book Week.  Some write more elegant blog posts.

This is a topic that deserves to be discussed more than one week.  It should be discussed every time someone wants to ban a book.  That would result in a lot of discussion. Why?

You might be surprised at the lists of books that have been banned, at least once, somewhere, by a government, a school.  They include such classics as:

The Giver
The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian
Black Beauty
To Kill a Mockingbird
Flowers for Algernon
Where's Waldo?
The Call of the Wild
The Kite Runner
The Hunger Games
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 

Even if you don't believe books should ever be banned (I am one) some books make you think hard. How about Mein Kampf, written by one of the most evil men who ever lived?    In this day and age, this type of hatred is on the rise.  Yet, I don't think that book should be banned.

I think, if you hide evil, you increase its power. The spotlight of discussion should be focused on hate.

Violence? Just think of all the mass shootings, almost every week now.  Think of active shooter drills our children must endure.

Think about the fact that one of the sleeper music hits of 2011, Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People, was about a school shooting.  What if this song had been a book, instead of a song with a great beat that many listeners never even realized was about violence?

If you hide books that discuss bullying or mass shootings, in my view, you ignore a problem that has gripped our nation.

How about "foul" language?  Or teens who are attracted to teens of the same sex?

Even memoirs get banned. How about the Diary of Anne Frank?  Yes, it has been banned, along with  number of other memoirs over the years.

Do you think there is ever a reason for a book to be banned?

Day One of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

Banned Book Week 2018

Should a book ever be banned?  I asked this question in 2013 and again today.  This year, Banned Book Week is September 23-29.

Some people do a lot for Banned Book Week.  Some write more elegant blog posts.

This is a topic that deserves to be discussed more than one week.  It should be discussed every time someone wants to ban a book.  That would result in a lot of discussion. Why?

You might be surprised at the lists of books that have been banned, at least once, somewhere, by a government, a school.  They include such classics as (I have read most of these, incidentally, and hope I've remained uncorrupted):

The Chocolate War
Two Mark Twain classics:  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(more on Huck Finn later.)
Black Beauty
To Kill a Mockingbird
Flowers for Algernon
Where's Waldo?
The Call of the Wild
Charlotte's Web
The Hunger Games
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 

Even if you don't believe books should ever be banned (I am one) some books make you think hard. How about Mein Kampf, written by one of the most evil men who ever lived?   I know people whose families suffered greatly in the Holocaust.  I've read the stories of many others, including adults who suffered unbelievably as children and wrote about their experiences in their old age.  And, in this day and age, this type of hatred is on the rise.  Yet, I don't think that book should be banned.

I think, if you hide evil, you increase its power. The spotlight of discussion should be focused on hate.

Violence? Sad, that we have mass shootings nearly every month in this nation (one of these happening in my very own community in April of 2009), but violence in books is an evil we must protect people from?   (And, just ask anyone who grew up in a war torn nation about being exposed to violence.)

If you hide books that discuss bullying frankly, you ignore a problem that has gripped our nation.

How about language?

Huck Finn, with its use of the N word and discussions of pre-Civil War slavery? It makes a lot - a lot - of people uncomfortable.  But, if we don't work through that part of our continuing problems with our legacy of slavery in our country, we will never truly be united.

Even memoirs get banned. How about the Diary of Anne Frank?  Yes, because she dared to write in her diary, while hiding from the Nazis, about feelings arising in her due to puberty.

Courtesy of the American Library Association

To me, with each and every one of these books, it was important to note the public eventually had the right to come to their own conclusions.

I invite you to read a book today, especially if you are a fellow blogger.  And even if you aren't.  Read one that was banned by someone, somewhere, once.  Or one that, maybe, still is.

You have a long list to choose from, including some of the best books ever written.