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Tech Tips and Timely Tidbits by Heather Loy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Banned Book Week (Sept. 27 – Oct. 4)
For those of you who are not familiar with Banned Book Week, it is a time to celebrate your freedom to read.
I don’t believe I have ever been told I couldn’t read a book I’d chosen, not by my parents, teachers, librarians, nobody. You can imagine my surprise as a library student, completing an internship at an elementary school, when my supervisor told a third grade student he couldn’t check out the latest Harry Potter book because it wasn’t on his level (referring to Accelerated Reader – but that’s a whole ‘nother rant!) Hello! Censorship! I had to walk away before I slapped the woman upside her head!
First of all, apparently Harry Potter met the school’s acquisition guidelines and was acceptable for the library to stock and for students to read. Second of all, don’t ever tell a child he can’t read a book, much less for the stupid reason of “it’s not on your level!” Lastly, whose to say he’s not going to take the book home and his parent/guardian/older sibling will read it to him? What’s the worst thing that could happen if he checked out a book “not on his level? - he’ll try to read it himself, find it too difficult and just bring it back. Our job as educators, and in particular as librarians, is to encourage reading, not discourage it! Plus, now what is his opinion of librarians and of libraries going to be? Hmmm? Think he was happy that day? Think he’s going to want to come back to his school’s library? Nope!
I’m a firm believer that every book has an audience. Students ask me all the time, can you give me a good book. I have a standard answer for this “All of the books in here are good.” For one student it’s like a running joke – she asks me this every time she comes in for a new book…and usually repeats the phrase with me. This doesn’t mean that I necessarily like all of the books we carry, but I’m never going to tell someone you can’t read that.
However, I do frequently tell students as I check out the book they’ve picked out, “You’re not going to like this book.” Secretly, hoping they will prove me wrong, but 99% of the time I’m correct. Hey, I know my students! I soooo love it when they return the book a few days later and tell me “You were right, I didn’t like the book.” Yes, I like being a no-it-all! I’ll also give students my honest opinion of a book (if asked and only if I’ve read it), but ask them to give it a try and tell me what they think. After all, discussing books is one of my passions. Hello! Librarian here! Plus, the student and I may have totally different tastes in books.
Anyhoo! For Banned Book Week this year, we are in the process of creating a bulletin board display. I’m also going to steal an idea from Fran over at the Informania blog who told me she asked her students in the book club this past month to choose a banned book title. They then met together to discuss why they felt the book was challenged or banned. I thought this was a great idea. Thanks, Fran.
BTW: According to the American Library Association, the top ten most challenged books from 2007 were:
1) “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2) The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
3) “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
4) “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
5) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism
6) “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
7) “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8 “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit
9) “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10) “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
Not surprisingly, the most frequent challengers are parents. I’m all for parents deciding what their kids can/cannot read. That’s called being a good parent! I respect parents, and in particular parents who are monitoring what their kids read/watch/do. What I object to is one parent telling a whole school/community what it’s kids (or adults) can/cannot read.
I hope you’ll take time to Celebrate Your Freedom to Read by reading a banned book (or any book!) during Banned Book Week.
Flickr Photo Credit: “Banned Book Week 2006” by wanderingone
September 21st, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Amen! It is not until our precious freedoms are taken away that we truly appreciate them.
I plan on having an announcement made next Monday about Banned Books Week and am thinking of using Michael Giller’s ideas from a message sent to the SCASL listserv. I may also sponsor a contest each day called “Name that Book!” Each day we will focus on one banned/challenged book. Perhaps we could give one clue to the book in the morning announcements, and if no one guesses correctly before the end of the day, give another clue then.
You could even do a hangman activity with banned/challenged book titles during lunches.
The book I’ll be discussing as part of our Bulldog Booklovers Club’s meeting is THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS. I had always been enticed by the title and finally got around to reading it as part of my 757 course with Dr. Feehan. Love the book!
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:46 am
I am so thankful for the librarians who encouraged me to read books (any books that I wanted) when I was growing up. I look back now and know that I checked out books that were not on my level but they never blinked an eye. I remember loving that I had the power to check out that book and how I used to write down all the words I didn’t know and look up their definitions. I learned as much from reading those books as the ones that were on my level. I loved the librarians who taught me about the power and magic of books and helped me find a world out there I never knew about. Thanks for sharing the list because I haven’t read some of them and will look them up.
September 27th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Thank you for speaking up! And you probably should have slapped that woman in the head! Nobody should tell a student something so outrageous as they are NOT ALLOWED to read a book!!!!!!! What are we all afraid of, that the kids might actually get excited about reading and learning?
I hope you take her job!
September 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
@Fran – The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round things is a very popular title at my school. I think I have about three copies and they are always out or stay on the shelf only a couple of days before being checked out again.
@Pat – glad to give you some more titles to read. I, too, loved the fact that I was able to check out anything from the public library that I wanted – even the adult books! I’ve always said that being a voracious reader helped improve my vocabulary – and helped me on the SATs.
@Lisa – Thanks for the encouragement. However, I have NO desire to work in an elementary school – I can’t handle the little ankle biters! A Story Lady I’m not. My calling is definately teens.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I’m feeling out very out of it. I’ve only read one of the top 10 of 2007. (Well, I lost interest in the Chocolate War and never finished it way back when.)
I like to contrast parent monitoring of TV with their ideas about books. They should each be handled about the same way. Parents need to talk to kids about what they watch/read. And based on age and maturity loosen the reigns. That’s how kids learn to become adults.
I will say that books have a huge difference over TV. Books are not as graphic. So when a child reads, they have to think it through more. I’d much rather kids read about say homosexuality than watch it on TV.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:44 am
[...] Heather Loy at Tech Tips & Timely Tidbits writes of an experience as a student librarian: I don’t believe I have ever been told I couldn’t read a book I’d chosen, not by my parents, teachers, librarians, nobody. You can imagine my surprise as a library student, completing an internship at an elementary school, when my supervisor told a third grade student he couldn’t check out the latest Harry Potter book because it wasn’t on his level (referring to Accelerated Reader – but that’s a whole ‘nother rant!) Hello! Censorship! I had to walk away before I slapped the woman upside her head! continued here [...]
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October 1st, 2008 at 8:20 am
@Willis – yep, feel the same that parents are responsible for monitoring what THEIR kids read/watch and have every right to restrict those materials. However, they don’t have the right to decide what EVERYONE’s kids read/watch. Books (talking about books and their content) are a much safer way to approach certain topics with teen. As for books not being as graphic, I’ll have to disagree with you there…YA books can be just as graphic as TV, both in sex and violence. BTW, I’ve never read the Chocolate War or A Separate Peace – and I know my YA Lit instructor would go crazy hearing that. I just couldn’t get into them (as an adult) and never tried to read them as a teen.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
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