Librarians and teenagers rarely have occasion to get along. The former are charged with the care of a collection of books and providing a quiet and orderly atmosphere for patrons can enjoy them, the latter tend toward the unruly and destructive. But one week a year, Librarians, Booksellers, teenagers fresh from their first reading of Catcher in the Rye, and everyone (except posers) can come together to celebrate Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association. This event is held annually during that last week of September—this year falling from September 24 through October 1—to raise awareness for the ongoing censorship battles throughout the country and promote free speech.
Censorship of literature has long been a contentious issue in America, as anyone who has been through a high school English course may recall, but too often is seen as a problem of the past. Its true many of the most notable and egregious cases of censorship have occurred in the Jim Crow South of the early to mid twentieth century, or simply a product of our quaint and sexually repressed grandparents, but every year new books are challenged or banned in schools and libraries across the country under the same arguments that have persisted through the decades. The ALA provides a list of frequently challenged and banned books found here, and what is surprising is not the length—it is quite a list, split by year or category—but its breadth. Some are not surprising, such as Howl by Alan Ginsburg. To Kill a Mockingbird was somewhat surprising if only because of the cultural impact we can appreciate now, fifty years after its original release. Captain Underpants makes the list and while it is easy to see one’s objection to the book, it does seem that there are greater societal evils in the world—probably in that given school—than goofy children’s story.
This year’s list offers more of the same misdirected moral outrage with much of the attention focused on teen fiction. Adolescence is more or less defined by increasing exposure to the uglier aspects of the world, namely, sex, drugs, deceit, violence, and, perhaps the most dangerous of all, foul language. It is the eternal struggle of the parent to put these in the proper context and guide teens to be healthy adults. Unfortunately some feel that their teens should be shielded from these realities. Thus we find well regarded books such as Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie finding their way onto the list. Even the relatively tame stories of Twilight and The Hunger Games have been challenged. Children’s picture book And Tango Makes Three has drawn some ire for its portrayal of two male penguins caring for baby penguin (no word yet on a movie version voiced by Steve Guttenberg and Tom Selleck). Of course it just would not seem silly enough if there were not a few classics to put everything in perspective. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, which made wave over a century ago for giving the impression that women had a perspective, caused a stir this year when a patron at a Georgia library saw the cover and was shocked to discover that women have breasts. And what year would be complete without a challenge to Catcher in the Rye as raised by a parent in a Florida School district over its offensive language (clearly a poser).
Banned Books Week, like many literary celebrations, is anchored with some national or central events but its strength lies in local expressions of its ideal. This year’s celebrations included the first Virtual Read-Out. An outgrowth of local read-outs, where supporters come together to read selections from banned books, the Virtual Read-Out invited bibliophiles from all over the country to record themselves reading selections and post it to the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out on YouTube. Other featured events included an auction and some exhibits, but as I have said the real strength is the local celebrations, so go to http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/ , like them on facebook, twitter, YouTube, or something with a pink and blue dot…which I am being told means flikr to stay in the know, and make sure to support your local libraries and bookshops.
