Libraries and bookstores across the country started Banned Books Week in 1982, celebrating the freedom to read and drawing attention to the use of censorship in literature. Librarians and booksellers often participated in read-outs over the years, reading excerpts from highly challenged books.
This year’s Banned Books Week features a virtual read-out. Playing on the idea from years past, readers are encouraged to “proclaim the virtues of their favorite banned books by posting videos of themselves reading excerpts to a dedicated YouTube channel,” the event’s website says.
Featured readers on the YouTube channel include young adult writers Lauren Myracle and Jay Ashler as well as celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg.
The Office for Intellectual Freedom began collecting data regarding banned books in 1990. The data from the office of the OIF shows that over 300 books were challenged in the last year. The American Library Association published an account of some of these books, the location of the challenge and the patron's reasoning.
A patron in Goffston, N.H. challenged "The Hunger Games," author Suzanne Collin's popular young adult series, in 2010. The parent presented the book to the local school board "claiming that it gave her eleven-year-old nightmares and could numb other students to the effects of violence," the ALA website says.
J.D. Salinger's classic novel "The Catcher in the Rye" still faces challenges. In the Martin County Florida school district the book was challenged but retained this past year after a parent complained about inappropriate language in the text.
Margaret Walker's "Jubilee," the fictionalized story of the author's grandmother's life as a slave was challenged this year in Jacksonville, IL. by a local pastor. According to the ALA, the pastor said, "We believe it is to promote superiority for white people and to step on black people and make them feel inferior.”
The data from the OIF office also shows which books received the most challenges over the last decade.
From 1990-1999, the most challenged five books were the “Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz, “Daddy’s Roommate” by Michael Willhoite, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier, and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.
The list changed a good bit in the next decade. The most challenged five books from 2000-2009 were the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling, the “Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, “The Chocolate War” by Cormier, “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell, and “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck.
Ashley Wilbourn Pinciaro - Ashley Pinciaro received a M.A. in journalism from Emerson College in 2009 and has since worked for media platforms throughout New ...
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