Children's Books: What's Hot Now: Banned Children's Books

Children's Books: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Banned Children's Books Sep 28th 2011, 10:03 What's the state of censorship, challenged and banned children's books and books for teens in the twenty-first century? There have been some changes in the last few years. For example, for several years the Harry Potter series was vigorously challenged. By the 2005 Banned Books Week report, the American Library Association (ALA) announced, "This year marks the first in five in which the Harry Potter series does not top or appear on the ALA's annual list [of the top 10 most challenged books." (For more, see The Harry Potter Controversy). According to Article 3 of the Library Bill of Rights, “Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.” (Source: ALA Library Bill of Rights) As far as numbers of challenges, "There are hundreds of challenges to books in schools and libraries in the United States every year. According to the American Library Association (ALA), there were at least 248 in 2010; the ALA estimates that 70 to 80 percent are never reported." (Source: Official Banned Books Week Site) “Even though not every book will be right for every reader, the ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values,” said Barbara Jones, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Protecting one of our most fundamental rights â€" the freedom to read â€" means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read.” (April 14, 2010 ALA News Release) The 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2010 According to the American Library Association (ALA), the following books are the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2010. After the title and author of each book are the reasons cited for the challenges: And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and sexually explicit Crank, by Ellen Hopkins Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence Lush, by Natasha Friend Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie Reasons: homosexuality and sexually explicit Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence (Source: American Library Association One of the best ways to see how thing have and have not changed over time is to compare and contrast the above list with my article about the 2005 annual list of the most challenged books and with the list below. The 100 Most Challenged Books of the Decade (2000-2009) Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series), by Myracle, Lauren The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (See the ALA Web site for the entire list.) In addition to the excellent resources on the detailed ALA Banned Books Week site, check out the following: Censorship: Wielding the Red Pen - Through the Eyes of a Child from the University of Virginia provides a look at a small sampling of children's books from the 1990-1999 list and some of the objections to them. Jim Trelease on Censorship and Children’s Books contains a lot of information from the author of The Read-Aloud Handbook. The well-documented article The Censorship of Canadian Children’s Literature is by Iram Khan, who manages CanTeach, a site for Canadian teachers. Think for Yourself and Let Others Do the Same on the American Library Association site, which you can download as a PDF, contains information about some of the challenged or banned children's books between May 2009 and May 2010. See All About Book Banning and Children's Books for more of my articles about the subject.

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