Censorship

Each year in September, the American Library Association celebrates Banned Books Week. During this week, I also discuss censorship with some of my students. We discuss mostly censorship in books and libraries unless the conversation takes a turn (which is always fun) butt he biggest impact is always the last book I show them. First let me start with some information.

Intellectual freedom is basically the right to access information and express ideas, despite the fact that others may not like what you are saying or researching.

Banned Books Week exists to let people know that they ought to be free to read whatever they would like to read.

To start, here is some information about Banned Books Week

A huge fan of book burning was Adolf Hitler. He wanted all books burned that were "un-German" and went against the volk or German way of thinking. This link explains what books he thought should be burned as well as a list of reasons that books should be burned.

There are always going to be people who think that certain books are wrong. A very popular book that we discuss in my class is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. One question I ask my students is "how do you think authors feel about their book being challenged, or even burned?". They always come up with the same answers.

1. You must buy the book to burn it, so you are giving the author sales
2. You are making other people take notice of a book by publicizing a burning or challenge.

Here are some links to Harry Potter challenges and information.

American Library Association-Harry Potter was on the challenged list starting in 1999 until 2003

Harry Potter Book Burning-This took place in New Mexico in 2001 claiming Potter to be satanic.

Harry Potter and the Koran-This article discusses the New Mexico incident as well as a Pastor with plans to burn the Koran

The above begins a discussion about Pastor Terry Jones, who wanted to burn 2,998 copies of the Koran, on e for each victim of the 9/11 attack on its 10th anniversary. Below are two more links about what Jones was planning and the reaction in 2011 as well as another attempt in 2013.

2011 Burning- His first attempt

2013-Found with kerosene soaked copies of the Koran

I always end my lesson by showing students a list of frequently challenged picture books, found here.

Most of them seem silly to my middle school students, but we discuss how The Rabbit's Wedding was challenged in the Civil Rights era which is why a white bunny and a black bunny should not be getting married.

However, the last book I show them is And Tango Makes Three. This is the true story of 2 male penguins who hatch an egg and raise the baby together. It was on the challenged list in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 for homosexuality.

Please also read my discussion page to talk about censorship more openly. Particularly the topic covered in And Tango Makes Three.