Banned Books Week, an annual event created to draw attention to the harms of censorship, runs from 27 September to 3 October in the United States this year.
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982, “in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries”. Over 11 300 books have been challenged since then, according to the American Library Association, and there were 311 challenges reported in 2014, although many go unreported.
Three of the most challenged books of 2014 were And Tango Makes Three, a children’s book about penguins, Toni Morrison’s 1970 novel The Bluest Eye, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, but books written for young adults are challenged the most frequently, with reasons such as “anti-family”, “sexually explicit”, or “unsuited for age group” cited.
“The challenges arise from the desire of parents or adult community members to shield young people from language, ideas or views that they deem objectionable or too mature for adolescents,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. “We believe that it is, in part, a reflection of the popularity of ‘helicopter parenting’, [or] overprotective parents, but the impulse to restrict youth access to certain books or ideas has been with us for centuries.”
“YA literature often includes realistic portrayals of the lives of teens who face challenges in their lives – which means that the characters may use profanity, express their sexuality and challenge the status quo, often to the dismay of some adults who believe that adolescents should be sheltered from such realities. In particular, works that that portray persons of colour or who are gay or trans often become targets of challenges,” said Caldwell-Stone.
The 10 most challenged titles of 2014 were:
1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence. Additional reasons: “depictions of bullying”
2. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
Reasons: gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint. Additional reasons: “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”
3. And Tango Makes Three, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “promotes the homosexual agenda”
4. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”
5. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
Reasons: Nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group. Additional reasons: “alleges it child pornography”
6. Saga, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Reasons: Anti-Family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Additional reasons:
7. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”
9. A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
10. Drama, by Raina Telgemeier
Reasons: sexually explicit
To mark Banned Books Week, PEN American has commissioned a series of essays “engaging with what it means when we silence voices, famous and otherwise”.
Read Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ essay, “On Finally Being Seen as a Black Woman Writer: To Ban Toni Morrison, to go Blind”:
In high school, my beloved English teacher, Mrs. Reilly gave me James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son to read for our advanced literature course. With only one other black student in the class, I was angry. Why had I been given the black book?
I remember staring down at the direct, unbroken gaze of a black man’s face and feeling ambivalent. Why couldn’t I have Virginia Woolf or Faulkner? Now, looking back, I realize that assignment as one of the most sublime and critical moments for me as an American writer.
Not long after my devotion to Baldwin erupted, I soon discovered Toni Morrison’s seeds on my mother’s bookshelf. The books, their spines worn and proud, had been there for some time but I was young and had not known to look, to see them. Baldwin had incited a fire within me and Morrison became the oxygen. I craved these writers’ shining alphabets and mirrors, distressed by blood, history, and truths about black life and black love I had rarely seen brought to life on the page. Their pages were tempered glass, refracting a troubling world that was deeply complex and profound.
Activities and events such as online discussions, author appearances, and competitions will be taking place throughout the week. See what’s happening here.
Book details
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
EAN: 9781783442010
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- Persepolis I and II by Marjane Satrapi
EAN: 9780099523994
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- And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, Henry Cole
EAN: 9781847381484
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- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
EAN: 9780099759911
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- It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health by Robie H Harris
EAN: 9780763668723
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- Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan
EAN: 9781607066019
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- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
EAN: 9781594631931
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- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
EAN: 9781471116148
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- A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard
EAN: 9780857207135
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- Drama by Raina Telgemeier
EAN: 9780545326995
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