Banned Book Week, observed in early fall every year, is a pointed reminder that the freedom to chose what we read is constantly under threat. Not a week, it seems, goes by without an attempt by an individual or a group to challenge or ban a book or books in a public or school library somewhere in the United States. All such efforts should be energetically opposed.
The American Library Association is one of the driving forces behind the observance of Banned Books Week. That’s fitting. Its members often are the first to know about an effort to ban a book. The group’s desire to promote and support the freedom to read is not limited to a single week each year. It’s on-going. It has to be – given the frequent attempts of individuals and groups to impose their views on what should or should not be placed on U.S. library shelves.
In 2009, for example, the ALA reports that there were at least 460 challenges to a book or books. In the years from 2001-2009, the association said libraries were confronted with 4,312 such challenges. Thank goodness, almost all were beaten back. The effort to short-circuit constitutional protections of freedom of expression, it seems, is a hardy one that remains deeply ingrained in certain segments of the population.
Reasons for challenging a book vary, but there is a consistency from year to year. Most often the challenge is mounted because of “sexually explicit material” or “offensive language.” Other challenges are brought forward because of “violence,” “offensive language” or because the book contains passages about drugs, nudity, homosexuality, religion or mores and values someone finds objectionable. Still others are challenged because they are deemed “unsuited to age group.”
Those reasons, of course, are important, but not so important that a ban should be implemented. A ban is, in fact, counterproductive. Books that promote a sensible, informative discussion that can lead to academic growth or an expanded understanding of everyday society should be widely circulated, not banned.
Still, the effort to remove books continues unabated. The list of authors whose books most frequently are challenged is a Who’s Who of literature. J.K. Rowling, Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Judy Blume, John Steinbeck, Maurice Sendak, J.D. Salinger, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou are among those whose works regularly appear on the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books list. Few writers, it appears, are exempt from challenge.
The just-concluded Banned Books Week reminds us that the struggle to keep books accessible – subject only to individual taste and parental advice – goes on. That battle must be won. Freedom of expression and the right to read works of one’s choosing should not be surrendered lightly.