Banning Books

[JuJu]

NEW YORK — Not all penguin stories are equal in the public's mind.

"And Tango Makes Three," an award-winning children's book based on a true story about two male penguins who raised a baby penguin, topped the American Library Association's annual list of works attracting the most complaints from parents, library patrons and others.

Overall, the number of "challenged" books in 2006 jumped to 546, more than 30 percent higher than the previous year's total, 405, although still low compared to the mid-1990s, when challenges topped 750.

"We're still in ... the mid-range in terms of how many challenges we get," Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, told The Associated Press during a recent interview.

"And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, was published in 2005 and named by the ALA as one of the year's best children's books. But parents and educators have complained that "Tango Makes Three" advocates homosexuality, with challenges reported in Southwick, Mass., Shiloh, Ill., and elsewhere.

The ALA defines a "challenge" as a "formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness." For every challenge listed, about four to five go unreported, according to the library association. Krug said 30 books were actually banned last year.

"Books aren't banned nearly as much now as they used to be, because communities are much more active in fighting that," Krug said about the bans, which can lead to books being removed from both school and public libraries.

Other books on the 2006 list include two by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, "The Bluest Eye" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Beloved," both cited for language and sexual content; Cecily von Ziegesar's popular "Gossip Girls" series, criticized for sexual content and language; and Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War," for language, violence and sexual content.

Krug said she has statistics for challenged books through the first few months of 2007, when there were widespread reports that librarians were banning Susan Patron's "The Higher Power of Lucky," the story of a 10-year-old's physical and spiritual journey and winner of the prestigious Newbery prize for the best children's book.

Librarians had complained on an Internet list serve, LM_Net, about the book's use of the word "scrotum," the sac holding a man's testicles. But when The Associated Press last February contacted several librarians who had posted critical comments, all said they were either carrying "Higher Power" or hadn't decided.

Krug confirmed that the ALA had received no reports of "Higher Power" being banned, or even challenged. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, agreed, saying Tuesday that it had not heard of any problems at libraries.

"When a book gets in trouble, we usually learn about it pretty quickly, like with `Tango Makes Three.' We knew about that right away," said publicist Paul Crichton of Simon & Schuster, which also released the penguin book.

"But to my knowledge, that hasn't happened with `Higher Power of Lucky.' That was a case of much ado about nothing."

The ALA, the American Booksellers Association and others in the publishing community will hold their 26th annual Banned Books Week from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, highlighting works that have been banned or were threatened with removal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070828/banned-books/

 

[TripSevens]

Lame. Lame. Lame.





I'll have to order that one and stick it on the shelf with my other banned/ challenged favorites like James and the Giant Peach, Tarzan, and Harry Potter.

 

[icecuban]

All I can think of, is that show "My two Dads" lol

 

[Peter Parka]

Oh dear but not really surprising. Well they did already stop Noddy and Big Ears sharing a bed!

 

[GraceAbounds]

I always hear about books being banned, but from what really? Where are these books being banned from? Are they talking about a book being banned from the public library? Or are they saying the book is being banned from total distribution? How can a book be banned really when you think about it? Can people stop you from writing a book, sewing it up, and distributing it? Or am I just not following and understanding the terminology here? Or is the word banning really a spin or a stretch of the context here?

Kind of different subject, well maybe not, but the parents of our children's school pre-screen the books before they go into the school library. A book has to be approved by 3 parents before our school will place the book in the school's library.

In essence isn't this what these people are doing but on a larger scale? Fighting for a book to be or not to be in the public library?

 

[All Else Failed]

Oh no! We can never let our kids leave their security bubble ever to read controversial material that might stimulate thought! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

 

[Peter Parka]

Well if we're going to ban kids from reading books like that we should also ban them from reading the Bible given the amount of adult material (sex and violence) ect in it!

 

[GraceAbounds]

I was asking serious questions.

 

[Peter Parka]

If that was addressed at me, I was being serious in a sarcastic way. Thinking about it, we shouldn't let kids read history books either because of all the bad things and violence in it as well! (that was sarcasm as well!)

 

[GraceAbounds]

I was asking serious questions in my post. I was not being sarcastic by asking those questions. I was hoping someone would be kind enough to answer them as this is not a subject I know a lot about. Instead all I get is sarcastic responses.

 

[Tim]

Grace, they are talking about banning certain books from certain libraries... you could say they are censoring what books are available at certain libraries.

We had a big thread about this before on the harry potter book ban in school libraries I think... I'll go look for it.

Where I stand on this, No book should be banned from public libraries unless it breaks the law. If you don't want to read about witchcraft or kama sutra, then don't sign the book out. A library is nothing more than a source of information, if you censor what books are there based on decency or any other standard you wish to impose, then you will never have all the information available to you...

 

[GraceAbounds]

Where I stand on this, No book should be banned from public libraries unless it breaks the law. If you don't want to read about witchcraft or kama sutra, then don't sign the book out. A library is nothing more than a source of information, if you censor what books are there based on decency or any other standard you wish to impose, then you will never have all the information available to you...

Thanks for seriously answering me Tim. I appreciate it and agree with your above assessment regarding public libraries.