Freedom to Read: It's National Banned Books Week

Earlier this year, an unidentified Dakota County Libraries patron filed an official request with the Dakota County Library Board, asking that “Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying,” by Derek Humphry, be removed from library shelves.

The book has sold more than 1 million copies, spent 18 weeks at the top of the nonfiction bestseller lists when it was published in 1991 and has been translated into 12 languages.

It’s also the 29th most frequently challenged book in the U.S. between 1990 and 1999, according to records kept by the American Library Association.

Board members unanimously denied the request, just as it did for each one of six challenges to library materials in 2010.

This decision, among many others, is the raison d'être behind National Banned Books Week, a yearly observance celebrating intellectual freedom and the importance of the First Amendment. National Banned Books Week is enthusiastically supported by groups including the ALA, the American Booksellers Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English, among other organizations.

Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Schools

So far in the 21st century, there have been only two books challenged on the shelves of District 196 schools, one originating in Apple Valley.

Last year, an Apple Valley parent asked that Jeff Smith’s “Bone” series of graphic novels be removed from and other District 196 elementaries because of smoking, drinking and gambling in its storylines, saying that the books were inappropriate for children.

A District 196 committee disagreed with the parent’s assessment, and the “Bone” books remain on library shelves.

Julie Olson, director of elementary education for District 196, said only three items have been successfully challenged and removed from district schools since 1991: “Different Seasons” by Stephen King, a film called “Let’s Count” and “All But Alice” by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, part of Naylor’s popular Alice series.

“There were considerably more challenges in the 1990s,” Olson says—17, to be exact. “It’s kind of interesting that the past decade has been so low in terms of requests.”

When an item is challenged, a committee made up of about 10 people—parents, a media specialist, a principal, teachers and representatives from other district schools—considers the request.

“Media specialists spend a lot of time making decisions about what should be on the shelves,” Olson said. “I think we really try to honor the freedom of children and parents to choose, and we try to have appropriate literature for a wide range of readers available.”

Dakota County Libraries

Similarly, in Dakota County’s 10 libraries, anyone challenging an item uses a “request for reconsideration” model that library Director Ken Behringer said is “common in many public libraries.”

When a library staff member who selects materials in the challenged area receives such a request, he or she collects reviews for the item, determines whether the title is available in other public libraries in the state and the region, checks circulation statistics on the item and determines whether the title is in the appropriate section of the library.

“On occasion, we will find that a given title is better shifted from young adult to the adult collection, or from nonfiction to fiction, for example,” Behringer said.

If staff review determines that the item is appropriate and properly catalogued, the staff prepares a document for the library board with its recommendation, and the board considers the request.

“There’s no regular pattern for how often these requests occur,” Behringer said, though he said that the six titles challenged in 2010, and the challenge of “Final Exit” in 2011, all were retained.

The challenged titles in 2010 were “Baby Sleeps” by Janet Ahlberg; “How to Quit Drinking Without AA” by Jerry Dorsman; “Ghost Radio” by Leopoldo Gout; a Disney DVD called “Yellowstone Cubs;” and the DVDs “The Heartbreak Kid” and “Friends with Money.”

The ALA reports that materials are challenged more frequently by parents than by any other group: Of the 4,660 challenges logged from 2000 to 2010, 48 percent came from parents.

The Office of Intellectual Freedom says the top three reasons cited for challenging materials are that the item is “sexually explicit,” that it contains “offensive language” or that it is “unsuited to the age group.” About 12 percent of challenges were for portrayal of violence, 8 percent related to homosexuality and 6.5 percent related to the book's religious view point.

A small number—121 titles—were challenged because they were percieved to be "anti-family."

Among the books challenged, restricted, removed or banned in the U.S. between May 2010 and May 2011:

• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, banned in the Stockton, MO School District because of violence, language and sexual content, but retained in the Helena, MT School District despite a parent’s objection that it contained “obscene, vulgar and pornographic language.” The novel won the National Book Award in 2007 for young people’s literature and is on a number of recommended book lists.

• “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen, removed from a spring break elective course in Bedford, NH, after a parent complained about the novel’s sexual content. The parent suggested that the school allow only “youth versions” of particular books.

• “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, challenged by a parent in Goffstown, NH, who claimed that it gave her 11-year-old child nightmares and that it could numb other students to the effects of violence.

• “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich, challenged but retained in the Easton, PA, School District despite a parent’s claim that the book—about Ehrenreich’s struggles to make a living on minimum-wage jobs— promotes “economic fallacies” and belittles Christians. The book was removed from the Bedford, NH, School District’s required personal finance course after two parents complained about the book’s “profanity, offensive references to Christianity and biased portrayal of capitalism.”

• “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer, which tells the story of a young boy whose father died in the 9/11 attacks, and which was challenged in the Richland, WA, School District, where it is used in a 10th-grade honors language arts class.

• “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, challenged at North Country High School in Glen Burnie, MD, by a small group of parents who complained about “explicit sexual content,” and retained in Seattle high schools after a parent complained that the 1932 novel has “a high volume of racially offensive derogatory language and misinformation on Native Americans” and that it “lacks literary value which is relevant to today’s contemporary multicultural society.”

• “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, which was challenged in the Republic, MO, School District by a parent who called it “soft pornography” and claimed that it “glorifies drinking, cursing and premarital sex.” The classic novel ranks 46th on the ALA’s list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 2000-2009.