Banned Books Week, crossposted from FA & TLC

"Oh, Harry, don't you see?" Hermione breathed. "If [Professor Umbridge] could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school will read your interview, it was banning it!" -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Each fall since 1982, the American Library Association (ALA) has started the school year by reminding Americans "not to take for granted their precious freedom to read." As such, Banned Books Week begins today, and runs through the rest of this week.

The Leaky Cauldron & FictionAlley are joining the commemoration for many reasons.

First, on the ALA's 2003 list, J.K. Rowling's series is, collectively, the second most challenged book/series. Between 1999 and 2002, it recieved the largest number of reported challenges.

Even more importantly we, like so many of our readers, believe it's not only wrong but harmful to censor anyone's literary options. Harry Potter has enriched all of our lives - we want it to enrich everyone else's, too.

Each year, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives hundreds of reports on books and other materials that were "challenged."

A challenge is a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or level of appropriateness. In 2003, the OIF received reports of 458 such challenges.

Not all challenges are reported to the OIF, so the actual number is much higher; the OIF estimates that four or five books are challenged for every challenge reported - that means in 2003 an estimated 2,500 books were marked for censorship by "concerned" citizens.

Furthermore, many schools around the country have policies which prohibit certain books from ever even being considered for the library or in classes.

The first challenge to a Harry Potter book was reported to the OIF in October of 1999. By the end of 1999, they received more reports of challenges to the first two Harry Potter books than to any other book that year.

One midwestern librarian who spoke to TLC is unable to have any Harry Potter books on the shelves of his school library. The school he works for, in fact, went out of their way to ban the Harry Potter books by changing their longstanding bookshelf standard policy.

Every year, the ALA prepares a list of the most challenged books for the previous year, as a guide so everyone, including parents and students, understand how insidious the practice is and how
unfortunate it is that kids around the country are losing access to
books that millions of other children cherish.

The books, in order of most frequently challenged, are:

The "Alice" series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, for sexual content, using offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.

The "Harry Potter" series, for its inclusion of wizardry and magic.

"Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language.

"Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" by Michael A. Bellesiles, for inaccuracy.

"Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers, for racism, sexual content, offensive language, drugs and violence.

"Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous, for drugs.

"It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris, for homosexuality, nudity, sexual content and sex education.

"We All Fall Down" by Robert Cormier, for offensive language and sexual content.

"King and King" by Linda de Haan, for homosexuality.

"Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson, for offensive language and occult/satanism

Judy Blume - who was recognized last year by the National Book
Foundation for her contributions to American letters - is the second-most censored author of the past 15 years. Alvin Schwartz, who writes the Scary Stories series, tops the list. J.K. Rowling is fourth, but she has published fewer books than either Blume or Schwartz, and her first book was released in the US in late 1998.

At Nimbus - 2003, Judith Krug, director of the OIF, spoke about censorship and the Harry Potter books. She noted that "some people believe that just the act of reading Harry will actually
automatically convert readers into witches[, and that another] major complaint is that the books glorify evil. When this charge is hurled, I patiently explain that these books are about good and evil."

Ms. Krug said:

In addition to witchcraft, we've heard complaints that Harry Potter encourages disrespect for adults and authority, and that the Dursleys are mean. In one case, the complainant alleged that the novels promote drug use—all those portions—and we've seen a handful on the grounds that the series promotes Wicca and, therefore, violates the separation of church and state.

In tandem with Banned Books Week, the ALA has provided a guide for parents on issues related to kids and reading, and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, who joined us at the TLC/FictionAlley screening of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at an IMAX theater last June, is highlighting how bookstores fight
censorship.

The ALA writes:

"Kids and curiosity go together. Sometimes the books that challenge the minds of children the most are the books that some people feel are inappropriate for them. Children are thinkers, and they can only grow if we give them the opportunity to read all types of literature.

While parents are understandably curious and sometimes concerned about what our child reads, the ALA recommends that if a parent is uncomfortable with a book assigned in class, they should request an alternative selection. However, taking action to remove a book from a school or library limits the access of all the members of the community, not just those who dislike the work.

As Dr Krug said, "removing the book imposes the will of that one parent, or group of parents, on all the other parents and children in the community."

Coming later this week on the TLC Podcast, my interview with Beverly Becker, associate director of the
ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom - she discussed some of the reasons behind attacks on the Harry Potter books, and other books, and what you can do if you see a book being censored.

You can find a list of the 100 most challenged books here. If you need to report a challenge to a book, you can visit this page for more information.

We're also making available a 100x100 icon that can be used on LiveJournal - it's already here on FA, where you can use it no matter how many post-points you have; feel free to save it to your computer and use it where appropriate.

And if you hear about anyone taking action to ban one of the Harry Potter books in the US or elsewhere, please let us know at TLC or here at FA. Together we can try to do something about it.