Celebrate Your Freedom to Read
by Cynthia E.  Jones

September, 2004

'Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.'
 ALA Library Bill of Rights

In a search for September books or back to school reads for young people who will soon be deciding upon an author for reports and assignments as well as something to read leisurely. I came across ALA (American Library Association) with an invitation to edit and send the following.

Open Your Mind to a Banned Book

Throughout the country, most children are starting a new academic year. Teachers are sending out their lists of required readings, and parents are beginning to gather books. In some cases, classics like 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' 'The Catcher in the Rye,' and 'To Kill a Mocking Bird,' may not be included in curriculum or available in the school library due to challenges made by parents or administrators.

Since 1990, the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded more than 7,000 book challenges. A challenge is a formal, written complaint requesting a book be removed from library shelves or school curriculum. About three out of four of all challenges are to material in schools or school libraries, and one in four are to material in public libraries. The Office for Intellectual Freedom estimates that less than one-quarter of challenges are reported and recorded.

It is thanks to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, and students that most challenges are unsuccessful and reading materials, like 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' 'Slaughterhouse Five,' and the Harry Potter series remains available. When parents in a south Georgia school this summer challenged the use of John Steinbeck's classic 'Of Mice and Men' in the sophomore advanced-level English class, the school superintendent and others rallied to keep the book available.

The most challenged and/or restricted reading materials have been books for children. At the same time that families nationwide have embraced the series that has encouraged many youth to delve into thousands of fantasy-filled pages, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling has been the most frequently challenged title in the country. In fact, this spring a U.S. district judge ordered the books back into general circulation in the Cedarville (Ark.) School District after the district restricted access.

Challenges are not simply an expression of a point of view; on the contrary, they are an attempt to remove materials from public use, thereby restricting the access of others. Even if the motivation to ban or challenge a book is well intentioned, the outcome is detrimental. Censorship denies our freedom as individuals to choose and think for ourselves. For children, decisions about what books to read should be made by the people who know them best -their parents or guardians.

In support of the right to choose books freely for ourselves, the ALA is sponsoring Banned Books in September, an annual celebration of our right to access books without censorship. This year's observance is themed 'Open Your Mind to a Banned Book', and commemorates the most basic freedom in a democratic society -the freedom to read freely -and encourages us not to take this freedom for granted.

Since its inception in 1982, Banned Books Week has reminded us that while not every book is intended for every reader, each of us has the right to decide for ourselves what to read, listen to or view. Thousands of libraries and bookstores across the country will celebrate the freedom to read by participating in special events, exhibits, and read-outs that showcase books that have been banned or threatened.

The American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the ALA; the American Society of Journalists and Authors; the Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores sponsor Banned Books Week. The Library of Congress Center for the Book endorses the observance.

American libraries are the cornerstones of our democracy. Libraries are for everyone, everywhere. Because libraries provide free access to a world of information, they bring opportunity to all people. Now, more than ever, let freedom read at your library! Open your mind to an old favorite or a new banned book this month.

'Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.' (German: 'Dort, wo man Bucher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.') -Heinrich Heine, from his play Almansor (1821)

Information attained for this article was found at ALA (American Library Association)