According to Article 3 of the Library Bill of Rights, “Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.” (Source: ALA Library Bill of Rights)
As far as numbers of challenges, according to the American Library Association, while there are several hundred challenges to books in schools and libraries in the United States every year and there were at least 326 in 2011, the ALA estimates that 75 to 80 percent are never reported. (Source: ALA: Frequently challenged books of the 21st century)
- “Even though not every book will be right for every reader, the ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values,” said Barbara Jones, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Protecting one of our most fundamental rights – the freedom to read – means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read.” (April 14, 2010 ALA News Release)
The 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011
According to the American Library Association (ALA), the following books are the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2010. After the title and author of each book are the reasons cited for the challenges:- ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence - My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint - Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit - What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit - Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit - To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism(Source: American Library Association
One of the best ways to see how thing have and have not changed over time is to compare and contrast the above list with my article about the 2005 annual list of the most challenged books and with the list below.
The 100 Most Challenged Books of the Decade (2000-2009)
- Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
- Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
- And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
- Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
- Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
- His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
- ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series), by Myracle, Lauren
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (See the ALA Web site for the entire list.)
See All About Book Banning and Children's Books for more of my articles about the subject.
In addition to the excellent resources on the detailed ALA Banned Books Week site, check out the following:
- Jim Trelease on Censorship and Children’s Books contains a lot of information from the author of The Read-Aloud Handbook.
- The well-documented article The Censorship of Canadian Children’s Literature is by Iram Khan, who manages CanTeach, a site for Canadian teachers.
- Think for Yourself and Let Others Do the Same on the American Library Association site, which you can download as a PDF, contains information about some of the challenged or banned children's books between May 2009 and May 2010.
