Archives For american library association

banned books week is September 25 – October 3 this year. that`s right there are still books that are challenged and banned in public libraries everywhere. my amazon list has been modified to include booksense picks; which are all challenged books.

according to a press release from the ALA the 10 most challenged books of 2003 were:

Alice series, for sexual content, using offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.

Harry Potter series, for its focus on 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.

Off the list this year, but on the list for several years past, are “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, for sexual content, racism, offensive language, violence and being unsuited to age group; “Captain Underpants” by Dav Pilkey, for insensitivity and being unsuited to age group; and  “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, for racism, insensitivity and offensive language.

banned books week is also tied to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression`s Campaign for Reader Privacy amendment to the Patriot Act. Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the government can search your bookstore and library records without a court order, the amendment proposes to eliminate that section from the act.

edit

based on some queries here is some excepted info on how books are challenged from the ALA website:

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others…

The American Library Association (ALA) collects information from two sources: newspapers and reports submitted by individuals, some of whom use the Challenge Database Form…

…Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.

what price freedom

June 14, 2004 — Leave a comment

i`m hoping this is my last entry about/to odorone. i had intended to do a step by step analysis of all the things he`s said about my journal, but i`ve decided there is no point.

odorone is not interested in logic or legality, he is, as i`ve pointed out before a bully. he`s ignored many well thought out arguments on journalspace, some of mine included because at the end of the day it`s not what he wants to hear. he`s deluded himself into thinking what he`s doing is right and worthy, the law and good sense be damned and he`ll malign and make all manner of assumptions and incorrect statements to back his argument.

my posts haven`t been about him, per se, it`s about the principle of what he`s doing and my inability to sit and let more personal freedoms slip away because of apathy.

i will not sit idly by and let someone else`s idea of morals be the benchmark for my children. i`m resident in a country where the library association publishes a list of children`s books that people called for to be banned.

the campaign that`s started here is only a small step down a slippery slope. if we give in now, when are we going to make our stand, when you can`t find I know why the caged bird sings, Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mocking Bird on the shelves of the library because someone started a campaign to `protect the children`?

by then it will be too late.

as parents you have one simple job, be responsible for you children. don`t rely on school or television or the internet or video games or the government to tell you what`s best for you children. take the time to know who your children are, what their interest are and what they do. it`s not society`s job or the school`s job or the media`s job to teach your children, it`s the your job as a parent.

i have adult content on my journal and if some child find their way to my journal i`ll be upset, but not with the child, but the parents that let them roam about unaccompanied. the simplest analogy i can find, the internet is a like a giant mall, you wouldn`t let your child roam about the mall unaccompanied, would you?

the other point about taking responsibility for you children is when faced with situations that you wouldn`t approve of, they will have your moral compass ingrained in them so they will know right from wrong and very rarely disappoint you.

i don`t need odorone tell me what my children shouldn`t see, i know what i don`t want them to see and ensure that they don`t and if they`re not in my immediate sphere of influence and they see or hear something that`s inappropriate they will behave appropriately because they`ve been taught right from wrong by us, their parents.