Thursday, October 3, 2024
Cat Thursday: Halloween 2024 - It's spooky time again!
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Banned Books Week 2024 - What can you do?
Today is the last day of Banned Books Week and it's Let Freedom Read Day. Here is what the day entails...
On September 28, 2024, we’re asking everyone to get ready to vote for the freedom to read or to take at least one action to help defend books from censorship and to stand up for the library staff, educators, writers, publishers, and booksellers who make them available!
Show us how you’re taking action on social media by using the hashtags #LetFreedomReadDay and #BannedBooksWeek!
And don’t forget: Censorship won’t stop just because Banned Books Week does — you can take action any day of the year! Bookmark this page for future reference."
Visit the page here to find out what you can do. There are graphics for sharing on social media and tips on actions you can take in your community, and with your elected officials.
These are actions we should be taking regularly throughout the year. Now more than ever, there is even more risk of precious books with important lessons being removed from public and school access. Project 2025 is something that may be very instrumental in this happening if the wrong people take power in this country. If you have not heard of Project 2025 before now, I urge you to read it for yourself. The 922 page 2025 Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise can be read here in its entirety.
Challenge Reporting
"ALA, established in 1876, has a longstanding commitment to defend intellectual freedom in libraries. Even before the formal adoption of the Library Bill of Rights in 1939, ALA has provided support, guidance, and resources to librarians faced with censorship. Since 1990, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has maintained a database on challenged materials. ALA gathers information from media reports and individual reports submitted from the form below.
Reporting censorship and challenges to materials, resources, and services is vital to developing the best resources to defend library resources and to protect against challenges before they happen. The information gathered from these reports helps OIF:stay aware of developments in the profession
supply library workers with crucial tools, resources, workshops, and programs
compile the Top 10 Most Challenged Books list and trend reports for public awareness
OIF staff will be in contact to offer assistance and support. Even if support is not needed, please report challenges. Your report is confidential unless you tell us otherwise. Visit the ALA Fight Censorship clearinghouse of resources, statements, partners, and graphics for more information and additional ways you can defend the freedom to read and support others facing censorship."
Reporting censorship and challenges to materials, resources, and services is vital to developing the best resources to defend library resources and to protect against challenges before they happen. The information gathered from these reports helps OIF:stay aware of developments in the profession
supply library workers with crucial tools, resources, workshops, and programs
compile the Top 10 Most Challenged Books list and trend reports for public awareness
OIF staff will be in contact to offer assistance and support. Even if support is not needed, please report challenges. Your report is confidential unless you tell us otherwise. Visit the ALA Fight Censorship clearinghouse of resources, statements, partners, and graphics for more information and additional ways you can defend the freedom to read and support others facing censorship."
The information above, and the form to report censorship, can be found on this page.
I hope my Banned Books Week coverage has been informational this year. See you next year. 📚
Friday, September 27, 2024
Banned Books Week 2024: Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 - Books 9 and 10
"Between January 1 and August 31, 2024, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 414 attempts to censor library materials and services. In those cases, 1,128 unique titles were challenged. In the same reporting period last year, ALA tracked 695 attempts with 1,915 unique titles challenged. Though the number of reports to date has declined in 2024, the number of documented attempts to censor books continues to far exceed the numbers prior to 2020. Additionally, instances of soft censorship, where books are purchased but placed in restricted areas, not used in library displays, or otherwise hidden or kept off limits due to fear of challenges illustrate the impact of organized censorship campaigns on students’ and readers’ freedom to read. In some circumstances, books have been preemptively excluded from library collections, taken off the shelves before they are banned, or not purchased for library collections in the first place." https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
Below are books nine and ten of the top ten most challenged books of 2023 with their Book Résumés.
9. Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
Number of challenges: 55
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQIA+ content
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQIA+ content
How do you find the answers to all the questions you have about yourself, about your identity, and about your body? Let's Talk About It provides a comprehensive, thoughtful, well-researched graphic novel guide to everything you need to know. Title: Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human (A Graphic Novel) Author: Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan Imprint: Random House Graphic Publisher: Random House Children’s Book On sale date: March 9, 2021 ISBN: 9780593125311 and 9781984893147 Format: Hardcover and Paperback Age Range*: 14 and up Grade Range: Gr 9 Up Recommended by School Library Journal
Covering relationships, friendships, gender, sexuality, anatomy, body image, safe sex, sexting, jealousy, rejection, sex education, and more, Let's Talk About It is the go-to handbook for every teen, and the first in graphic novel form.
Number of challenges: 53
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, rape
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
The powerful, poignant, bestselling National Book Award Finalist gives voice to a young girl robbed of her childhood yet determined to find the strength to triumph
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt-then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words-Simply to endure is to triumph-and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?
Written in spare and evocative vignettes by the co-author of I Am Malala (Young Readers Edition), this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
“The message of strength and hope is important to teen girls who need to know that whatever they are facing, whether as bad as rape and continued sexual abuse or not, can be survived and that help is available. That this book was challenged is ridiculous.”
“There are so many important lessons to be learned from this book. I feel it is also important for our students to have access to books like this - they need to understand that some people live this life and that there is a way our of it. Please keep this book available for our students. I am a mother and ironically had recommended this book to my freshman daughter a week before the list of "challenged" books came out. I would not have a problem letting my daughter read this book.”
Deemed a “touching and compelling read that offered a historical and cultural perspective on a relevant global issue.”
To ban this book is to erase the young people around the world who are currently enslaved. To ban this book is a disservice to the women who shared their stories with me so the world could know about their plight. And to ban this book is disrespectful to the young readers who want to know about the world as it is – so they can make a difference.
But, perhaps most important, to ban this book is to take away a lifeline for readers who are experiencing abuse. These kids know what adults often don’t. Books aren’t the problem; they are part of the solution.
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Cat Thursday - Happy Fall
Banned Books Week 2024: Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 - Books 7 and 8
"I believe that censorship is the enemy of freedom. By banning books, we deny ourselves the opportunity to learn from the past and to envision a braver future. Books have the power to open minds and build bridges. This is why certain forces do not want the masses to engage with books. They fear progress and growth in new, bold directions. For this reason, Banned Books Week is vitally important. It is a celebration of our right to access varied voices and to engage with ideas that challenge and champion us. I am honored to be selected as honorary chair of Banned Book Week for this election year, and I stand with my fellow readers, fellow writers and fellow advocates around the world who refuse to let voices be silenced."
— 2024 Banned Books Week Honorary Chair Ava DuVernay
Read my Banned Books Week kick-off post here.
Below are books seven and eight (these titles were tied) of the top ten most challenged books of 2023 with their Book Résumés.
7/8. (tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Below are books seven and eight (these titles were tied) of the top ten most challenged books of 2023 with their Book Résumés.
7/8. (tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
The New York Times bestselling novel that inspired the hit film!
This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death. It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.
This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.
Fiercely funny, honest, heart-breaking—this is an unforgettable novel from a bright talent, now also a film that critics are calling "a touchstone for its generation" and "an instant classic."
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
- Reconsideration Outcome: The literary work will remain on the library shelves and no change to its inclusion in any library will be made.
- Findings and Recommendation: The committee recommends that Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews remain in the RMS library as a text for self-selection and continue to be identified as a teenage selection for our 8th grade students or those students demonstrating advanced maturity levels. Parents have the option of contacting the library and asking for their child’s access to this book to be limited.
- Findings and Rationale: See document linked above for full rationale
It is the committee’s position that when books are self-selected by students for leisure reading or independent reading assignments, it is the right and responsibility of a student and their family to make determinations regarding what is or is not appropriate for the student to read. It is the school district's responsibility to provide reading material suited to the students' varied interests, reading levels, and maturation levels.
- Decision: The committee decided to keep this book at the middle school libraries. This decision will also be enacted at the high school level.
- Discussion: See document linked above for full rationale
This book is currently available in the library for voluntary check-out and is not used as an instructional material in a class.
The book addresses different learning styles for students. It is written in a unique multi-modal format switching between paragraphs and script-like dialogue. The book infuses humor, often in the form of a teenage stream of consciousness, around social situations and the difficult concept of death. The literary style and physical format can engage students and add accessibility for reluctant readers.
Different family structures, ethnicities, religions and socio-economic backgrounds are reflected in the characters. This allows students to see a diversity in characters and highlights that people from very different backgrounds can support and learn from each other.
The book shows teenagers struggling with fitting into social groups and navigating relationships with friends and family. The main teenage character demonstrates times of low confidence, awkwardness in social situations, and disappointment in not living up to societal expectations of behavior. These are common feelings for students and make the characters relatable. The book allows students to examine their own attitudes, behaviors, duties, and responsibilities around friendships, parental expectations, and societal norms.
The book provides an authentic voice for teenagers coping with death and demonstrates that people may have varied responses to grief. Many students have been faced with the death of a family member or friend, and this provides an opportunity for them to have their feelings and emotions validated.
The book does contain passages with profanity and sexual language that some may find objectionable, especially if that is the only context in which the book is viewed. However, when taken as a literary text on the whole, there are redeeming qualities around engagement, literary elements, diversity, and self-reflection and acceptance.
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Banned Books Week 2024: Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 - Books 4 - 6
Because many book challenges are not reported to the ALA or covered by the press, the Top Most Challenged Books lists and data compiled by ALA represent only a snapshot of book challenges. A challenge to a book may be resolved in favor of retaining the book in the collection, or it can result in a book being restricted or withdrawn from the library.
Read my Banned Books Week kick-off post here.
Below are books four through six of the top ten most challenged books of 2023 with their Book Résumés.
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Number of challenges: 68
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, rape, drugs, profanity
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, rape, drugs, profanity
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
A years-long #1 New York Times bestseller, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and Best Book for Reluctant Readers, and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life.
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
AUTHOR STATEMENT
“This book is my love letter and wish for every kid who is struggling with identity, because at the time I was writing it, I was struggling with my own.”—Stephen Chbosky
“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes out ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”—Stephen Chbosky
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
I know I’m not gay. Gay boys like other boys. I hate boys. They’re mean, and scary, and they’re always destroying something or saying something dumb or both.
I hate that word. Gay. It makes me feel . . . unsafe.
It's the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone's going through changes—but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can't stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance.
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
Wentzville School District: The book is relatable to many teenagers, the targeted audience, in that many and all go through many of the same struggles that the main character goes through in this book. From self-esteem, sexuality, peer pressure, bullying and issues and at home, we see the struggles he has and can put ourselves in their shoes and relate. Knowing there is a positive outcome in the end shows to others relating to these struggles that there is hope and we can get through it.
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Statement of Support: Flamer is an award-winning graphic novel that tells the story of Aiden Navarro “as he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can’t stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance.” This graphic novel is just one of many books currently being challenged for relaying a story from one of the LGBTQ+ perspectives.
As with many challenges targeting LGBTQ+ graphic novels, those surrounding Flamer falsely accuse the book of being pornography or containing explicit sexual images. In 2022, a parent from Katy ISD filed a criminal complaint that the district was providing material harmful to minors. Though the claim was found unsubstantiated, the book was removed from the shelves and relocated to the police department, where it could be processed. This challenge demonstrates the growing trend of citizens attempting to ignore the proper review process and intimidate educators, librarians, and administrators. Flamer has been challenged across the country and was included on the “Krause List” as a book to remove.
Eanes Westlake School District (Austin, TX): The decision was made to keep this book in the middle school libraries with a Young Adult (YA) label that will allow 8th grade parents to opt out of the book and 6th and 7th grade parents to opt into the book beginning in the 2023-24 school year. As early as elementary school, some of our students begin to question their sexual orientation. LGBTQ+ students deserve to have access to books about their fears, struggles and inner turmoil about life, friendship, love and identity just like any hetero normative child. Due to some of the content and themes and the fact that the book contains profanity, sexual references and suicidal ideation, it may not be suited or of interest for all middle school students, including younger middle school students.
Westport Connecticut Rationale: Place principle above personal opinion and reason above prejudice; be appropriate to the varied interests, abilities, and levels of maturity of students in form, structure, and content; be based upon critical review in educational and professional journals, in current periodicals, or through professional analysis.
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
Read the full Book Résumé here.
Read the full Book Résumé here.
Challenged for: rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content
In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an eleven-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
Students sued when a school district restricted several books. The school board reinstated one novel (2022)
Monday, September 23, 2024
Banned Books Week 2024: Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 - Books 1 - 3
"The American Library Association condemns censorship and works to defend each person's right to read under the First Amendment and to ensure free access to information. Every year, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from reports filed by library professionals and community members, as well as news stories published throughout the United States." https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
Read my Banned Books Week kick-off post here.
Below are the top three most challenged books of 2023 with their Book Résumés.
Number of challenges: 106
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
AUTHOR STATEMENT
“Queer youth are often forced to look outside their own homes, and outside the education system, to find information on who they are. Removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies and health.” – Maia Kobabe
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
• Review Committee Recommendation - Gender Queer: A Memoir, Fairfax County Public Schools
• Statement of Support for Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, October 17, 2021
Read the full Book Résumé here.
Number of challenges: 82
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.
Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson's emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.
Review successful defenses of All Boys Aren’t Blue online here.
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
Number of challenges: 71
Number of challenges: 71
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit
Excerpts from the Book Résumé:
Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Intersex. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU.
This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBTQ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations. Inside this revised and updated edition, you'll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask, with topics like:
- Stereotypes—the facts and fiction
- Coming out as LGBT
- Where to meet people like you
- The ins and outs of gay sex
- How to flirt
- And so much more!
You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don't) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book.
This book is for:
- LGBTQIA+ teens, tweens, and adults
- Readers looking to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community
- Parents of gay kids and other LGBT youth
- Educators looking for advice about the LGBTQIA+ community
The Iowa City Community School District: For any students who just want to know what it means to be gay and what it means to be trans, they can read this book for basic information that is scientifically accurate. There isn’t anything in here that you wouldn’t already know about heterosexual sex. You get information about heterosexual sex in sex ed and you don’t get any about other forms of sexual intimacy.
Hilton Central School District: I would tell the students of the district that belong to that community that they are welcome here at Hilton Central School District as students within our public schools. We love them as we love our other students. We are absolutely sorry that a debate around a piece of literature is making them feel as if they are not included or welcome.
AUTHOR STATEMENT
*A NOTE ON AGE RANGES
A publisher-suggested age range covers the gamut of readers that publishers envision using the book, whether for independent reading, family sharing, group study, or in other ways. Educators have the best sense of the appropriate age range for the diverse learners they work with and understand these ranges vary depending on a book’s intended use.
Read the full Book Résumé here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)