ALA's Most Challenged Books for 2012 sadly contains no real surprises.

It’s that incredibly troubling time of year again!  The American Library Association has announced the most challenged books of 2012. According to the ALA:

A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. The number of challenges reflects only incidents reported. We estimate that for every reported challenge, four or five remain unreported. Therefore, we do not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges.

So with 464 reported challenges that’s an estimated 1,600-2,000+ challenges! Now no one should ever complain that someone doesn’t want to read a book or doesn’t want their family to read a book.  However, when someone starts trying to deny everyone else form access to the book, that’s when us librarians get all worked up!  Below is the most challenged books along with the reasons they were challenged. 

2012

Out of 464 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group

These not be for every family, but Captain Underpants mix of crude and silly humor has made THOUSANDS of non-readers into readers.

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
   Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

The ‘racism’ complaint boggles my mind.  The book is partly about the HARM of racism.  The book itself is not racist, however often books that tackle racism are complained about for ‘racism’. 

3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

Suicide in and of itself seems like an odd complaint to me. I mean it exists, we have to confront it on some level, right?

4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

Well, apparently adults shouldn’t be allowed to read books written about adult situations.

5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group

This is definitely a book that each family should decide for themselves about, but it’s only unsuitable for ALL children if the idea that homosexuality exists is unsuitable for ALL children.  That’s difficult to enforce.

6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

Religious viewpoint is one of my least favorite protests.  We live in a country FOUNDED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM!

7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

These are all the MAIN reasons for books being removed.  I think they are absolutely good reasons for anyone to choose not to read a book.  Unfortunately, each of these reasons is also very subjective and so it’s a problem to say what is offensive language to you is offensive language to me.

8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence

I will say if this book had been removed from my library as a child it would have saved me LOADS of nightmares, but scary books and nightmares are supposed to be a part of growing up!

9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

So in summation, always feel free to reject a book for you or your family for ANY reason, but when you are trying to remove access to a book for ALL families it should be done with great care and consideration.  

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I finally got around to reading Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature back in 2007 and I've been hearing fantastic things about it ever since.

Wow, talk about a one-two punch.

The narrator of the tale, Junior, is now quite possibly one of my favorite characters. Ever. He will break your heart with his story even as he leaves you in stitches. He's funny and fearless and lovably human. And though hardly immune to his circumstances, nevertheless he forges resolutely on.

Junior has been beating the odds since the day he was born.

He wasn't expected to live past a procedure to remove cerebral spinal fluid from his brain as an infant. Instead, we find he's made it to his teen years in pretty good shape, if you can overlook the crippling poverty, rampant alcoholism and general malaise that afflicts the Spokane Indian Reservation.

It sucks to be poor, and its sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it.

Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.

Junior, as you can see, is not afraid to tell it like it is.

His parents are drunks. His best friend has an abusive father. His school is so underfunded that it hasn’t updated its textbooks in least 30 years. Junior himself is a skinny, spectacle-wearing, book-kissing nerd, which doesn’t exactly earn him a lot of fans around the rez.

Then one day, prodded into action by his teacher, Junior decides to take his fate into his own hands. He decides to transfer to the all-white school in the neighboring town of Reardan, 22 miles away. His parents support the move, recognizing that it will allow Junior to get a better education and access to more opportunities. But they’re pretty much the exception. Junior's community proceeds to treat him like he's betrayed them. The Reardan High School kids ignore him.

Junior's beauty is how he weathers his hardships with such aplomb and good humor. Though lonely and confused, he hangs in there, funneling his energy into positive outlets, from doodling comics to joining the basketball team. And slowly but surely, things begin to change.

I recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a pick-me-up. Diary is a daring book, too, pushing the boundaries of young adult lit with its dark humor, language and examination of race, all of which has frequently landed it on Top 10 lists for most frequently challenged titles. We have it in book form (YP FIC ALEXIE; you'll get to see Junior's awesome doodles, drawn by Ellen Forney), audiobook (AD YP FIC ALEXIE), and downloadable audio. I listened to the audio version, which is narrated by the author. I'm sometimes leery of authors reading their own stuff but Sherman really knocks it out of the ballpark and brings 14-year-old Junior to life.

Junior may endure, at times, the unimaginable, but it's a statement to Sherman's talent how we still feel optimistic and hopeful for Junior’s future.

Top Ten Most Challenged Library Books of 2011: No Surprises

And it is sadder than sad that this list isn't surprising to me, but I certainly hope it shocks readers that aren't familiar with the world of book censorship.  A 'challenged' book is any book that is asked to be removed from a library or class reading list. 

To kick off National Library Week the American Library Association has issued their 2011 State of America's Libraries Report.  Included is a list of the top ten most challenged library books of the year. Read more about the challenges here. Here are the top ten books and the reasons they were challenged.

1)      ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2)      The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3)      The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

Occult/satanic:  Where?  Magic doesn't even get mentioned once in the entire series, much less Old Nick himself.

4)      My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5)      The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6)      Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

 I don't know why so many books have 'nudity' that are totally without pictures.  Is a description of a naked body really

7)      Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8)      What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9)      Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10)  To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Offensive language; racism

 

I am especially struck by accusations of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird, since it is a beautiful novel about how terrible racism is. Also, it is surprising to see accusation of occult/satanism in The Hunger Games.  There isn't a drop of magic in the series. I could easily go through each book here and argue it's worth and the reason they should be in libraries, but I'll leave that to you. Let us know in the comments if these books are truly dangerous for the impressionable youth of our nation.