George Orwell

Read any of George Orwell's works online for free, including 1984 and Animal Farm at "The Complete Works of George Orwell." The books and other writings are searchable. Also included are Orwell's biography, photographs, and quotations. Both books have faced censorship.

The Forbidden Library reports that 1984, was challenged in Jackson County, Fla. (1981) because the novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter."

E-notes explains of Animal Farm,

Completed in 1944, the book remained unpublished for more than a year because British publishing firms declined to offend the country's Soviet allies. Finally the small leftist firm of Secker & Warburg printed it, and the short novel became a critical and popular triumph. It has been translated into many languages but was banned by Soviet authorities throughout the Soviet-controlled regions of the world because of its political content.

Wikipedia adds,

Orwell originally prepared a preface which complains about British government suppression of his book, self-imposed British self-censorship and how the British people were suppressing criticism of the USSR, their World War II ally. "The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. ... [Things are] kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact." Somewhat ironically, the preface itself was censored and is not published with most copies of the book.

Take the Challenge on Challenges

So you have been reading this web log for a while and think you know everything there is to know about banned books? Take the quiz. I am embarrassed to tell you that I only got seven answers right. Beat my score and you win a lifetime subscription to this blog. Yay!

No Fear

Kathi Appelt shares her insight into how fear is shaping our society with regard to what books are being challenged. It is well worth reading the complete article for the many points she makes.

She balances the responsibility of parenting and protecting our children against the need for being honest and recognizing that sometimes fear drives us. She acknowledges the need to ensure that materials are age appropriate but challenges the idea that banning books will somehow protect children.

She is the author of Kissing Tennessee and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance In one story, an eighth-grader questions his attraction for the new boy in town. She purposely leaves the readers wondering whether the boy is gay. In a second story, she brings up all kinds of issues around a teen who is beaten by her fundamentalist father for wearing lipstick. She writes about real issues, stating,

As an author of books for children and young adults, I believe that it's my responsibility to give my young audience characters who look like they do, feel like they do and struggle with the same questions they struggle with.

She points out that we fear that children might become gay after reading about the young man's doubts or that we are afraid that after reading about the fundamentalist father, children will turn away from their parents' faith. Children could be influenced by books to turn to the dark arts, become promiscuous, or start displaying biogotted behaviours. She concludes that censorship reflects the fears of the times.

I'm tired of people in power using fear to control my rights, my body or whom I marry. And this includes my choices and my children's choices of what to read, whether its government documents that have been reclassified for "security reasons" or Huck Finn because it uses the "N-word." In this post Sept. 11 world, I believe that it's more important than ever to face our fears and turn our backs on the people who would use them to control and divide us. Fear is not a family value or an American trait. Control by fear is the antithesis of a democracy.

She calls on all of us to be honest. "Challenging a book is not an act of heroism. It's an act of fear. Call it by its true name."

More from Down Under

In a previous post Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books: A Strange Protest? you heard about a number of Melbourne University student who had staged a book burning as a protest to the banning of two books from the country.

An article by Christopher Bantick in the Courier-Mail is critical of how the Federal Government has restricted what people can read. The University of Melbourne library was forced to remove the books after they were reclassified otherwise they would have been breaking the law and would run the risk of being prosecuted.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock defends the government's actions, stating,

The Government is keen to ensure that inflammatory material is not used to encourage the naive and impressionable to engage in acts of terrorism.

According to Bantick,

It is hard to imagine a more blatant attack on freedom of speech. Even so, the ban shows something more. This is the Government's fear of opinions contrary to its own narrow social conservatism.

He goes on to challenge the idea that the government has the public good in mind and reminds his readers that Ray Bradbury, in Fahrenheit 451, has forseen the consequence of allowing a government to decide what is good for society. "Because you don't have to burn books, do you, if the world starts to fill up with non-readers, non-learners and non-knowers?"

The vice-chancellor of the University pointed out that by banning the books, the Australian government was limiting the legitimate research of staff and students.

The Council of Australian University Librarians, Australian Library and Information Association, Australian Society of Authors and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, in a joint statement on September 25, noted pithily: "Banning books takes away not only our right to read the opinions of others but also our right to disagree with what they say. We can't refute what we can't read."

While Australians may not be able to obtain a paper copy of these books, ironically they are available online for would-be terrorists.


Defense of Muslim Lands
Join the Caravan

Biography of Abdullah Yusuf Azzam

What would your reaction be to a similar banning in Canada? I'm not sure that anything except pornography is actually banned in Canada besides anything that has been deemed "hate" literature. Are you fearful of would-be terrorists making use of these books in Canada? Since Adbullah Yusuf Azzam was an advisor to Osama Bin Laden, it is likely that the terrorist have already read his writings and we would do well to understand what terrorism is about from this leader's point of view.

A Strange Protest?

Last week students at a Melbourne University, in an attempt to bring attention to a book banning, gathered for a book burning ceremony outside of the library. The small group of students were protesting the federal government sedition laws and the banning of two titles -- Join the Caravan and Defense of Muslim Lands -- by Abdullah Azzam. Pages from a handful of books were burned symbolically.

As reported in one news article, the Classification Review Board found that the books justified Jihad and promoted and incited terrorism.

Student Union president Jessie Giles stated, "These books are relevant to our studies and we have a right to access them ... we're all mature adults here and can make up our own minds." The students are making the materials available online.

What do you think about burning books to make a point?
Do you see any difference between the banning of books that incite terrorism and the banning of hate literature?
What do you think about Canada's stand on hate literature?

A "banning" of Epic Proportions

According to an article in the Glouster County Times (NJ), at least three parents of students attending Clearview Regional High School are unhappy with a modern translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh. One parent is not trying to challenge the whole book, just sections that she considers sexually descriptive and unnecessarily explicit.

Another parent described the work which dates back to about 1700 BCE, as "bizarre," "pornography," and "sheer smut."

I wonder if these parents have read the Song of Solomon. It is also sexually descriptive but it is in the Bible (considered another banned book).

Fahrenheit 451 Burning with Irony

According to a news article in the Courier, Diana Berm, a sophomore at Caney Creek High School, of the Conroe Independent School District, Houston was offended by the language and content of Fahreneheit 451, the classic book about book burning and banning by Ray Bradbury. While Bradbury's book has been truncated by his publisher and strong language blacked out by well-meaning teachers, it has not been outright banned as far as I can tell (however, I am open to correction).

Alton Berm, the student's father objects to this novel being used as classroom reading material and wants to have it removed from the curriculum for all students saying,

"It shouldn't be in there because it's offending people. ... If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all....It's just all kinds of filth."

Although he had not read Fahrenheit 451, he found excerpts that go against his religious beliefs, including being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, "dirty talk," references to the Bible and using God's name in vain.

The book has been used in the county's curriculum for at least 19 years. A committee will now review the content of the book and reconsider its use in the classroom.

What is sad to me is the non story that has been published by the Courier and the amount of time a committee will take in reexamining its county's curriculum choices. As long as a student has a way of opting for a different novel, I believe their parents do not have a right to force the removal of materials that have been chosen by educators.

Watch the story.

Judy Blume Forever Censored? Part 2

For some reason, I can't see my first post and edit it.

So here is the information I wanted to include on where Forever was banned or challenged, courtesy of Marshall University.

2006

Challenged in the Fayetteville (AR) Middle and Junior High School libraries along with more than 50 other titles as being too sexually explicit and promoting homosexuality.

2003

Returned to Elgin (IL) middle school libraries after a four year abscence.

2002

Returned to Elgin, IL middle school libraries after having been banned in 1997.

Why Waldo?

The presence of Where's Waldo on the list of banned books has always baffled me. Although I personally find the task of finding Waldo annoying, I don't think that is a good enough reason to keep other people from finding it in the school or local public library. Here is the reason. Instead of looking for Waldo, try looking for the topless woman instead. Remember these are cartoon people.




According to Chronology of Censorship and Anti-Censorship, it was challenged in 1989 at the Public Libraries of Saginaw, Michigan.

A Surprising Idea for Banned Books Week

The Joel D. Valdez Library in Tucson, AZ has bagged a few books -- literally. According to the Tucson Citizen, the main library has a selection of books in sealed paper bags. Readers are invited to check out a bagged book without knowing what they will be reading. The point of this exercise, according to Library Director Nancy Ledeboer, is "to raise people's awareness that there are people that would want to limit your access to information. We believe books feed minds, and we don't want to stifle that." The bagged books will be available through Sept. 23 - 30, the American Library Assocation's Banned Books Week.

Banned Books Week

September 23 - 30, 2006 is Banned Books Week. A list of challenged or banned books for 2005/6 has been created by Robert P. Doyle. Read a book from this or another banned or challenged book list to recognize the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week.

From the "Read-Aloud Guru"

I came across an interesting article on censorship of children's literature written by Jim Trelease, the "Guru" of reading aloud with children. He was an award-winning artist and journalist prior to becoming more interested in education. In 1979, he published the first of a number of editions of The Read-Aloud Handbook, a well-used resource for classroom teachers and librarians.

Trelease begins,

More and more teachers are looking over their shoulders during read-aloud or SSR periods, worrying that someone in the community will take offense at some book. The frequency of such fears sometimes makes me wonder whether this is America or Iraq.spacer In our free and constitutional society, everyone has right to protest anything — something many citizens in other countries can't boast. Protesters have a right to protest and a right to be heard. What they don't have is the right to impose their will on others. In a nation governed by "majority rules," they have only the right to persuade the majority toward their point of view.

Books, authors, and illustrators mentioned in the article include: Gone With the Wind; Snow Falling on Cedars; Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis; Peter Pan; Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia; Little Red Riding Hood as illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman; Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451; The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton; Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing; T. S. Eliot; Shel Silverstein; Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards; Johnny on the Spot by Edward Sorel; Read for Your Life by Gladys Hunt and Barbara Hampton; The Goats by Brock Cole; A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck; The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey; John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; and The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey, illustrated by George Beard and Harold Hutchins.

Trelease recommends two books that deal with censorship issues.
CENSORSHIP: A Threat to Reading, Learning, Thinking by John S. Simmons

This is the more comprehensive of the two books, covering censorship threats in nearly all the academic disciplines, from elementary to high school. Its 19 chapters have been authored by national experts, writers, educators, and even school board members. The text straddles the line between excoriating censorship and the ways to negotiate one's way around it, including advice for principals, librarians, and school boards.

At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom by Gloria Pipkin and ReLeah Cossett Lent

The authors, two veteran Florida secondary teachers, describe the long, winding road they traveled in that state as they attempted to educate and expand the minds of young people through reading and writing. Their approach was often in direct contrast with the traditional approach — memorizing fact-bits to be regurgitated at test time but hardly productive when it come time to think or act critically or intelligently. The book is both inspiring and frightening in its scope and ramifications.

Where Will It Stop?

This blog has been following the process of the banning of Vamos a Cuba (A Visit to Cuba) -- 1,2,3,4 and the challenge to a second book on Cuba in a previous post.

According to an article in the Miami Herald, the second book on Cuba, Cuban Kids, will be removed from a Miami-Dade Elementary School Library because it paints too rosey a picture of life in Cuba.

Dalila Rodriguez filed the complaint despite the fact that her children do not attend that school against the book though her children do not attend the school. She is a member of a group calling itself Concerned Cuban Parents Committee. They decided to put their energies into taking action against Cuban Kids.

One can't help but wonder what could be achieved if such committees focused their energies into really important issues.

Lowest on Record and That's Not the Drop in Temperature

According to the The American Library Association, 405 challenges had been reported in 2005. It is the lowest total of challenges on record.

The ALA has been keeping track of book challenges since the early 1980s. Banned Book Week was established as a way of raising the issue while celebrating free expression. This year, Sept. 23-30 marks the 25th annual "Banned Book Week."

Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, cited possible factors for the decline:

1. Librarians are better prepared to organize community support on behalf of a book
2. Online content could be taking the focus away from print

The ALA defines challenges as "formal, written complaints filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness." For every challenge listed, about four to five go unreported, according to the library association.

Topping the list of the most "challenged" book of 2005 was "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health," by Robie Harris. J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," Judy Blume's "Forever" and Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War," continue to be among the top ten. They are usually challenged because of "sexual content" and inappropriate language.

I like the remarks of one reporter.

"The Catcher in the Rye"? Can't folks find a new book to ban? It's 55 years old, for goodness sake. Holden Caulfield is on social security.

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night....

Check out this link to American Book Review. They have listed what they have identified as the Top 100 Best First Lines from Novels. I was amazed to see how many of them have been banned or challenged at one time or another. See if you can identify all of the challenged books.

Protecting the Children...from....?

The Miami-Dade School Board voted to continue their fight to remove a controversial children's book on Cuba from their libraries.

It has become a politically-charged issue and the timing puts it two week prior to the Sept. 5 elections.

While a judge rejected the Board's reason (that it presents a distorted view of life in Cuba, showing smiling children and omitting problems that life under a dictator present) for banning Vamos a Cuba and 23 other titles.

"The discussion around the issue of parental rights and the sovereign powers of elected officials and wise use of taxpayer dollars is an issue worth fighting all the way to the Supreme Court," said board member Frank Bolaños, who opposes the book. "This is a matter of principle -- it warrants us investing as much time and resources as we need to be able to protect these things we believe in."

"Do we have a right to protect our children?" continued Bolaños. "I think we have the right and responsibility to do that."

The board voted to remove the 32-page books in June 2006, with the reason that they oversimplify the foreign countries they portray. The books are aimed at a target audience of 5 to 7-year-olds. Since only the Cuba book was ever discussed in detail, the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit was launched on the premise that the ban was based on politics.

The district has already spent more than $123,000 to fight the case and has already budgeted another $127,000 for the appeal.

Is it a Book or a Scarf?

In a post from August 12, I lamented the banning of books and other reading material on planes flying out of the UK. Well, BoingBoing has come up with one solution for you in the form of a scarf.

Scary Stories

According to an article in the Courier-Journal, a complaint against the series 'Scary Stories' by Alvin Schwartz has been rejected in Greater Clark County, Indiana. The school board voted unanimously to keep these stories in the elementary school libraries.

Dorsey, a local grandparent, wanted all volumes in the series banned because they depict cannibalism, murder, witchcraft and ghosts, and include a story about somebody being skinned. Her granddaughter did not read the book but saw the pictures and was having nightmares because of them, she said.

Doug Chinn, principal at Utica Elementary, said that the request to ban the book was rejected because the books were considered appropriate for older elementary students. The committee suggested that parents should review what their children are reading.

According to the American Library Association, the "Scary Stories" series topped the list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990 to 2000. It continues to face challenges each year.

Author Deborah Ellis Honoured

Author Deborah Ellis whose book "Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak" has been challenged/banned in Toronto and York schools will receive the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario Children's Literature Award tomorrow at the ETFO annual meeting. According to a press release, this award which is being offered for the first time this year, "recognizes children's literature that is in keeping with ETFO's positions on social justice and equity."

Read more about Deborah Ellis and Three Wishes in previous posts from March 7, March 21, April 26, April 28, and June 1.

Congratulations to Deborah Ellis, a Canadian author who is not afraid to tackle difficult topics and present them to the next generation who may find the solutions to deep-seated conflicts. A laurel wreath to the Elementary Teachers' Federation for recognizing her gifts.

Your Comments

Bridge to Terabithia

"I think this book was banned or challenged because it deals with the loss of a child. People may feel that for a child who is reading the book, it is too heavy of a situation for a child's book."

Bridge to Terabithia has been dealt with in a previous post and another previous post. Look there for reasons why the book has been banned.

For more about Katherine Paterson, visit her official web site.