Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Anne Frank House museum a special exhibit of nearly all of Anne Frank's diary went on display Wednesday April 28. 2010. According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail, this is the first time for nearly all of the diary to be displayed at the house where she wrote it during the two years the Jewish teenager was in hiding from the Nazis.
The original red plaid diary in which Anne began writing on her 13th birthday has been at the museum for several years but it covers just six months of the 25 months she hid with her family and four other Jews in a concealed canal-side apartment in Amsterdam.
Now on display, are the three parts of the diary, a book of short stories she wrote called “Tales from the Secret Annex,” and a notebook of her favourite quotations. Two other school exercise books and other pages were stored at the Netherlands War Documentation Center, the government war archives.
The diary chronicles Anne's life and coming of age from June 12, 1942, until August 1, 1944. The house was raided three days later and its occupants deported to Germany. Anne died of typhus at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, about two weeks before the camp was liberated.
Anne also wrote 360 loose pages written on flimsy paper, mostly revising earlier diary entries with the intention of publishing it after the war. Because of the papers' fragile state, the museum said it will display 40 sheets at a time and rotate them.
The diary and other papers have all been studied, published and in some cases reproduced in replicas. But it will be the first time visitors see nearly the full collection in Anne's own hand in one place.
“The generation of people who experienced the war and Nazi persecution of the Jews is shrinking fast,” said former Prime Minister Wim Kok at the church ceremony. “Their stories must be kept alive and passed on to new generations. The Anne Frank House is one of the places where that happens.”
The diary has been translated into dozens of languages, has been read by millions of people and is on the curriculum of many schools.
The cramped apartment, with two stories and a small attic, was restored and opened to the public on May 3, 1960, by Anne's father, Otto Frank, the only survivor among the eight Jews who hid there.
The museum now includes the front of the building, where Otto Frank once had a warehouse and office, and a new building next door. It receives about 1 million visitors a year, compared with 9,000 the first year.
In 1983, members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the rejection of The Diary of Anne Frank because it was “a real downer.” It was also challenged for offensive references to sexuality. Freedom to Read
Tour the Secret Annex or read a facsimile of Anne Frank's original diary.
In order to commemorate the official 50th anniversary of the Anne Frank House as a museum (May 3rd, 2010), the museum has announced they have launched the official Anne Frank quotes application on Facebook.
Read the Diary of Anne Frank as part of the "Banned Book Challenge." The challenge ends June 30, so sign up soon.
A challenge to a graphic novel series written for children is ironic because it is so close to Free Comic Book Day. A recent story in the Minnesota Sun explains that parent Ramona DeLay was shocked that Jeff Smith's popular "Bone" graphic novel series has illustrations related to drinking, smoking, and gambling, activities the DARE program taught him not to do. She had filed a request to have the materials reconsidered for inclusion in the library. She objected to the book's portrayal of gambling, alcohol and tobacco use, and "sexual situations between characters" and indicated that she wanted the book "withdrawn from all students."JS: [Laughs] I'm laughing because it doesn't seem like you could really find those things. To a degree. In general, the characters in Bone are all adults and there are not a lot of strange activities like that, but there are storylines, some of the unsavory characters will try to pull scams, try to rig bets and things, and it always goes wrong. So no one is rewarded for doing any unsavory behavior in Bone, and it's difficult for me to see how anyone could think Bone would encourage kids to do unsavory things. Also, none of the main characters do these things. My conclusion is that some people aren't smart enough to read comic books.
The smoking in Bone, it's kind of like a time capsule thing. I started Bone in 1991. In 1988 there was a big movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and there was a baby smoking a cigar [in that movie]. So a cigar to me was like a Groucho Marx vaudeville prop, it was an anachronism. When I created the dragon, it was not the evil it is now. When I quit smoking in the middle of Bone, the cigarette just disappeared from the dragon's mouth.
In a story reminiscent of the challenge to Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak -- a challenge which has been covered extensively on this blog, the Vancouver Sun reports that The Shepherd's Granddaughter has "sparked outrage in the Jewish community." Some school trustees are demanding the book be removed from reading lists and libraries.The book is really inappropriate to be presented in this way, in a school setting. It doesn't present a balanced or fair reflection of that conflict zone. It's a biased book that borders on political propaganda.
I appreciate that it's very a sensitive, complex situation but I'm telling a viewpoint that has a right to be told. I did a lot of research to tell the story, and went (to the Middle East) many times, and I have been sympathetic to both sides. As everybody does, I would like to see peace in the Middle East.
Freedom to Read Poster 2009
The Lovely Bones movie is scheduled to be released in January 2010. According to Books Challenged or Banned in 2007-2008 by Robert P. Doyle, The Lovely Bones was "moved to the faculty section of the John W. McDevitt Middle School library in Waltham, Mass. (2008) because its content was too frightening for middle school students."
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I was challenged by John Mutford, a regular reader of the blog to come up with some Canadian titles which have been banned or challenged. Here are some titles which you can use as part of the Canadian Book Challenge.
Photograph: George Orwell (Public Domain)
The Fahrenheit 451 Blog welcomes Stacia Derdzinski as a guest blogger. Below is her column on a visit by Chris Crutcher, whose works have been challenged frequently.
During his visit on March 6th, Chris Crutcher, author of “Deadline,” “King of the Mild Frontier,” “Whale Talk,” “Ironman,” “Athletic Shorts,” and many other novels stunned SUNY Cortland students with his down-to-earth personality and inspiring views on books in the adolescent classroom. Despite the winter weather, the Fireplace Lounge in Corey Union was overflowing with college professors, high school teachers, students, and fans longing to hear this notorious writer express his personal views on his often challenged books. Organized by SUNY Cortland professor Dr. Karen Stearns, this event was sponsored by a BIG READ grant during the months of March and April on campus and in the community. The BIG READ celebrates Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451” with its focus on book burning. Crutcher was invited to speak since his books are frequently censored in schools because of their honesty about controversial issues including abuse, homosexuality, anger, bullying, and more. A panel consisting of three teachers and a librarian were also present. They described the processes their schools require in order for a book to be banned from their curriculum or library. The audience expressed their surprise about parents who attempted to ban books including “A Northern Light” and even Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” While not all parents were successful in their efforts, the audience was appalled at the interference with the freedom to read. 
Chris Crutcher began by enlightening the audience with the basics of his writing by telling stories of people who have become the troubled characters in his books. Crutcher’s novels and short-stories openly confront real life issues that many teens deal with today, yet these stories have still been added to the banned books list countless times. Therefore, he spoke from experience when he explained that “when we ban books we ban children.” He justified this statement by describing that students are not always capable of revealing their secrets in the classroom setting or elsewhere. However, if they read a story about a character facing those same issues, they can speak out in the classroom using their point of view through the voice of the character. Consequently, Crutcher’s books are helping young adults to recognize that the issues they face are both normal and survivable. Using his past experience in family therapy and child protection, Crutcher was supportive of current and future teachers saying that he has “never had a kid who didn’t have a saving teacher someplace.” His sincerity and enthusiasm for his craft shined through in his humble words of motivation. He will continue to amaze and even save his readers from feelings of hopelessness and destruction. After all, Crutcher’s advice will resonate with anyone who picks up one of his books: “Never let anybody tell you you can’t do it.”
