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Banned Books: Staff Reviews
Looking for a great book to read? Want one that somebody thinks you shouldn’t be reading? Try one of these, reviewed by CLP Staff.
Whispers From the Dead by Joan Lowery Nixon
The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Banned Books: Teen Reviews
These books — all on lists of frequently challenged and banned books — have been reviewed by teens right here in Pittsburgh.
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round, Things by Carolyn Mackler
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Book Reviews
Click here to see all reviews.
Freedom to Read
Intellectual Freedom
In the News
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ALA: Banned & Challenged Books
The American Library Association's banned books resource explains the difference between a banned book and a challenged book. It explains why books are most often challenged and who challenges them, and provides a list of groups that are First Amendment advocates, with links to their websites. From here you can access information and a calendar of events for Banned Books week, find the Office of Intellectual Freedom's blog, search for frequently challenged books by author, year, or decade and read through the librarian's toolkit for facing a library material challenge. -
ALA's Freedom to Read Foundation
The Freedom to Read Foundation protects and promotes the freedom to read primarily through disbursing grants to individuals and groups who need help in related lawsuits, and participating in lawsuits dealing with the freedom to read and first amendment rights. The ALA page details these actions and has news updates regarding the Foundation and the people it honors. -
ALA's Freedom to Read Statement
The full text of the Freedom to Read Statement, adopted in June of 1953 by the American Library Association, and a list of links to the websites of its endorsers. -
American Association of Publishers on Freedom to Read
The American Association of Publishers has an active Freedom to Read Committee that watches for issues arising in the industry that concern "libel, privacy, school and library censorship, journalist's privilege and the right to protect confidential sources, Internet censorship, government regulation of protected speech, third-party liability for protected speech, and efforts to punish speech that 'causes harm,'" [quoted from their website]. Their site collects summaries of their actions for each year, starting in 2001 and continuing to the present. -
American Bookseller's Foundation for Free Expression Banned Books
The ABFFE is a sponsor of Banned Books Week and has produced a free handbook for booksellers participating in the celebration, or anyone who wants to participate in some way. It includes display and event ideas, a list of movies about free expression, posters, images, and links to other resources. -
BannedBooksWeek.Org
Provides information about the history of Banned Books Week, examples of banned and challenged books, and ideas of what you can do and what other people (authors included) are doing to call attention to banned and challenged books in your community. -
Banned Books Week on Facebook
Become a fan of Banned Books Week on Facebook and receive updates on Banned Books Week-related events across the globe, news about banned and challenged books, and access to videos and promotional materials, as well as find other defenders of the freedom to read. -
Bill of Rights Defense Committee on Freedom to Read
According to their website, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's "mission is to promote, organize, and support a diverse, effective, national grassroots movement to restore and protect civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Our purpose is to educate people about the significance of those rights in our lives; to encourage widespread civic participation; and to cultivate and share the organizing tools and strategies needed for people to convert their concern, outrage, and fear into debate and action to restore Bill of Rights protections." They maintain a page devoted to the freedom to read which collects news stories and links on threats to the freedom to read. -
Blogging Censorship
The blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship follows and reports on issues of censorship such as news of new challenges to library materials. -
Bonfire of the Liberties online exhibit
Humanities Interactive is a grant-funded project of the Texas Council for the Humanities Research Center. It houses online exhibits related to history and culture. The Bonfire of the Liberties exhibit showcases art that depicts book burning and censorship, along with two essays on the subject. -
Book Burning
The American Library Association's collection of information about the history of book burning. A great resource for quotations and headlines about book burning, and a short bibliography of related works. -
Freedom to Read Display from the Cambridge Public Library
An example of a library's Freedom to Read display -
Freedom to Read Protection Act
A summary of the 2003 House of Representatives Bill, which exempted libraries and booksellers from having to provide private information to Federal Investigators in their investigations. A list of the cosponsors of the Bill is provided. -
Google Books: Celebrate Your Freedom to Read
A collection of banned or challenged books that are searchable through Google Books. Limited previews of the text and bibliographic information available. -
Google Map of Banned or Challenged Books
This interactive Google map shows where books were banned or challenged from 2007-2009. Clicking on an indicated point on the map calls up a window that summarizes the ban or challenge and provides links to more information. -
The Kids' Right to Read Project
A project of the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Bookseller's Foundation for Free Expression, this project "offers support, education, and advocacy to people facing book challenges or bans and engages local activists in promoting the freedom to read," [quoted from the website]. Their website connects interested advocates to a network of other advocates, promotes the completed projects of the KRRP, and has a toolkit on Book Censorship, among other resources. -
Special Collections Exhibit on Banned Books
The Department of Special Collections at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library (part of the University of Kansas) has an online catalogue of their Exhibit on banned books, which was originally published in 1955 and put together by the Director of the Libraries at the time, Robert Vosper. -
YALSA: Dealing with Challenges to Young Adult Materials
The Young Adult Services Association's guide to challenges to YA materials. Provides contact information for ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom along with basic tips for dealing with challenges to the Teen collection and links to other resources and support on the web.
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ALA's Intellectual Freedom Roundtable Blog
The Intellectual Freedom Roundtable, part of ALA, promotes intellectual freedom and discussion of intellectual freedom and has several awards that honor work in that area. Its blog reports on intellectual freedom. -
American Civil Liberties Union's Freedom of Speech Resource Center
A source of breaking news on free speech issues ranging from the general to the specific (e.g.: Legislative Documents, Supreme Court Cases, Student Speech, etc.) -
Beacon for Freedom of Expression
The Beacon for Freedom of Expression is a database put together by the Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression. It allows the user to search either for a censored work (by author, title, language, type of censorship or reason for censorship) or a publication on censorship. -
Chilling Effects
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics run this website, which tracks cease and desist letters and other intellectual property disputes, and explores the ways that legal threats can have a "chilling effect" on the creativity of the online community. -
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
The CBLDF is a non-profit organization put together to defend the first amendment rights of comic book authors and artists. The website provides a bibliography on comics censorship, files on the cases it has helped to defend, a history of comics censorship, and a history of the organization (which was founded in 1986). -
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation involves itself in legal battles for digital rights and uses its website for the public's education. It maintains a blog and a podcast has and an archive of press clippings, but also has a tool to test your ISP for outside interference, among other digital rights-related software. -
First Amendment Handbook
The entirety of this handbook, compiled by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, is available online. It is meant to be a resource on the laws affecting journalists and their ability to gather and publish information. It covers libel, invasion of privacy, surreptitious recording, confidential sources, prior restraints, gag orders, access to courts, access to places, Freedom of Information Acts, and copyright. -
Great Firewall of China
A website that lists tested URLs that have been blocked in China. The FAQs address the anonymity of the site, the situation in China, and internet censorship in general. -
Index on Censorship
The Index on Censorship is a British organization that aims to "[provide] up-to-the-minute news and information on free expression from around the world," [quoted from their website]. -
Long Island Coalition against Censorship
The LICC "is an association of educational and community organizations which have joined together to oppose censorship and to defend the rights of free speech and free press," [quoted from their website]. They are available for support in legal disputes and have put together a traveling exhibit on censorship, available to schools and libraries. Their website lists which organizations are involved and has a description of the legal cases that they have worked on. It also has a guide to their exhibit, which deals with literature, obscenity and court, including the novels of Judy Blume. -
MPAA Ratings
The Motion Picture Association of America, along with the National Association of Theater Owners, has operated a voluntary board that rates every movie that is released in the U.S. This site allows you to search by title for a movie's rating, and explains the rules of the ratings and their history. -
National Coalition Against Censorship
The National Coalition Against Censorship "is dedicated to protecting rights and principles guaranteed by the First Amendment. We report on incidents of censorship and provide support and resources to people facing challenges to freedom of inquiry and expression," [quoted from their website]. The NCAC is behind the Kids' Right to Read Project, Free Expression Policy Project, Youth Free Expression Network, and more. -
Project Censored
Project Censored trains students in investigative research and publicizes news stories that it feels are misrepresented or underreported. It is based out of Sonoma State University and is a project of its Sociology Department. The website has a feature where censored or buried stories can be nominated, and is a place where these stories are reported. -
Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression
Founded in 1990 and located in Charlottesville, VA, this non-profit's mission is to protect free expression in all forms, defined as three main areas of work: shaping the law, education, and the arts. The website lists all recipients of "Jefferson Muzzles", awards highlighing acts of censorship. It has podcasts of various programs relating to the themes of its mission, collections of legal briefs in which it was involved, an online exhibit about arts censorship, and more. -
University of Pennsylvania's Online Books Page of Banned Books
This collection provides links to full texts of banned books and discusses why they were banned. -
University of Virginia Libraries online Censorship exhibit
The Special Collections department put together this online exhibit to foster discussion about censorship. Nineteen categories dealing with the history of censorship can be explored, with accompanying scans of rare items from the Special Collections.
Below are some interesting stories of the past year or so, regarding your right to access information freely.
- Baby Be-Bop Ignites Ongoing Firestorm of Controversy in Wisconsin
It all started with a mother of a teen requesting that Baby Be-Bop by Francesca Lia Block, a novel about a gay teen coming out, be removed from the teen section of the West Bend Community Memorial Library. It ended up with lawsuits, library board members losing their positions, and a town turned upside down. The list of objectionable books went from 1 to 82. After requesting that the library remove Baby Be-Bop and stirring up support, the Maziarkas then requested that the library represent the "ex-gay" movement in the Teen section. Then the Christian Civil Liberties Union, and Safelibraries.org got involved. Members of the Christian Civil Liberties Union sued for the right to "publicly burn or destroy" Baby Be-Bop. The Library Board voted unanimously to keep all of the contested titles in the Teen section of the library.- Would-be Book-banners continue to take issue with local library
- The West Bend Library Board voted to keep the materials in the Teen section of the library
- West Bend residents chime in at the Library Board Meeting
- Steve Martin Play Banned in La Grande
Steve Martin, of Saturday Night Live fame, became an accidental First Amendment advocate after his play was banned at a high school in La Grande, Oregon. The school board rejected the production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile, bowing to parental concerns over adult content. The play consists of an imagined meeting between Picasso and Einstein in a Parisian bar. Parents objected over the treatment of women, and the drinking of alcohol in the play. Steve Martin then financed the play, after a widely-read letter-to-the editor of the local newspaper. The play was produced with LaGrande High School students as actors, at nearby Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.
- TTYL told TTYL by Round Rock, Texas School District
The school board in Round Rock, Texas removed all copies of TTYL by Lauren Myracle from its middle school library shelves, after a 5-4 vote in favor of removal. The Round Rock parent who initiated the complaint objected to the "sexual content of the entire book." Over 1,600 signatures were gathered in favor of removing the book, which relays the trials and tribulations of 3 teen girls via instant message conversations. The TTYL series is often on the American Library Association's annual list of most challenged books.
- Tennessee Public Schools Block "Gay" Websites
This is a lesser known story, even among librarians, but important none-the-less. The Knox County and Metro Nashville School districts in Tennessee used the filtering software for their schools to block only "pro-GLBTQ" websites. GLSEN, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and PFLAG, Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, were two of the sites blocked. Anti-GLBTQ websites were still accessible. The ACLU filed suit against the school districts, prompted by two high school students and a school librarian. Two weeks after the suit was filed, the school districts changed their filter settings to unblock the contested websites.
- Library Patron Refused to Return So-Called "Obscene" Book
In Lewiston Maine, JoAn Karkos checked out It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris, from the local public library. She refused to return it, even after a district court order. The book is about childhood and adolescent physical development, written by a former teacher. JoAn found the book to be "pornographic," but she did give the library money to cover the cost of the book. Citizens of Lewiston then donated 4 copies of the book to the library, which remain in circulation today. The city of Lewiston had the option of seeking jail time for Ms. Karkos, but did not.