LEXI LONAS , The Hill; Banned Books Week comes at tense time for nation’s libraries and schools
"Banning books has become a top issue around the country, with many Republican states making it easier for parents to challenge what’s available on school shelves while Democratic states try to do the opposite."
Nathalie op de Beeck, Publishers Weekly; Organizations Line Up Speakers and Demonstrations for Banned Books Week 2023
"Banned Books Week runs October 1–7 this year. Although seven days won’t be enough to address the U.S. crisis over the right to read, BBW offers the chance to catch up on the issues and the grassroots actions under way in support of reading and writing.
Advocacy organizations have declared Saturday, October 7, a day to write a letter to an elected official, post about the freedom to read on social media, or put a local school board meeting on the calendar. American Library Association members call October 7 Freedom to Read Day, while PEN America followers refer to it as Banned Books Week Day of Action. Whatever the appellation, it’s an opportune time to champion the right to read."
[Kip Currier: Unpublished Letter I sent to New York Times Editor on 10/2/23 re “The Enemies of Literature Are Winning” by Matthew Walther (Oct. 1, 2023).]
Nowhere in the author’s jeremiad does he address the two most important reasons for the continuing existence and relevance of Banned Books Week: providing readers with access to the broadest spectrum of information and including the voices of all, particularly BIPOC and LGBTQ+ persons who have historically been absent from library collections. In the words of the late Banned Books Week co-founder and longtime intellectual freedom champion Judith Krug, “We have to serve the information needs of everybody.” Not some, but everyone.
Megan Bennett, American Libraries; LeVar Burton
Matthew Walther, The New York Times; The Enemies of Literature Are Winning
"Banned Books Week is, or should be, eminently mockable. Its proponents trade on the moral currency of defiance (“See how brave we are, inviting people to read these daring books!”) but in practice they are doing the opposite — attempting to reify a consensus."
Edward Helmore, The Guardian ; North Carolina bans ‘Banned Books Week’ but retracts after media backlash
"North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district appears to be a bit confused as to where it stands in the ongoing battle against books around the US: they banned educators from participating in a weeklong series of events drawing attention to banned books and then … said there was no ban."
Ann Doss Helms , WFAE 90.7; CMS bans ‘Banned Book [sic] Week,’ citing North Carolina’s parents’ rights bill
"The American Library Association celebrates Banned Book [sic] Week next week — but it’s been banned in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and could face challenges across North Carolina.
The library association uses the week to celebrate freedom to read and to talk about attempts to censor books. But at a time when parents’ rights groups across the country are asking that books be removed or restricted, CMS has told principals to cancel any events or messages linked to Banned Book Week...
Groups that have recently challenged books in North Carolina include Moms for Liberty, Mama Bears of Catawba County and Pavement Education Project, based in Wake County. They have asked that books containing profanity, sexual content and other material they deem offensive be removed from libraries or restricted to students whose parents have consented.
The American Library Association itself has come under fire by some who say it’s defending inappropriate books. Colleen Miller of the Pavement Education Project told WFAE on Friday that the association’s leaders are engaged in “promotion of the LGBTQ ideology and other Marxist theories.”"
JIM JOHNSON, CBR; March Co-Author Reacts to PA Banning Rep. John Lewis' Autobiographical Graphic Novels
"March, the trilogy of graphic novels chronicling the late Congressman John Lewis' Civil Rights activism, has been banned in one Pennsylvania institution -- and the series' co-author has called out books' ban -- and its timing.
"Kicking off #bannedbooksweek with the news that Allegheny County Jails in Pennsylvania banned March and Run from their facilities over the weekend is a heck of a way to start," tweeted Andrew Aydin, who co-wrote the March trilogy -- and its single-volume sequel Run -- with Rep. Lewis. Nate Powell illustrated the first trilogy, with Powell and L. Fury both handling the art on Run."
"Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. It runs from September 25th to October 1st this year. We’re encouraging as many people as possible to celebrate the freedom to seek and express ideas that some consider taboo with Banned Books Week. The week aims to bring together the entire book community; librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types, in shared support of the freedom of expression and information. The week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. Banned books are those that have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This continues to happen because people (like you) are speaking up about frequently challenged ideals within the pages of banned books. So speak up and join the effort to erase censorship from our schools, libraries, and governments."
"Banned Books Week starts today. With new books published all the time and human nature being what it is, I shouldn’t have been surprised that the list of banned and challenged books keeps growing... “Fahrenheit 451”? Irony alert! It’s about censorship of books. All of them. Actually, author Ray Bradbury said it’s about the triumph of broadcast media over literature and sound bites over complex thought. He’d feel horrified but vindicated at the sight of an American family dinner table – assuming he could find one – where everyone’s checking email, sports scores or Pinterest on personal devices... “Censorship is the enemy of truth, even more than a lie,” says journalist Bill Moyers. “A lie can be exposed; censorship can prevent us from knowing the difference.”"
"'And Tango Makes Three,' Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell Years on Most Challenged list: 2014, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 Reasons cited: “Homosexuality, anti-family, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group” Based on the true story of Rory and Silo, two male penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo who formed a couple and raised a baby together, And Tango Makes Three has been controversial ever since its 2005 publication. The depiction of a natural, healthy homosexual relationship among animals has raised the ire of conservative parents and advocates, some of whom believe the book promotes “the homosexual agenda.”"
"Skloot, writing on Facebook, said that “Just in time for Banned Books Week,” a US-wide celebration of the right to read which takes place at the end of the month, “a parent in Tennessee has confused gynaecology with pornography and is trying to get my book banned from the Knoxville high school system”. Skloot pointed to the “many other local parents” who disagree with Sims, and to the “other schools throughout the US” who support her biography, saying: “I choose to focus on those stories, and I hope the students of Knoxville will be able to continue to learn about Henrietta and the important lessons her story can teach them. Because my book is many things: It’s a story of race and medicine, bioethics, science illiteracy, the importance of education and equality and science and so much more. But it is not anything resembling pornography.”... Skloot was later contacted on Facebook by Jimm Allen, assistant principal of the school attended by Sim’s son, who told her: “Know that the book and teachers have the complete support from the administration of the school. It’s an amazing book that fits with our Stem curriculum better than almost any book could. The next book that the sophomores are reading? Fahrenheit 451... Oh, sweet, sweet, irony.” Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel about a world in which books are burned has been the subject of repeated attempts to ban it since it was published in 1953."
"WHEN it comes to bullying, to sexual assault, to gun violence, we want and need our schools to be as safe as possible. But when it comes to learning, shouldn’t they be dangerous? Isn’t education supposed to provoke, disrupt, challenge the paradigms that young people have consciously embraced and attack the prejudices that they have unconsciously absorbed? Isn’t upset a necessary part of that equation? And if children are lucky enough to be ignorant of the world’s ugliness, aren’t books the rightful engines of enlightenment, and aren’t classrooms the perfect theaters for it? Not in the view of an unacceptable number of Americans. Not in too many high schools and on too many college campuses. Not to judge by complaints from the right and the left, in suburbs and cities and states red and blue. Last week was Banned Books Week, during which proponents of unfettered speech and intellectual freedom draw attention to instances in which debate is circumscribed and the universe sanitized. As if on cue, a dispute over such censorship erupted in the affluent Dallas-area community of Highland Park, where many students pushed back at a recent decision by high school administrators to suspend the teaching of seven books until further review. Some parents had complained about the books."
