By Kim Hilsenbeck
This may have slipped under the radar, but it’s Banned Books Week. Each September, the American Library Association (ALA) promotes the week and publishes the annual list of the top challenged books of the previous year.
Books have been causing controversy for centuries. The content of a book may cause people to believe it is damaging, offensive, heretical or would incite the population in some way.
Melinda Hodges, director of the Buda Library for the past seven and a half years, said since she’s been in Buda she’s received only one book challenge.
“It was for one of the books in the series by Phillip Pullman,” she said in a recent phone interview.
She said she thinks it was “The Subtle Knife.” The other books in the series are ‘The Golden Compass” and “The Amber Spyglass.” All are written from an atheistic viewpoint.
As she recalls, the challenge was made by several people whom she believes were all part of the same religious organization. Ultimately, the book remained on the shelves at the Buda Library. Hodges said it’s important to remember that most books do not get banned.
“That means you can’t find it anywhere,” she said.
The Canadian Broadcasting System reported that several Catholic schools in Toronto banned Pullman’s books in 2007.
Hodges said it’s also important for people to remember that libraries exist to get materials and knowledge out to the public. Libraries promote intellectual freedom, which is the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if they are considered unorthodox or unpopular.
“We are not arbitrators of the content,” she said.
In other words, libraries do not judge the content of the material in books.
If she receives complaints about a book, she will first check to make sure it’s in the appropriate place among the stacks, such as a young adult novel in the children’s section.
To make a formal challenge, Hodges said, a library patron must complete a form from the ALA and provide details about the objection to the book. The questions are specific to what content the person finds questionable. It also asks if the person making the complaint read the book himself or herself.
The library also does not make decisions about books being checked out by young patrons.
“Parents make decisions about what books their kids can check out,” Hodges said. “But if I know a book may have adult or inappropriate content, I will mention it to the parent if he or she is with the child.”
If a book challenge escalates, it goes to the library commission and ultimately to city council, but in her time at the Buda Library, that has never happened.
Since 1982 when Banned Books Week began, there have been more than 11,300 challenges to books reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom. Just in 2013, there were 307 challenges.
Topping the list for the book with the most challenges in 2013 was Captain Underpants, a popular children’s series by Dav Pilkey.
The main reasons for the challenge? Offensive language and violence.
According to the ALA, it created Banned Books Week in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. 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.
But the challenge list only reflects incidents that are reported. The ALA estimates that for every reported challenge, four or five remain unreported.
In the top 100 banned or challenged books from 2000-2009, the Harry Potter series tops the list. Judy Blume manages to make four appearances on the list for her young adult novels “Forever,” “Blubber,” “Tiger Eyes” and “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.” Other well-known books in the top 100 for the decade 2000-2009 include “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Catcher in the Rye,” “The Color Purple,” “Beloved,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “Of Mice and Men” and “The Kite Runner.”
Top 10 most challenged books in 2013
• Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
• The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
• Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
• A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
• Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
• Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
• Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence
