Diary of a Kinky Librarian

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” - Noam Chomsky

I’m going to take a little break from sex blogging here, because this week is one of my favorite weeks in library-land - Banned Books Week. Every year, libraries and booksellers try to bring to light the fact that even in our “free” country people still try to tell others what they can and can’t read. From the ALA website:

“Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.”

If we let a small group of “concerned citizens” decide what we and our children can or can’t read, then we’re just steps away from this sort of censorship. Too many books are challenged every year because some adult thinks that no child should be able to read a book they object to (Harry Potter, anyone?) The only people who have a right to dictate what children read are their own parents.

The most challenged book of the year is “And Tango Makes Three“, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, an adorable picture book about two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who paired up and then, when given an abandoned egg to nest with, hatched the egg and raised it as their own. This is a true story, about penguins, not people. And yet people are afraid it promotes a “homosexual agenda.” This book was challenged in a library near where I live, and I live in a pretty liberal area of the country. Book challenges can happen anywhere, and come from both the right and the left mind you - people can seek to challenge a book because the views expressed are no longer “politically correct,” however these challenges often ignore the historical significance of books that are somewhat outdated in views (i.e., the portrayal of Native Americans in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series) and miss the fact that discussion with children about the change of views in society yield much more intelligent and thoughtful young people.

I recommend you check out the list of books that have been most frequently challenged, take one of them, read it and decide for yourself if the censors are doing anyone a favor by trying to ban the books. I find it interesting that usually the books people seek to ban are high quality books, frequently ones on school reading lists. I guess no one really cares if a book is so poorly written no one would bother reading it. Should a quality piece of literature go unread just because some of the content is challenging? I don’t think so, and I hope that anyone who agrees with me will keep an eye out for book challenges in their community and speak up in favor of intellectual freedom for all.