Read a banned book

Libraries across the world last week observed Banned Books Week. According to an article that ran in the Sept. 5 edition of the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, Banned Books Week is the annual celebration of the freedom to read and emphasises the importance of our inherent right to read.

I first became familiar with Banned Books Week when my daughter, Rebecca, was in the fifth and sixth grades. At that time she was reading Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s “Alice” books such as “Reluctantly Alice,” “Alice in Agony,” etc. Trying to keep Rebecca reading, I frequently went to the Wilkes County Library during my lunch hour to check out “Alice” books for her. But as Banned Books Week came around that year, I discovered that Naylor’s series was at the top of the list for banned books in juvenile fiction.

I wondered what in the world could be in the books because I knew Naylor was a renowned author of children’s literature and had won the Newberry Award for her “Shiloh” trilogy. Rebecca told me when I asked her, that there was nothing questionable in the books. After asking at the library, I was told that some people felt the subject matter in a few of the books wasn’t appropriate for elementary age, so the whole series had made the list, although the books were still available at libraries and book stores.

Rebecca kept reading the books and finished all 25 in the series. What causes a book to be banned? In a pamphlet I found at the Wilkes County Library, Esther Lombardi says, “A banned book is one that has been removed from the shelves of a library, bookstore or classroom because of its controversial content.”

Some books in the past have been burned or refused publication. Books can be challenged or banned on political, religious, sexual or social grounds, Lombardi said in the pamphlet. Bridgett Adams and Ashlin Edmisten, youth services specialists at the Wilkes County Library, told me Wednesday that I might be surprised by some of the titles on the banned books list.

“Winnie the Pooh,” is on the list, they said, because Pooh doesn’t wear pants in the stories. Everyone’s favorite, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” by Bill Martin Jr was put on the list because of a mix-up with the author. I couldn’t believe “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak was on the banned books list. The book won the Caldecott Medal from the children’s librarians in 1964, recognizing “Wild Things” as the previous year’s “most distinguished American picture book for children.”

The librarians told me that the book was placed on the banned book list because it illustrates a spirited child. The hilarious Junie B. Jones series got on the list for the “inappropriate behaviour of a child.” My children loved reading about Junie B.s’s humorous hijinks. Children’s classic, “Charlotte’s Web,” made the list for being “too dark for children,” because Farmer Zuckerman wants to kill Wilbur the pig.

Edmisten and Adams said that “The Giving Tree,” by Shel Silverstein, considered by many people as a parable on the joy of giving, was placed on the list for the main character’s “selfish behaviour.”

Two adult classics that I was shocked to see on the banned book list were “The Call of the Wild,” by Jack London and John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” London’s adventure-packed book has been challenged for its “dark tone and bloody violence.” My family listened to the audio-book years ago on a trip to New Jersey. Steinbeck’s book has been challenged for its profanity and sexual references. I studied this book in high school English with Mary Spears, and it was required reading for my children in high school as well.

Through the end of September, the Wilkes County Library invites you to go on a “blind date with a banned book.” Pick out a wrapped book from the Rose Herring Children’s Library, check it out and then fill out an opinion slip about the book. Returned slips will be entered in a drawing for prizes. Read a banned book, you might be surprised! — Journal Patriot.