Banned and Controversial Books

1. Banned and Controversial Books

2. According to our textbook, books are dangerous. • They undermine morals, fuel revolutions, and indoctrinate children. • Hitler believed in the power of the printed word and used it to his full advantage.

3. The First Amendment “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

4. Petit Case

5. Rockford, Illinois Banning.. Protest of banning… Defense of banning….

6. Shameful Book Banning in Rockford, Illinois • Luis J. Rodriguez, is a distinguished book author who works as a peacemaker among Chicago's inner city gangs. • When Luis became concerned that his own son was becoming involved in gang culture, he set out to tell his son his own story, and this story evolved into a beautifully written and powerful book called Always Running. The book was written because its author didn't "want to see children killed anymore." • Always Running won the Carl Sandburg Literary Arts Award and also was lavishly praised by Jonathan Kozol, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The National Catholic Reporter. • On June 11, 1996, in Rockford, Illinois, partly as a result of a campaign by a local columnist named Judy Howard (affiliated with a far right organization called Citizens for Excellence in Education) the Rockford School Board voted to pull the book off library shelves in the Rockford School District. • The vote was 4-3. During the discussion, board-member David Strommer called Always Running "irreligious, anti- family left-wing, anti-American and radical...What's in the book is harmful, ungodly and wrong.“

7. The Protest • Nationwide, people who care about education were horrified at the disgraceful and unconstitutional action of the Rockford School board. Letters of protest were sent to Rockford School Superintendent Ronald Epps by: • The National Campaign for Freedom of Expression • PEN American Center • The National Writers Union • The Chicago Local of The National Writers Union

8. The Book Banners Respond • Dr. Robert L. Simonds responds to my letter to Richard Vargas. • Ed Sharp responds to the letter from the Chicago Local. This letter is a must read. I've left in all the errors of spelling, punctuation, syntax, grammar, etc. I even left in his date error. Sharp makes clear in his final sentence that he believes that not only should he have the power to decide what our children should read, he feels he should have the power to decide what we should be allowed to read as well. • I confess I have a certain admiration for Ed Sharp. I've encountered so many censors who say, "I don't believe in censorship but..." that it's refreshing to meet one who is honest enough to come right out and say that he thinks book-banning is a good idea. Also, Sharp at least had the courtesy to reply to a letter of protest. Superintendent Epps thus far has not replied, but we have some reason to hope we may hear from him presently. If you'd like your voice added to the protest, send Superintendent Epps your own letter. If you'd like your message linked to this web site, email me a copy (or a URL to link) at kyp@ultranet.com. Epp's address is: • Dr. Ronald Epps, SuperintendentRockford School District201 South Madison StreetRockford IL 61104

9. Rockford School Board Member's Defense of Book Banning Sue TelingatorChair, Chicago LocalNational Writers Union Dear Ms. Telingator, As a member of the Rockford School Board I received a copy of your letter to Dr. Ronald Epps concerning your opinion of the book Always Running. I appreciate your interest and respect your rights to express your opinion. I read the book and believe Mr. Rodriguez believed his book does try to provide a solution to "such complicated issues." However he has chosen a technique that shows the horrors of gang life, drug dealing, and a free life style hoping kids after reading these gory situations will not become involved. Anyone who understand the working of the human mind understands when you describe what not to do, you are making the reader concentrate on those actions creating in them an emphysis [sic] on doing them. You are doing exactly what you do not wish to do. If Mr. Rodriguez had wished to keep kids from using drugs and entering gangs, he would have written a book based on his experiences of what young people should do! Taking the book off the shelves sends the correct message to the public. I regret that persons such as yourself do not understand "education" which involves the mind. I hope your letter does not undo the little good that is being done. To really do some good the book should be kept from the public all together. Sincerely. Edward Sharp

10. So what IS considered acceptable? No one wants to put pornography or anything harmful to a child in their hands - But who gets to decide what is appropriate? The book Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret? by Judy Blume was banned due to it’s inclusion of puberty and religion.

11. Here’s what Judy Blumehas to say on her website: When I began to write, thirty years ago, I didn't know if anyone would publish my books, but I wasn't afraid to write them. I was lucky. I found an editor and publisher who were willing to take a chance. They encouraged me. I was never told what I couldn't write. I felt only that I had to write the most honest books I could. It never occurred to me, at the time, that what I was writing was controversial. Much of it grew out of my own feelings and concerns when I was young. But in 1980, the censors crawled out of the woodwork, seemingly overnight, organized and determined. Not only would they decide what their children could read, but what all children could read. Challenges to books quadrupled within months, and we'll never know how many teachers, school librarians and principals quietly removed books to avoid trouble. Fear. I believe that censorship grows out of fear, and because fear is contagious, some parents are easily swayed. Book banning satisfies their need to feel in control of their children's lives. This fear is often disguised as moral outrage. They want to believe that if their children don't read about it, their children won't know about it. And if they don't know about it, it won't happen.

12. Today, it's not only language and sexuality (the usual reasons given for banning my books) that will land a book on the censors' hit list. It's Satanism, New Age-ism and a hundred other isms, some of which would make you laugh if the implications weren't so serious. Books that make kids laugh often come under suspicion; so do books that encourage kids to think, or question authority; books that don't hit the reader over the head with moral lessons are considered dangerous. Ideas. Censors don't want children exposed to ideas different from their own. If every individual with an agenda had his/her way, the shelves in the school library would be close to empty. I wish the censors could read the letters kids write. Dear Judy,I don't know where I stand in the world. I don't know who I am.That's why I read, to find myself.Elizabeth, age 13 But it's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

13. Katherine Paterson As teachers and librarians we never want to cross the line, and sometimes the problem occurs when people can’t decide what IS appropriate. In The Great Gilly Hopkins, she has a number of controversial elements in the story.

14. However, sometimes teachers and librarians could never IMAGINE what would be challenged – and may lose their job because of it.

15. William Steig • Sylvester and the Magic Pebble was protested because………..

16. Shel Silverstein • Light in the Attic had a formal protest because….

17. Dr. Seuss • Had a protest about The Lorax because…..

18. Ed Young • Had Seven Blind Micechallenged because…

19. J.K. Rowling • And then there’s Harry Potter…..

20. Some basic rules… • Assigned vs. available books: there is a BIG difference if a book is assigned to read or is read to the class and opposed to just having the book available to read. • Positive learning can come from negative portrayals: sometimes language or character behavior is taken out of context. • Books should be judged holistically: Not all books that contain drug use or swear words are either good or bad. Each book has to be judged on it’s own merit.

21. So what to do if someone DOES complain about a book? Make sure that you have the following policies in place: • Material Selection Policy: This outlines how a library or school chooses the books. It often includes the ALA Bill of Rights and other “right to read” statements. • Grievance Policy: This is a document that can be giving to someone who wants to make a complaint about a book.

22. J.K. Rowling • J K (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling was born in 1965 in England and grew up in Chepstow, Gwent .  • Jo left Chepstow for Exeter University, where she earned a French and Classics degree. As a postgraduate she moved to London. • She started writing the Harry Potter series during a Manchester to London King’s Cross train journey, and during the next five years, outlined the plots for each book and began writing the first novel.  • Jo then moved to northern Portugal. She married in October 1992 and gave birth to her daughter Jessica in 1993.  When her marriage ended, she returned to the UK to live in Edinburgh. In 1996 she received an offer of publication. The following summer the world was introduced to Harry Potter. • Jo married Dr. Neil Murray in 2001, and David, was born in 2003. A second sister, Mackenzie, followed in January 2005.

23. Alvin Schwartz • Alvin Schwartz was born in 1927 in New York City. He was the author of more than fifty books , many of which were intended for young readers. • After a stint in the navy, Schwartz became interested in writing. He got his bachelors degrees from Colby College and a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern. He was a reporter from 1951 to 1955. • He is best known for the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" series, which featured gruesome, nightmarish illustrations by Stephen Gammell. The series was America's most frequently challenged book (or book series) for 1990-2000 . • At the time of his death in 1992 in Princeton, New Jersey Schwartz was survived by his wife and four children.

24. Judy Blume was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. • Judy received a B.S. in education from New York University in 1961. The ALA honored her with the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1996. • She is the founder of The Kids Fund, a charitable and educational foundation. • Judy is a longtime advocate of intellectual freedom. Finding herself at the center of an organized book banning campaign in the 1980's she began to reach out to other writers, as well as teachers and librarians, who were under fire. She is the editor of Places I Never Meant To Be, Original Stories by Censored Writers. • Most recently Judy has completed a four book series -- The Pain & the Great One books -- for young readers, illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist James Stevenson, and she has begun work on a new YA novel. • Judy and her husband George Cooper have three grown children. Judy Blume

25. Katherine Paterson • People are always asking me questions I don't have answers for. One is, "When did you first know that you wanted to become a writer?" The fact is that I never wanted to be a writer, at least not when I was a child. Today I want very much to be a writer. • Another question I can't answer is, "When did you begin writing?" I can't remember. I know I began reading when I was four or five, because I couldn't stand not being able to. Fortunately, very few samples of my early writing survived the eighteen moves I made before I was eighteen years old. • A lot has happened to me since I was seven.. The following year, we had to refugee a second time because war between Japan and the United States seemed inevitable. During World War II, we lived in Virginia and North Carolina,

26. By the time I was ready to begin college. I spent four years at King College in Tennessee. • On the way to becoming a missionary, I spent a year teaching in a rural school in northern Virginia, • After Lovettsville, I spent two years in graduate school in Richmond, Virginia, studying Bible and Christian education; then I went to Japan. • If you've read my early books, you must know that I came to love Japan and feel very much at home there. I went to language school, and lived and worked in that country for four years. • I went to study in New York, I met a young Presbyterian pastor who changed the direction of my life once again. We were married in 1962.

27. I suppose my life as a writer really began in 1964. I wanted to write what I love to read - fiction. I didn't know that wanting to write fiction and being able to write fiction were two quite separate things. • A friend in the church in Maryland, where we were living, felt sorry for me. There I was, four babies in just over four years (two adopted and two home-made), trying to write but with no success. So she decided to take me to an adult education course in creative writing one night a week. Eventually the novel that I wrote in the course was published, and I had become a writer.

28. Do I like being a writer? I love it. I often tell my husband that it's the only job I could hold now. I'm spoiled. I work at home in my own study, wearing whatever I please. I never have to call in sick. From time to time, I get to go to schools and other places where I meet delightful people who love books as much as I do. • But there are days when I wonder how on earth I got involved in this madness. Why, oh why, did I ever think I had anything to say that was worth putting down on paper? And there are those days when I have finished a book and can't for the life of me believe I'll ever have the wit or will to write another. • Eventually a character or characters will walk into my imagination and begin to take over my life. I'll spend the next couple of years getting to know them and telling their story. Then the joy of writing far outweighs the struggle, and I know beyond any doubt that I am the most fortunate person in the world to have been given such work to do.

29. Next week’s assignment: • Choose a banned book from the list and read it. • Write a few paragraphs synopsis of the book. • Decide for which age it is intended. • Research why it was on a challenged or banned book list.. • Read Chapter 16 of your text. • Pick an Author/Illustrator for your final paper.