We’ve read recently about controversy over YA author Laurie Halse Anderson’s recent novel, Wintergirls, in which a high school girl struggles with anorexia and her friend’s death from the disease. Critics of the book say it serves as a “how-to” guide to anorexia for young people. In related news, school officials at Williamson County Schools in Franklin, Tennessee, have decided [...]
We wrote some weeks ago about censorship and cyberbullying on the TV show, Gossip Girl. Now, Gossip Girl (the book), and The Bermudez Triangle are under fire. One parent in Leesburg, FL has challenged The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson and Only in Your Dreams: A Gossip Girl Novel by Cecily von Ziegesar because she objects to sexual content and [...]
In honor of tonight’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, we bring you basketball-themed book censorship. Indeed, a story about a basketball star really is at the heart of a controversy in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where one parent has challenged Hoops by Walter Dean Myers. But the basketball itself doesn’t seem to be the main problem. The parent objects to profanity and [...]
In recent weeks, a Spider-Man comic book and Nintendo Power magazine have been challenged in school libraries in Cleveland, Ohio, and in Millard, Nebraska, respectively. Parents have asked whether a scantily-clad cartoon woman (in one case) or violence in a video game magazine (in the other case) constitute appropriate reading materials for students in school. Here, NCAC takes a look [...]
The Naperville, IL, School District has cancelled a visit by Bill Ayers at Naperville North High School after the visit scheduled for April 8th sparked heated controversy in the community. Ayers is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education. His radical activism and involvement in the 1960s group, the Weathermen, has drawn criticism. The event [...]
We’ve noticed that the State of Oregon has been a hotbed for censorship incidents lately. Here’s what’s been happening around the state: A Portland fifth grader has decided not to perform his act about President Barack Obama in his elementary school’s talent show after the principal forbade him from wearing a mask that depicts Obama during the performance. The principal [...]
It’s raining here in New York, and it also seems to be raining book censorship news! From near and far, here’s the round up of book challenges we’re watching. A woman in West Bend, WI, has submitted a complaint to the West Bend Library because she objects to books in the youth section of the library that address [...]
We’ve been covering challenges to several books about sex in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. In February, the library board voted to restrict The Joy of Sex, The Joy of Gay Sex, The Lesbian Kama Sutra, and Sex for Busy People, removing them from general circulation in the health section of the library. Svetlana wrote then, While restricting [...]
A recent paper in the journal, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, examines censorship in medical research. Giovanni A. Fava describes the damages to intellectual freedom that result when academic medical researchers are influenced by corporate and special interests. He notes that censorship can take several forms in this arena, from suppression of accurate data that conflicts with industry interests, to retaliation against [...]
Good news for kids’ right to read! On Wednesday, the Muscogee County (GA) School District’s media committee voted unanimously to keep the novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, in elementary school libraries. Counting up 19 terms she found inappropriate, one parent had challenged the book for its profanity. In its decision to keep the book on the shelves, media committee [...]
Earlier this month, we covered the banning of The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad in Wyandotte, MI. The Wyandotte School Board banned the book, removing it from the High School library and classrooms while it is reviewed by a reconsideration committee. The committee meets tonight to discuss the book. The Kids’ Right to Read Project is sending this letter [...]
A short picture book for children ages 4-8 has been getting a lot of attention recently. Vamos a Cuba by Alta Schreier and its English counterpart, A Visit to Cuba, were banned from school libraries in 2006 by the Miami-Dade School Board. The book was removed based on complaints that it painted to favorable a picture of Cuba. The ACLU [...]
School Library Journal this month takes a look at self-censorship. After interviewing 655 media specialists across the county this fall, they found that 70% of librarians who responded to the survey chose not to purchase some books because they fear backlash from parents. The article also covers the problems with labeling books for objectionable content, and the ways [...]
We were disappointed to hear that the school board in Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District voted last night to ban Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya from English classes at Orestimba High School. The 4-1 vote in favor of censorship upholds the superintendent’s decision to pull the book. In January, the Kids’ Right to Read Project was joined by PEN [...]
A woman in Topeka, Kansas, has requested that the library board restrict other adults' access to four books in the adult section of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. The sexual content in The Joy of Sex, Sex for Busy People, The Lesbian Kama Sutra, and The Joy of Gay Sex is fully protected under the First Amendment. The [...]
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, under President Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, what you read could still be held against you. Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act allows federal agents to demand bookstore and library records when investigating terrorism or espionage. Section 215 also places a gag order on the bookseller or librarian. The provision is [...]
Yesterday, we covered the recent decision of student journalists at Faribault High School to move their newspaper, the Echo, online after it was shut down by the district superintendent. The superintendent shut down the newspaper after students refused to comply with the superintendent’s request to review an article prior to publication. Instead, students decided to form their own online newspaper, [...]
Not everyone agrees with Round Rock ISD Superintendent Jesus Chavez's decision to ban TTYL by Lauren Myracle from district middle school libraries. A parent who opposes the superintendent's decision to pull the book wrote an excellent response in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Read the Kids' Right to Read Project's letter to the Board of Trustees here.
We were delighted to hear that the Ankeny, Iowa, School Board voted 6-1 this week to keep And Tango Makes Three in the district’s elementary school libraries without restrictions. The book had been challenged by two parents who objected to the story of two male penguins who parent a baby penguin named Tango together. The Kids’ Right to Read Project [...]
Last night, the Coeur d’Alene School Board voted unanimously to return 26 titles (among them Brave New World, Tom Sawyer, and Alice in Wonderland) to district middle and high school classrooms. A committee of educators had reviewed them and recommended that they be approved by the board for classroom use. The board voted in November in a 2-2 split vote [...]
We were pleased to see that the Board of Education in New Rochelle, NY, will replace censored copies of Susanna Kaysen's memoir, Girl, Interrupted, with full text copies in New Rochelle High School classes. The Kids' Right to Read Project sent this letter to the school board, commending its decision. Here's an excerpt: We applaud your recent decision to replace [...]
Students at New Rochelle High School found that pages from their reading assignment, Girl Interrupted, had been ripped out. Turns out: school officials pulled the pages to remove content they deemed "inappropriate" because of sexual content and profanity. It appears that the books were censored without first undergoing a formal review process. NCAC is working on a formal response to [...]
Something is missing from the school lib in Round Rock, TX. Last week, school Superintendent Dr. Jesús Chávez pulled TTYL by Lauren Myracle from district middle school libraries. All of ‘em. That equals a book ban. A.k.a. censorship! The super and some parents think the book is just ‘trouble’. But that’s up to each student 2 decide 2gether with his [...]
Once again, picture-book penguins have come under fire. In Ankeny, Iowa, parents of one kindergartner want And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell banned from East Elementary School. At the very least, they want the book moved to a restricted section of the school library. Tango tells the true story of Roy and Silo, two male from [...]
We were delighted to hear that the Sherwood, Oregon School Board voted last night to keep the novel, Grendel by John Gardner, in Sherwood High School’s 10th grade accelerated English curriculum. Some parents object to sexual content and violence in the book, but their children were offered a different book to read. Their views are not shared by all – [...]
As the Washington Post reported earlier this week, a recent study that correlates pregnancy rates among sexually active teens to the amount of TV sex they watched disregards a key issue: teen access to contraceptives and information on contraception. According to the study, which was published in Pediatrics, the more sexual content on TV that sexually active teens watch, the [...]