NCAC reached out quickly and effectively on a challenge to Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle, a summer reading assignment for 9th graders in the Traverse City school district. A school board reconsideration committee had already supported removing the book, but the school board ultimately voted 4-3 to retain the book.
Several works being taught in AP English classes in Katy, TX were removed or replacafter complaints. Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley and Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants" were among the objectionable titles.
NCAC and partner organizations sent a letter voicing our concerns over a push to remove books from classrooms in the Springfield School District in Massachusetts. Among those objected to are Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Other Wes Moore.
NCAC and nine partner organizations came together on a Kids' Right to Read Project letter to the Guilford School District in Greensboro, NC. The letter advised the district to stay strong and continue to follow its policies in the face of recent complaints over "The Handmaid's Tale", "Cat's Cradle" and other texts used in AP English classes. Parents in the district have complained that the texts "denigrate Christianity."
New York City may have been on pause for a bit after superstorm Sandy, but censorship attempts were certainly not taking a break. The mother of an 8th grader at Bromley East Charter School in Brighton, Colorado evidently lodged a complaint to the school's administration and to the media about one of the most frequently taught short stories of all [...]
The Rocklin School District in California reversed an earlier decision to remove Stephen King's "Different Seasons", a short story collection which contains "Shawshank Redemption" and "Apt Pupil" among others. NCAC sent a letter to the district urging them to keep the book.
Great news! Bastard out of Carolina and Angels in America will be taught in Fremont to all those who wish to learn, notwithstanding the Fremont Unified School District's decision to ban the books from its English curriculum. Thanks to the efforts of Rev. Jeremy Nickel of the Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation, the class will begin tonight and continue throughout the school year. [...]
The American Library Association teamed up with us this week on a letter to the Rocklin Unified School District, where they are currently considering pulling Different Seasons by Stephen King out of school libraries. After her ninth grade son brought the book home from the library, a parent complained about sexual content in the book, specifically in the story "Apt Pupil." [...]
In King County, WA, the public library system responded to a complaint over a manga novel, Hero Heel 2, in the best possible way: by reaffirming the freedom of access of its patrons and responsibility of parents. Yay, librarians! Like graphic novels and comics, manga is sometimes misunderstood by readers and parents who (wrongly) presume that because the books contain a large [...]
Kids' Right to Read was joined by the American Library Association in defense of Stephen King's Different Seasons which has been challenged in a school library in Rocklin, CA. A parent objected to a rape scene in the novella "Apt Pupil" and wants the book removed.
Kids' Right to Read responded to the removal of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate from classrooms in Nampa School District in Idaho. Informal complaints led the school to ban the book, despite the fact alternative assignments were offered and no formal process had been followed.
In evaluating and reviewing a recent challenge to Stephen King's Different Seasons (Signet, 1982) in a high school library in Rocklin, California, we were amused to read the following passage in King's the story "Apt Pupil". In the passage, the main character, 13-year-old Todd, is discussing his interest in and research into the Nazi death camps during World War II: "At first the [...]
NCAC joined with the American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in writing a letter of support to the King County Library System for their response to a recent challenge of Hero Heel 2, a manga title intended for mature audiences.
Score one for the robots freedom to read supporters! A seven-person committee in the Hardin Valley Academy, in Knox County, TN has decided that Daniel H. Wilson's "Robopocalypse" should stay in the school's curriculum. The best-selling science fiction book about a hostile robot takeover was selected as the STEM Academy's summer read to keep students engaged in a light but [...]
Guernica magazine featured a great interview with frequently challenged and banned author, Sherman Alexie. Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has appeared on the ALA's most challenged list in both 2010 and 2011; the Kids' Right to Read Project has defended the book in Missouri, Oregon and Washington state, to name just a few. In the interview, Alexie answers [...]
During Banned Books Week last week, the PEN American Center featured an essay on the topic of book censorship and young adult readers by author Keith Gray. In his article, Gray talks about how he is frequently worrying about, not his teen readers, but the gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are basically any adult who might be on the road between the teen [...]
Last week, in the midst of the media derecho catapulting the celebration of Banned Books Week, we came upon this article in the Chicago Tribune written by author James Klise. Klise manages a high school library in Chicago and is the author of Love Drugged, which Booklist called “An excellent novel for classroom and GSA discussion."Love Drugged was also an ALA Stonewall Honor Book in 2011 [...]
“If you have freedom of speech, you have freedom of speech,” publishing legend Barney Rosset was quoted as saying. Rosset was responsible for the publication of many celebrated works of American literature, especially those that pushed the envelope in terms of sexual content. A staunch defender of the freedom to read, Rosset risked his reputation, business, and life on his [...]
School is back in session, and that means censorship attempts are back en force as well. Kids' Right to Read has tackled several challenges to summer reading selections recently, including on to Sidescrollers, a graphic novel by Matt Loux (Oni Press). The book about a group of slacker friends, was named one of the Young Adult Library Association's top ten [...]
The ACLU of Texas published their 16th annual Banned Books Report for the occasion of Banned Books Week this week and it both looks amazing and has great content. In addition to detailed information about books that were challenged and banned across the state in 2012, the report has a great interview with writer and activist Tony Diaz. Diaz joined NCAC and [...]
Throughout Banned Books Week we will feature banned and challenged authors who left us in 2012. This week celebrates these great writers and their works, which helped form the identities of many readers, young and old. A name now almost synonymous with American Science Fiction, Ray Bradbury brought that genre into the mainstream. Today, his books – which at the [...]
Board members in East Penn high school recognized that voting to remove Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep and Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test without a formal review would have constitutional implications. The Kids' Right to Read Project pointed out this fact in a letter to the board after a single board member motioned to axe the books, mislabeling them "pornographic."
The Kids' Right to Read Project tackled two separate -- but similar -- challenges to books featured on summer reading lists: Sidescrollers, a graphic novel by Matt Loux, was removed in Enfield, CT; in Emmaus, PA, a board member has motioned to remove Prep and Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from the list. No official parental complaint was filed in either case.
Though no formal complaint had been filed and despite the fact that both titles had already been upheld by a reconsideration committee in previous years, a Board Member in East Penn School District in Emmaus, PA, motioned to nix Prep and Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from the district's summer reading lists.
Though no formal complaint had been filed, district officials in Enfield, CT thought it best to cut the graphic novel Sidescrollers from its summer reading list, after a citizen--who is not even a parent in the district--voiced her concerns about the book's content to members of the media and to the school board.
The Kids' Right to Read Project, a joint intiative of NCAC and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, supported in part by AAP and the CBLDF, sent a letter to the members of the school board, urging them to follow their own procedures and to return the book.
A parent of an incoming freshman in Enfield, CT took a complaint about the graphic novel Sidescrollers to the district Board of Education and succeeded in having the book axed from the list. In addition, the board decided to take responsibility for creating the reading list out of the hands of its teachers and funnel it through a board committee and [...]
This summer, the Hardin Valley Academy wanted to keep its STEM students interested in school subjects during their vacation. After determining that the best way to do this was probably not by assigning weekly physics equations, the school assigned Daniel H. Wilson's best-selling sci-fi novel Robopocalypse (Doubleday) as the program's summer read. A parent of an incoming freshman voiced his concerns [...]
The Frederick County Board of Education decided to retain the textbook Social Studies Alive! Our Community and Beyond, which had come under challenge after parents objected to "left-leaning" or "socialist" statements in the text. The Kids' Right to Read Project issued a letter urging the Board not to remove the book because of objections to its content.
The Kids' Right to Read Project joined with partner organizations in writing a letter to the Fremont, CA School Board, warning against another rejection of the book Bastard Out of Carolina without sound pedagogical reasons. KRRP also wrote a letter in 2011 about the board's rejection of Tony Kushner's pulitzer-prize winning play Angels in America.
Patricia Polacco, the prolific children's book author who wrote In Our Mothers' House answered NCAC's questions about the objections which have recently been raised in Davis County, UT. Complaints have centered around the non-traditional nature of the family depicted in the book and the fact that the family has two moms.
On June 25, the Library of Congress will open its summer exhibit "Books That Shaped America." The exhibit will be on display through the end of September in the Southwest Gallery, located on the second floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, DC. Many books on the list of notable tomes won't surprise you. And it certainly didn't surprise [...]
Through records requests, the Kids' Right to Read Project was able to get access to the official complaints filed by parents and citizens who objected to the content of The Family Book and In Our Mothers' House. The excerpted passages below make clear some of the discomforts these individuals felt and what viewpoints they use to justify their desire to remove [...]
(applause for alliteration, please) This month we've been working on restoring two children's picture books teaching tolerance for different types of families. Though they are quite different in content, tone, reading level and appropriateness, their challenges parallel one another immensely. Book one is The Family Book by Todd Parr, a peppy, colorful and simple picture book teaching that families might be [...]
The free speech organizations issued a letter to the Library Board of Trustees in Greenville, SC urging them to retain Alan Moore's graphic novel Neonomicon. The book, which is intended for an adult audience and was shelved in the adult section, has come under fire after a patron complained her teenage daughter had read it.
Patricia Polacco's In Our Mothers' House is a story about love and family. But its the non-traditional nature of the family which has drawn complaints from parents, resulting in restricted access. NCAC objects to the district's response to these objections and said as much in a letter to the Superintendent.
After Brevard County reversed its decision to remove Fifty Shades of Grey from its libraries, we noticed that several other library systems who had initially said they wouldn't buy the book relented in the face of public demand. Holds on these books are bananas: they have ranged from the hundreds to over two-thousand in various library systems. We issued a joint [...]
NCAC organized a number of free speech groups in a letter to the Harford County Public Library, criticizing its exclusion of E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey (Vintage). The library has stated it will not buy the book, despite demand from patrons, because of a categorical ban on "pornography."
Seven organizations joined with the Kids' Right to Read Project on a letter urging the Erie School Board to reconsider its ban on Todd Parr's The Family Book (Little, Brown and Company) and all materials endorsed by GLSEN. The book was removed from schools because of objections to a page saying "some families have two moms or two dads."
Watch children's book author Todd Parr explain the story behind his award-winning book The Family Book. The book was recently banned, along with all materials supported by GLSEN, in Erie, Illinois. Parents objected to the book because of a page which states that "some families have two moms and two dads," saying that it "pushes a homosexual agenda." NCAC and partner [...]
The meteoric sales of Fifty Shades of Grey and its subsequent banning from public libraries around the country--in particular in Brevard County, FL, has been all over the news this week. One of the most notable of the media pick-ups was a story in The New York Times on Monday about the debate over stocking the book in public libraries. The [...]
