Banned YA Books

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This is banned books week.

This is the second day of Banned Books week. It’s a celebration of our right to read. Books are constantly challenged in the context of the right to read them, the right to sell them, the right for teachers and libraries to include specific books in their curricula and libraries. Book challenges and book bans take place far more often than people realize, and often, the books are challenged by adults who haven’t read the books in question, but want to make sure that others can’t.

This shows the top ten challenged books (and often the books that are challenged are removed from shelves in schools and libraries). You'll notice that the top ten are heavily dominated by YA and kids books.

Parents have an absolute right (and a responsibility) to decide what their kids should and shouldn't read; they shouldn't have the ability to determine what is and isn't OK for other people's kids.

You might find this list of the most frequently challenged YA books and this list of the most frequently challenged books for kids interesting. I'll bet it includes books you know and love.

The Washington Post has an article on Why are illustrated books being challenged more than ever?

Last year, for the first time, the top two most challenged works were graphic novels for young adults, and half of the top 10 most challenged books were illustrated narratives. It also bears noting that of the 323 challenges filed against stocked books in 2016, many of them, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, were for reasons related to sex or gender.
 

MaeZe

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From the WA Po link above:
“Of the top 10 books challenged in libraries, the top five were challenged for having LGBTQ content, which seems pretty significant,” Mariko Tamaki told The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs.
OMG! When is this country going to grow up? :rant:
 

Emermouse

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Sometimes I've wondered if Book-banners aren't secretly a force for good. Look at the message they're giving to teens, talking about how there is so much sex and violence in these books, how if they read it, it would cheese off their parents. Maybe they're trying to get teens to stop thinking of reading as a boring activity and more as a form of rebellion. By reading this book the adults hate so much, they're sticking it to the man. It's not like there's any such thing as The Streisand Effect and we all know that teens aren't at all known for being rebellious.

Though whenever any discussion of Book Banning comes up, I think of this delightful article from The Onion:

Nation's Teens Disappointed By Banned Books: http://www.theonion.com/article/nations-teens-disappointed-by-banned-books-401

For the record, the article was worth it alone for the paragraph rant against A Separate Peace. Before I gave up, I spent much of my reading time shouting, "Oh for the love of God, just fuck already!" at its protagonists. I was disappointed when I looked up the ending on Wikipedia--discovered that they never did fuck--but it wouldn't have saved the book if they had.
 

The Otter

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Sometimes I've wondered if Book-banners aren't secretly a force for good. Look at the message they're giving to teens, talking about how there is so much sex and violence in these books, how if they read it, it would cheese off their parents. Maybe they're trying to get teens to stop thinking of reading as a boring activity and more as a form of rebellion. By reading this book the adults hate so much, they're sticking it to the man.

Ha, yes.

It's still galling that people are trying to keep these books out of readers' hands, but I think when a book is banned or challenged, it ultimately draws more attention to that book and makes people curious about it.

Trying to censor "dangerous" ideas is usually a counterproductive technique.
 

Cyia

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A book can be removed from a particular library, but the idea that one can be truly banned in the digital age is parental day-dreaming. The way it works now is:

Kid wants book.
Librarian says book has been removed.
Parents say book is dangerous (or other words).
Kid goes online, googles book, downloads sample and/or pdf from file-sharing site, or puts legit copy on kindle app on their phone.
 

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A book can be removed from a particular library, but the idea that one can be truly banned in the digital age is parental day-dreaming. The way it works now is:

Kid wants book.
Librarian says book has been removed.
Parents say book is dangerous (or other words).
Kid goes online, googles book, downloads sample and/or pdf from file-sharing site, or puts legit copy on kindle app on their phone.

That's great for those kids who have easy access to the Internet. I know for a fact that in rural Maine and great swathes of Eastern Washington there isn't easy access to the Internet.

There are large numbers of public libraries that don't have Internet access. And buying kindle books depends on having money.

Poor kids depend on schools and libraries for books. Book banning/challenging mostly affects those kids who are already disadvantaged.
 

MaryLennox

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I find it incredibly sad that many of these books deal with topics such as suicide, homosexuality, sex and the HUMAN BODY. Why are we trying to keep teens from learning about their own bodies and lives? The fact that so many of these books keep showing up on these lists shows just how much we need them.

I remember finding this book in a bargain bin at a bookstore (which is on the list): Drill, Esther. Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL
Even though I was a little embarrassed about bringing it up to the lady at the cash and buying it, it is an excellent book that talked straight about things like periods and boobs and body hair and I think all young girls (and guys) should have access to information about their own bodies.
 

RunForPresentense

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Wow, that list is extensive--I'm really grateful for this link. I will take some time to study the public policies on this page.

I'm really curious about what motivates the book banners and what the process is for banning, or putting a title up for reconsideration.
I don't have children, so I have to be honest and say I don't know the struggle with balancing hard realities against creating a safe, secure environment. A judgmental part of me says it must be a fundamental communication fear--but, how do you talk about war, sexism, racism...etc, when a child's basic sense of self is developing? I claim no understanding of adolescent psychological development, so I don't feel I even know what arguments a book ban proposal might contain. I can speak to my own experience/development, though, and I owe a lot to my freedom to read as I pleased--namely, my writing dreams, weird vocabulary, and desire to empathize with people that I perceived as different than I.

I remember finding this book in a bargain bin at a bookstore (which is on the list): Drill, Esther. Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL
Even though I was a little embarrassed about bringing it up to the lady at the cash and buying it, it is an excellent book that talked straight about things like periods and boobs and body hair and I think all young girls (and guys) should have access to information about their own bodies.

Thanks for sharing your feelings of embarrassment, MaryLennox, I can definitely relate with my self-help and sexuality books purchases.
 

Debbie V

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I've read a little on the topic and the process varies from place to place. Sometimes one parental complaint is enough. Other times, the book is removed pending judgement by a board of directors, school board, committee or teachers and/or librarians and the like. Sometimes the book isn't banned in the end, but there's a list for a reason.
 

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Here's an example that's current from a Superintendent in Florida.

The order from Superintendent Mike Thomas targets for removal any library materials, textbooks, or supplemental texts that contain “profanity, cursing, or inappropriate subject matter.”

I've yet to see any further details about this, or what he intended to achieve; frankly, a lot of adults, including those who are professional educators, don't really read much. So sometimes there are knee-jerk reactions in response to complaints.
 

indianroads

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Just poking around today and looked in here. I don't write YA, so please excuse my comments, however my opinion is that book banning amounts to censorship - which I strongly oppose. If parents want to restrict what their children read, that's appropriate and fine in my opinion, but the government needs to keep their greasy fingers out of it.

inappropriate subject matter is an open ended term. "Inappropriate" once included anti-slavery and pro-women's voting rights opinions. The right of free speech is intended to protect "inappropriate" or "offensive" material - writing that isn't considered to be within those terms does not need protection. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from offence.
 

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Just poking around today and looked in here. I don't write YA, so please excuse my comments, however my opinion is that book banning amounts to censorship - which I strongly oppose. If parents want to restrict what their children read, that's appropriate and fine in my opinion, but the government needs to keep their greasy fingers out of it.

inappropriate subject matter is an open ended term. "Inappropriate" once included anti-slavery and pro-women's voting rights opinions. The right of free speech is intended to protect "inappropriate" or "offensive" material - writing that isn't considered to be within those terms does not need protection. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from offence.

If you look at the infographic linked in the OP, 98% of the challenges come from people and institutions that aren't the government.

Also there's a tag cloud which is quite informative about the reasons for challenges.
 
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indianroads

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Do you consider school boards part of the government? It doesn't matter - critical thinking seems to be discouraged these days. No matter which side you are on of any issue, the other side seems to want to squash the opinions of those that don't agree with them.
 

Helix

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Do you consider school boards part of the government? It doesn't matter - critical thinking seems to be discouraged these days. No matter which side you are on of any issue, the other side seems to want to squash the opinions of those that don't agree with them.

The infographic specifies that 2% of challenges come from the government, so maybe you should take the critical thinking issue up with the ALA. (I'm in Australia, so I have no idea how things work in the U.S. It's all weird to me. :Shrug:)