If art stirs the heart enough to make some people afraid, it is art deserving of our attention. This simple thought has come up for me again and again over the last few weeks as I surfed through this latest — and ugliest — wave of book banning and burning in America.
Not everyone agrees with me. For instance, experts have some pretty strong ideas about why it’s happening now. From the New York Times:
“The politicalization of the topic is what’s different than what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”
And the move to ban books from schools is growing. From NPR:
There’s been growing momentum recently among some Republican leaders to ban certain books in schools, particularly those dealing with issues of race and LGBTQ identity. According to the American Library Association, the number of attempts to ban school library books was 67% higher last September than in the same month the year before.
Maybe surprisingly, moves to ban books are coming from both the left and the right. In recent weeks, a Tennessee school board moved to ban the masterpiece Holocaust graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. The book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and tells the story of the author’s relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor. The Jews are depicted as mice; the Nazis are cats. At issue were swear words and depictions of nudity, though the nude “woman” in question was a mouse.
In response to the board’s stated concerns about objectionable words and nudity in the book, Spiegelman told [NPR] that the words are used judiciously and the portrayal of nudity involves the depiction of his mother’s suicide — not anything sexual.
Another book to come under recent fire — again — is Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) which was banned from several high schools last year over issues of racism and violent themes.
“I’ve worked for this office for 20 years, and we’ve never had this volume of challenges come in such a short time,” Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, told Axios.
And no matter how else you parse the recent wave of book banning, one useful thing emerges: when you compile those titles, you end up with a fantastic reading list.
The ALA’s most frequently banned books list for 2020 (the most recent year for which an ALA list is available) provides a must-read list for those who love books. Add Maus and you’ve got a pandemic-worthy TBR list. Enjoy! ◊
Most Frequently Banned Books
- George by Alex Gino
Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community” - Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people - All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now” - Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author - Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
Reasons: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students - The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Reasons: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message
Linda L. Richards is the editor of January Magazine and the author of several books.
Leave a Reply