Banned Book Week - Sept 29 - Oct 5, 2007

Thanks to Rebecca Zeidel, Program Director for American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, for an informative interview. Click on the icon to visit the abffe website.



What is Banned Book Week?

Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. Banned Books Week is held during the last week of September; this year, it’s September 29-October 6. The other sponsors are the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

Banned Books Week was started in 1982 by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers association, the Association of American Publishers, and the National Association of College Stores to raise awareness of censorship problems in the United States and Abroad. 2007 marks the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week.

What is the goal of Banned Book Week?

Banned Books Week is celebrated by booksellers, librarians, authors, readers, students and other friends of free expression. Some create banned book displays. Others stage public readings of challenged titles or sponsor discussions of free speech issues.



Banned Books Week spreads awareness of threats to free expression in schools, libraries, and bookstores and provides educational programs and forums for discussion of free expression issues.

What percentage of books are challenged or banned because of moral content? Political content? Racial content? Violence? Other (please explain)?

ABFFE does not track these figures; however, since 1990 the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded data on book challenges by type and year. You may find this information helpful.

ABFFE has confronted challenges to books on all of these grounds. In recent memory, many challenges have come from objections to racial or sexual content or discussions of sexuality.

Who suffers the most if a book is challenged?



If a book is challenged, it should remain in a classroom or library until it has been thoroughly reviewed by the school board. In the usual case, written challenges articulating the reasons for the objection are submitted to the school board, who then appoints a review committee comprised of instructors, library staff, administrators, and sometimes including students and parents. The school board then considers the recommendations of the committee and makes a decision.

A book should never be removed from a classroom or library unless a complaint procedure of this kind is followed, and likewise, a book should never be removed prior to the completion of the complaint process.



For more information on book censorship in schools in particular, I encourage you to visit the website of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which provides two very informative resources on this subject: Education, Toolkit

The removal of a book deprives students or library patrons and the public of literature that has been selected by professionals. In schools, teachers and librarians select curricular and library materials to be interesting and applicable to students. In public libraries, library staff members choose books to reflect a spectrum of interests and opinions. ABFFE encourages booksellers to carry a wide range of titles reflective of the variety of interests and opinions in the public arena; ABFFE also supports a bookseller’s right to select which books to include on store shelves.

How can novelists support Banned Book Week?



Writers can conduct readings at bookstores and libraries during Banned Books Week in a special “Freadom” corner designated for this purpose. Writers can also support other writers confronting book challenges by writing letters to the school board or library in support of the books, speaking out in a public forum such as the opinion page of the local newspaper, or publishing a statement against censorship on their website or blog.

How can novelists who write from a JudeoChristian worldview support free speech?



Everyone should support free speech! The First Amendment in particular and free expression principles in general protect everyone’s right to speak, write, and think freely. The marketplace of ideas is expanded when different opinions and worldviews are shared. In cases of book challenges in schools, we often take the position that the best way to deal with unfavorable speech – that which is hurtful or offensive or with which one simply disagrees – is more speech, which provides students with a more inclusive and expansive education.

What is the most appalling situation you've seen or heard of regarding a challenged book?

In February, five books were challenged in Howell, MI for sexual themes and profanity: Black Boy by Richard Wright, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell. The books were challenged in Howell High School in by members of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education (LOVE) with assistance from the Michigan chapter of the American Family Association.


ABFFE was joined by ten free expression groups in a letter to the school board urging them to keep the books. The school board voted 5-2 to retain all of them. Dissatisfied with this result, the AFA also assisted LOVE in filing a complaint with the State Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice, claiming that the books violate laws against child pornography and sexual abuse. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan referred the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, federal, state, and local prosecutors alike declared the complaints to be without merit.

Which states or regions are more likely to jump on the banning band wagon?



Book challenges occur across the country, from Alabama to Maine, from Florida to Washington, from New Mexico to Michigan. As the ALA OIF will tell you, for every challenge reported, at least four or five go unreported.