The American Library Association holds Celebrate Freedom to Read Week every year during the last week in September, but now in this second week of November, the issue of Book Banning has risen yet again in a Kansas City area school district: Blue Springs. Blue Springs made the news regarding Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, and book banning in 2005, “when parents called the book ‘lewd’ and ‘twisted.’ They demanded the work be removed from 8th-grade reading lists across the district” (Baldassarro 1). However, most literary scholars’ opinions differ regarding the Newberry-Award-Winning Novel: “Some critics place it in the 100 Best Books for Children and even the Christian Science Monitor was quoted as saying, ‘Lowry’s powerful book, simply and directly written, offers an inspiring defense of freedom. Both adventurous and skillfully plotted, this book is recommended for young readers 8 and up’ (Baldassaro 1).
Now a new title has irked a set of parents which has led to an attack on several novels given accolades from the Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL). Two parents became upset when they read parts of, Hold Still, by Nina La Cour, which was on a 9th grade extra credit reading list. They addressed their concerns with the school’s administration wanting to get the novel banned from the school library, and the school’s reaction was to take the novel off of the library’s shelves until a district committee could conduct a formal review of the novel (which is actually a more extreme reaction than the district policy demands). Since then, these parents have identified fifteen novels on the extra credit reading list, and they object to NINE of those novels. (These novels are the 2011-2012 Gateway Award Nominees—MASL’s Nominees for Outstanding Novels for students from grades 9-12.) This time, instead of addressing their concerns with the school district or any lawyers, the Browns have consulted their pastor who told KMBC Channel 5’s News Team that he would advise members of his church, “This is good books. This is not good books…” (Nov. 8, 2011).
The ACLU has entered the fray and has expressed concern that parents are given too much power over highly-trained, qualified librarians, English teachers and other educators. The ACLU is also determined to uphold the rights of all students to have access to all of the books the professional librarians and the curriculum teams deem to be appropriate (KCTV5 Nov. 8, 2001).
Here are the fifteen titles the Brown family ‘analyzed’:
2011-2012 Gateway
Final Nominees List
Brande, Robin. Fat Cat.
Brown, Jennifer. Hate List.
Efaw, Amy. After.
Ford, John C. The Morgue and Me.
Forman, Gayle. If I Stay.
Going, K.L. King of the Screwups
Johnson, Louanne. Muchacho.
LaCour, Nina. Hold Still.
Madigan, L.K. Flash Burnout.
McCormick, Patricia. Purple Heart.
Pena, Matt de la. We Were Here.
Stiefvater, Maggie. Shiver.
Strasser, Todd. If I Grow Up.
Williams, Carol Lynch. The Chosen One.
Zadoff, Allen. Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have.
Sources:
KCTV5 News Article Aired Nov. 8, 2011.
Missouri Association of School Librarians. 2011-2012 Gateway Final Nominees List. Nov. 8, 2011.
Baldassarro, R. Wolf. “Banned Books Awareness: The Giver by Lois Lowry.” March 27, 2011.
Additional Resource:
Just wait until you find out more about some of these books….
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