Sexual content in 'Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl' survives book-banning flap in Culpepper VA

Anne Frank's diaries of her life during Nazi occupation from June 12, 1942 to August 1, 1944, written shortly before her death in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, have been back in the news this week after a book-banning controversy in Culpepper, Virginia, where school district officials temporarily pulled an unabridged, definitive edition of the book from library shelves and said it would be pulled from the 8th grade curriculum, citing protests by parents over sexual content included in the uncesored edition.

It's not the first time Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has been censored – Anne censored some of it herself, with an eye toward publication in her own lifetime, and her father Otto Frant edited out about 30 percent of the diaries before the initial publication after her death, including personal accounts of her sexual awakening (and passages unflattering to himself). The book, especially the unabridged edition published in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of her death, has been challenged or censored in schools and libraries pretty much ever since.

This week's upset is specifically about sexual content in the unabridged version of the diaries. In one passage cited in this week's challenge, Frank describes the discovery of her own clitoris:

There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it... The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can’t imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!

The passage serves as a reminder that Frank's book is beloved as much for Frank's perspective as a young girl coming into herself as a woman and as writer as it is for her unique perspective on World War II and the Holocaust. Thankfully, it seems cooler heads have prevailed now that the story has been picked up by The Washington Post, Associated Press, and worldwide news outlets:  On Friday, the Culpepper newspaper Star Exponent reported on the school district's change of heart, and published an official statement from the Culpepper County Public Schools:

“There are two versions of ‘Anne Frank, The Diary of A Young Girl’ available to students in Culpeper County Public Schools. Last November, during instruction using the definitive version in select eighth-grade English classes, concerns were raised over a few explicit passages. The students completed the book study using the definitive version.

“To date, CCPS has not completed a review process of this book. However, the instruction department will convene a committee during the spring of 2010 to review both versions prior to another teaching in the fall of 2010. The definitive version has not been banned nor removed from the middle schools.

“(Bobbi Johnson, CCPS) superintendent, has determined that there is not an agreed upon reading list in middle and high school English courses. She has directed the development of such a list by teachers and English specialists to ensure students are exposed to a wide range of literature and (that will) also enable parents to review the list at the beginning of the course. This will afford parents the opportunity to determine if they wish to have their student seek any alternate assignments before a book is used in instruction.”

For more on book banning, challenges to books in public schools and libraries, and what you can do to help defend against those challenges in your community, check out the American Library Association's Banned & Challenged Books advocacy resources.