I find it difficult to believe that in this day and age, books might be banned at the library. Last week, as I was traveling, I heard a discussion on the subject of banned books. Today is the last day of “Banned Book Week,” so evidently there are still people out there who fear the printed word.
I visited the American Library Association site that lists the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books and checked out the list of books which have been banned from schools, school libraries and public libraries from 1990-2000. I found the names of famous authors on this list: Sendak, L’Engle, Auel, Dahl, Morrison, Blume, Twain, Angelou, Rowling, Atwood and more.
It appears there are trends in the subject matter of the challenged books. Anything having to do with sex, in any form, is frequently challenged. “Where’s Waldo?” was challenged because in the Beach Scene, one mean little kid is about to throw a bucket of water on a sunbathing woman who has untied the top of her bikini. Books having anything to do with witchcraft or the occult have been challenged, most notably those by J.K. Rowling.

Here are a few of the entries from the list of the 100 Most Challenged Books 1990-2000:
1. Scary Stories (series), Schwartz
2. Daddy’s ROommate, Willhoite
3. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Angelou
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain
6. Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (series), Rowling
11. Heather has Two Mommies, Newman
12 My Brother Sam Is Dead, Collier & Collier
13. Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
16. Goosebumps (series), Stein
23. Go Ask Alice, Anymous
37. THe Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood
40. What’s Happening To My Body? Book for Girls, Madaras
41. To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee
42. Beloved, Morrison
51. A Light In the Attic, Silverstein
52. Brave New World, Huxley
61. What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Boys, Madaras
62. Are you There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Blume
70. Lord of the Flies, Golding
73. Curses, Hexes and SPells, Cohen
88. Where’s Waldo?, Hanford
91. Pillars of the Earth, Follett
You can see the trends in just the portion of the list I’ve posted here. I assume that some parents want to control how their children are exposed to the subjects of the changes in their bodies as they mature, procreation, sex, homosexuality, or indiscriminate sex. There are parents who believe that you should read everything your child wants to read, to vet it, before letting the child have it. It’s an impossible task. You can’t keep up with your own reading, let alone everything that an agile, inquiring mind might want to read.
Personally, I would allow my child to read what he wanted, with the caveat that we would discuss it when they finished the book. I would make every effort possible to adhere to that. One exception comes to mind, and that is pornography. If my child veered into subject matter that I felt was unhealthy, I would explain why I felt he was not yet old enough for it, rather than absolutely forbidding it.
Parents who try to prevent their children from reading books on certain subject matter are underestimating what the kids are learning from their peers. I’d rather they had access to books with correct information, instead of living in a child’s garden of misinformation.
Challenging a book with the purpose of having it banned is a very serious action. Parents need to spend more time developing their relationship with their children so that the child knows the family’s expectations, rather than rushing to prohibit an entire school or community from reading a book. If this issue is so important to you as a parent, consider home-schooling your children so that you have more control over their reading material.
I hope that the subject of banned books will become a quaint historical practice within my lifetime, or everything that the United States of America stands for is in jeopardy.