Banned Books Week, 22-28 September

It's Banned Books Week - and it might surprise you to find out some of the many books that have been banned at one time or another. University of Strathclyde has a list of children's titles with explanations about when, where and why they fell foul of censors. It's divided into Young upstarts and Teen trouble and contentious kids. There's also a section on Controversial classics (adult books which are taught in secondary schools) and suggestions for further reading. Before you look at it, here's a book from each section. Try to guess why each one was banned!

 

Do children's books need age certificates?

The author GP Taylor appeared on BBC Breakfast yesterday to argue that that children's literature has become too frightening and should be marked with an age certification system. There was a debate a few years ago about age-ranging (see previous posts), and some publishers do now put guidance on the back covers of their books, but it was largely considered a bad idea. At least, however, it was guidance they were talking about and they weren't saying that no child under a certain age can read a certain book. Guidance is fine, as long as it is not totally prescriptive (and doesn't appear on the book cover to embarras the nine-year old whose favourite book is labelled 7+). Children develop and mature at different ages, both emotionally and in their ablity to read, so the same book can be enjoyed by different people at different stages. Librarians want to encourage young people to read, and telling them they are either too young or too old for a book is likely to hinder that process in my opinion.

The counter-argument was put by Patrick Ness who appeared on the BBC alongside Taylor. The Guardian published a summary of both sides and today has Charlie Higson arguing "Let's not revive this dead debate about reading ages on books." The debate has also spilled onto Twitter, between these three (@GPTAYLORAUTHOR, @Patrick_Ness and @monstroso) and others. Which side are you on? I'm with Ness and Higson, as you can probably tell - this seems to me to be verging on censorship. If you want guidance on children's books, either for your own children or for those you teach, ask someone who knows about them - but remember, you are the one who knows the child, and the child is the only one who knows for sure what he or she likes. You won't get expert advice if you buy books in the supermarket, but independent booksellers can help, or, of course - ask a librarian! There's a very sensible post on Voices for the Library which makes exactly that point.

Is teenage fiction "rife with depravity"?

A lot of controversy has been stirred up by an article in the Wall Street Journal by Meghan Cox Gurdon, entitled Darkness too visible, in which she asks "contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?" I'm not sure I would describe the teen books coming into this library in those terms, although as the books she cites are American I couldn't judge any of them apart from Suzanne Collins' Hunger games trilogy which I''ve blogged about (approvingly) here. I've now noticed quite a few rebuttals coming through, one of which is from another writer on her own paper, Christopher John Farley, whose blog post asking Should young adult books explore difficult issues? comes up with a "Yes", as does another blog post from Not just for kids. Today, the Guardian has joined in with an article on its Teen Books page and a plea Don't censor teen fiction on its Books Blog. The controversy has also spawned its own Twitter tag, #YAsaves.

If you want to explore teenage books and the issues involved through our pages, see the one on Teenage Literature and our Banned Books reading list which deals with titles for all ages which have caused controversy over the years.

It's Banned Books Week

We're in the middle of Banned Books Week which launched on 25 September and is a celebration of the freedom to read. It originally started in America in 1982 as a reflection on the rise in challenges faced by libraries, bookstores and schools regarding the content of books. The Banned Books week site has lists under various headings:

• Corrosive to young minds
• Politically incendiary
• Downright sexy
• Just wrong

We also have our own page, Banned: controversial books for teenagers and children, which covers similar ground:

• Young upstarts: books written for younger children
• Teen trouble and contentious kids
• Controversial classics
• Further reading

You will probably be surprised at some of the titles included! Here's just a taster:

Horn Book - the trouble issue.

A fascinating edition of the Horn Book has just come in, which is billed as a salute to troublemakers. There are several articles on censorship and challenged or banned books*(see Betsy Hearne, Susan Patron and Pat Scales); Madelyn Travis writes about the Middle East conflict in British children's books; Marc Aronson bemoans the problems of writing non-fiction in the age of Google; Stephen Roxburgh reminisces about his time as Roald Dahl's editor; Rukhsana Khan discusses stereotyping of ethnic minorities and Lelac Almagor discusses narratives for black urban children. As if all that wasn't enough, there are shorter pieces interspersed with the main articles in which authors remember times when they were in (or caused) trouble.

* To follow up on this idea, see our own Banned Books list of controversial titles. Some of them will surprise you!

Titles for Scottish Teens

The Scottish Book Trust's Teen's and Young People's Newsletter for August features their new weekly quiz. The current quiz is on banned books, and they've also got a "Censored Hit List" section - the title that really surprised me was Alice in Wonderland. It used to be banned in China, apparently, for the portrayal of anthropomorphized animals that have the same status as humans. For much more information, check out our own Banned Books list - not, I hasten to add, books that we've banned, but titles (some as surprising as Alice) that have been banned or censored in the past.

Other features in SBT's newsletter are Teen Hit Lists, e.g. Books with Bite or Books that make you LOL, and an interview with Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell (authors of the Edge Chronicles).

Philip Pullman and the censors

This is a bit out of date, but I'm having a Friday afternoon clear out! Philip Pullman's book Northern Lights was one of the most challenged books in the USA last year, where it is known, as was the film, as The Golden Compass. This was mostly because of its "religious viewpoint". The story was reported in The Guardian last month and Pullman himself wrote a piece on the evils of censorship in guardian.co.uk. Check out our own Banned Booklist (books which have been challenged elsewhere in the past, not books we've banned, as a student once wrongly assumed!) In the words of Oscar Wilde:

"There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written, that is all."

Jacqueline Wilson and the swear word row

You might have heard last week about the row over one of Jacqueline Wilson's books (My sister Jodie) being removed from Asda because a customer complained about the use of a swear word in it. The publisher has now agreed to change one letter of the offending word when the book is reprinted so that it will read "twit". You can read the report in the Telegraph and make up your own mind - is this censorship, or is the use of such language merely a reflection of the way children talk in the playground anyway? We have a copy in our collection and I felt, given the public fuss, I should maybe note on the date label that some language might offend - although our books are more likely to be read by students than "real live children", if they are taking them out on placement, that might not be the case. On the other hand, I'm sure we have plenty other books with words which will offend somebody somewhere, but which have not been annotated. I've done it anyway, then students can decide for themselves.