2013 and a Resurgence in Book Censorship

As 2013 is winding down, and Christmas approaches, it's one of the greatest gifts we get as indie booksellers to see people remembering their passion for the printed word. Our stores are full of people looking for the perfect gift for the bibliophile in their life, generous community members purchasing books for Giving Tree programs, and reacquainting themselves with their neighborhood bookstores. I am reminded of how lucky I am to be living in such a community of readers.

But the past year has brought up some concerns about literary content and reading freely. The Kids' Right to Read Project, which fights censorship in schools, libraries, and other public institutions, recently had this to say on the subject:

"In November, the Kids' Right to Read Project investigated three times the average number of incidents, adding to an overall rise in cases for the entire year, according to KRRP coordinator Acacia O'Connor. To date, KRRP has confronted 49 incidents in 29 states this year, a 53% increase in activity from 2012. During the second half of 2013, the project battled 31 new incidents, compared to only 14 in the same period last year.

"It has been a sprint since the beginning of the school year," O'Connor said. "We would settle one issue and wake up the next morning to find out another book was on the chopping block."

The majority of challengers were parents of district students or library patrons, though a handful were local or state government officials. Of the more than two dozen incidents KRRP faced from September to December, most involved materials used in classroom instruction. Another trend that emerged during the fall was a substantial number of challenges to notable works by well-known minority writers, including Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits and Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima.

"Whether or not patterns like this are the result of coordination between would-be censors across the country is impossible to say," said O'Connor. "But there are moments, when a half-dozen or so challenges regarding race or LGBT content hit within a couple weeks, where you just have to ask, 'What is going on out there?' "

O'Connor also noted a positive trend this year in the notable increase in positive outcomes to book challenges, including two recent victories: Bless Me, Ultima was returned to sophomore English classrooms in Driggs, Idaho; and The House of the Spirits will remain in Watauga County Schools in Boone, N.C.

KRRP was founded by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and is supported by the Association of American Publishers and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund."

This article was posted in Shelf Awareness, an indie bookseller e-newsletter.

So if you're looking for a good New Year's resolution for 2014, and you want to blend your personal love of books with some community action, why  not educate yourself on what is or isn't permissible to read in your schools and communities? Odds are you'll learn something new, and even if you don't, it's always fun to get more involved with your fellow book lovers.