Typical of librarians and advocates for intellectual freedom, they offer a plan that provides a level of balance and intervention: a week of anti-censorship action. Here are some of those ideas.<\/p>\n

How often do you think about censorship? Banned books?\u00a0I tend to think of censorship as it pertains to history \u2014 something that hasn\u2019t happened much since the McCarthy era, right? So would you be surprised to find out that the American Library Association maintains a list of challenged (and sometimes banned) books by year? I was. I am disgusted by the concept of censorship. It\u2019s not difficult to connect dots between banning certain books and trends in discrimination. Besides, learning to sort through ideas with which one may or may not agree is vital to developing a mind capable of discernment and critical thinking. It\u2019s only natural that I should have such a strong reaction: it runs in the family. No Banned Books in THIS Family When my mother was a little girl she spent a lot of time patronizing her local library. One \u00a0day she went to check out her stash of books, she was surprised when the librarian decided that one of them was \u2018inappropriate\u2019 and did not allow her to take it home. To say that the librarian\u2019s decision did not go \u00a0over well with my grandmother is quite an understatement. She very quickly found herself explaining to the librarian that she expected her child\u2019s reading choices to be honored and, further, that she (my gram) was the only person with the authority to limit those choices. I\u2019m sure that librarian was doing her job in a way that would satisfy most parents, but my grandmother was an educator who believed in challenging her students \u2014 and her daughter. I\u2019m grateful for her commitment to exploring ideas and cultures and for instilling the love of libraries and reading in the entire family. I often think of how much she would have enjoyed having internet access. If you\u2019ve not recently visited the American Library Association website, you\u2019re in for a treat.It\u2019s one of those sites where a person could get lost for hours. It was not easy to maintain a focus on #bannedbooks week. The following is from that site. Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2019 The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 377 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2019. Of the 566 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books: George by Alex Gino \u00a0Reasons: challenged, banned, restricted, and hidden to avoid controversy; for LGBTQIA+ content and a transgender character; because schools and libraries should not \u201cput books in a child\u2019s hand that require discussion\u201d; for sexual references; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint and \u201ctraditional family structure.\u201d Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin Reasons: challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, for \u201cits effect on any young people who would read it,\u201d and for concerns that it was sexually explicit and biased. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller Reasons:\u00a0Challenged and vandalized for LGBTQIA+ content and political viewpoints, for concerns that it is \u201cdesigned to pollute the morals of its readers,\u201d and for not including a content warning. Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth Reasons:\u00a0Challenged, banned, and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content; for discussing gender identity and sex education; and for concerns that the title and illustrations were \u201cinappropriate.\u201d Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack, illustrated by Stevie Lewis Reasons: Challenged and restricted for featuring a gay marriage and LGBTQIA+ content; for being \u201ca deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children\u201d with the potential to cause confusion, curiosity, and gender dysphoria; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint. I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas.\u00a0Reasons: Challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content, for a transgender character, and for confronting a topic that is \u201csensitive, controversial, and politically charged.\u201d The Handmaid\u2019s Tale by Margaret Atwood.\u00a0Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity and for \u201cvulgarity and sexual overtones.\u201d Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier Reasons: Challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and for concerns that it goes against \u201cfamily values\/morals.\u201d Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling Reasons: Banned and forbidden from discussion for referring to magic and witchcraft, for containing actual curses and spells, and for characters that use \u201cnefarious means\u201d to attain goals. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson\u00a0illustrated by Henry Cole \u00a0Reason: Challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content. Taking Action During Banned Books Week Typical of librarians and advocates for intellectual freedom, they offer a plan that provides a level of balance and intervention: a week of anti-censorship action. Here are some of those ideas. Read a banned book… and\u00a0show us your favorite banned book or snap a banned book \u201cshelfie.\u201d Speak out about censorship… and share infographics or statistics about the harms of censorship. Find out about how to participate in the\u00a0Dear Banned Author letter-writing campaign, blog about unrestricted access, submit letters-to-the-editor of your local newspaper, publish a Facebook post about the harms of censorship. I appreciate librarians for so many reasons. At the moment, making me pause to think about intellectual freedom and freedom of expression are at the top of my list. What\u2019s at the top of yours? Tell us in the comments please.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,10],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-14310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thinking","category-special-topics","category-writing-and-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14310"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14324,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14310\/revisions\/14324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14310"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=14310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}