Discusses the background to Banned Books Week, motivations for challenging YA books, and looks at 2 issues: bad words in YA literature and LGBTQ in YA Literature.

1. LIB 617 Research in Young Adult
Literature
Fall 2014
Protecting our children
Or—Freedom to Read?
Banned Books Week and Young Adult Reading

2. What is Banned Books Week?
 Banned Books Week:
Celebrating the Freedom to Read
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in
response to a sudden surge in the number of
challenges to books in schools, bookstores and
libraries. More than 11,300 books have been
challenged since 1982 according to the American
Library Association. There were 307 challenges
reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in
2013, and many more go unreported.
 For more information on Banned Books Week, click here
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3. Sponsors 3
Banned Books Week is endorsed by:
Center for the Book at the Library of
Congress

4. Based on intellectual freedom
 What is Intellectual Freedom?
Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to
both seek and receive information from all points of
view without restriction. It provides for free access to all
expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of
a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Intellectual freedom is the basis for our democratic
system. We expect our people to be self-governors. But
to do so responsibly, our citizenry must be well-informed.
• Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A
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5. Censorship
[is] the control of the information and ideas circulated
within a society
The rationales for censorship have varied, with some
censors targeting material deemed to be indecent or
obscene; heretical or blasphemous; or seditious or
treasonous. Thus, ideas have been suppressed under
the guise of protecting three basic social institutions:
the family, the church, and the state.
• From the website of the Internet Censorship Project, a
program of the Open Society Institute’s Internet Program
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6. Freedom of speech 6
The First Amendment of the
Constitution of the United States of America
“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a
redress of grievances.”
The Bill of Rights to the U.S.
Constitution was ratified on
December 15, 1791

7. What about the freedom to read?
 Not explicitly mentioned in the
Constitution
 Does that mean to say that the First
Amendment does not apply to
reading?
 See court cases on The Right to
Read Freely on ALA’s Notable First
Amendment Court Cases web page.
 Example:
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8. Motivations
 Arguments for removing books
 I agree that certain books should be banned.
Censorship already exists for the most extreme
obscene and terrorist material in libraries.
You’ve got to ask why are standards of morality being
constantly eroded? I'm not saying Harry Potter books are going
to corrupt a child, but at the least it will desensitize an
impressionable mind to the occult. The progessive liberalisation
of media is a dangerous road to go down. The effects of
desensitivation to sex and violence are all to obvious in
declining values and increasing crime (in the UK). I can't see
the government doing anything, so I guess self censorship is the
answer for those who still care. Free speech and human rights
are wonderful, but what about the right to walk down the street
without getting verbal abuse or being attacked! Regards, Adam
• Debate: Should certain books be banned from libraries?
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9. Some organizations against “bad books”
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http://www.teachclean.com/
http://www.pabbis.org/
http://www.gtbe.org/
http://www.factsonfiction.org/

10. An organization that seeks a balance
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https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission

11. Bad words in YA literature
The complete article is
available on Canvas
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12. What should we do as parents/teachers?
 Ink out the bad words before
allowing the kids to read the book?
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
Something I've been wondering about...

13. LGBTQ in young adult literature
 2003 and 2013 years of change
Scholastic Publisher and Editorial Director David
Levithan (the same Levithan behind Two Boys Kissing,
Invisibility, and 2003’s Boy Meets Boy) told me that the
environment for gay characters in Y.A. literature has
indeed changed remarkably in the past 10 years. “If
2003 was the sea change year for gay Y.A., in which the
world did not end because there were lots of gay Y.A.
books, in which we were pushing down the door and
getting in,” he says, 2013 represents another wave of
change. “For so many years, so many characters have
been defined by their sexuality—they're ‘gay’; we don't
have to give them any other characteristics,” he says.
“But gay characters and gay kids have lots of other
things going on. No one is just this one thing.”
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14. A Kentucky teen’s story
http://www.edgeboston.com/news//News//107052/gay_teen_kentucky_blogger_speaks_up
_about_glbt_youth,_literature
Gay teen
blogger/book
reviewer takes
librarians to task
over LGBT lit
Brent’s guest blog
from June 15,
2010
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