Heather Finley

          As some of you may know, it is Banned Book Week.  The event started in 1982 and is held during the last week of September.  The aim of BBW is to gain public awareness of the practice of banning books. 

          Most books that appear on list in regards to being banned are actually being challanged.  This means that you can still find the book everywhere still.   For example, many Cicily Von Ziegesar including Gossip Girl are in challanged status.  Obviously you can still go to the bookstore and buy these books.    When a book is actually banned, it is completely taken out of bookstores and libaries. 

          Another thing I found interesting was that many commonly challanged books are young adult/youth novels.  The reason they are on this list is that the subject matter and/or language is being questioned for the group of readers they are intended. 

          Decisions to have books banned can later be lifted.  Ulysses by James Joyce is one example of this.  The book was banned for sexual content.  If you have read it, you know the scene they are talking about.  The book was taken off the list after a court win that concluded that the book needed to be looked at as a whole and that they majority of people are able to read the book without getting offended.  This case was huge because it changed the standard on book content.

          Book banning is not something that just happens in the US.  It is all over the world.  It is interesting to read some of the reasons that books are banned.  For example, one that stuck out to me, was that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was banned in Hunan, China because the animals were as smart as humans. 

          It is also possible that a book can become restricted.  This means that perhaps it is deemed inapproprate to have in a certain location but it is available else where.   This is super common.  Think about how you don’t find say Fight Club at an elementary school.

          Hope this helps clear up some questions on book banning.  This week I’ll definately write more on my personal thoughts on book banning and books I own (and some I really love like Looking For Alaska by John Green) that are being challanged. 

          There are tons of websites dedicated to knowledge on this subject.  Here is a few that I looked at. 

http://www.ila.org/pdf/2009banned.pdf  (this tells details on certain banned books.  Very interesting)

http://bannedbooksweek.org/info.html

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Sidebar/2009/9/28/books_up_for_debate_in_lake_county.html?refresh=1

http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/banned-books-week/page.do?id=1101492

http://book-censorship.suite101.com/article.cfm/why_books_are_banned