Banned Book Week, Sept.24−Oct. 1: Notes from the Field

SUMMARY: The complicated process and delicate balance of pre-empting and answering book challenges in schools and school libraries is discussed. Three personal situations from the field are discussed, together with lessons learned.


A Complicated Process

As Library Coordinator, first for the Toronto Board of Education and then the Toronto District School Board, I had to assist when controversial books were challenged. Both educational organizations did what most do to pre-empt random and wayward attacks against the freedom to read in classrooms and libraries. They:

• collaborated with the community to draw up and publish book selection and purchasing policies
• established an open but sophisticated procedure for dealing with community challenges to resources
• developed strong connections with authors, publishers, and wholesalers
• provided teacher and student workshops on historical and current issues (e.g., censorship, bias and stereotyping, anti-discrimination education, and collection development)
• updated library and classroom collections to support reading and learning programs

A Delicate Balance

However, the public has the right to accountability and challenges happen, often when you least expect them. Educational institutions may scrupulously replace the phrase "book banning" with "resource selection," "age-appropriateness" and "cultural sensitivity." It only shows that intellectual freedom, the right to read, and individual choice are not absolutes in most public school districts. A balance is said to be struck.

Yet, this balance is an agonizing one for all involved. In retirement, I ruefully examine my own role in defending books that I still feel should never have been attacked in the first place. I won some. I lost some. I learned about both the power of the word and the diversity of opinion. In this Banned Book Week, it might be useful to list some lessons from the field with regard to book challenges.

Lesson 1: The Art of Reading

The inability or refusal to read novels as fiction is often the problem. Such techniques as complex narrative voice, ironic tone, shifts in setting, sexual imagery, and thematic symbolism escape the immature challenge. Unfortunately, even if staff convince the challenger of the author's intention or the fame of the novel, the challenge soon shifts to suggesting that young readers won't "get it if I didn't."

In the end, such complaints are often withdrawn for two reasons. First, students' work can be presented to demonstrate their understanding is developing with astute teacher and teacher-librarian guidance. Secondly, an exhaustive and time-consuming report can be presented, exhibiting to all parties the diligence taken by staff.

Lesson 2: The Hidden Agenda

Many challenges are not what they seem at first. Once, a complaint that an author used language and situations that stereotyped a particular racial group was a veiled attack on the "writing rights" of authors of another racial group. Cultural appropriation is a difficult issue and not one to be taken lightly. The book challenge actually prompted timely community meetings to air all viewpoints. The complex of perspectives became a useful set of teaching points for the challenged book.

In the end, the complaint was withdrawn when the parent was invited to suggest complimentary books for the library. No list was ever supplied.

Lesson 3: The Ideologue in Bookland

Most book challenges are ideological and may succeed simply because of the power structure or the political attachments of decision makers. In this case, it is of little use to outline an author's balance of different viewpoints or her right to research a particular issue for young readers to read about and form their own opinion. It becomes a fight less about the content of the book than about the right to create or read it.

In the end, an individual's right to read may be semi-protected only when couched in age appropriateness, i.e., "as long as this book is not promoted for independent reading by middle grades, it will be allowed with teacher discussion with senior students." The compromise can feel as dispiriting as the emotions stirred.

The Ultimate Victory?

A book challenge raises community consciousness. It may engage the PTA, hit the local newspapers, or go viral. However, in the age of the Internet and public library access, school teachers, librarians, and administrators will find comfort in recognizing that a particular title will now be better known by curious readers because of the challenge. The most effective antidote to the banning of books in our schools is to develop in our students an intellectual and emotional curiosity that defeats any lack of it in their elders.