Books in Brown Bags

       "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege, too."
                                                                                    --Voltaire


On display at my library this week (September 30-Oct. 6) are books in brown bags. The brown bags have nothing to do with lunch. It's all about banned and challenged books.

Why is a book challenged? According to the American Library Association, there are three top reasons: 1) the book's material is considered sexually explicit; 2) the book contains offensive language; 3) the book is "unsuited" to any age group.

Is there a difference between a challenge and a ban? A challenge is the attempt to remove or restrict material based on the objections of a person or group. Banning is the removal of that material, said ALA.

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."                       --Noam Chomsky 

Is your favorite book or author on the banned/challenged list? 

These are only a few of the classics that have been banned or challenged:
Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Ulysses - James Joyce
Native Son - Richard Wright
An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser

In 2011, these books were also banned or challenged:
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Alice - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Also on past challenged/banned lists:
Harry Potter (series) - J.K. Rowling
Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Some authors are in a "hall of fame" for their near-constant appearances on challenged/banned lists:
*Judy Blume
Gary Paulsen
Maurice Sendak
Mark Twain
Lois Lowry
Robert Cormier
John Steinbeck
Stephen King

"Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to talk to them"                               --Anna Quindlen 

Bill Moyers, author and journalist, has released an online video that discusses censorship and book banning. Check it out on YouTube. Moyers notes the irony of Ray Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 451, which took a dim view of book banning, being on the list of banned/challenged books.

"A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it."
                                                       --Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.

Websites for more information on banned books:
www.asja.org (American Society of Journalists/Authors)
www.bookweb.org (American Booksellers Association)
www.pen.org (PEN American Center)
www.ncac.org (National Coalition Against Censorship)
www.read.gov/cfbl (Center for the Book-Library of Congress)

"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance"
                                                                 --Lyndon Baines Johnson

I'm reading two banned/challenged books this week:
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
Naked Lunch - William Burroughs

*Author update: Judy Blume is recuperating from surgery following a mastectomy.