Hey there!
If you’re reading this, I hope it’s because you either 1) love to read or 2) are curious about what kinds of books get banned/challenged these days or 3) both of the above.
This week, I’ll be writing short posts focusing on various aspects of book bans and challenges, with a featured author daily.
I’ll start the week with an infographic (from the ALA) to give you a sense of the variety of books that get banned or challenged.
Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association, http://www.ala.org
Have you read any of these books?
Today’s featured author: Kurt Vonnegut. For this week, I’ve chosen to read Slaughterhouse Five, his weird and scathing anti-war time-travel novel. Vonnegut was once quoted as saying
All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let’s get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States — and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!
In 2011 the Kurt Vonnegut Museum/Library gave copies of Slaughterhouse Five to high school students whose Missouri school had banned it. If you’re in Indianapolis during Banned Books Week, check out the KVML’s special exhibit. You can find details here.
Tomorrow: challenges vs bans.
Lizzie Ross 
The subject always makes me recall with amusement how the dimwitted Apartheid regime in South Africa at one stage included Black Beauty in their list of banned books.
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Ah, yes, and who did they think they were fooling? I bet copies flew off the shelf as readers hoped to find something salacious.
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I don’t recall much furore over books in the UK since the Lady Chatterley case in the 60s, and occasionally by Mary Whitehouse’s prurient National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association in the 70s.
I suppose when governments start interfering in the field of education and prescribe set works for a national curriculum that raises hackles, but good teachers, libraries and bookshops are generally left to get on with recommending stimulating material here. But then I’m a liberal Guardian-reading lefties, so what do I know about morally dangerous books? 🙂
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Challenges and bans are localized in the US — they never make national (or even state-wide) headlines. But this week is a great reminder that censorship is still there.
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