Handy Guide Map to Banned and Challenged Books
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One of the cooler and more sobering things I came across recently, thanks to The Book Bench, is a map of where books have been banned and challenged across the United States. Each location on the map is furnished with a short description of the scenario that unfolded around said book. For example, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Maureen Johnson’s The Bermudez Triangle was “removed from circulation at the Bartlesville Mid-High School library because of parental complaints about the book’s homosexual themes and scenes of underage drinking.”
In Huntsville, Alabama, parents in the school district challenged Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying. They objected to the book’s sexual references and profanity.
In Lubbock, Texas: Philip Pullman’s children’s classic The Golden Compass was the center of debate at the Shallowater Middle School due to its anti-religious messages.
But what about the areas that lie outside the Bible belt? Well the northeast is spotted with examples of banned or challenged book incidents, small uprisings against authors and their work. The whole of the eastern seaboard is dense with protest moments. Even in that shangri-la of liberal thinking, California, specifically Burlingame, they found their champion of literary controversy in Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy. The book was “banned from the Burlingame Intermediate School because of two graphic paragraphs describing men preparing to engage in anal sex with young boys. The book is the winner for the 1987 Christopher Award for Literature and was a finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Award for books representing ‘concern for the poor and the powerless.’”
Check out the map, comment here on what you find to be the most fascinating or odd banned books for the most fascinating or odd reasons. It is also important to note, though, that in many of these cases where parents wanted a book banned, either the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) or the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) wrote letters and were successful in keeping the books in libraries and in kids’ hands. But remember, wherever you find yourself in the United States, chances are you are near a location where an angry mob demanded a certain book be removed from library shelves.
Map of Banned and Challenged Books.
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Nick — Thanks for this. Great post.
My favorite: Louisville, Kentucky (2007) Toni Morrison’s Beloved was removed and banned from AP English classrooms at Eastern High School because of parental complaints on the book’s racial and sexual content. Students were told to stop reading the book 30 pages from the end of the novel. ABFFE, NCAC, Pen American Center and the National Council of Teachers of English all opposed the book’s removal and worked with local activists and the ACLU.
“Stop reading 30 pages from the end” translates to “Read the last 30 pages first” in any high school classroom. Duh.
Scott,
Amazing point about that last thirty pages. It’s like telling your kids where the cookies are and then telling them never to construct an elaborate and shaky ladder to get to them on top of the fridge. I also like that parents complained about the racial content in a book about race. It’s as i the book proved itself effective and right while parents attempted to ban it.
In response to another comment. See in context »Thanks!
I loved how several complaints prompted multiple copies of a banned or complained book to be donated.
Iskid,
Yes, it seem the best way to get a book out of your child’s hands is to donate it. That’s a real act of protest to put the books in circulation.
In response to another comment. See in context »P.S.: What is up with that “Tropic of Cancer” cover art? I don’t recall Miller writing about an attack of the giant crabs.
Scott,
The art on the cover of the book is ridiculous but I believe it refers to crabs the sexually transmitted disease, as in it was eating up all the women Miller and his posse were trying to bed constantly.
In response to another comment. See in context »I thought, given the title, it might be a play on “Cancer,” the constellation, the crab being the symbol for that — as in, the stars are against us. . .in the form of a giant “Cancer.”
Way too complicated.
In response to another comment. See in context »Scott,
You know, as I was on my way to work this morning I was thinking about my response to your question and decided it was way to simplistic. So it’s funny you thought yours was too complicated. But I did think that maybe it a metaphor for a universal kind of nightmarish creature that devours us all. Tropic of Cancer is all about the wonderment and horror of the daily life. At some point maybe we are all devoured by metaphorical crabs. I like you’re idea too. My idea just plays along the same lines as your idea. Definitely not too complicated.
In response to another comment. See in context »While banning books is absurd, as a writer, I perversely like people being so scared of a pile of words arranged on paper they feel compelled to get rid of them. So often, writers can feel like they/we are sending our little missives into the void, so when they spark such fervor, you know they’ve hit some nerves.
Caitlin,
Words are powerful, still! It is amazing. Now, people just have to figure out how to get people to buy books still, not just throw their hands up in disgust when one of them upsets them.
In response to another comment. See in context »I think there will always be bibliophiles. The tough part (as I wrote about in my post on trying to sell my current proposal) is getting past the gatekeepers. Then persuading readers you’re worth their time.
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