What do "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the Captain Underpants series all have in common? Yes, these books are beloved by children and teens around the country. But did you also know that these works have been taken off the shelves of town and school libraries in the last three decades for use of "objectionable language?"
This week Sag Harbor’s John Jermain Memorial Library will celebrate these and many other adult and children's books which have been banned or challenged at one point. The week long celebration, dubbed "Banned Book Week" by the American Library Association, aims to acknowledge the library's role in upholding the first amendment, said JJML’s director Catherine Creedon.
"Libraries preserve our first amendment rights at the most fundamental level," remarked Creedon. "It is about ideas that are challenging the mainstream. Public libraries have an historical mandate and commitment to the free exchange of ideas and information."
However, this sharing of ideas has ruffled the feathers of several parents and officials in the past few decades. The scorn for certain material affects both masterpieces and contemporary work. "The Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger's classic coming-of-age novel, was banned in the Freeport High School in DeFuniak Springs, Florida in 1985 for violence, occultism and sexual content. While Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl” was challenged in Wise County, Virginia in 1982 for sexually offensive passages. Creedon pointed out that banned books are technically those that have been expressly forbidden for import by a government, while challenged books have been removed or requested for removal from a library.
Most recently, books believed to promote homosexual relationships have been proscribed by local governments and schools. "And Tango Makes Three," explained JJML children and young adult librarian Susann Farrell, has been particularly challenged. The picture book tells the true story of two male penguin companions who raised an orphan penguin together at the Central Park Zoo.
"I love this book. I read it to my own children. I think it shows that families come in all forms," said Farrell. "It is presented as two penguins who like being together. It isn't necessarily a book about homosexuality. It doesn't need to be taken that way."
According to Creedon and Farrell, the challenging of books seems to ebb and flow with the political and societal tides.
"A lot of books that were banned [used to deal with] interracial marriage or cohabitation. [But] our culture has changed," noted Creedon. "Novels are usually the forerunners of cultural change."
Other works, like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin," were challenged because of their use of derogatory language directed toward race. Creedon and Farrell, however, feel that these books reflect the social conventions of the time and should still be made available to readers.
"'Huckleberry Finn' is a book that is still alive. It is a document that is still vibrant and meaningful to a reader's education. It is a product of its era," Creedon pointed out.
JJML isn't an institution to shy away from controversial reads. Instead, Farrell uses the allure of previously forbidden works as a way to entice children to read. Last year, JJML celebrated "Banned Book Weeks" for the first time and Farrell found the "Banned Books" programs were wildly popular with local youths.
"So many of the kids were flabbergasted that a certain book was banned or challenged. I am encouraging classic literature that has been banned over the last century," said Farrell. "It has the forbidden fruit aspect to it."
Over the week, she will keep a list of "banned" books on hand for young patrons to peruse. At the end of the week, JJML will hold a raffle for a prize of a tote bag, with the words "I read banned books" printed on it, filled with 15 challenged or banned books. Tonight, Thursday, October 1, Farrell will screen the film "The Outsiders," based on the novel by S.E. Hinton, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The evening includes a pizza dinner. For the adult JJML patrons, Farrell and Creedon set-up a display of their top banned book picks, including "Catch-22," "Beloved" and "1984."
on Oct 2, 2009