{"id":4487,"date":"2021-12-15T17:49:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T22:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/?p=4487"},"modified":"2025-03-12T17:08:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:08:43","slug":"from-the-founder-banned-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwordmuseum.org\/from-the-founder-banned-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been following the \u201cword news\u201d lately, you\u2019ll know that the big issue of the last few weeks has been book banning.<\/p>\n

Wait a minute, you might be excused for asking, book banning? Is that even still an issue? Isn\u2019t that so 15th <\/sup>century (see Savonarola)? Or Nazi-era Germany or Khomeini-era fatwas?<\/p>\n

Well, it turns out, book banning is<\/em> still with us. It\u2019s an idea that continues to engage and enrage people even today. Book banning seems to be seen as the easy solution to what ails society and threatens the social order. Too often when social mores are changing quickly, when long-held beliefs are being questioned, books that deal with challenges to the status quo are often blamed for causing that change.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re at one of those fragile moments right now. So right on cue three book-banning efforts surfaced in the national news:<\/p>\n

In November criticism of school book holdings arose in Virginia when the Spotsylvania County School Board directed its superintendent \u201cto reconsider whether every sexually explicit book in school libraries should be kept or permanently removed,\u201d but as reported in the Washington Post on Nov. 17, 2021, the board rescinded its directive in the face of widespread criticism, including that of a librarian who told the Free Lance-Star news service, \u201cif you have a worldview that can be undone by a novel, let me suggest that the problem is not the novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same month two books on LGBTQ topics were removed from Fairfax County, VA, school library shelves when two parents complained about them. In that case the books were re-instated after undergoing prescribed review procedures, because, the reviewers said, \u201cstudents with underrepresented identities could relate to\u201d the material in the books.<\/p>\n

Thank goodness in those two cases, reason prevailed.<\/p>\n

But still pending is a case that arose in October in Texas. State Representative Matt Krause emailed a list of 850 books to superintendents, asking them if the books were on their library shelves and how much money had been spent on them. He alleged that the books might \u201cmake students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Dec. 10, 2021, New York Times story about Krause\u2019s list of the 850 \u201cquestionable\u201d books garnered more than 1200 comments. The vast majority expressed horror at the idea that anyone would be talking about banning books in the 21st<\/sup> century, but quite a few comments also wryly pointed out that physical books are hardly the problem in this day and age. Removing them from library shelves hardly matters in an era when any book is available in all sorts of formats, few of which involve hard covers or paper pages. If students want to access the contents of a book, they reminded readers (probably unnecessarily), they can try the public library or ebooks or audible books.<\/p>\n

Or as one New York Times reader commented, the internet makes worrying about physical books on shelves meaningless. \u201cThat stuff is on our phones.\u201d<\/p>\n

So if there were ever acceptable arguments for banning books, there surely aren\u2019t anymore.<\/p>\n

This brouhaha reminds us once again of how vulnerable books are and how we constantly have to reinforce the value of being free to choose what to read, of the value of being free to read books that make us question our opinions, that make us rethink our assumptions about how the world works. Critical thinking, the skills that come from wide reading and debate, will make us better educated, more informed citizens, and smarter voters.<\/p>\n

\"White

Ann wearing banned book socks<\/p><\/div>\n

So how can we encourage that wide reading?<\/p>\n

At Planet Word, where our mission is to renew and inspire a love of words, reading, and books, that means we have tried to find books that speak to the concerns and lived realities of would-be readers. We try to bring books of all different types to life: graphic novels, novels in verse, or nonfiction, like cookbooks and how-to books \u2014 whatever a reader might most enjoy. We tried to find books about young people discovering their sexual identity, books set in sometimes violent urban neighborhoods, books written by refugees, books about characters with disabilities, books about characters with magical powers.<\/p>\n

But unfortunately those are just the type of books that are most often challenged or banned. And it means that some of the books we\u2019ve selected might be unsettling or uncomfortable. In fact, I remember when I read A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> back in elementary school (one of the books most often included on banned lists), <\/em>how scared I was but also empowered and exhilarated by the riveting adventures of Meg, the book\u2019s smart, strong protagonist.<\/p>\n

In our Schwarzman Family Library we bring to vivid life To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>, Long Way Down,<\/em> Better Nate than Ever, Between the World and Me,<\/em> Persepolis, <\/em>and The Diary of a Young Girl <\/em>\u2014 all frequently banned. But we didn\u2019t choose them because they were often banned, we chose them because of their ability to make readers think, to expose them to ideas and situations that are important, to introduce them to books that might speak to them, to introduce them to characters who might look like them \u2014 or not look like them.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope talk about book banning finally stops now \u2014 an obsolete artifact of the pre-internet era. Of any era. Bring on those books that challenge us and make us think, that create the characters we remember forever, or that help us find a path through our challenging world. Happy Reading in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u2014Ann Friedman, founder, Planet Word<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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