Read a banned book during Freedom to Read week

Times Reporter    

 

Imagine going to pick up your favourite book, only to find it isn’t available anymore because it has been censored. Classic tales such as  ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl’ could be pulled off the shelves depriving people the chance to learn about history. 

Freedom to Read week brings to light materials that have been challenged and why. The week, which runs from Feb. 24 to March 2, is to promote literacy, tolerance, knowledge and a love of reading among all Canadians. Libraries follow the guideline and rule of the Statement of Intellectual Freedom, which follows the ideals that people can walk into their local library and not be censored.

“Some people feel that certain materials shouldn’t be on the shelves and this is where Freedom to Read week really focuses on these challenges that people make towards public libraries and school libraries,” said Assistant Director of Library Services Carmen Erison.

In the library there will be a display of challenged books, with the reason they were challenged listed, allowing people the chance to see first hand what would happen if censorship went through every time.   

“One of the largest challenged books every year is ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ and you think what a classic book, why would somebody want to challenge such a great book? A lot of people…want to pull it out of libraries because they feel it depicts racism and that it has poor language, so they feel that these types of books shouldn’t be sitting on our shelves,” said Erison. 

“What they don’t understand is that a novel like this is also based on history, on the civil rights. We need to have books like these in our collection to educate us on what the time was like. To pull a book (that’s) such a classic like Harper Lee’s book is (something) honestly I find saddening because you’re holding back on our youth from learning about that time and that history.”

Another example that has been big in the news right now is ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.’ Some people are not happy with the name ‘nigger Jim’ and would like to see it republished and have his name changed to ‘slave Jim.’ 

“What people don’t understand is the book takes place in the 19th century and that it portrays the way that African Americans were treated and spoken to during that time,” said Erison. 

“Using words like this to identify certain races and cultures in unacceptable but the book is demonstrating how African Americans were treated during the civil war period. Just for that specific reason it shouldn’t be changed, because it’s history.”

The two banned books that surprised Erison the most were Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Lorax.’ It had been challenged because it was felt it criminalizes the forestry industry.  The other is ‘Brown bear, brown bear what do you see’ by Bill Martin Jr. It was challenged and banned from Texas State curriculum after the author was mistaken for the Bill Martin who wrote ‘Ethical Marxism: the Categorical Imperative of Liberation.’ 

The challenges to children’s books are the ones that surprise Erison the most. ‘Where’s Waldo’ was challenged because a female sunbather on one of the pages was lying face down on the beach and didn’t have a bikini strap drawn on her back. 

There will always be people who don’t feel certain materials should be sitting on the shelves, said Erison, but the library stands by the principals of the Canadian Library Associations position and Statement of Intellectual Freedom. The Strathmore library may not carry all of the books, but they are available through TRAC. 

Erison is issuing a challenge to the community to stop by the library between Feb. 24 and March 2 and see what’s on the challenged list, and then read a banned book and open their mind to those challenges.