Banned Books Week 2014

Grab your party hats and Freedom to Read t-shirts—it’s Banned Books Week! This week-long holiday celebrates humanity’s right to read whatever they please, and attempts to convince others to lift the ban on each and every censored piece of literature. Every day this week, I’ll be uploading a post dedicated to a classic banned novel. Today, however, I decided to take some time to inform my lovely followers (that’s you!) of the book-banning process.

Before a book can be officially banned, someone must first challenge it. A challenge can be created by anyone, and are usually submitted to the challenger’s local library. A typical challenge for The Perks of Being a Wallflower—a largely challenged novel this year—could look something like this:

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a young adult book, yet it contains drugs, alcohol, smoking, homosexuality and sexually explicit scenes that are unsuited to its age group."

The challenge is then reviewed by a committee or board. Their verdict decides whether the book is banned from that library, or if the submitted challenge is invalid. Occasionally, the challenge can escalate to an actual court battle where a judge and jury would decide the fate of the book. Just like with a typical court case, if one party disagrees with the verdict, the case can be overturned in a higher court. For example, if The Perks of Being a Wallflower is deemed “guilty,” one party may challenge the verdict in the Court of Appeals, or Circuit Court. This may continue until the case reaches the highest level of court.

People generally assume that the federal government is in charge of banning books. This, however, is not the case. There is no book, as of now, that is illegal for people to buy, borrow, or read in this country. Books are only banned by specific libraries, bookstores, and school districts, and they are very rarely banned in an entire city or county. Books are banned by regular people, people who believe that a certain work of literature is immoral. That is perhaps the most frightening aspect of book-banning; It is committed by our friends, our neighbors.

This week is dedicated to ending book-banning culture, not only in this country, but all throughout the world. Novels contain knowledge, and the having the ability to gain and spread knowledge is one of humanity’s inalienable rights. I hope that this year we will make a difference.

Check out the site every day this week for a new Banned Book-of-the-Day!

#bannedbooksweek #freedomtoread