`Challenged' Books Drop to All-Time Low
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
(08-29) 12:51 PDT NEW YORK, (AP) --
The number of books threatened with removal from library shelves dropped last year to its lowest total on record, with 405 challenges reported to the American Library Association.
The ALA has been tracking efforts to pull texts since the early 1980s, when it helped found Banned Books Week as a celebration of free expression. The 25th annual "Banned Books" program takes place Sept. 23-30, as libraries and bookstores highlight works that have been removed or faced removal.
Challenges have gone up and down over the past few years, but overall have dropped by more than half since Banned Books Week was started. Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, cited a couple of possible factors for the decline: Librarians are better prepared to organize community support on behalf of a book, and would-be censors are focusing more on online content.
"There's only so much energy to spend on situations or concerns outside the home," Krug told The Associated Press during a recent interview. "A large majority of our challenges deal with what children are reading in schools and many adults are now so concerned about what's on the Internet that they have refocused."
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The most "challenged" book of 2005 was Robie Harris'"It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health," a guide for middle school students. Others high on the list included such perennials as J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," Judy Blume's "Forever" and Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War," all cited for "sexual content" and inappropriate language.
more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/08/29/entertainment/e125158D00.DTL
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