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Reading of banned books set at park
Hubbard
As long as there’s been a First Amendment, there’s been censorship.
In defiance of this, the Hubbard Public Library will join readers across the country Saturday in Harding Park reading excerpts of books throughout history that have been either challenged or banned from libraries and schools.
Nationwide, this is the 29th year for the American Libraries Association’s Banned Books Week, which begins Saturday and ends Oct. 1, but it’s the first for the Hubbard library.
Amy Neral, the teen librarian, said community members registered for the event and will be given excerpts of selections to read on stage. The excerpts included are Harper Lee’s observation on stereotypes in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” George Orwell’s allegorical “Animal Farm” and Khaled Hosseni’s novel of pre-and-post-Russian-invasion of Afghanistan, “The Kite Runner.”
“A lot of people are surprised to see the different selections, but all those books have been either banned or challenged,” Neral said. “The reason we do it is because in the United States, we’re not supposed to censor. In other countries, if they don’t like the book, it just doesn’t come out.”
Historically, the banning of books follows political or sociological trends of the time, said Pat Scales, the chairwoman of the ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee. But opposition to a book tends to fade with time.
“For a while, ‘Harry Potter’ would appear on the most-banned, most-challenged list,” she said. “But people have gotten used to ‘Harry Potter’ now.”
Despite its links to the 1950s, censorship has been part of America since its founding, Scales said.
“We just became very aware of it in the ’50s when ‘Catcher in the Rye’ was banned.”
And the attempted censorship continues today with books filling an annual banned and challenged list the ALA has compiled for more than 30 years with challenges coming from both ideological sides and from every state.
“There are a lot in the Midwest,” Scales said.
Last month, the book “Perks of Being a Wallflower” was challenged to be pulled from the shelves in Massachusetts. In California, parents challenged a dictionary that included sketches of male and female anatomy.
And when “And Tango Makes Three” was published in 2005, it shot immediately to the top of the list of challenged books from 2006 to 2010. The illustrated children’s book is a true story of two Central Park male penguins who together hatch and raise a female chick named Tango.
“Everyone said it was a book promoting homosexuality,” Scales said. “Adults see homosexuality; kids see animals.”
New to this year’s Banned Books Week is the Virtual Read-Out, where the ALA invites individual readers to share excerpts of banned books via YouTube.
The ALA, Scales said, believes in the banning of no books, even ones that may inspire hatred.
“I think that in America, with any type of book, we should have a choice and the right to choose not to read something,” Scales said. “That’s why we have this week: to show the different views. And the library should represent all views.”
Currently, Neral said, there are no challenges pending at the Hubbard Public Library. But, she said, perhaps Saturday’s event could change that.