Banned book Week (September 27 - October 3) will soon be upon us, and it's interesting to see what books draw challenges, or outright bans, with some of them drawing fire year after year.
I remember my junior high school social studies teacher wanting our class to read "Manchild in the Promised Land" by Claude Brown. The autobiographical novel told the story of Brown's childhood growing up in a Harlem tenement during the 1940s and 1950s as the son of former sharecroppers who migrated from the South.
Some parents, concerned that the book was a bit more mature than our seventh grade minds could handle, complained to the local school board. The school board had misgivings about the assignment and reached a compromise that said the teacher could not require the class to read the book and that students wishing to read the book needed a signed permission slip from their parents in order to do so.
My mom, not a fan of censorship and knowing her child quite well, said she'd sign the permission slip as she figured I'd find a way to read the book anyway if she didn't.
That is my only recollection of attempted censorship of my reading, but a check of the American Library Association's web site finds plenty of instances of challenges and bans throughout the years, with many of them revolving around books meant for children and young adult readers.
When I noticed the multiple challenges the books of Toni Morrison faced throughout the years, I began to wonder how many other authors born in the heartland, or authors somehow connected to the Midwest, faced such challenges.
Here is a list of Midwest authors that wrote books, some of them considered real classics that faced challenges or bans from library patrons or school districts over the years:
Toni Morrison-born Chloe Ardella Wofford on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. Morrison's books often appear on listings of challenged books, including seeing her book, The Bluest Eye, appearing on the ALA's list of top ten most frequently challenged books of 2014.
Brian Vaughan-born July 17, 1976 in Cleveland, Ohio also appeared on the ALA's list of top ten most frequently challenged books of 2014 for "Saga", a comic book series deemed as, among other things, "anti-family".
Ernest Hemmingway-born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois and spent many summers in Petoskey in northern Michigan. Books like Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls appear on the ALA's list of challenged classics.
Gary Paulsen-born May 17, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota best known for writing coming-of-age stories set in the wilderness and partly based on traumatic incidents in his own life. His name appears on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged books for 2000-2009.
John Michael Green-born August 24, 1977 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Known as a novelist and video blogger who produces online educational videos. He is the author of about a half-dozen novels, and his first novel, Looking for Alaska, appeared on the ALA's 2013 list of Top Ten Banned/Challenged books.
Mark Twain-born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. Best known for books like Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn more than 100 years ago, but the book still regularly appears on listings of Top Ten Banned/Challenged books into the 21st century.
Kate Chopin-born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri. Chopin moved to Louisiana after her marriage at age 20. She set many of her stories and books in that state, but moved back to St. Louis after her husband's death. Her mother died shortly afterwards, and a physician friend suggested that writing might be a means of healing for her. Chopin's second novel drew heavy criticism because of its early feminist themes, and it appears on the ALA's list of classic books most banned and challenged.
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor-born on January 4, 1933 in Anderson, Indiana. Her series of Young Adult fictional books about "Alice", a motherless child making her way through life, became one of the most frequently challenged and banned books in libraries.
R.L. Stine-born Robert Lawrence Stine on October 8, 1943 in Columbus, Ohio. Readers may best know the prolific writer in horror fiction and children's literature for his Goosebumps series for kids. Stine appears multiple times on lists of banned/challenged books, including on the ALA's list of Top 100 Banned/Challenged books: 2000-2009.
Theodore Dreiser-born August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Journalist and novelist best known for Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, this Pulitzer Prize nominee in Literature appears on the ALA's list of banned classics.
Ray Bradbury-born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. This noted science fiction writer authored the book Fahrenheit 451 in the 1950s, which tells about a future in American where books are outlawed, banned and burned--a book which became the subject of multiple challenges and is listed on the ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.
Dav Pilkey-born David Murray Pilkey, Jr. on March 4, 1966 in Cleveland Ohio. The annual Thanksgiving Day parade in Detroit isn't over until the large Captain Underpants balloon flies onto the scene, so I think it's appropriate enough to end this list by spotlighting the author/illustrator of the popular kids' series. The frequent challenges only seem to spur the popularity of the series while would-be censors question Pilkey's work because of perceived potty humor and the thought that the books encourage children to question authority. (I'll bet that the questioners are probably the same sorts of people responsible for the complaints that fueled the fast-growing popularity of the musical group Barenaked Ladies during the 1990s!)
So there you have it...read a challenged book, support a Midwest writer or just check out a great way to enjoy a few fall afternoons!
(Note: Indie bookstores aren't so easy to find any more, but we do like to go the Schuler Books--where I got the button pictured at the top of this article--when we head out to Grand Rapids or East Lansing, Michigan)
© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved
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