Yesterday was the start of Banned Books Week, a week long celebration sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) every year. Usually, I like to plan my Instagram posts around it, but I forgot about it this year. So I’m going to talk about it here, similar to what I did last year! Banned Books Week is a great way to bring awareness to censorship. Because I bet there’s lots of books you don’t realize have been banned.
Banned Books and Young Adults
Each year, ALA releases the top 10 banned books from the previous year. One of the things you may noticed from the list is that many of the banned/challenged books feature diverse characters. For example, 5 out of the 11 books from ALA’s most recent list are banned because they include LGBTQ content (insert eye roll here). People are afraid of what they don’t know, which is why they want these books banned.
Instead of working to get these books out of teen hands, parents should be using these books to have conversations with their teens instead. Fostering open communication is more important than restricting what your teens can and can’t read. Plus, banning books about certain populations just makes those teens feel invalidated. There are teens that identify as a part of that community, and removing these books erases their representation.
Frequently Banned Books
Since so many books are banned for LGBTQ reasons, that’s what my list is going to focus on this year! I’ll include five different children’s and YA books, and the reasons they were banned.
And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, illustrated by Henry Cole
Banned because it promoted a “homosexual agenda” through it’s portrayal of a same-sex relationship between two penguins. You may think this was a long time ago, but it made the top ten banned books for 2017.
Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence by Marion Diane Bauer
This is a series of stories about coming out from renowned YA authors. It was banned because of depictions of sexuality, profane language, and because it promoted the homosexual agenda. The organization requesting the removal because of “its gay content.”
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
A graphic novel about a middle school girl trying to navigate the pit falls of middle school, this book made 2018’s top ten because of the inclusion of LGBTQ characters and themes. However, it’s a fantastic representation of the difficulties of middle school.
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Most frequently banned because of the image on the cover. According to ALA, books with same sex couples depicted on the cover are generally more likely to be banned than others. Levithan disagrees, saying that even if teens don’t yet feel comfortable checking it out, “they know it’s there. They know they are represented. If you see that book in your library or in your bookstore or at your friend’s house you know that there is part of you that belongs there, and is accepted.”
I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
One of the top ten challenged books of 2017, challenged because it was brought in by a transgender kindergartner and parents felt “blindsided,” even though she was just bringing in books to help her classmates better understand her identity. The official reason for the challenge was “gender identity.”