Book bans have been receiving a lot of attention in the news in recent months. Unfortunately, this is not a new trend. The number of challenged and banned books in schools and libraries doubled in 2021—almost 1,600 book titles were challenged or banned across the country. In general, school library collections receive the most scrutiny. These challenges persist in 2023. Book challenges are filed by parents on all sides of the political spectrum: conservative, middle of the road, and liberal. Objections to mature content (sex, drugs, alcohol), violence, sexuality, gender, race, occultism, and religious (or anti-religious) views become issues to consider.
In Tennessee, the McMinn County School Board voted that the Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novel Maus be pulled from the curriculum due to obscenity, violence, and vulgar language. Meanwhile, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are often challenged or banned due to the use of racial slurs. In fact, book challenges and banning are not restricted to books for older children, but include titles for preschoolers. In state-funded preschools in Washington state a “prohibition on potentially frightening books” was discovered by parents after some teachers refused to read classic books like Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
Who Decides?
Books in school curricula, school libraries, and even public libraries, all undergo a series of reviews by national organizations and professional journals. These reviews help inform purchasing decisions for institutions like libraries and schools. An institutional review of books might include curriculum supervisors, teachers, or librarians who assess a book’s content, themes, reading level, and age appropriateness. Libraries might err on the side of caution and place books with slightly more mature themes into their teen or young adult section rather than their children’s or tween area. Books used in curriculum often undergo an even stricter process of review that can include department heads, principals, superintendents, and sometimes school boards. When a book is challenged by a parent or group of parents, a committee looks over the book’s reviews again, as well as any awards it has won. Ultimately, though, as many communities are finding, the political leanings of a school district decide the fate of a book, as in the case of Tennessee and Maus.
The Cost of Censorship
Book challenges for older grades are often over content that references sex, drugs, and violence. But critics of censorship point out that by banning books these parents block a safe space for children to explore empathy, develop emotional intelligence, soothe fears, understand new viewpoints, and learn about controversial moments in history. Some parents view these challenges as an opportunity. As one parent stated,
And children, especially teens, are not oblivious to what some school boards and parents are trying to keep them from reading. One teen noted,
The opinions expressed in Montessori Life are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of AMS.