New York (AP) – Deborah Caldwell -Stone, director of the American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Office, has never been busy.
“A year ago we could receive one or two reports a day on the library book challenge. “And often these appeals are for guidance on how to meet the challenge or for materials that support the value of the work in question,” Caldwell-Stone told The Associated Press. “Now we get three, four, five reports a day. A lot of people need support, some of them need a lot of support.”
“We always talk on the phone,” he added.
Reports of booking ban attempts and booking attempts, along with threats against librarians, have grown over the past year and the ALA has included several numbers in the libraries ’annual report. US state, released on Monday. The association found 729 challenges – affecting approximately 1,600 books – in public schools and libraries in 2021, more than double the rate by 2020 and the highest since the ALA began compiling more than 20 challenges. years ago.
The real total of the past year is likely to be higher: ALA collects data through media reports and through cases learned from librarians, teachers and other community members. Excludes books pre -produced by librarians – out of fear of public outcry or their work – and challenges that librarians never mentioned.
“Nothing surprises me,” Caldwell-Stone said.
Two of the most challenging books in ALA’s Top 10 Frequent in the news: Maya Kobabe’s graphic memoirs on sexual identity, “Gender Spawn” and “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, a novel narrated by a young gay man in old age. Both are recognized by representatives of the republican government.
Last fall in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin supported the local school board’s ban on two books as a positive vote for governor. At the same time, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster supported the school board. The decision to remove the “spawn genre”.
Florida Gov. Ron Desantis recently criticized “Sex Week” and “Lawn Boy” after signing the law. spy “.
Kobaby and Evison noted in a recent interview that the purpose of their books is a turning point: Nor is it intended to write short stories for young people. But they gained followers with help from the American Library Association, which awarded each book an Alex Award for “works written for teens that are particularly appealing to young people between the ages of 12 and 18.”
“I think many of our books that get a lot of attention are award winners and are ultimately bought by libraries across the country,” Kobabe said.
Other ALA lists that have almost all been cited for LGBTQ or race issues include Angie Thomas ’bestseller“ The Hate U Give, ”which focuses on a police shooting of a black teenager; George Johnson’s “Not All Boys Are Blue”, Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay” and Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta”. Two Ancient Works Previously On The List Also Presented: Sherman Alex’s Autobiographical Novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Full-Time Indian” and Nobel Prize Winner Tony Morrison Debut Novel “The Blue Eye”.
The Library Association defines a “challenge” as a “formal written complaint made to a library or school requesting the removal of materials for content or adequacy.” The ALA does not keep the exact number of how many books were actually recovered, but there have been regular cases in the past year. In December last year, a school district in San Antonio, Texas released hundreds of books from the library to “make sure they don’t contain obscene or vulgar material.”
Source: Huffpost
