2008 Woodie Awards
Best-selling books banned
Jess Drazdik
Issue date: 10/9/05 Section: News
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Located in the display case of the library were about two dozen of the most frequently-challenged books throughout the nation. These books hold content that deal with politics, sexuality, racism and crude language resulting them to be on the banned books list and unavailable to certain schools within our nation.
According to Karla Petersen, acting dean of Loyola University Chicago Libraries, book banners act with what they consider to be the highest motives: protecting themselves, their families and communities from perceived injustices and evil, and preserving the values and ideals they would have the entire society embrace.
Banned Book Week celebrates our freedom because people hold censorship over what they believe is right and wrong rather than letting people decide for themselves.
When asked if the government should be able to hold censorship, Laura Patterson, director of Library Services at Lewis University said, "As a librarian, I don't believe anything should be censored, but, if a book is extremely explicit about the molesting, torturing, and the killing of children; in that case, I can see why it would be."
"Some authors don't mind being on the banned books list, it makes them more popular because people are more intrigued to read them," Patterson also stated.
Recently, the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling have been banned for dealing with reference to witchcraft, even though they happen to be some of the best-selling books in the nation.
According to Writing Career's website, Scholastic released the paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Aug. 10, 2004 and the book landed at #1 on bestseller lists at both national bookstore chains and independent bookstores, as well as online and mass market retailers. The book debuted at #1 on the Aug. 19 USA Today's bestseller list as well, and the New York Times bestseller list for the week of Aug. 29.
Additionally, the book is #1 on Amazon.com, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, and the Book Sense children's bestseller lists.
"If you ban all the books with witchcraft and the supernatural, you'll ban three-quarters of children's literature. I positively think they are moral books.
I've met thousands of children, but I've never met a single child who has asked me about the occult... a new coalition called the 'Free Expression Network' -- including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council of Teachers of English, and People for the American Way -- warned that the removal of Harry Potter books could unleash a veritable avalanche of school-based censorship." said author J.K Rowling being faced with conservative Christian efforts to censor her books.
