Dolores Umbridge bans the magazine The Quibbler at Hogwarts. However, Hermione is pleased because banning it will only increase students' interest in reading Harry's interview. As predicted, though no copies can be found, soon the whole school is quoting from the interview. The document discusses the banning of books and why it is sometimes done to protect people, especially children, but that it also restricts ideas and information. It notes examples of books that have been banned or challenged over issues like content, language, and values.

1. Banned Books Week
September 21-27, 2014

2. BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS
Any student found in possession of the magazine The Quibbler will be
expelled.
The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-seven.
Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor
For some reason, every time Hermione caught sight of one of these signs
she beamed with pleasure.
“What exactly are you so happy about?” Harry asked her.
“Oh, Harry, don’t you see?” Hermione breathed. “If she could have done
one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school
will read your interview, it was banning it!”
And it seemed that Hermione was quite right. By the end of the day,
though Harry had not seen so much as a corner of The Quibbler anywhere
in the school, the whole place seemed to be quoting the interview to each
other.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 26 Seen and
Unforseen

3. What does it
mean to ban a book?
Banning a book is
when a person or
group decides that a book is
so inappropriate in some
way that NO ONE should
read the book. Then the
person or group has the
book removed from the
shelves of libraries.

4. How does a book get banned?
An individual or group files a formal challenge with
a school or library, requesting that a book or material
be removed
The school or library forms a committee to review
the material
The committee votes on if the material should be
removed or retained
If the material is kept on the shelf, the person filing
the complaint may file another complaint with the
court system, which then will review the case

5. How often are books banned?
In 2013, there were 307 (464 in 2012) REPORTED
challenges. “A challenge is defined as a formal,
written complaint, filed with a library or school
requesting that materials be removed because of
content or appropriateness.”
A book is challenged if someone requests that it
be removed from library shelves.
A book is banned if the library or school agrees to
remove it from circulation.
More challenges are filed against schools than
against other institutions.

6. Why are books challenged or
banned?
Books usually are challenged to protect
others, frequently children, from difficult
ideas and information.
Most librarians see challenges as grounded
in good intention and pure in conviction, but
they are ultimately illegal and restrictive.

7. Why are books challenged?

8. Why are books challenged or
banned?—The ISSUES
Family values
Political values
Intellectual freedom
(Former President
Ahmadinejad, of Iran,
insists that the
Holocaust did not
happen—and he thinks
that is his lasting
legacy)

9. Does Banning a
Book Protect
People?

10. Why not ban books?
1st Amendment rights--
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.

11. What’s wrong with Banning Books?
Books provide education on a wide variety of
subjects and the opportunity to have an experience
vicariously
Without a wide variety of views, change cannot
occur within a society
It is not possible to experience events such as the
Holocaust or life in Puritan society but these events
helped shape the world we live in today and it is
important to have knowledge of those events.

12. Effects of Banning Books
Without examples such as Maya Angelou’s
experiences in her childhood (I know why the Caged
Bird Sings by Maya Angelou), how would people who
have not experienced racism learn about racism?
Without The Scarlet Letter, how would we
understand Puritan society and how it operated?
Without Fahrenheit 451, how would you understand
what effect burning books could have on a person
and how the desire for banned items increases their
interest and mystery?

13. In other words, reading is
an opportunity to
experience an event
without actually living
through it.

14. Should other people decide what YOU read?
Parents and teachers are responsible for helping you select
reading materials while they are still responsible for you. But
as an adult, you have the freedom to read books of your
choice and to decide what your own children may or may not
be allowed to read.

15. According to the
Library Bill of Rights…..
Parents—have the right and the responsibility to
restrict the access of their children—and only their
children—to library resources.” Censorship by librarians
of constitutionally protected speech, whether for
protection or for any other reason, violates the First
Amendment.

16. 762
661
595
478 472
646
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515
458
547
405
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420
513
460
348
326
464
900
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700
600
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0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

17. What books have been banned?
Banned from public libraries in Wisconsin,
Gwinnett County, Georgia, and Leon County
Florida
Objections: semi-pornographic, poorly
written, does not suit community standards,
erotica against policy
(Will not be ordered by CCHS—does not fit
our collection policy because it does not
support or enrich the school curriculum. While
it might encourage some of you to read, the
books we choose are to be notable and those
books that are controversial are to be
carefully selected, with information on
opposing sides made available. Also, the
recommended audience is adult and
teenagers –whether you like it or not-do not
fit that audience demographic.)

18. What books have been banned?
Offensive language, religious questions
Johnny Wheelwright lives in New Hampshire
with his mom who “chose to have me and to
never explain a word about me or to her
mother or to her sister”. Johnny never knew
who his dad was, and was rather scrawny and
wimpy so it was only natural for him to find a
friend in Owen Meany. Owen was small for his
age – and has damage to his larynx which
leaves his voice very squeaky and needless to
say, the blunt of many jokes. But –Owen is
wise beyond his years and knows more about
life at the age of ten than most people do well
into their later adult years. When a tragic
accident happens at a baseball game involving
Owen… Owen feels this was foreseen by God,
therefore –Owen is an instrument of God.

19. What books have been banned?
Offensive language
(Banned at the time of
publication in many
places in the South
because of it’s anti-slavery
theme and in
Russia because it was
considered to undermine
religious ideals)

20. What books have been banned?
Ordered BURNED in
East St. Louis for
indecency and
obscenity—it actually
was restricted to
adults only instead of
being burned

21. What books have been banned?
Banned in a number of
places over the years
because of objections to
the language used and
the perception that the
book promotes racism.

22. What books have been banned?
Fahrenheit 451 is about
book burning and the
effect that banning or
censoring books has on
a society.

23. What books have been banned?
Many have objected to
the “magical content” in
this book, claiming it
promotes witchcraft and
evil content. (Katherine
Paterson’s degree is in
Christian education and
she is the daughter of
Christian missionaries.)

24. What books have been banned?
Many have objected to
the “magical content” in
this book, and the other
Harry Potter books,
claiming it promotes
witchcraft and evil
content.

25. What books have been banned?
This book was banned
because there is a wine
bottle in the basket on
the cover of the book.
Some people believed
the book promoted
drinking alcoholic
beverages.

26. What books have been banned?
This book was banned
for encouraging
inappropriate behavior:
eating worms and
gambling

27. What books have been banned?
Banned for
inappropriate
content, promotion of
cannibalism (The
poem Dreadful)

28. What books have been banned?
Banned in some
schools and libraries
because of
‘inappropriate pictures’
(beach page—some of
our English students
found it one year)

29. What books have been banned?
Banned in some
schools and libraries in
California and because
of content about the
logging industry—
“criminalizes the
forestry industry”

30. Top Books Challenged in 2013
Captain Underpants / Pilkey
The Bluest Eye / Morrison
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indiana /
Alexie
Fifty Shades of Gray / James
The Hunger Games / Collins
A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl / Stone
Looking for Alaska / Green
The Perks of Being a Wallflower / Chbosky
Bless me Ultima / Anaya
Bone series / Smity

31. Other books challenged--
Black Beauty / Anna Sewell
Hop on Pop / Dr. Seuss (violence to parents-Toronto, 2014)
The Bible
Animal Farm / George Orwell
Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger
Goosebumps books / R. L. Stine
Scary Stories / Alvin Schwartz
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary
--and many more…..

32. Court Cases
(Foundations of Free Speech)
Evans v. Selma Union High School District of
Fresno County, 222 P. 801 (Ca. 1924)
The California State Supreme Court held that the King
James version of the Bible was not a "publication of a
sectarian, partisan, or denominational character" that a
State statute required a public high school library to
exclude from its collections. The "fact that the King
James version is commonly used by Protestant
Churches and not by Catholics" does not "make its
character sectarian," the court stated. "The mere act of
purchasing a book to be added to the school library
does not carry with it any implication of the adoption of
the theory or dogma contained therein, or any approval
of the book itself, except as a work of literature fit to be
included in a reference library."

33. Court Cases
(Foundations of Free Speech)
Rosenberg v. Board of Education of City of New York, 92
N.Y.S.2d 344 (Sup. Ct. Kings County 1949)
After considering the charge that Oliver Twist and the
Merchant of Venice are "objectionable because they tend to
engender hatred of the Jew as a person and as a race," the
Supreme Court, Kings County, New York, decided that these
two works cannot be banned from the New York City
schools, libraries, or classrooms, declaring that the Board of
Education "acted in good faith without malice or prejudice
and in the best interests of the school system entrusted to
their care and control, and, therefore, that no substantial
reason exists which compels the suppression of the two
books under consideration."

34. Court Cases
(Foundations of Free Speech)
Minarcini v. Strongsville (Ohio) City School District,
541 F.2d 577 (6th Cir. 1976)
The Strongsville City Board of Education rejected faculty
recommendations to purchase Joseph Heller's Catch-22
and Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and
ordered the removal of Catch-22 and Vonnegut's Cat's
Cradle from the library. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit ruled against the School Board, upholding
the students' First Amendment right to receive
information and the librarian's right to disseminate it. "The
removal of books from a school library is a much more
serious burden upon the freedom of classroom
discussion than the action found unconstitutional in
Tinker v. Des Moines School District."

35. Court Cases
(Freedom of Expression in Schools)
Zykan v. Warsaw (Indiana) Community School Corporation and
Warsaw School Board of Trustees, 631 F.2d 1300 (7th Cir. 1980)
A student brought suit seeking to reverse school officials'
decision to "limit or prohibit the use of certain textbooks,
to remove a certain book from the school library, and to
delete certain courses from the curriculum." The district
court dismissed the suit. On appeal, the Court of Appeals
for the Seventh Circuit ruled that the school board has
the right to establish a curriculum on the basis of its own
discretion, but it is forbidden to impose a "pall of
orthodoxy." The right of students to file complaints was
recognized, but the court held that the students' claims
"must cross a relatively high threshold before entering
upon the field of a constitutional claim suitable for federal
court litigation."

36. What do authors
say about banning
books?

37. Stephen King
(author of Carrie, Cujo, and others)
• ”When a book is banned, a whole set of thoughts is
locked behind the assertion that there is only one valid
set of values, one valid set of beliefs, one valid perception
of the world. It's a scary idea, especially in a society which
has been built on the ideas of free choice and free
thought.” AND “ Do I think that all ideas should be
allowed in school libraries? I do not.”

38. Laurie Halse Anderson
(author of Speak)
A guy named Richard Swier in Florida thinks that SPEAK is "child
pornography."
I wish I were making that up.
SPEAK is cautionary tale about the emotional aftermath of rape.
It tackles bullying, depression, rape, sexual harassment, and
family dysfunction. It teaches children that when bad things
happen, they need to speak up, even when it's hard. It has given
hope to tens of thousands of readers since 1999. It is a standard
in curriculum across the country.

39. Jeff Smith
(author of Bone series)
• “The point, is that they are trying to take away someone
else’s ability to choose what they want to read, and you
can’t do that.”

40. Cory Doctorow
(author of Little Brother)
• I think that it's a pity that I'm not going to get a chance to do
that (discuss the novel) with your whole school," Doctorow
said on YouTube. "And it's not because I think you all should
read my book or because I was hoping to sell you a lot of
copies. ... I was doing this because I think this whole discussion
is important, and I think talking about it in schools is
important.“
• (On his book being removed from reading lists in Pensacola,
Florida—he sent 200 copies of his book to the school and made
it available for a free download.)

41. Neil Gaiman
(author of Nevermore)
• “Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of
reading. Stop them reading what they enjoy or give them
worthy-but-dull books that you like—the 21st-century
equivalents of Victorian ’improving’ literature—you’ll
wind up with a generation convinced that reading is
uncool and, worse, unpleasant.”

42. In the news…September 10,
2014
Wilmington, NC: Brunswick County education officials
have decided to keep a challenged book partially
hidden behind the middle school library shelves. In a
4-1 vote Tuesday night, the school board voted to
require written parental permission before students
can check out Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True
Diary of a Part Time Indian.” Only one school board
member dissented.

43. “You must respect all religions and point of views when
it comes to the parents and what they feel is age
appropriate for their young children to read, without
their knowledge,” Kimiyutta Parson wrote in her
complaint. “This book is freely in your library for them
to read”. Person also objected to the book’s language
and sexual content…
“Invisible Man” is a first-person narrative by a black
man who considers himself socially invisible. It was
originally published in 1952.

44. September 26, 2013
“Last night in Asheboro, NC, the
Randolph County Board of Education
voted 6-1 to rescind its ban on Ralph
Ellison’s Invisible Man and return the
book to local high school library
shelves, the Courier-Tribune reported.
On September 16, the board had voted
5-2 to ban the book, but the decision
sparked a wave of international
attention, especially because it
occurred just days before the start of
Banned Books Week.

45. Chris Brook, legal director of the American Civil Liberties
Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation, said that the
board “righted a wrong”. The freedom to read is just as
essential to a healthy democracy as the freedom of
speech and all other rights protected by the US
Constitution…This episode should serve as a valuable
reminder to students, teachers, aprents, and school
officials across the state of our ongoing duty to promote
academic freedom, ensure the free exchange of ideas and
information, and reject the always looming threat that
censorship and suppression, for any reason, pose to a free
society.”

46. June 10, 2014
Cory Doctorow’s book, Little Brother, was pulled from
summer reading assignments at Booker T. Washington High
School in Pensacola, Florida because the principal felt it
endorsed hacker culture and questioned authority. The
book is available in the library, but not as an assignment.

47. What to do about banning
books?
Exercise your rights! Read a banned book today
Talk to your neighbors about why everyone should be
allowed to choose for themselves and their families
what they read
If you want to know more, visit the ALA website on
challenged and banned books

48. Sources:
•Poster Images from: American Booksellers Foundation for Free
Expression,
• http://www.abffe.org/bbw-posters.htm
•Book Cover Images from: Alibris www.alibris.com
•Court Case citations from The American Library Association, Notable First
Amendment Court Cases website:
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/firstamendment/courtcases/courtcases.htm
•Images from: Esquire <http://www.esquire.com/blogs/books/Banned-
Books-Week-Blog>, Freedom to Read Foundation
<http://www.ftrf.org/?page=BBW>