Banned books are books to which free access is not permitted. The practice of banning books is a form of censorship and often has political, religious or moral motivations. Bens on books can be enacted at national level and carry legal penalties for their infraction.
Books may also be challenged at a local community level. As a result, books can be removed from schools and libraries, although these bans do not extend outside that area. Similarly, religions may issue list of banned books.
Almost every country places restrictions on what may be published, although the emphasis and the degree of control differ from country to country and at different periods. They are variety of reasons for which books may be banned. Materials are often concealed due to the professed notion of obscenity. This obscenity can apply to materials that are about sexuality, race, drugs or social standing.
Governments have also sought to ban certain books it perceives to contain material that could threaten, embarrass and criticize it. Other leaders outside the government have banned books, including religious authorities. Church leaders who prohibit members of their faith from reading the banned books may want to shelter them from perceived obscene, immoral, or profane ideas or situation. Nevertheless, even religious materials have been subject to censorship. For example, various scriptures have been banned and have sometimes burned at several points in history. The Bible and other religious scriptures have all been subjected to censorship and have been banned by various governments. Similarly, books based on the scriptures have also been banned, such as Leo Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You, which was banned in the Russian empire for being anti – establishment.
Many people think that challenges, book censorship and book banning are things that happened in the distant past. When people challenge books, it is generally out of a concern that the contents of the book will be harmful to the reader. According to ALA, there are four motivating factors. These factors are as follows:
- Family values
- Religion
- Political values
- Minority rights
The age level for which a book is intended does not guarantee that someone would not try to censor it. However, the emphasis seems to be on challenges to children and young adult books, attempts are also mounted to restrict access to certain adult books. Most complaints are made by parents and are directed to public and schools.
Several organizations have sprung up in response to concerns about censorship of children’s books. When the Harry Potter books came under attack, a number of organizations joined together to establish Muggles for Harry Potter, which is now known as kidSPEAK and focuses on being a voice for kids in fighting censorship in general.
PABBIS stands for parents against bad books in school, is just one of the number of parents groups around the country challenging children’s and young adult books in class room teaching and in schools and public libraries. These parents go beyond wanting to restrict access to certain books for their own children.
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