Most librarians would agree that intellectual freedom is one of the most significant tenants of the profession. However, when it comes to young patrons, it is important to consider that parents and other adult patrons may have strong opinions about the children’s library resources. The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom maintains an ongoing record of banned and challenged library books, and year after year, many of these challenged books are books for children. This can create trepidation for librarian’s working with children’s resources. Books Under Fire: A Hit List of Banned and Challenged Children’s Books by Pat R. Scales provides information about the most commonly challenged children’s books of recent years, as well as insight into the reasons for the challenges and how to be prepared if your patrons object to any of these books in your library.
Pat R. Scales has extensive experience working with young users as a school librarian. She has also served as president of the Association of Library Services for Children and chaired Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) award committees, including those for Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal and Wilder Awards. Barbara M. Jones, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, provides the foreword that expresses her support for this volume and for Ms Scales.
Books Under Fire focuses on children’s books intended for birth until approximately age 14. There are over 30 entries, each providing detailed information about a recently challenged children’s book or book series. The majority of the books discussed are commonly found in most school and public library collections, so Books Under Fire can be used as a training tool. Familiarity with the information will make it unlikely that library staff will be taken by surprise if concerns are expressed. This volume is valuable as a tool to assist your library in becoming more organized, provides information to better understand the aspects of children’s stories to which patrons may object and helps prepare the library to respond to challenges should they occur.
Each well-organized entry includes the following components: a clear plot summary, a detailed challenge history which includes the reasons for the challenge(s) and the setting and date the challenge(s) took place, awards and accolades which the discussed text has received and suggestions for further reading (this section also includes viewing and listening multimedia suggestions). Each entry also lists related books that were challenged for similar reasons. For example, in the entry for Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves (1972), which has been challenged for many reasons including “sexual content”, other related books include Suzanne Clauser’s A Girl Named Summer (1999) and Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice (1995).
To me, one of the most useful portions of each entry is the Talking with Readers about the Issues section. This contains four to six discussion prompts designed to address the common challenge concerns. For example, when discussing the Junie B. Jones series, which, according to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, is a series frequently challenged because the titular character is “not a good role model” and has “poor social values” and “bad spelling and grammar”, one of the discussion prompts states “Some adults don’t like that Junie B. mispronounces words and uses bad grammar. How does her grammar improve by the time she reaches first grade?” Questions like this give children the opportunity to consider whether their parent’s concerns are valid and, if so, whether the character’s personal growth should play a role in alleviating those concerns. It’s important to consider child library users as individuals capable of complex and critical thinking whose opinions may be different than those of their parents. Adults may be less likely to object to the text if the child demonstrates an understanding of the issues.
Included in the volume are multiple appendices proving helpful background information and context. These include bibliographies to enable readers to learn more, including Resources for Teaching Young Readers about the First Amendment and Bibliography: Professional Resources about Book Censorship and the Freedom to Read. There is also a comprehensive list of the Ranking of Children’s and Young Adult Books in the Top 100 Most Banned or Challenged Books List: 2000-2009. Lastly, there are appendices outlining specific children’s book categories and why they have been challenged, including Children’s Classics such as E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (challenged because “talking animals are blasphemous”); Caldecott Medal and Honor Books such as Maurice Sendak’s 1964 Caldecott Medal Winner Where The Wild Things Are (challenged for being “dark & frightening”) and Newbery Medal and Honor Books such as Sharon Creech’s 1995 Newbery Medal Winner Walk Two Moons (challenged for being “depressing”).
Ms Scales clearly states that Books Under Fire “[…] is meant to be a resource for librarians and teachers for their own personal growth, and to use as a tool to help young readers become aware of the social issues that are most often at the center of the majority of book challenges for children”. With that in mind, this book will be most useful for librarians who work extensively with children, including those in public and school libraries. Academic librarians working with library schools who are preparing school media and public librarians, as well as those working in universities with juvenile literature programmes, programmes related to intellectual freedom and censorship and Pre-K through 12-teacher preparation programmes, will also find this to be a relevant and well-organized resource.
