It's Perfectly Normal Tops List of Most Challenged Books
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ISSN 0028-9485 May 2006 Vol. LV No. 3 www.ala.org/nif One of the most frequently challenged authors of the past decade has two books on the American Library Association’s (ALA) list of the most frequently challenged books of 2005. Robie H. Harris’s It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health heads the list, while It’s So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families rounds out the top ten. Both books drew complaints for sexual content. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received a total of 405 challenges last year. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school request‑ ing that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. The majority of It’s Perfectly challenges are reported by public libraries, schools and school libraries. According to Judith F. Krug, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, the Normal tops number of challenges reflects only incidents reported, and for each reported, four or five list of most likely remain unreported. The “Ten Most Challenged Books of 2005” reflect a range of themes. The books are: challenged l It’s Perfectly Normal for homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, books abortion and being unsuited to age group; l Forever, by Judy Blume, for sexual content and offensive language; l The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, for sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group; l The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier, for sexual content and offensive language; l Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher, for racism and offensive language; l Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds, for sexual content; l What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones, for sexual content and being unsuited to age group; (continued on page 119) Published by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, Kenton L. Oliver, Chair Disney’s Christmas Storybook .......................................127 in this issue Eye of the Warlock .........................................................128 Forever ...........................................................................117 It’s Perfectly Normal tops most challenged list .............117 Game of Shadows ..........................................................162 The Guy Book ................................................................129 Bush signs PATRIOT Act renewal ................................119 The Handmaid’s Tale .....................................................154 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .......................127 Connecticut librarian still John Doe ..............................120 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ................................132 It’s Perfectly Normal ......................................................117 It’s So Amazing! .............................................................117 opponents of “academic bill of rights” form coalition ..121 Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story ............................153 Urban Legends ...............................................................130 holocaust denier imprisoned ..........................................123 The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends ...130 Welcome to the USA: California....................................128 Cuban scholars barred again ..........................................124 Whale Talk .....................................................................117 What My Mother Doesn’t Know ....................................117 EPA to close library network and catalog ......................124 periodicals clergy supports evolution ...............................................125 Badger Herald [U of Wisconsin] ..................................135 Daily Illini [U of Illinois] ..............................................134 Madison Award ..............................................................125 The Innovator [Governors State U] ...............................137 Harvard Salient [Harvard U] .........................................134 PEN/Newman’s Own Award .........................................126 Lancaster Intelligencer Journal ....................................165 Outlook Weekly ..............................................................130 censorship dateline: libraries, schools, student press, colleges and universities, broadcasting, film and video foreign .....................................................................127 Beyond the PATRIOT Act ...............................................129 Who’s Afraid of Opera? .................................................132 from the bench: U.S. Supreme Court, schools, government surveillance, Internet, publishing ...........137 broadcasting The Bedford Diaries .......................................................136 is it legal?: libraries, government surveillance, The Blues ........................................................................157 government secrecy, colleges and universi‑ Las Vegas .......................................................................158 ties, church and state, newspapers, political The Surreal Life 2 ..........................................................157 expression ...............................................................145 Without a Trace ..................................................... 157, 159 success stories: library, schools, colleges and universities ..............................................................153 Views of contrubutors to the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom are not necessarily those of the editors, the Intellectual Freedom Committee, or the American Library Association. (ISSN 0028-9485) targets of the censor Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom is published bimonthly (Jan., Mar., books May, July, Sept., Nov.) by the American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. The newsletter is also available online Alligators in the Sewer ..................................................130 at www.ala.org/nif. Subscriptions: $70 per year (print), which includes And Tango Makes Three ................................................129 annual index; $50 per year (electronic); and $85 per year (both print Captain Underpants series .............................................119 and electronic). For multiple subscriptions to the same address, and for back issues, please contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom at 800- The Catcher in the Rye ..................................................117 545-2433, ext. 4223 or [email protected]. Editorial mail should be addressed The Chocolate War ........................................................117 to the Office of Intellectual Freedom, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, Illinois 60611. Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL at additional mailing Crazy Lady! ....................................................................119 offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Newsletter on Detour for Emmy ...........................................................117 Intellectual Freedom, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. 118 Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom President Bush signs PATRIOT Previously, on February 16, the Senate voted for cloture Act renewal (96 Yeas to 3 Neas with 1 not voting) on the PATRIOT Act renewal. The vote for cloture ended the debate on the With just two more votes than needed to meet a required Senate floor over disputed provisions of the Act in favor of two‑thirds majority, the House reauthorized the USA the compromise legislation that added limited civil liber‑ PATRIOT Act March 7, approving by a vote of 280–138 ties protections to the law. Sens. Feingold (D‑WI), Byrd amendments passed a week earlier by the Senate by a vote (D‑WV), and Jeffords (I‑VT) voted against cloture, and Sen of 89–10 to a bill revising the original act. President Bush Vitter (R‑LA) did not vote. signed the legislation March 9, a day before sixteen provi‑ Sen. Feingold said of the compromise, “The modifica‑ sions of the original bill were set to expire. tions to the conference report agreed to by the White House “Today marks, sadly, a missed opportunity to protect do contain one other purported change to one of the NSL both the national security needs of this country and the statutes. This modification states that the FBI cannot issue rights and freedoms of its citizens,” commented Sen. Russ an NSL for transactional and subscriber information about Feingold (D‑WI), who led a December filibuster to block telephone and Internet usage to a library unless the library renewal, in a March 9 statement. “I vow to redouble my is offering ‘electronic communication services’ as defined efforts to bring back the safeguards that the entire Senate in the statute. But that just restates the existing require‑ agreed to last summer and enact the further safeguards con‑ ments of the NSL statute, which currently applies only to tained in the bipartisan SAFE Act.” entities—libraries or otherwise—that provide ‘electronic American Library Association President Michael communication services.’ So that provision has no real Gorman criticized the act’s renewal in a March 7 state‑ legal effect whatsoever. Perhaps that explains why the ment. “The American Library Association has been in the American Library Association issued a statement calling forefront of the battle to reform sections of the PATRIOT this provision a ‘fig leaf’ and expressing disappointment Act in order to restore privacy protections to the mil‑ that so many Senators have agreed to this deal.” lions of people who rely on America’s libraries,” Gorman After