Introduction
Banned Books WebQuest - Introduction
Click on all the links embedded in the text to learn as you go.Did you know that every year in school districts throughout the United States books are challenged or banned. Books, like The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, and the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.In 2012 Arizona schools made the news when books were challenged for promoting ethnic resentment. Read about how defenders of our First Amendment Rights and the Daily Show responded to the ban by clicking here. Some of the books have been reinstated.
Latest targets of the censors are some of Tappan Zee High School's favorite books,, including Tanya Lee Stone's A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl (drugs, sex); John Green's Looking for Alaska (drugs, sex); Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (drugs, homosexuality); Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima (Satanism, offensive language, sex); and Jeff Smith'sBone series (political viewpoint, racism, violence). Also many books covered in the Tappan Zee High School curriculum have been banned in other school districts. Just last Fall, a non-fiction book entitled, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was targeted by a parent in Tennessee. Read about the book and the attempt to ban it here
A book about censorship, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, was censored in a very specific way. Click here to find out about it.
First, you need to find out a little bit about censorship, book banning, and the First Amendment.
Task
Step 1: After clicking on all the links in the introduction, read the information under the Process tab. Then fill in answers to questions on the handout given to you in class about banned or challenged books.
Questions:
1. What does the First Amendment guarantee?
2. For what reasons are most books banned?
3. What other reasons are given for banning boo
4. Explain the following levels of censorship: challenged, banned, expurgated, restricted.
5. For what reason was Fahrenheit 451 expurgated?
6. Why was Lord of the Flies banned?
7. In Pico vs. Island Trees, who challenged the books and who protested? What was significant about this decision?
Task 2: Pick out one book that has been on the banned books list and answer the following about the book (answer on handout from class).
Book ______________________________
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Why was your book challenged or banned?
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Was there a court case?
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What was the end result?
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Where did this take place?
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Who were the book banners?
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How did they explain their reasons?
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When did this happen?
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What was the end result?
Process
Background Information
Banned Books Week is a yearly event sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American booksellers foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Association of American Publishers. It is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress. These groups sponsor this week to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of Information in a free society.
Most books are banned for the following reasons - Sex, Profanity, and Racism.
Examples:
Other reasons are politics, non-traditional lifestyles or values, or religious content. Some books are banned or censored for a number of reasons. Find out why Lord of the Flies was challenged.
In schools, the book banners believe that they are protecting children, but in many cases they want to control the expression of an idea that may be unpopular, offensive, or disagreeable. Book banners do not just express their own point of view but ask that materials be removed from the school's curriculum or from the school library, and in effect force their point of view on others.
Levels of Censorship: When a book is challenged that means that someone has tried to restrict another person's ability to choose what to read.
If, as a result of the challenge, the book is removed, it has been banned.
Sometimes, books are expurgated. This means that portions of the book are blacked out or deleted.
Sometimes books are restricted to a certain age level or grade and students are required to have a permission slip in order to check it out.
Many of us think that book banning, book burning and censorship only happens in "other places". But there have been a number of incidents in New York, in fact one of the most famous Supreme Court Cases, Pico v. Island Trees (NY) involved book banning in Long Island New York. Of interest in this case is that school board members removed 11 books from the library in the evening, after the librarian had left for the day.
South Orangetown Central School district has a library materials selection and adoption policy that includes a statement adapted from the American Library Association Standards for School Library Programs; the Library Bill of Rights, June 27, 1967, and the Freedom to Read Statement, June 25, 1953.Look through the following websites to view past challenged books and why they were challenged. Banned Classics