Banned Books Week starts Saturday

Banned Books Week, which was created by the American Library Association [1] 27 years ago, starts Saturday. The Houston Public Library is marking the occasion by having local authors read from some of the most challenged books of all time. The reading starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Central Library [2].

Each year, the ALA marks Banned Books Week by publishing a list of the most challenged books [3] of the previous year, and encouraging people to request and read those books at bookstores, public libraries and school libraries. The list is based on official challenges to the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom.

The ACLU of Texas also published an annual list [4] in conjunction with Banned Books Week detailing the most challenged books in Texas schools.

Not surprisingly, many of the books fall in the Young Adult category. Last year, for the third year in a row, the ALA's most challenged book was And Tango Makes Three [5], a children's book based on the true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who join together to care for an abandoned egg. Gay penguins, people. One of the first books on this year's list is the often heartbreaking YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian [6], challenged for a scene in which the teen-age protagonist discusses masturbation.

But even books recognized as some of the best 20th century literature are challenged [7], often with greater frequency. Novelist and Houstonian Gwendolyn Zepeda [8] will be reading from one of the most well-known banned books, which she calls a personal favorite: Catcher in the Rye [9].

"I'm going to read specifically the chapter in which Holden, the main character, gets smacked around by the pimp," she said. "That scene blew my mind the first time I read it, at 14, because up until then I'd read nothing but genre fiction from my family's bookshelves, and I'd never yet seen a rich white male protagonist go through something humiliatingly real."

Zepeda said the realism of the book helped her relate to the characters for the first time, and taught her something about writing too.

"It made me feel more legitimate as a character in the world myself," she said. "And that's taught me what honest writing can do and why it's more important than concerns about curse words or sex scenes of whatever."

Sandra Fernandez, manager of public relations for HPL, said none of the most-challenged books at HPL in the past ten years have been pulled from the shelves.

"We retained every item in this list after going through the process of reviewing the request for reconsideration," she said. "'Bones of the Earth' was moved from the young adult collection to the adult collection after review, but was kept in the library."

Following the readings, the library will host a panel called "If it's in black & white, should it be read all over?" The panel will including members of the Texas ACLU, a local bookstore owner, a pastor and a rep from Focus on the Family [10]. After the panel, at 2 p.m., the library will screen Fahrenheit 451 [11], a film version of the dystopian Ray Bradbury novel in which reading is outlawed.