1. Banned Books

2. #1!

3. The rest of the top ten for 2013

4. Others!

5. Some reasons for book challenges

6. American Library Association
“No matter how well intentioned, the practice of censorship limits the freedom of others to choose what they read, see, or hear.”
American Library Association
Sex, profanity, and racism remain the primary categories of objections; and most challenges occur in schools and school libraries. Challenges are often motivated by the desire to protect children…children can also be motivated to protect their parents from knowledge they consider harmful. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in Texas v. Johnson said, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”

7. censorship

8. The First Amendment
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceable to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, 1791.
Not until the 1920’s did the courts and citizens take all parts of the amendment seriously. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, “Freedom for the thought that we hate.”

9. Historic cases
Even “children have first amendment rights” Freedom to read is essential of our democracy. Books are among our greatest instruments of freedom. Library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves.
1924
1939

10. “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
Ray Bradbury, 1993
“dirty talk”, smoking cigarettes,” use of God’s name in vain”