Banned In West Bend 

Is a website dedicated to keeping censorship out of public libraries.

Banned in West Bend seeks to provide information and links to resources in order to empower elected officials, librarians, and the general public who are resisting challenges to library books and other attempts at censorship.

Use the Navigation Bar on the left to find information on:

How to Fight Censorship Attempts

What the Law Says About Censorship and Free Speech

My Favorite Banned Book

Links to useful online resources

Recent Book Challenges In the News

• New York, May 2010.  The Post-Journal reported on May 12^th that a parent has challenged Go Ask Alice, a Young Adult novel first published in 1971.  The book was going to be used in anti-drug sections of 7^th- and 8^th-grade health classes at the Thomas Jefferson middle school in Jamestown.  Pending formal paperwork, a review committee will be formed to make recommendations.  Frequently challenged, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered this book returned to school library shelves in the famous Board of Education v. Pico decision (1982).

• New Hampshire, May 2010.  A parent at the Pennichuck Middle School in Nashua has challenged the availability in the school library of the Young Adult horror novel Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story,  by Mary Downing Hahn. The Nashua Telegraph reports that the parent's complaint is that the book's themes include spiritualism, talking with the dead, and "that a part of the body survives after death and that you can communicate with it."  The newspaper quotes a representative of the American Library Association as explaining that the last challenge to this book took place 14 years ago, at least in terms of challenges for which the ALA has documentation.

• Tennessee, May 2010.  The somewhat chastened Knox County school board voted May 5th to retain the biology textbook Asking About Life, according to volunteerTV.com.  The father of a high school student challenged the textbook because it described the Genesis creation story as a "biblical myth,"  and appealed a review committee's decision to retain the book. The board expects to replace the textbook the next time funding becomes available, but will not drop the book earlier than that.  The board asked the school superintendent to write a letter to the publisher, "explaining their disagreement with the word 'myth.'"  The Book-challenger plans to appeal again.

• New Jersey, May 2010.  The school board running the Rancocas Valley Regional high school has banned Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology.  The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the board voted to "pull" the book from the "high school library shelves".  In the same challenge, brought by the conservative 9.12 group, the board also considered Love and Sex: 10 Stories of Truth; and The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities. The board voted to retain these titles. 

• Missouri, April 2010. KSPR News reports that the Stockton School Board decided to remove Sherman Alexei's Young Adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, after a parent complained about violence, language, and some sexual content.  The novel won a National Book Award in 2007.

• Chicago, April 2010. The American Library Association has released its latest lists of frequently banned and challenged books. See  the Top 10 for 2009 and Top 100 for 2000-2009.  The newest additions include Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, and Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. 

• Wisconsin, April 2010.  A parent challenged  Sonya Sones' Young Adult novel One of those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies at the library in a 6th-8th grade school in Fond du Lac. A review committee recommended that the book be retained, but the parent appealed that decision to the board.  On April 12th the board voted to uphold the decision of the review committee and to retain the book.   At least two titles in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series were added late to the challenge, and are still under consideration.

• Florida, March 2010. Augusten Burroughs' memoir Running With Scissors, a New York Times bestseller, has been banned and restricted in some high schools in the Hillsborough County school district.    

• California, March 2010. Debate continues over access restrictions to major American writer Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in the Ocean View school district in Huntington Beach. 

• Wisconsin, March 2010.  Paint Me Like I Am, an anthology of poems written by and for teens, was challenged at the North Fond du Lac school district.  

• Floriday, February 2010. Judy Blume's Forever challenged in the Monroe County school district. 

• Virginia, January 2010. Dunderhead administrators within the Culpeper County public schools threatened to drop from the curriculum the Definitive Edition of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, an internationally acclaimed book used in eighth-grade curricula in most of America.

• California, January 2010. Fully brain-dead officials at the Menifee Union School District in Riverside County actually removed copies of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary from elementary school classrooms, because the dictionary defined objectionable terms.  They returned the books under pressure of world-wide ridicule. 

• Oklahoma, January 2010.  Children's book Buster's Sugartime challenged at the Union public school district because some rabbit families included in the story have two mothers.  

• California, January 2010.  A Santa Rosa school board voted unanimously to retain T.C. Boyle's Tortilla Curtain in high school curricula.  The novel is about Mexican immigrants in California, and is on an approved high school reading list maintained by the state's department of education.  A parent objected to the book because of sex, language, and racial relations. A review committee recommended retaining the book.  

Click on the image to see a Google map of book challenges maintained by the American Library Association.

This website began in July of 2009 in response to a particularly egregious attempt at library censorship at the public library in West Bend, Wisconsin.  In the process of responding to that book challenge, I had to study library procedures and ethics, and aspects of Free Speech law.   In November of 2009  this site was reorganized to document what I've learned and make that information available to anyone fighting attempts at library censorship in their area.