9/19/99
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BANNED BOOKS and CENSORSHIP

These sites have come from the Access section of 9/19/99 Daily News

ALA: Banned Books Week - As one of the sponsors of Banned Books Week (9/25-10/2), the American Library Association has a lot to say about the subject. Few other sites support the right to read with such alacrity and fervor, supporting its argument with First Amendment court cases and quotes from noted thinkers and authors. The ALA also explains the history and purpose of Banned Books Week. Lists of the most frequently banned books and authors--Judy Blume, Maya Angelou and John Steinbeck, to name a few--are offered, as is an online form for reporting challenges to books.

- Bonfire of Liberties - This is an innovative way to learn about book banning and censorship. Step into the halls of this museum without walls to take in a visual history of the subject, complete with short captions explaining the material. Click on individual items in the collection or watch a slide show of all works--political cartoons, original book jackets from banned texts, newspaper clippings and controversial works of art. (they scrolled by too fast for me to finish reading. Maybe there's a trick to stop them.)

- ACLU: Banned Books Week - The American Civil Liberties Union's Banned Books section packs a wallop on the topic of censorship, even if the information here is from 1997. Highlights include a list of the most frequently banned or challenged books of 1997, a quiz that matches censors' comments to titles and tools for fighting censorship. You can even order banned books online. A special student section encourages students to mobilize against censorship. The ACLU pushes its agenda hard here, but the site is a good stop for anyone concerned about this subject.

- Banned Books Online - Banned Books Online has a sparse presentation but a wealth of resources. The site's creators have taken a selection of challenged books, arguably classics, and added brief summaries of the challenges against them. Each summary contains a link to the full text of the book. - The Bible, Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", Daniel Defoe's "Moll Flanders", and Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" are among the titles. (Note: A few of the links are broken.)

- Censorship and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - This teacher's curriculum guide takes a look at current and past opinions on one of the most challenged books of all time. While the resources here are good for classrooms, offering class exercises and Web resources, the site is also useful to bookworms as a case study. Banned first by the Concord (Mass.) Public Library in 1885 as "trash of the veriest sort", this classic has been criticized over the years--first for being to ardently anti-racist and then for perpetuating racism. Follow the reading and resource suggestions and decide for yourself.

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