A week for banned books

I knew books were challenged sometimes, but this week really had some interesting cases.

First, dictionaries removed from classrooms in one California school district. Apparently a parent complained because one can find definitions of words they consider "inappropriate." Personally, this just seems crazy but apparently is being discussed seriously by a panel there.

Second, a Virginia district switching to a different edition of the Diary of Anne Frank. I didn't realize there were different editions. I understand that the traditional edition is a version expurgated of certain content by Anne's father Otto. My quick thought is that if it was in Anne's original diary, then clearly it's representative of thoughts that naturally occur to kids in the 13-15 year old range. So I'm not sure I can see why someone would believe it'd be particularly traumatizing for them to read.

But I suppose the take away for me on these is that people will challenge books for reasons I just can't fathom. These are the cases that it's easy for me to oppose, but it's equally important to oppose the other cases as well. As librarians we are responsible for making information available to people and letting the accept or reject it as they will.