Khaled Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner was listed as one of the one hundred most banned or challenged books of 2009. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check-out this book for myself to learn why it made the list. My professor for LIS 6510 required us to read an insightful article, Where Is Judy Blume by Ann Curry. The article discusses controversial fiction for older children and young adults. Specifically, the article is discussing different ways libraries go about censoring materials for younger patrons. Canadian libraries transferred controversial books from one section to another, while British libraries transferred the books to another branch (Curry, 2001).
According to one Canadian librarian, if you keep a targeted book in the same place, it just infuriates the complainant every time she comes into the library (Curry, 2001). If a young person really wants that particular YA book, he’ll find it. So it doesn’t really matter if it’s in the reference section, the adult section, or the teen section (Curry, 2001). The important thing is that we have the book, not where it is in the library (Curry, 2001). Meaning, it’s acceptable to remove a fairly popular and controversial novel from the teen section and place it in closed stacks instead?
Now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with The Kite Runner. After a little research, I discovered that libraries in my community may be guilty of practicing similar censorship methods by relocating or transferring controversial materials. Since there were multiple listings found for this book at different libraries/branches, the collection/section findings will be compiled and examined next week.
To Be Continued....
References
Curry, A. (2001). Where is Judy Blume? Controversial fiction for older children and young adults. Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, 14 (3), 28-37.
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