We write this article in early October 2008, coincidentally the same time that the American Library Association (ALA) has, since 1982, designated a Banned Books Week. This is a time, says the ALA, to remind Americans "not to take [a] precious democratic freedom for granted"—the freedom of "unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information" (ALA, 2008, 1, 3). The ALA's expressed intent for Banned Books Week is to draw attention to First Amendment rights but also to "the power of literature...and...to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society" (ALA, 2008, 5).
Censorship occurs when published or shared works, like books, films, or art work, are dolce gabbana jewelry(http://www.dolcegabbana4sale.com) kept from public access by restriction or removal from libraries, museums, or other public venues. Though challenges or outright censorship in our school libraries or classrooms often transpire out of the noblest of reasons—most often with the idea of protecting young people from something that someone finds offensive—the ALA sees attempts at censorship, nonetheless, as attempts to restrict someone's "right to read, view, listen to, and disseminate constitutionally protected ideas" (ALA, 2007, Who Attempts Censorship section). We find such censorship of reading or viewing of materials in middle and high school classrooms disturbing and unjust to the rights of both students and teachers.
Though book banning was of some interest to us throughout our careers in public school classrooms, our recent investigations related to book banning and censorship started with a seemingly innocuous edition of a fairy tale called Briar Rose (Yolen, 1992). In Briar Rose, Yolen draws upon Grimm's familiar tale of Sleeping Beauty, but she recasts the story of the sleeping princess. In Yolen's version, the beautiful princess is a Jew who is not merely asleep, but nearly dead at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. She is saved from death by a group of partisans, all of whom are later killed except one with whom she escapes. Her companion, labeled by the other partisans as the "prince," is a gay man whose gentle friendship and care enable her to live. Yolen's masterfully told tale is by turns horrible and poignant; most important, it is grounded in researched facts and includes descriptions of atrocities and injustices suffered by Jews and homosexuals at the hands of the Nazis at Chelmno, Poland, the site of an extermination camp. It is an important story. The ALA seemed to think so; the organization named Briar Rose one of their Best Books for Young Adults in 1993 (Carter, Estes, & Waddle, 2000). The book was also a Nebula Award finalist in 1992 ("Nebula Awards," 2006) and winner of the D&G jewelry(http://www.dolcegabbanadesign.com) Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 1993 ("Mythopoeic Awards," 2008).
There are some who would have the story kept from us. On September 15, 1994, Briar Rose was burned on the steps of the Kansas City Board of Education building by the Reverend John Birmingham, a minister of the Power Connection Church, along with members of a group that he represented, the Christian Act Now Coalition. Claiming that Briar Rose is a gay-themed book and grouping it with another book about gay men and women and a third book about AIDS, the protesters burned all three books because they saw the topics of homosexuality in the books as dangerous and potentially mind polluting (Barnett, 1994). Birmingham and his followers used a hibachi to "barbecue" Briar Rose and the two other books in Kansas City. What was the point of using the hibachi we wondered? An easy clean up Perhaps a subconscious acknowledgment that books really are forms of nourishment In any case, the ironic juxtaposition of the burning of Briar Rose with the book burnings carried out by the Nazis and, especially, with the use of fire to destroy the Jews and homosexuals at camps like Chelmno did not, of course, escape us.
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