The Book Will Provide
On Banned Books Week and a Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
Banned Books Week began this past Sunday. It's a week dedicated to raising awareness of the growing number of book bans and challenges and a celebration of the freedom to read. Banned Books Week shouldn't need to exist, but it does, and it's more important than ever.
The American Library Association recently released a report about the rise in challenges, saying:
"Between January 1 and August 31, 2023, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) reported 695 attempts to censor library materials and services and documented challenges to 1,915 unique titles. The number of unique titles challenged has increased by 20 percent from the same reporting period in 2022, the year in which the highest number of book challenges occurred since ALA began compiling this data more than 20 years ago."
An article in the Washington Post points out that "just 11 people filed 60 percent of all book challenges issued in the entire United States during the 2021-2022 school year." I couldn't believe it when I read that number. 11 people. Many of the challenges that are being filed are brought by those who believe they're protecting children. Parents have every right to decide what content their child reads, but they shouldn't get to determine what your child gets to read. If just 11 people can cause 60 percent of all book challenges in a year, imagine what we could do if we tried protecting children from things that actually hurt them daily, like bullying, food insecurity, and gun violence. Kids face threats all the time, but they're not coming from library books.
Librarian Jo Godwin said, "A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.” When I worked for a public library, books on satanism and the occult were directly across from Bibles and books about Christianity. Books by authors claiming the occupant of the White House was destroying the country shared a shelf with books by authors who were sure the occupant of the White House was saving the country. Fifty Shades of Gray might be neighbors with a chaste Amish romance. Libraries are full of books that disagree with each other, and that's how it should be in a free society.
Censorship hurts everyone. If you're the person who believes certain books shouldn't be on library shelves, challenging those books is the surest way to get people interested in reading them. If you're counting on the library for books in which to see yourself represented, censorship means that you might never have the opportunity to read about characters who validate your worthiness. You cannot force opinions or beliefs on another person, yet we sure try to sometimes. And in that process, we can hurt the most vulnerable among us who are already marginalized.
As I thought about Banned Books Week and what it means to me, I reread the following poem by the wonderful Naomi Shihab Nye.
“Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things”
She is holding the book close to her body,
carrying it home on the cracked sidewalk,
down the tangled hill.
If a dog runs at her again, she will use the book as a shield.She looked hard among the long lines
of books to find this one.
When they start talking about money,
when the day contains such long and hot places,
she will go inside.
An orange bed is waiting.
Story without corners.
She will have two families.
They will eat at different hours.She is carrying a book past the fire station
and the five and dime.What this town has not given her
the book will provide; a sheep,
a wilderness of new solutions.
The book has already lived through its troubles.
The book has a calm cover, a straight spine.When the step returns to itself,
as the best place for sitting,
and the old men up and down the street
are latching their clippers,she will not be alone.
She will have a book to open
and open and open.
Her life starts here.
That last line gets me each time I read this poem. How many of us had part of our lives begin at the library? Our curiosity? Our passion? How many of us have held a library book close to our chest, excited about the adventure inside its pages? The girl in this poem makes me think of many patrons and students I've encountered throughout my years of library work. I remember a little kid running into the public library, yelling, "I love the library!" I remember a teen stopping me in a high school hallway and reading aloud a passage he loved from a book he borrowed from the school library. I love the line "story without corners" because it brings to mind the endless inspiration and wisdom books can offer readers of all ages.
I've discovered so much beauty in the library. I've tried my best to offer the same opportunities for wonder and knowledge to the students I serve. This Banned Books Week, I'm more thankful than ever for the freedom to read. I'm thankful for a mom who took me to the library at least once a week growing up and who read a small pile of books to me each night before bed. I'm thankful for a school district and board that values diversity and equity. I'm thankful for the many unread books I have at home that contain ideas and worlds I've yet to discover.
I hope all of us can find ourselves reflected in the pages of a book. Censorship is fear coming to life, and I don't wish a fearful life on anyone. May we not be afraid of what books hold inside them but be inspired by the opportunity to learn and imagine.
What does the library mean to you? I’d love to hear your stories. As always, thanks for reading.
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Thanks for this!