“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but ... do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous Dragon’s teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet on the other hand unless warriors be used, as good almost kill a Man a good Book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills Reason itself, kills the Image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the Earth; but a good Book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.” Areopagitica, John Milton, 1644

“Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.” Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays on Education

Each year the American Library Association compiles a list of titles which have been challenged by school boards, religous or community groups throughout North America (See 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books). The attempt to remove these titles from school and public library shelves pits defenders of free speech and civil liberties against defenders of public morality and religious sensibilities.

Many of the titles which have been banned or challenged throughout history should give us pause. The current library exhibit highlights some controversial works which you might be aware of such as J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter And the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), or Salmon Rushdie's Satanic Verses (1988), but it might surprise you that Homer's The Odyssey, Martin Luther's Works (1517) or Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (1888) were banned and even burned by certain groups who took issue with their ideas at the time they were published. The list of books which have been banned, expurgated and burned also includes the Quran and the Tanakh.

Recent titles also include what we at Bialik High School might consider standard literary texts, such as books by Toni Morrison, Aldous Huxley, William Golding, Harper Lee, J.D.Salinger, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, etc.

• Read more about books that have been banned or challenged at the ALA Banned Books website.
• Read more about Book Burning in the 21st Century.
• Read about Destruction of Libraries.