Core collection: censorship and young readers.(Censorship)(Adolescent Rights: Are Young People Equal under the Law?)(Censorship on the Internet: From Filters to Freedom of Speech)(A Kids' Guide to America's Bill of Rights: Curfews, Censorship, and the 100-Pound Giant)(Fahrenheit 451)(The Sledding Hill)(The Year They Burned the Books)(Memoirs of a Bookbat)(Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers)(Adam Canfield of the Slash)(Children's Review)(Book Review)

Publication: Booklist

Publication Date: 01-AUG-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 American Library Association

As Banned Books Week approaches (September 24-October 1), I am reminded of a conversation I had at a past American Association of School Librarians conference in Birmingham, Alabama. A school librarian said, "I spend my entire day trying to keep kids from reading Harry Potter." I was shocked. I had just that morning been a guest on a talk radio show in California where I defended Harry Potter and other books that had recently been challenged throughout the nation. The idea that a librarian would spend time discouraging kids from reading any book was beyond my understanding. Isn't it our role to encourage reading?

Several years after I overheard that librarian, a principal and superintendent in Arkansas tried to accomplish the same thing. They did it by placing the Harry Potter books on a restricted bookshelf and requiring that students have parental permission to read them. One lucky fourth-grader had parents who recognized that their child's right to read was being violated, and they challenged the administrators in federal court. The parents won the case, and the administrators were ordered to return the books to the library so...

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