Banned Books

Did you know The Giver has been challenged and even banned in some school districts? Why? Read the posts below to get a better idea of why some people say this book is not appropriate to read in school.

Assignment: Write an argument on whether this book should be banned. Use evidence

from the text to support your response.

INTERESTING DETAILS:

Natalie Babbitt of the Washington Post was more forgiving, calling Lowry's work "a warning in narrative form", saying:

The story has been told before in a variety of forms—Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 comes to mind—but not, to my knowledge, for children. It's well worth telling, especially by a writer of Lowry's great skill. If it is exceedingly fragile—if, in other words, some situations do not survive that well-known suspension of disbelief—well, so be it. The Giver has things to say that cannot be said too often, and I hope there will be many, many young people who will be willing to listen

Lois Lowry’s response: “I think banning books is a very, very dangerous thing. It takes away an important freedom. Any time there is an attempt to ban a book, you should fight it as hard as you can. It’s okay for a parent to say, ‘I don’t want my child to read this book.’ But it is not okay for anyone to try to make that decision for other people. The world portrayed in The Giver is a world where choice has been taken away. It is a frightening world. Let’s work hard to keep it from truly happening.” (Source: Lois Lowry’s Web site)

• 2001- Banned for violence, “occult themes”, and sexually explicit material.
• 2005- Challenged in Blue Springs, Missouri, when parents called the book “lewd” and “twisted.” They demanded the work be removed from 8th-grade reading lists across the district.
• 2006- Challenged, and later retained, at the Unified School District Elementary School in Seaman, Kansas.
• 2007- Parents in the Mt. Diablo School District in Concord, California, were offended by descriptions of pill-popping, suicide, and lethal injections given to babies and the elderly.
• 2008-Appalled by the descriptions of adolescent pill-popping, suicide, and lethal injections given to babies and the elderly, two parents demanded that the Mt. Diablo School District headquartered in Concord (CA) eliminate the controversial but award-winning book from the school reading lists and libraries.

The topics in Lois Lowry's The Giver have created controversy in libraries and classrooms across the country since it was first published in 1993. Parent opposition to the book's treatment of suicide and euthanasia helped it reach No. 11 on the American Library Association's list of most challenged books of the 1990s. The Newbery Medal winner was No. 10 on the last year's list, which was headed by Harry Potter. Lowry's book has been challenged in schools in at least five states since 1999, sometimes more than once. Supporters say the story of a 12-year-old boy named Jonas, who decides to escape after being allowed to see the price people pay for living in a world without war or pain, spurs students to think about important social issues and form their own opinions.

Should The Giver be banned?

WHY? Think about theme here. What message is the author trying to convey? Why would this information hurt society? Why would people want to stop the message?

PROVE IT Show me the evidence! Support your claim with examples from the book. If you are for banning the book, give reasons why and what effect they would have on society. If you think this book needs to be read, do the same thing. Give evidence of important messages found in the text.

THE POINT? Why are books banned? What are people hiding from? What is achieved if a book is forbidden? How does censorship even help? Or does it make things worse?