David Rigsby Rigsby is a second-year
political science student who encourages Muggles to broaden their
minds. You can reach him at [email protected]. Click
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All right, as embarrassing as this might be, I’ll admit
it. Over this past summer I gave in to temptation and actually read
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the
first installment of the popular children’s book series by
J.K. Rowling.
The only reason I can give as to why I started reading the book
was that it was right in front of me; my 11-year-old sister left it
out on the coffee table. But I can give many reasons why I finished
the book. The most important of those reasons is that Rowling was
able to accomplish what very few authors have been able to do for
me recently, and that is to be able to transport me back in time to
my childhood.
As I read about Harry’s adventures at Hogwarts, his school
for wizardry, I remembered the imaginary adventures of my youth to
places like Oz, Narnia, Gotham City and Wonderland, just to name a
few. But my story is not unique. Over the past year, millions of
college students, adults, parents, grandparents, and, yes, even
children, have been pouring into libraries and bookstores to get
their hands on the Harry Potter series. Immediately after reading
the first book, I was convinced that the young wizard had been able
to save the printed word with one swoosh of his magic wand. Rowling
did the near-impossible ““ she lured a whole new generation
into a world of chapters and subplots.
My interest in Harry Potter grew so much that I would take time
out from my online clicking and page turning to read hype articles
about the author and the popularity of the series. One article that
I came across was from the Associated Press (Sept. 19, 2000). The
article focused on a set of statistics that the American Library
Association released just prior to the 20th annual Banned Books
Week, which ran this year from September 23-30. The ALA, the
American Booksellers Association and the American Society of
Journalists and Authors were among the sponsors.
 Illustration by CASEY CROWE/Daily Bruin Half of me was
surprised to read about how the Harry Potter series had topped the
list of books that parents wanted removed from library shelves in
1999. But then, the other half of me had been expecting a negative
backlash to happen sooner.
Religious groups are up in arms because, apparently, the books
are confusing children’s senses of what is real and what is
not. Now, I thought that the purpose of the fantasy genre was to
stretch our imaginations into new dimensions. Action against the
Potter series has already been taken in a public school in
Bridgeport Township, Mich., because of the “themes of
witchcraft and wizardry.”
The AP article prompted me to visit the ALA’s Web site
(www.ala.org). At the Web site, I
looked over the list of the 100 books that received the most
complaints supporting their removal from library shelves in the
’90s. On this list, the Potter series ranks 48th. Even though
the ALA refers to the list as the “Top 100 Banned
Books,” not all of the books are actually banned. The ALA
refers to the books as “challenged,” which is just an
attempt to remove or restrict materials. Banning is an actual
removal of those materials. Even though the list includes books for
the old and young, children’s (and teens’) books took
most of the slots, including the top ten.
Judith Krug, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual
Freedom, reports that about five percent of all challenges lead to
a book being banned. “Usually when the rest of the community
hears about a complaint, it speaks out in support of keeping the
book,” she said in the article. The ALA reports on their Web
site that more than 5,000 complaints were recorded at school and
public libraries in the 1990s. The number of complaints against
listed books has decreased slightly over the years, “because
a lot of people are now spending more time thinking about Internet
content,” Krug said. Books being “sexually
explicit” was the most common objection raised at libraries,
followed by their being “unsuited to age group” and
having “occult theme or promoting the occult or
Satanism.” Other objections included violence, promotion of
same-sex relationships, racism and anti-family values.
Some of the books that made the list shocked me. “James
and the Giant Peach” by Roald Dahl was ranked 50th, and it
remains one of my favorite books. When I was in the fourth grade,
Dahl was able to excite my imagination with images of man-sized
insects, house-sized peaches, and the giant-sized heart of a child.
So what if James was a mistreated orphan? So what if the bugs might
not have gotten along all the time? That’s what made the book
seem real. James didn’t live in a perfect world; we
don’t live in a perfect world. But hey, that doesn’t
mean that we still can’t believe in a little magic now and
then.
The article gave specific reasons why some of the books were
removed from library shelves. In 1997, the superintendent of the
Marysville Joint Unified School District in California banned
“Catcher in the Rye” “so that we didn’t
have polarization over a book.” Harper Lee’s “To
Kill a Mockingbird” was removed in 1996 from an advanced
placement English reading list in Lindale, Tex., because it
“conflicted with the values of the community.”
“Scary Stories” by Alvin Schwartz was ranked at the top
of the list. One complaint from the school district in Campbell
County, Wyo., said the books made kids believe that “ghosts
are actually possible.”
I don’t understand why parents feel the need to go after
literature when it conflicts with the particular set of beliefs
that they are instilling in their children. Shouldn’t parents
grasp the opportunity to discuss the particular book with their
child and show the child why the book might be objectionable, or
“wrong?” Betsy Hearne, in “Choosing Books for
Children: A Common Sense Guide,” writes, “It’s a
lot more effective to express reasoned opinions of what (children
are) reading, than to hide or confiscate books.” If we
confront the differences between fantasy and reality, and compare
one belief system and another with our children when they are at a
young age, aren’t we making it easier for them to understand
what they believe in?
I wonder why it is that parents are more willing to go to a
school board meeting and complain about a book than to sit down and
take a more active role in their child’s education by
discussing schoolwork with them. And, I am sensitive to situations
where it might be against a child’s religion to read a
certain book. A simple solution is to request an alternate
assignment.
Libraries and bookstores across the country have been encouraged
by the ALA to put “banned” children’s books on
display for children and parents to see. The next time you have
time to do some recreational reading, take advantage of it by
reading a book on the list. Who knows, it might be your last
chance.