Next week Monmouth College will join in with the American Library Association to celebrate the 25th annual Banned Books Week. Librarian Lauren Jensen encourages students and faculty to participate and “Get Hooked On A Book!” this week.

Hewes Library is offering prizes such as Frisbees and gift certificates to lucky winners of a fun book quiz. A colorful display of challenged books like “The Giver,” “Of Mice and Men” and “To Kill A Mockingbird” will also be featured for students to browse.

This week-long event is meant to encourage readers all across the country, in any level of literacy, to celebrate the freedom to unrestricted reading. Historians believe books have been challenged as far back as 450 B.C. when astronomers began to contradict traditional explanations that the gods were responsible for all things in nature.

The top two reasons why books are challenged today are based on sexual content and offensive language. There are two ways a school district, library or another avenue can restrict distribution of a book: by challenging and questioning the suitability of a book based on some measure of its content, or by actually banning and removing the book.

Susan Van Kirk, lecturer in communication and theater arts, encountered a book challenge while teaching at Monmouth High School. A student chose the book “Breakfast of Champions” by Kurt Vonnegut to read for a book report. When her parents discovered what she was reading, they called for immediate removal of the book based on its sexual content. Van Kirk allowed the student to choose another book. “I have always believed parents have the absolute right to decide what their own child will read in school,” she said. However, the student’s parents still attempted to have this and several other books removed from local libraries.

Van Kirk wrote a letter to Vonnegut about her experience and was happy to receive a response from him. “He was overjoyed to hear that he had gotten people to think and to argue and to open up their minds.”

Becky McDonald, lecturer in educational studies, agrees censorship restricts thought and believes that parents ought to read books with their children to help them understand complex themes and controversial topics. “Books should not be banned, but should be reflective for age and maturity of its intended audience,” McDonald said.

McDonald also believes when a book is banned, it is given a red flag which gathers more children to want to read it, or gives people the wrong attitude when approaching the material.

According to the American Library Association, the most controversial book of 2006 was the children’s book entitled “And Tango Makes Three.” Based on true events at the Central Park Zoo, two male penguins adopt an egg and raise it together. The book is controversial because of its homosexual content, but is also praised by many as a heartwarming story which shows a loving family making an addition.

Students are invited to drop by Hewes Library any time this week to read And Tango Makes Three as well as other many other challenged books to celebrate their right to unrestricted reading options.

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