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Banned Books Week in O'Hara raises awareness of censorship
Wednesday, October 03, 2001 By Rick Nowlin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
To get children to really want something, tell them they're not allowed to have it.
That was the idea behind a scavenger hunt called "Find the Forbidden Books" last week at Lauri Ann West Memorial Library in O'Hara.
The library welcomed children in grades six and up to participate in a hunt for 10 books, scattered about the library, that have been pulled from library shelves in the past because of their controversial content.
The event was in celebration of Banned Books Week, which took place nationwide Sept. 22-29.
Clue sheets offered hints on the identity and location of the books, which were covered in silver wrapping paper with the word "Forbidden" taped to the spines. Participants pulled stickers from the books and stuck them to their clue sheets to prove they'd found them.
The American Library Association and the American Booksellers Association started Banned Books Week "about 20 years ago" as a protest against censorship, said Melanie Moore, director of the library's young adult section.
Public libraries and schools have long received complaints about some books made available to children and youth, for various reasons. The best-known, perhaps, is Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," considered a classic by many scholars but offensive to a number of parents for its depictions of African Americans and the language used to describe them.
Other books that were part of the hunt included poet Maya Angelou's autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," deemed offensive because of a rape scene and resultant vigilante justice; and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling, which critics say promotes witchcraft.
"People have been very interested, but we haven't had any complaints," Moore said. "We knew that probably wouldn't happen here."
The scavenger hunt was not just about controversial books -- it was also to show off the library's new young adult room, which opened last week.
"This is the first year we've had young adult programs," Moore said. "We've had them for adults and kids, but not young adults."
Conor Ryan of Aspinwall, a sixth-grader at Dorseyville Middle School who participated in the scavenger hunt on Thursday, said he'd read half the books on the "banned" list.
He said he's glad he did. "I find personally no reason to ban them," he said. "I thought they were all good books."
Other books on the list included "Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger; "The Giver," by Lois Lowry; "The Outsiders," by S.E. Hinton; "A Light in the Attic," by Shel Silverstein; "The Witches," by Roald Dahl; "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee; and "Christine," by Stephen King.
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