Tag Archives: Book Banning

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Politics, Web & Technology

Book ban efforts by conservative parents take aim at library apps | NBC News

Campaigns that started with criticizing school board members and librarians have turned their attention to tech companies such as OverDrive and Epic, which operated for years without drawing much controversy.

By David Ingram, May 12, 2022

Kim Hough watches as her 12-year-old son, Ethan, and her 9-year-old daughter, Emelia, browse book selections on the Epic app at their home in Melbourne, Fla., on May 6. Jacob M. Langston for NBC News

E-reader apps that became lifelines for students during the pandemic are now in the crossfire of a culture war raging over books in schools and public libraries.

In several states, apps and the companies that run them have been targeted by conservative parents who have pushed schools and public libraries to shut down their digital programs, which let users download and read books on their smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Some parents want the apps to be banned for their children or even for all students. And they’re getting results.

A school superintendent in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, pulled his system’s e-reader offline for a week last month, cutting access for 40,000 students, after a parent searched the Epic library available on her kindergartner’s laptop and found books supporting LGBTQ pride.

Source: Book ban efforts by conservative parents take aim at library apps

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Libraries, Politics, Web & Technology

Book banning is one step away from book burning | Editorial – Sun Sentinel

By Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Apr 14, 2022 at 3:52 pm

On May 10 in Berlin’s Opera Square, students burned any books deemed “un-German” to align the arts and culture of Germany with Nazi ideals. Over 25,000 books were burned in bonfires throughout Germany, including author Helen Keller’s work on the rights of people with disabilities and Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild.”
(Keystone // Getty Images)

The book-burning began only 100 days after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933.

Torchlight parades in 34 university towns led to bonfires where more than 25,000 volumes went up in flames for being “un-German.”

Among them were the works of Germans Thomas Mann, a Nobel-prize winner and anti-Nazi; Erich Maria Remarque, the anti-war author of All Quiet on the Western Front; and the 19th century Jewish-born poet Heinrich Heine, who had written prophetically, “Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people.”

American writers Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway and even Helen Keller were among the verboten.

Source: Book banning is one step away from book burning | Editorial – Sun Sentinel

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics

There’s new pressure to ban books at schools : NPR

Attempts to remove books from school libraries have increased, spurred by activism from conservative parent groups and resistance to teaching socially progressive ideas in schools.

December 6, 20215:10 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition

By Nomin Ujiyediin

Photo by Rachel Claire on Pexels.com

TRANSCRIPT:

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Attempts to ban books in schools are as old as books themselves. But there’s new momentum on book bans now that’s driven by conservative activists targeting local school boards. Nomin Ujiyediin of member station KCUR in Kansas City reports.

NOMIN UJIYEDIIN, BYLINE: Books about LGBTQ issues and race have spurred more conservative activism against school boards in recent months. It’s often the same books that are challenged, like “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins, because they deal directly with issues of sex, racism, violence and drugs. One group leading challenges calls itself No Left Turn in Education. It publishes lists of books and guides to help activists complain to their school boards. Andy Wells heads the Missouri chapter. He considers books like “The Bluest Eye” to be pornographic and argues they shouldn’t be in schools.

Source: There’s new pressure to ban books at schools : NPR

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Politics, Times They Are A-Changing

Letters: What Ray Bradbury has to teach about banning books – Chicago Tribune

By Chicago Tribune | Nov 29, 2021 at 3:44 PM

Photo by Joy Marino on Pexels.com

In agreeing with the editorial about book banning in school libraries (“Book banning at school libraries blinkers children in the worst way,” Nov. 28), we turn to Waukegan-born Ray Bradbury who wrote “Fahrenheit 451,” the classic novel about firefighters whose job is to start fires — to burn books — not put them out. Bradbury wouldn’t have been surprised that banning books is still in the news. At the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum in Waukegan, visitors including students dive into book banning through an exhibit that honors the novel. It displays banned and challenged book titles submitted by people from all over the country.

Source: Letters: What Ray Bradbury has to teach about banning books – Chicago Tribune