By “Ms. Smith”, School Librarian, Southwestern U.S.
“Why do you love banned books?” – 3rd grade students
During library classes, the most common questions I receive at my circulation desk are in reference to my “I ♥ Banned Books” plaque. I always respond with some variation of “I believe everyone should be able to read whatever they want,” or “Banned books are great books!” This draws puzzled looks and sometimes the reply “But they are BANNED!” As a service provider for an elementary library, these questions were the impetus behind my passive library display for Banned Book Week (October 5-11th, 2024). The response the display garnered was both more basic and more in-depth than I had planned for and will guide my displays going forward in the coming years.
My first step was to have a conversation with my principal about the display to make sure we were both on the same page. They asked what the purpose of the display was and gave me some possible student responses that might be problematic regarding the topic. Knowing I had their approval made setting up the display less nerve-wracking and their questions helped guide me in how I would address students.
I began by selecting all the picture books that had been challenged nationwide and making sure I had duplicate copies. All books that had duplicate copies or were from my personal collection, went in our locked glass display case. If it did not have a duplicate copy, it went on the windowsill/table displays so students could access and check them out of the library. My goal was complete access while highlighting the titles so students could question the reasons behind their challenges.
After I had set them all up, I came up with an eye-catching idea that would garner interest and hopefully spark conversations with students. I borrowed caution tape from our custodians and draped it over the display case and bunted it under the books on the table and windowsills.
For our read aloud selections I included This Book is Banned (Haldar, 2023) in the set of books that students vote from. Each class selected the same book (I suspect because of the unicorn on the front cover) and the concept was grasped by about half the student body.
The caution tape created so many questions; it was almost too hard to keep up with the students. What had started as a passive display ended up requiring introduction and discussion for us to be able to move on with the library checkout procedures in a timely fashion. The most common responses I received from students were:
“I have that book at home, does that mean I can’t read it?”
“Can we check these out?”
“But I love Dr. Seuss!”
Each of these responses I addressed with the reassurance that the books were challenged throughout history into today, but none were banned in our district. I found myself repeating “Have I ever told you that you can’t check something out of the library?” All students are allowed to check out every book in the library, so long as it meets or challenges their reading level and their guardians have not requested any stipulations. This calmed most students’ worries about books they had at home or books they had been checking out, unaware of their status as challenged books. However, I still had students who were troubled by the fact that I personally read banned books. Others still struggled with the idea that other people had opinions about what everyone should read but that it didn’t affect what they could check out in their library.
While This Book is Banned was engaging and funny, I found most students below 2nd grade didn’t understand the message behind the funny “banning” of things like avocados and giraffes. They latched on to the illustrations and humor instead. It would require an introductory lesson for the word “banned” and its significance in the library. Due to time constraints for a school library, this would need to be a partner lesson with the classroom teacher before coming into the library for the display and book read aloud.
I believe that The King Who Banned the Dark (Howorth-Booth, 2018) may impart the message of opinions and book banning more effectively to younger students, even up to 3rd grade without an additional lesson. I plan to use this book next year to see if it answers some of the questions students had and will lead to a better understanding of the topic. Other books that would work well for Grades 4 and up would be Attack of the Black Rectangles (King, 2022), Ban This Book (Gratz, 2017), The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale (Khalil, 2023) and Banned Book (Winter, 2023).
We did see an uptick in circulation for some authors who rarely get attention such as Maurice Sendak and Ezra Jack Keats, due to their dated illustrations. Some students shopped the display purely based on the caution tape alone. Others simply weren’t interested and gravitated back to their usual Jory John or Mo Willems selections. I never got to have a conversation about the opinions behind the challenges with students. Instead, they were more focused on their ability to read or check a book out that was on a banned/challenged list. I was able to have these discussions with plenty of teachers, and it has adjusted my expectations for next year.
I hope that by repeating the display next year we can spark more meaningful conversations with our students about their right to read and hopefully give books a chance before accepting someone else’s judgement of them. I am considering sending a family introduction sheet home to guardians, for open communication and to help them be prepared for questions that may arise about their home libraries. I am still on the hunt for the perfect read aloud to address this topic, but I believe it is out there or soon to be published! In the end, the passive library display was a great learning experience for both me and the students. And yes, I still get asked “Why do you love banned books?” at least once a week.
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- Themes: Banned Books
- Descriptors: Debates & Trends, WOW Currents