More than 2,000 years ago, Chinese emperor Shi Huang Ti had an idea to have history begin with his birth. In 212 B.C., during the Qin dynasty in China, he buried alive nearly 500 scholars as a way to control what history was being recorded during his rule. He then burned all the books in his kingdom, keeping only a single copy of each one in the royal library. All of this was done as a ploy to have history start with him.
Although we may not have an emperor like Shi Huang Ti, we are still banning and removing books from communities around the world. In the United States, the top ten reasons why books were banned in 2020 were because of sexual content (92.5% of books on the list), offensive language (61.5%), unsuited for an age group (49%), had a disagreeable religious viewpoint (26%), included LGBTQ+ content (23.5%), violence (19%), racism (16.5%), use of illegal substances (12.5%), “anti-family” content (7%), and being in relation to a certain political viewpoint (6.5%), according to the First Amendment Museum.
Despite this, Dr. Georgina Trebbe, the head librarian at Minnechaug Regional High School, has not had any book challenges.
“There have been no book challenges at Minnechaug,” Trebbe said. She said she wonders why some places choose certain books to be removed. “I grapple with the fact of why those books are chosen.”
By the end of 2023, the most commonly banned books from public libraries were stories with LGBTQ+ topics, themes, or characters. That is shown as the most banned book of the year was Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, being banned 56 times with 150 challenges, according to the Los Angeles Times. According to Amazon Books, Gender Queer is about “a young person grappling with how to come out to family and society.”
This book was followed up by All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. “In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia,” according to Amazon Books.
The third most banned book was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The Bluest Eyes, however, was voted by Parade Magazine as the best book of all time and was written by a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Telling the story of an eleven-year-old Black girl, the novel explores “a powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtlety and grace,” according to Amazon Books.
When it comes to selecting books for the school library, Trebbe said her job as a librarian is to support the school curriculum “and then ensure our students have representative literature that they can get at any time. In the library we need to reflect our student community and what their needs are,” she said.
Although Minnechaug doesn’t have any banned books, Trebbe said she is selective when it comes to books she chooses. “So, are there books that I don’t bring in, because I feel like they’re not appropriate for high school? That would be yes. So we don’t see Colleen Hoover.”
Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, is known for her new adult and romance novels such as “It Ends With Us,” “Verity,” and “Reminders of Him,” which all contain sexually explicit content.
Books such as these, specifically in the new adult genre, are commonly liked by teens in high school, similar to how young adult books (YA) are often liked by middle schoolers. Trebbe found that students often like to read books that are read by their older counterparts, even if the book doesn’t suit their age demographic.
Books that teens like, however, such as those in the young and new adult genre, don’t always make their way to Chaugs’ library on popularity alone.
Trebbe said she chooses books based on their literary value. “Just because something is YA and popular doesn’t mean that it’s a good literature base,” she said. “Literature base” implies that the book could be analyzed by students as instructed by a teacher.
Regarding the town’s local library, Trebbe spoke of how they were run a bit differently than the high school. “They have a different calling. They’re there for every citizen no matter what. I have a different calling, where it’s the curriculum first and then the community of the students second,” she said. “I would really like student voice here, so you help me choose books, and you help me decide some of the policies we have here. Students should have a say in how the library is run.”
At the Wilbraham Public Library, Ms. Mary Bell, the assistant library director, talked about what book bannings were like in their library, and how book bannings would have to go through the director, Karen Ball, before being taken out of their shelves.
However, on one instance, a person had talked with her and the trustees about having all the LGBTQ+ books be moved to their own section, only going out to someone under 18 with parental permission; however, this request was denied and nothing was changed.
For reference, the public library contains all three of 2023’s most banned books either in physical, digital, or audio form. “I think a variety of things should be available.” Ms. Bell said. “It’s not fair to make that choice for people”
Because of that, similarly to Minnechaug, the public library hasn’t banned a book, but it has reconsidered a certain book for a different age group; for example, pulling a book from the children’s section and putting it in the teen area.
When thinking about any benefits of banning a book, Bell couldn’t think of any.
“It’s harmful against the marginalized community,” she said. “It’s a way of shutting you out. It’s a way of making your world smaller.”