From staff reports

news@joplinglobe.com

Every year, the American Library Association and other groups celebrate Banned Books Week, a celebration of titles that have been challenged or banned in local and school libraries across the country.

According to the association’s Web site, the annual observance was started in 1982 as a way to celebrate “the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular, and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.”

The Joplin Public Library has a display of frequently challenged titles up in observation of Banned Books Week, which runs Saturday through Oct. 4.

“We do it just to highlight the reasons that books are banned,” said Susan Wray, director of the Joplin library. “Public libraries are open to anyone and everyone, therefore what you’re comfortable reading may not be what someone else is comfortable with. But the purpose of a library is to appeal to the entire community, not just individual segments.”

She said the titles in school libraries are the most frequently challenged, but public libraries are not immune. In her 2 1/2 years as director of the library, she said there have been two challenges made — one a request to move a graphic novel from the teen section to the adult section.

In honor of Banned Books Week, test your knowledge of titles that have been challenged around the country. Match the excerpt from the book with its title and author, and you could win one of two prizes: a $25 gift certificate from Changing Hands Book Shoppe, and a Joplin Public Library tote bag.

E-mail answers to contest@joplinglobe.com. Put “Banned Books” in the subject line and include your address and phone number. Entries can also be mailed to P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802, or faxed to (417) 623-8598. Winners will be selected by a random drawing from correct entries received by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Excerpts:

1. “Little Tony Makarios wasn’t the only child to be caught by the lady with the golden monkey. He found a dozen others in the cellar of the warehouse, boys and girls, none older than twelve or so; though since all of them had histories like his, none could be sure of their age. What Tony didn’t notice, of course, was the factor that they all had in common. None of the children in that warm and steamy cellar had reached the age of puberty.”

2. “Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blond, would take the place of the kinky mass that Momma wouldn’t let me straighten? My light-blue eyes were going to hypnotize them, after all the things they said about “my daddy must of been a Chinaman” (I thought they meant made out of china, like a cup) because my eyes were so small and squinty.”