Library Card Sign-Up Month

Marley Dias is this year's ALA spokesperson for Library Card Sign-Up Month

A library card may just be the most valuable card you will ever own in your wallet. The resources you can obtain with this one card is almost limitless. Wouldn't you want the same for your children or family members? Just think, with this one free card you can have access to books, materials, computers access, Wi-Fi, and the list goes on. 

Let's imagine that a family with limited education resources who suddenly obtains a card for each member. They can visit the library and in "quiet" travel to lands and universes. They can witness battles where good will conquer over evil and life long lessons learned. Maybe your child has a sudden interest on why the sky is blue and the grass is green. The answer is at the library. Yes, Google and other search engines are amazing, but it's more of a challenge and maybe more rewarding to find the answer inside a book. 

Pearl Public Library

                                   

Our libraries also offers more that just books. Movies, video games, exercise equipment, and even cake pans! Who knows what you will find to enjoy within the libraries of CMRLS. Best way to find out is visit your local library and see one of our friendly librarians who will start you on your library patron journey with your own library card. But wait, there is more! Digital resources galore! Want to read on the go? We have an app called cloudLibrary. You can see all that we have to offer and even sign up online to get your own digital library card. CMRLS is the place to start. We can't wait to see you at the library!

Banned Books Week

Yes Yes Yes, every year, we report on the same books that have been challenged (meaning not actually banned but was attempted to be removed or restricted based upon the objections of a person or group) or banned over the years.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowlings

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

But this year I wanted to focus on worldwide books that have been banned. 

D.H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), Jackie Collins's The Stud (1969) and Bret Ellis's American Psycho (1991) are among some of the books once banned in Australia.

In Ireland:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was banned in 1932, due to alleged references of sexual promiscuity.

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger was banned in October 1951.

Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan was banned in 1958. The Irish Censorship of Publications Board was not obliged to reveal its reason but it is believed that it was rejected for its critique of Irish republicanism and the Catholic Church, and its depiction of adolescent sexuality.

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien was banned by Ireland's censorship board in 1960 for its explicit sexual content.

The Lonely Girl by Edna O'Brien was banned in 1962 after Archbishop John Charles McQuaid complained personally to Justice Minister Charles Haughey that it "was particularly bad".

United Kingdom:

I thought this one was interesting:

Boy by James Hanley 

Hanley’s literary classic charts the short and brutish life of a boy who was unfairly neglected and forced out of school into the unforgiving world of work by his father. He escapes by running away to sea, but his exposure to the brutality that men are capable of only deepens his feelings of rejection. Narrated with unflinching language, it offers a visceral and acute observation of power imbalances. When Boy was initially published in the 1930s, it was prosecuted for obscenity due to the overtly violent writing and remained banned from 1935 until 1991. When the new British edition appeared in the early Nineties, there were significant omissions.  

In the 16th century, Spain had banned the Bible! But what is also interesting is that it has not been banned anywhere else. Challenged a lot? Yes!

If you really want to be bad you must read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov or Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawerence. Both have been banned in more than 5 countries! 

Besides being challenged in the United States, Animal Farm by George Orwell was banned in Russia, Vietnam, and United Arab Emirates, and then some!

I would like to end with this quote from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: