One of the most frequently censored is Judy Blume. The censors have focused their
attacks on five of her books: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Then Again, Maybe I
Won’t; Deenie; Blubber; and Forever. During the first half of the 1980s, over sixty
attempts to ban these works were reported to the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, and
it is estimated that many more attempts went unreported. With the exception of
Blubber, the censorship of Blume’s books is the result of their sexual content. The censors
dislike Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret because it discusses menstruation and
breast development. Then Again, Maybe I Won’t and Deenie are attacked for mentioning
wet dreams and masturbation, and Forever gets into trouble because it deals with sexual
intercourse and describes the use of birth-control devices.
Norma Klein, another children’s author whose works are frequently targeted by
censors, also comes under fire for including sexually related material in her books. Klein’s
first children’s book, Mom, the Wolf Man, and Me, is sometimes censored because it
contains an unmarried mother who remains sexually active. A number of Klein’s other
books are targeted for similar reasons. Critics attack It’s Not What You Expect for
including a character who has an abortion, Naomi in the Middle for explaining how
conception occurs, and It’s Okay If You Don’t Love Me for portraying a teenage girl who
initiates a sexual relationship.
Equally, Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen is often censored because it contains
pictures of a nude boy. My Darling, My Hamburger and The Pigman, both by Paul Zindel,
are sometimes attacked by people who dislike Zindel’s disparaging comments about
parents and teachers. Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War and / Am the Cheese come
under pressure from those who feel that they undermine parental, institutional, and
governmental authority. Alice Childress’s A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich, is
disapproved of for its discussion of drug abuse or its use of street language. These titles
are only a few of the dozens of children’s books that conservatives have tried to ban from
libraries (West 1992:53–54).
In addition to censoring individual children’s books, many conservatives have also
targeted textbooks some of which have no direct connections to children’s literature.
Science books, for example, have often been challenged if they contain extensive
information about evolution. In some cases, however, the textbooks used in reading
classes have also been subjected to censorship pressures, and these books frequently
include short stories written for children as well as excerpts from children’s books.
Initially, the campaign to censor reading textbooks was led by a Texas couple named
Mel and Norma Gabler. In the 1960s, the Gablers began examining many of the most
commonly used reading textbooks in an effort to ferret out material that they found
objectionable. The Gablers felt that reading textbooks should reinforce the beliefs of
conservative Christians. If the books that they examined contained stories or passages
that failed their test, they would contact the books’ publishers and demand that the
‘objectionable’ material be removed. If the publishers refused, the Gablers would urge
their supporters on various school boards not to purchase the books (Noble 1990:180–
182).
The Gablers were soon joined by a host of other religious conservatives. Foremost
among them were Revd Tim and Beverly LaHaye from San Diego, California. Tim LaHaye
sharply criticised textbooks in The Battle for the Public Schools, one of a series of
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