How Book Banning Works

Each year, during the last week in September, the American Library Association encourages people to celebrate Banned Books Week. With that in mind, I set out to find out how banning a book works, what types of books ruffle the most feathers and why people would go to the trouble of keeping titles such as "Where's Waldo?" out of kids' and adults' hands.

As a lifelong reader, the topic also was of particular interest to me, remembering my childhood and those weekly trips to the library I used to look forward to. I'd leave loaded down with foot-high stacks of titles. Having studied the First Amendment in journalism school, the article research became a surprisingly nostalgic process at times. But while my personal background steers me toward the more liberal end of the free speech debate, the article sticks to the facts to provide reliable background information to inform, rather than sway, banned books discussions.

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