Editorial: On Censorship

Dear Bookbird readers,

Anyone who shares books with children cares about what they read. We look for literary quality, for books that match the needs of the child, for books that share authentic cultural content, for books that prompt emotional responses, etc. Parents seek out old favorites, teachers read aloud during story time, librarians select books to build inviting collections, and all of this is often without the input of the constituent at the core: the child. Who can say what is appropriate in a children's book? Who controls the content? How do we decide what is good, right, or best for children? Who decides?

This issue of Bookbird focuses on the construct of censorship, an important topic in children's literature because it brings to light differing attitudes toward children and childhood, clashing personal and public world views, beliefs and social theories that we hold dear, and pedagogical principles that we may consider nonnegotiable. The articles in this issue show us varying dimensions of censorship in children's literature revolving around pre-censorship (prior to publication), post-publication censorship, and self censorship occurring on many levels. The writers grapple with big questions pertaining to censorship and provide an insider's view of what it is like to have one's art censored.

Feature articles

In We Can Work It Out: Challenge, Debate and Acceptance by Patrick Shannon he asks, "Do I oppose or favor censorship? After making his thinking process visible to the readers, his response is a resounding "Yes!" He concludes that it is more useful to ask "Why does censorship exist?" and "How does it work?" Shannon explores the multi-faceted nature of censorship and argues against the possibility of coming to consensus among clashing viewpoints. Rather, he argues for a process in which we reach "dissensus" which involves talk that locates our differences in relation to each other. In the reading of this piece, questions emerge such as "Can we live and work together with our clashing differences?" and "Can we dream of differences without fear of domination?"

More queries that may generate debate are raised in Picturing the Prophets: Should Art Create Doubt? by Danish children's author Kåre Bluitgen. He tells of his quest in 2005 to find someone willing to illustrate his newly written book about the prophet Mohammed. Bluitgen tells of the self censorship he found among illustrators and their unwillingness to depict the image of Mohammad fueled by their fear of reprisal. When Bluitgen brings his concern regarding self censorship to the newspapers, the events of the Jyllands-Posten "Cartoon Crisis" unfold. Bluitgen suggests that self censorship is not only motivated by those who fear reprisal, but also by those with the desire not to offend. He argues that artists have an obligation to help us question and view things in a new way. Bluitgen primarily addresses the notion of self censorship, but also takes issue with the alteration of works of art AFTER publication, as in the case of altering the work of deceased authors. He causes us to ponder questions about the nature of art and the role of the artist. One might also wonder about works of art that might never come into existence because of self censorship.

Niklas Bengtsson gives us an historical perspective on censorship in his discussion of German and Finnish folktales that included sex, violence and horror. In Sex and Violence in Fairy Tales for Children, Bengtsson argues that the censorship that the Grimm brothers and Finnish writer Laura Soinne experienced was not a violation of freedom of speech because they themselves freely omitted objectionable content that they considered taboo for children. The further removal of objectionable aspects of their work was done willingly after full publication. Bengtsson's work raises the issue of censorship in relationship to what is appropriate for children and challenges us to question our notions of childhood and what constitutes objectionable content for children.

Cherie L. Givens' Hidden Forms of Censorship and Their Impact highlights ways that children's books may be censored BEFORE they are published by educational publishers, trade publishers, and even...