Banned Book Profile: The Harry Potter Series

For our next installment of books, or book series, that, you might be surprised to learn, have been banned, challenged, or otherwise censured by groups or organizations since publication, I’m highlighting the phenomenon that is Harry Potter (and yes, I know I’ve shown the US editions–frankly I prefer the cover design of the US editions over the UK editions). If you have absolutely no idea who or what Harry Potter is, I suggest you read the Wikipedia article (and while you’re at it, you may be interested to check out this article, this article, and this article–just to get you up-to-speed on what’s been happening in pop culture while you’ve been asleep). For a series of books that contain very little profanity (or none at all, depending on how broadly you define “profanity”), contain no sex or sexual innuendo (unless you consider kissing to fall into that category, in which case you might want to read this article), and promote courage, love, and good-conquering-evil, it seems strange to think it has come under so much condemnation. I suppose the volume of criticism is proportional to the success of the books, but what has got people so fired up over a set of MG/YA books that are actually pretty tame by today’s YA standards?

THE FACTS:

Title: Harry Potter Series
Author: J. K. Rowling
First Published: 1997-2007
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (UK); Arthur A. Levine Books (US)

Where/When/Why Banned or Challenged (from world.edu):

This is just a sample of the numerous challenges to the series:

• In 2001, the books were challenged in Bend, Oregon; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Salamanca, New York; Whittier, California; Pace, Florida; Arab, Alabama; Fresno, California; Bristol, New Hampshire; and Ontario, Canada for dealing in “witchcraft, the occult, promoting violence, and being “scary.” The books were also restricted to students with parental permission in Santa Fe, Texas for endorsing witchcraft.
• In 2002, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was burned in New Mexico as “a masterpiece of satanic deception” and challenged for encouraging “lying, cheating, stealing, and witchcraft.”
• In 2003, its removal was sought by a teacher’s prayer group at a Russell Springs, Kentucky high school for dealing with ghosts, cults, and witchcraft. It was also challenged in Moscow, Russia, by a Slavic cultural organization that alleged the stories about magic and wizards could entice students into Satanism.
• In 2004, a federal judge overturned restricted access to the books after parents of a Cedarville, Arkansas fourth-grader filed a federal lawsuit challenging the school’s restricted-access policy, seeking to have it thrown out completely. The book was originally challenged because it characterized authority as “stupid” and portrayed “good witches and good magic.” It was also challenged, but retained, in the New Haven, Connecticut schools despite claims the series “makes witchcraft and wizardry alluring to children.”
• In 2007, the Gwinnett County, Georgia, school board rejected a parent’s pleas to take Harry Potter books out of the school libraries. The Georgia Board of Education ruled on December 14, 2006, that the parent had failed to prove her contention that the series “promotes the Wiccan religion, and therefore that the book’s availability in public schools does not constitute advocacy of a religion.” On May 29, 2007, Superior Court judge Ronnie Batchelor upheld the Georgia Board of Education’s decision. That same year, they were removed from the St. Joseph School in Wakefield, Massachusetts, because the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were “inappropriate for a Catholic school.”
• In 2010, a Salvation Army post in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, refused to take donations of Harry Potter items because they “promote black magic and the occult.”