Raising a Ruckus
Children's books have often served as lightning rods for controversy, with topics considered taboo—Death! Race! Sex!—and notions of child-appropriateness triggering sharp debate and vigorous efforts to limit or bar access to certain books. While acts of censorship are often driven by overt political or cultural agendas, other, more ambiguous cases blur the line between blatant suppression and well-intentioned editorial—or parental—judgment.
In the United States, censorship has typically been instigated by self-appointed gatekeepers, not centralized governmental authorities. Cold War-era authors Garth Williams, Madeleine L'Engle, Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Judy Blume saw their popular books routinely challenged, primarily by fundamentalist religious groups.
Nearly a century before, Mark Twain had divined an upside to such pious literary witch-hunts. When informed that the Concord, Massachusetts, public library had "expelled" Huckleberry Finn from its shelves, deeming it "trash," Twain crowed to his publisher, "That will sell 25,000 copies for us sure."
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Pippi Långstrump
(Pippi Longstocking)
Written by Astrid Lindgren
Illustrated by Ingrid Vang-Nyman
1945
