Banned Books Month: Guest Post from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor: Censorship Finds Me

I’ve never gone looking for censorship, but it usually finds me. My books have been challenged on religious grounds, and for both inappropriate language and sexual content. I often finish a manuscript and think, “Now, what can there possibly be in this book to upset anyone?” and I’m always amazed.

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Reprint Edition, 2011.

THE FEAR PLACE was challenged because I used the word “pee;” SHILOH was challenged because the villain says “Hell” in one place and “Damn” in another. (Never mind that he starves his dogs, cheats shop owners, and kills deer out of season). A STRING OF CHANCES was challenged because a teenage girl questioned her father’s beliefs. (It was okay to question, the complaining father wrote, if she had agreed with him in the end). LOVINGLY ALICE was challenged because Alice’s father explains the facts of life to her. The mother who wrote to me said her daughter read the book when she was ten, and the mother had wanted to wait until she was eleven. “Now the words penis and vagina will be forever ingrained on her mind,” she said. And my witch series was challenged by a woman who confronted me after a talk, and these were her exact words: “So why are you writing books about witches when there are all those people in California running around wearing necklaces made out of the fingers of unborn babies?”

I am kind to my critics. I always answer their letters and try my best to understand their viewpoints. But there are times I feel like answering as one author once did: “Dear Madam: I am sorry to inform you that an insane person has used your typewriter to write a letter to me. . .”

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. (Photo by Patrice Gilbert.)

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has written more than 135 books, including the Newbery Award–winning SHILOH and the ALICE series. She lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland. To hear from Phyllis and find out more about what’s in store for Alice, visit AliceMcKinley.com.