“A disturbing sight confronted me on Sunday as I viewed the portable book-laden cart that serves as a small church library. Someone had removed an entire series of books by a particular author without checking them out.”
So begins my Feb. 15 newspaper column in the Lake County Record-Bee, reacting to the removal of an entire series of books, C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
Most likely someone’s thoughtless selfishness is behind the books’ removal; but it has sinister overtones as well. The American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded more than 10,000 book challenges since 1990.
To these accumulated challenges, I recently added “The Chronicles of Narnia” via the OIF’s online form.
If a member of our congregation has acted unthinkingly and merely sought to “borrow” these books, please respect the importance of accounting for their removal. And please, if a book is part of a series, consider the polite thing to do: take one book at a time.
Cynthia Parkhill
UUCLC Lending Library
