When censors feared 'Where's Wally'

CONTROVERSIAL: Carterton Library staff member Christina Hyman (left) and district librarian Anne Hughes at the library's popular banned books display - which include some at first innocent-sounding tales. PHOTO/ERIN KAVANAGH-HALL

Most people are aware of Lady Chatterley and her exploits, but are shocked to discover their childhood heroes Alice, Tintin and even Wally were also once pulled from library shelves.

To pique customers' interest and expand their literary palate, Carterton Library is running a display of books "banned at some point in their lifetime" for the month of May.

The display has so far had borrowers scandalised and delighted, and is keeping the librarians busy.

As well as usual suspects Lady Chatterley's Lover, Animal Farm and Charles' Darwin's Origin of the Species, the display features Through the Looking-Glass, The Famous Five and Where's Wally?

"It's been great hearing people's conversations," district librarian Anne Hughes said.

"You hear people gasp and start talking to complete strangers about Where's Wally? getting banned.

"It just goes to show - if you put something a bit salacious in front of people, it gets their attention."

Mrs Hughes said the idea for the display came to her after reading about controversial New Zealand young adult novel Into the River by Ted Dawe.

She searched "banned books" online - and the results were "fascinating".

For example, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Class was banned in China as it "put animals on equal footing with humans", and Enid Blyton's Famous Five came under fire for its "sexist" portrayals of adolescent relationships.

Also banned were The Wizard of Oz for espousing socialist and secular ideals, Tintin and the Blue Locust (in China) for anti-communist sympathies, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for lacking "characters with moral fibre", and Little Red Riding Hood for supposedly symbolising oppression of Germans by the Jews.

Mrs Hughes said the strangest was the first Where's Wally? book - banned in the US, thanks to the appearance of a topless sunbather.

"It was unbelievable the things that were considered naughty and risque back then," she said. "Whereas these days you've got things like Fifty Shades of Grey sailing right through."

While the display has been enjoyable for staff and customers, Mrs Hughes said libraries do have to take censorship issues seriously.

For example, Into the River is restricted for readers aged 14 plus, as it was given a "M" rating by the Classification Office.

But a library's role is "to be sensible, not a censor", Mrs Hughes said. "People should be able to read what they want to read, and a library shouldn't be stopping them."

She said the Carterton library's previously banned titles have been "flying out the door" since May 1.

"It's good, as it means it's got people reading and looking at books they may not normally choose."