GROVELAND — Patrons at the Langley-Adams Library sometimes do a double take when they enter the building.
Off to the left, they see a chain-link cage with a sign warning, "Keep Out." The cage, however, does not hold an exotic animal or a boisterous youth who failed to heed a librarian's admonition to be quiet.
Rather, the cage guards 40 or so books that have either been banned in some communities or which people have tried to ban. The books are available for use, but the cage is designed to demonstrate the risk of banning books.
Sharon Archambault, adult services librarian, said the exhibit is designed to promote people's freedom to read what they desire and not have government make that decision for them.
"The Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger's classic that's on many a high school student's required reading list, is among the books that have been banned in some parts of the country at various times. Certain language and references to sex got that book in trouble, Archambault said.
"Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, another classic which portrayed life in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when thousands of people from the Plains left that region for California, is also displayed in the cage. The language of the characters and an unfavorable depiction of a former minister got that book blacklisted in some communities, Archambault said.
A more recent book, "Uncle Bobby's Wedding," a children's book, has been the subject of efforts to keep it out of the hands of younger children because of its "inappropriate" content, Archambault said.
Groveland, Haverhill and other communities in the area don't as a rule see many book bannings. Few parents raise objections to the books educators assign to children. Many parents undoubtedly put much more effort into making sure their kids have read "The Catcher in the Rye" or some other book assigned by their English teacher than checking the material for inappropriate language.
Archambault, however, warns that the banning of a book "can happen anywhere," when someone complains. For example, a Marine Corps veteran in New Hampshire complained about "Jarhead" because he didn't like the way that book portrayed Marines. He wanted it removed from the shelves.
Archambault pointed out that if someone does not like the Harry Potter books, "The Chocolate Wars," "My Sister's Keeper" or any of the other books in the cage, he or she does not have to read them.
Archambault said she chose a cage, which was donated by the Groveland Fence Co., for the exhibit because people who seek to ban books "want to cage these books and tell us what we can't read." A sign on the cage reads, "Challenge your mind rather than a book."
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