It looks like Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning Number the Stars (Houghton, 1989) may be caught in the middle of an international storm between the United States and Turkey. Lowry wrote in a blog post dated March 9 that she received a troubling letter from a teacher at Turkey's Tarsus American College, a private, coed secondary school that offers an International Baccalaureate to its international and Turkish students. "Last week the inspectors from the Turkish Department of Education came to our school and after reading one paragraph of your book, Number the Stars, banned the book at our school," wrote Brenda Murphy Suffield, adding that the book had been taught in English and Turkish at the seven and eighth grade levels. "As an American I was appalled. I would like to protest this banning. In my opinion, the pulling of your book was the worst form of censorship." Lowry's novel is based on the true story of the little known evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held Denmark to Sweden during World War II. "I have checked the Internet to see if this book has been banned anywhere else, and I could not find any information that supports this banning by the Turkish Department of Education," Suffield goes on to write, adding that school principal Sidika Albayrak dismissed protests by teachers after the inspectors had left. "The inspectors did not read your book, and they did not complete any kind of written analysis where they cited objectionable parts. In my opinion, their actions were capricious and unfounded." Although the book has been banned from the Tarsus's curriculum, as of March 23, school librarian Sezin Ozkan says it's still available in the library collection. Ozkan, who was surprised by the government's action, has since ceased communication with this reporter. Why would the Turkish government remove a modern classic that's been taught in many school curricula? Lowry wonders if it's connected to a recent move by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, which, despite protests from Turkey and urgings from the Obama administration not to offend its NATO ally, voted 23-22 to endorse a resolution on March 4 declaring the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians as genocide. The resolution now goes to the full House, where prospects for passage are uncertain. Minutes after the vote, Turkey, which plays a pivotal role for U.S. interests in the Middle East and Afghanistan, recalled its ambassador, Namik Tan, from Washington. "Turkey is a largely Islamic country," says Lowry. "And although Number the Stars espouses no religious or political view, it does tell a true story of compassion toward persecuted Jews, and its unstated theme is clearly that of integrity and humanity between people of differing faiths. Perhaps that is a story that the Turkish government does not currently want told to children." Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians and other Christians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first modern genocide. Armenian American groups have for decades sought congressional action recognizing the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 as genocide, and some 20 countries officially recognize it as fact. But Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, says the numbers were inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. In fact, Turkish penal code 301 forbids anyone insulting Turkey or mentioning Armenian genocide.

Award-winning author Lois Lowry's 'Number the Stars' is involved in a political storm between the U.S. and Turkey.

Award-winning author Lois Lowry's 'Number the Stars' is involved in a political storm between the U.S. and Turkey. International writers groups are also equally disturbed as Lowry by the book banning. "While books claiming an Armenian genocide have been subject to lawsuits in Turkey under Article 301 of the penal code, to my knowledge, this article does not apply to issues around the Holocaust, nor is there any other legislation that would apply," a bewildered, Sarah Whyatt, program director of International PEN, which along with the PEN American Center, are investigating the reasons behind the book's withdrawal. Both organizations defend freedom of expression. When contacted by SLJ via email, several teachers at Tarsus American College say they were instructed not to discuss the situation, and the director of the lower school, Charles Hanna, has not responded to numerous emails. However, a member of the faculty at the American Collegiate Institute in Izmir, a sister school to Tarsus, tried to explain the lack of communication. "The school board does keep very tight reins on the teachers, especially Turkish nationals, so they will not offer much information." The U.S. Embassy in Ankara and the House of Representative's Committee on Foreign Affairs did not return emails. The Turkish Embassy in Washington said it would forward the matter to its education department back home. Still, Lowry is disappointed that her book has become embroiled in such a highly charged political matter. "My reaction to the banning is a great sadness for a beautiful country, one I have visited myself," she says. "I remember standing once among the ruins of the library at Ephesus—one of the largest libraries of the ancient world—in awe of the history surrounding me. What a tragedy, that in modern Turkey, literature and literary freedom cannot be honored as it once was."